Customer Reviews

Tiger's Curse (Book 1)

5 star:		(209)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I've noticed that these reviews are filled with females all caught up in a "Twilight"-like mad-craze over the new Tiger series, and, being a guy, I can say it is female-attention that is well deserved. There's enough in this series that even a guy like me can appreciate. I must admit I've read all four Twilight novels--don't ask me why--and I never read romances--and even these novels were mildly interesting to me. Although I noted some similarities in both series, this book, however, has MUCH more action and adventure and I've always been drawn to tigers, so this (especially the cover) grabbed my interest, despite the slow "girly" beginning of the first couple chapters.

The characters are well-developed. None of the characters at the end of the book are the same as they were in the beginning. They are quite real and believeable, though I did roll my eyes at times--I mean, there's no way a guy would say some of the things that Ren did (I guess girls like to hear them...). My favorite character was definitely Mr. Kadam. He reminded me of Data or Mr. Spock in Star Trek, someone who is the voice of knowledge and wisdom without a hint of bravado or arrogance. I appreciated that this book was well-researched and very educational, as Houck blended a entertaining balance of realism, history, mythology, and fantasy. The romance aspect wasn't overdone and it didn't go too far either--which made it a comfortable read. I would recommend it to all guys and gals over 12 years of age!

When I first heard the premise of this book, I was excited. Instead of werewolves, there were tiger "shapeshifters". I thought this would be refreshing. Unfortunately, the writing of this book ruined what could have been a fantastic idea. Like another reviewer said, it sounded like the author telling the story instead of the character telling her story. Almost none of what the character thought or said sounded like anything close to what a seventeen year old girl would say, instead it was what a grown woman seemed to think a seventeen year old would say/think. Even if you get past the main character's dialogue issues, the characters themselves were horribly cliche. The girl had self-esteem issues and the boy was perfect, it was even said over and over again in the book. Although sometimes the book can be redeemed from poor characterization by an excellent writing style, unfortunately the book lacked this as well. Even the writing style itself was horribly cliche. So all in all the book gets two stars for what was a good idea, but very poorly executed.

I read Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck in less than one day...yes, I took time out to do a couple of things, but I really had a hard time putting it down. I couldn't wait to see what happened to Kelsey and Ren...The adventures that they faced were amazing. The writting is so descriptive, I felt as if I was there with them. I was very impressed with the oveall presentation. I learned a great deal about India. Now I have to wait for the second book in the series to arrive so I can see what happens next. I realize this was written for "young" readers, but those of us "50 something" readers will also enjoy the series.
Colleen Houck has created a masterpiece in her first literary venture. I will recommend this book to all of my family and friends, and they all like to read!

*Spoiler Alert*

Tiger's Curse is Colleen Houck's first novel. Its first release was as a digital offering on Amazon where it sat at the top of the Children's Best Seller rankings for 7 weeks. It's subsequently gone on to become a new york times best seller. It's published in Australia by Hodder.


The Tale

Kelsey Hayes has finished High School and is facing a summer of temp work while she decides what to do with her life. She's carries a bit of baggage, - the loss of her parents and the emotional scaring that it brings, but on the whole she's your average young adult ready to see what the big wide world has to offer.

She lands a job with a visiting circus as a spare pair of hands for two weeks. It's from this point on her life begins to take an unexpected turn. She falls in love with the circus' white tiger; captivated by his calm demeanour, blue eyes and almost human sentience.

We soon find out that not all is as it seems with the Tiger Dhiren or Ren for short, he's a cursed Indian prince, trapped in Tiger form until the one who can free him comes along. The one happens to be Kelsey and Tiger's Curse takes the reader on an adventure to India, modern and mythological, as Mr Kadam (Ren's manservant and adviser), Kelsey and Ren attempt to unravel clues to break the curse. There's magic, adventure and romance as Kelsey and Ren are thrown together.



An epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more?

I am aware that I am not the target demographic for Tiger's Curse , but the fact that a book is written for teens is should not excuse it for what I see as some of its faults. I wasn't breathless (frustrated at points certainly) and I don't yearn to read the next volume -though I have it and hope to see some growth in Houck's writing.

The romance in this fantasy-romance was the strongest part of the novel, at least until the end where I found the somewhat juvenile bickering and melodrama could have been resolved(then to be ripped asunder by an evil and ingenious plot device).

Kelsey is, to my mind, too cynical of love, for someone who is experiencing real lust/love for the first time. She acts like someone who has had her heart broken too many times and displays wisdom that I think only comes with having loved and lost (romantically - I don't think the loss of her parents translates).

I felt that it was right for her to have misgivings and doubts, to be a little bit scared of her first real relationship but her continued rebelling against her own desires and Ren's obvious interest in her felt distinctly unrealistic. Towards the end of the novel Ren's speech about having watched human society over 300 years, and knowing what he wanted should have convinced Kelsey that Ren was an adult who could make up his own mind. As I hinted above, I think the romantic tension between the two should have been resolved here, only to have them pulled apart somehow, leaving the reader on a cliff hanger.



Indiana Jones meets Twilight

The above is a pitch from Houck herself. Tiger's Curse can be compared to the Spielberg/Lucas classic in as much as there are temples, jungles, booby traps and hidden artefacts. The element that it lacked, at least for me, was the suspense. The adventure is fairly linear - they do some research, got to a site discover a secret door or unravel a puzzle.

In unravelling clues or finding secret passages, success seemed to be achieved through happenstance as opposed to intelligence. I think there was a chance missed here, to draw the reader in, to get them to figure out some of the mystery along with the characters.

Despite the booby traps and mythological dangers I never felt that Kelsey or Ren were in any danger. Indeed the only danger to Kelsey was that her overly stubborn denial of her love for Ren would dash any chance she's have with him. The various physical trials they had to pass seemed to be overcome with relative ease.



For the favoured of a goddess Kelsey ain't no slayer.

Kelsey is set up as some fated saviour to the cursed Ren. In that role though, she seems to rarely step beyond that of a plot device. Other than being a compassionate person she doesn't bring much else to the table (in the way of skills).

Early in the story we find out that she is the favoured of Durga and she is granted a magical weapon, the Gada which she wields with ease, yet Mr Kadam (who plays somewhat of a Mr Miyagi to Kelsey's Daniel-san, or so I thought) finds difficult to lift. I was thinking at this point Kelsey was going to become a weapon wielding avatar.

I felt like we were being set-up for some buffy-esque heroine who under the tutelage of Mr Kadam would project a strong female figure - a young woman that could fall in love with her handsome Indian Tiger-man prince and able to handle herself.

Indeed I could see some possibilities for conflict between ancient Indian concepts of gender roles and modern American ones. The reader is even given a backstory to Mr Kadam, who was the Kings military strategist and proficient in several fighting arts. The mansion in which they live had a fully equipped training room, bedecked with ancient weapons.

Alas though, it's Ren that uses the Gada, it's Ren gets them out of any physical danger. Kelsey appears to be just along for the ride, a passenger.



A vacation for readers

I appreciate what Houck was trying to do in exposing young American readers to another culture. The execution of this left a little bit to be desired . There were a couple of very blatant info dumps that read like they were written for a non fiction piece or a travel book, wedged into awkward pieces of dialogue. It did get better thpugh, the scene where Kadam is touring around the old palace and reminiscing, felt very natural.

To appreciate a different culture there has to be some interaction with it, we get plenty of references to Indian cuisine and dress but it feels a bit superficial. As mentioned above I think Houck might have missed an opportunity to present conflicts between American and Indian culture.



Did nobody see?

I don't get too worried about typo's, nowadays, especially with eBooks and the rush to do parallel releases in all formats. Traditional publishing is no longer a guarantee(Was it ever?) that the book, whatever container it comes in will be without error.

I can forgive formatting errors, I can forgive repeated phrases and goodness knows I publish my fair share of grammatical errors. For the life of me though I can't understand how the following made it through the a) author b) thousands of readers c) professional editors.


`Back then Kishan and I tried to avoid each other as much as possible back then.'

page 287 Tiger's Curse



Final thoughts

The book is YA and from the reaction from Teen readers, it's been pretty well received in that demographic. So who am I to argue with success? I am aware that I bring experience from life and from reading that teen readers won't have. I do, however, think that Houck can do better and I think that teen girls deserve a little bit more from their heroines than a passenger with confused romantic notions.



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This book is a review copy provided by Hodder at no cost to myself.

This is one of the harder reviews I've had to write...lots of mixed feelings with this one. I really enjoyed the first half or so of the book...Kelsey was a great heroine and I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. I also appreciated the folklore and history (laced with fantasy) that unfolded as she learned more about India and Ren's curse. That was something I expected to love - fantasy and India are two of my favorite things to read about.

However, once I hit the halfway mark things started to change, and not in a good way. In fact, by the end of the book I was so relieved that I was finished that I forgot to care about what was going on with the characters. And that is a shame, because the book had a lot of promise...and a lot of good things going for it. In fact, it is not impossible that I will give the next book in the series a try.

Have you guys heard of bushwhacking? It means to push or cut your way through dense vegetation.

Well, y'all. I have to say that I felt like I was bushwhacking through most of the story. I had to shove and fight my way through way too many details that weighed the story down. For instance: food. Okay. She is in India. I get it. The food is different and exotic. I agree and appreciate that fact. Indian food is awesome. If Houck had wanted to go into detail on a couple of meals (heck, even three or four), I would have understood and enjoyed reading about them. But seriously. I did not need to read every morsel of food that Kelsey consumed throughout the entire book. Every granola bar and ball of rice was detailed down to the last bite. In fact, for awhile I was even betting with myself internally on how many pages I'd turn before she'd eat something else - and my guess was never higher than three. (FYI, I was reading this on my Kindle so the pages were really small.) I know I'm writing way too much about the fact that the author wrote too much, but I can't help it. After spending hundreds of pages thinking about it, I needed to vent.

I'll move on now.

Next...a lot of the dialogue was awkward. It only really bothered me a few times...the writing had a rambling style that helped to mask a lot of the issues. I actually enjoyed that rambling style during the first half of the novel when I was still getting to know the characters and their situation.

Next, even Kelsey herself bothered me toward the end of the story. She suffered a lot of loss in her life that made her wary of love and commitment. I got that. But still, for most of the story, she seemed very open and willing in her attraction to Ren. But then - all of a sudden - she became completely and 100% emotionally constipated. I didn't like that twist, because it screamed "plot device!" and not "characterization development!"

But, the book really does have several things going for it. The rich infusion of Indian culture is, for the most part, a rewarding factor. I love books set in India, and Houck does a great job of giving the story culture. The plot, when you get down to the bare bones, is also a good one. If I wasn't suffering from "I-can't-see-the-forest-through-the-trees" reading syndrome, I would have thoroughly enjoyed seeing how things unfolded.

So anyway, if you aren't scared of getting hit with a freight load of details and over-writing (which, obviously you aren't if you've actually read this whole review), then you should give this story a shot. If I do pick up the next book, I've learned my lesson and will start scanning the paragraphs that begin with "I was hungry" or "meal time."

This book has a fantastic storyline, it is intriguing and imaginative. However, the writing quality nearly caused me to give up on the book. The author spends far too much time on minutiae. I understand that she is trying to include details to engage the reader, but there are too many mundane details (like what color ribbon the girl wears every day). I kept expecting these details to have some future relevance or importance, but they were just tangents that became wearisome. Also the writing does not seem to have been well edited. Many times a paragraph begins with one topic and then abruptly switches to another topic with no obvious connection, which is very jarring for the reader. Finally, the constant agonizing of the main character about her relationship with Ren is insufferable. The book could be about 20% shorter with absolutely no loss of content. If the storyline were not so captivating, I would have given this a much worse rating.

I tried so hard to finish 'Tiger's Curse'. I kept telling myself that maybe once the prince made his human appearance some sanity would come along with him... I was done at chapter 8. The writing was so off putting! It amazed me that the author could be so detailed with her descriptions but at the same time none of it mattered. NONE! And what made it worst was having the main character have Q&A sessions about things that it seemed like she should know, since she was already all knowing in the first place (she knew randomly that white tigers are originally from Siberia and are normally bred in captivity but doesn't know if they are man-eaters!?) and she sounded like she was interviewing people from pre-written note cards for a magazine article. So I told myself she was just dumb as heck and I tried to find her idiocy amusing, but she rambled non-stop! If she saw a freaking butterfly drift by she would burst into a two page monologue about the time her a her amazing, awesome, wonderful, dead parents saw one and did absolutely nothing interesting at all.

The actual attempts at humor confused me. One joke was so bad I wasn't sure if it was a joke at all; "An Oregon governor must have passed a law a long, long time ago that said Oregon, at least in the I-5 region, had to always have moderate temperatures."... I'm almost positive that that wasn't a joke and that I've gone crazy.

Another thing that bothered me (and others too, looking at the reviews) was how the dialogue was written. The way she talked was not natural, teenager OR adult. I know dialogue can be very hard to write but it was just... bad. And everyone talked the same way (unless they spoke in a very bad foreign accent or broken English)and it even got to a point where I couldn't tell when the voices switched unless I was told it did so.

I have never put down a book near half way through with the intention of not finishing but, sadly, I just can't do it. The book makes me angry to the point were I'm sure that it's bad for my health.

I know a lot more people like this book than those who don't, so I won't say 'don't read' because odds are you'll like it. But be warned; The prologue is what tricked me. Read the first chapter and see if you still want to keep going before you buy (if you can). If you don't want to punch the main character every time she talks a about food (every other page) then you're good to go!

Wow!!! I've been swept off my feet! Woohoo! I picked up this book for a mere dollar for my Kindle and now after reading it would have gladly paid much more. Thank you Colleen Houck!

I've been an avid reader for nearly all of my 40 years and I've never wanted to BE a character in a novel more than I wish I could be Kelsey! Such a wonderful mix of modern and ancient, romance and adventure, good and evil, etc. At first I thought the writing and description was over the top, but I have to say as the book went on, it was some of the best writing I have personally experienced. I really felt the physical and emotional reactions to the things they experienced and was completely drawn into the characters and felt like I was them and they were me. I could not recommend this book more! Please do yourself the favor and read this. You will be thinking about this book for a long time after you are finished. I plan to read this again and again (also rare for me!). I also cannot wait to read the second book and will anxiously await the rest.

This book was recommended by a friend. After reading this, I was again awestruck at how bad a book can be. The main character was whiny, annoying, and was very insecure. It would be nice to read about a confident character, for once. The dialogue was horrendous at some points, and it felt like i was either listening to a five year old or a middle aged person. Not a very good mix. There was no climax. Even during the moments where the main characters are in mortal danger, all I felt was bored. This is honestly the worse book I have ever read. While I have read some pretty bad books, I still wanted to at least know what happened next. The only thing that kept me reading this book was willpower, and even then, I skipped over a lot of it. If you get the book, be prepared to mentally cringe and to have the urge to throw it against a wall.

I picked this book up, because the cover intrigued me. I hadn't heard anything about the book, the writer or the story.

This book, could have been really good. The story could have been really exciting. The journey could have been thrilling.

But unfortunatly the writer of this book didnt have much of a story to tell. Therefor she filled 75% of the pages in the book with the following: the main character does most of the following things several times every single chapter: She washes her hands (after tiger licks her), takes a shower, braids her hair, Takes a nap and or sleeps and describes her meals in detail.

In between these daily dealings, she has a romantic adventure, which never becomes really difficult or challenging.

What a shame. The concept of the story is quite original. But really, it was a missed opportunity, because the writer has an obsession with washing, eating and sleeping.