Book Review: Tiger's Curse

Title: Tiger's Curse.
Author: Colleen Houck.
Format: Hardback.
Pages: 403.
Series: Yes, #1.
Source: Purchased.
Publisher: Sterling.
Published Date: January 11, 2011.
Links:
Goodreads
Barnes and Noble
Summary:

"Passion. Fate. Loyalty. Would you risk it all to change your destiny? The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever. Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more."

First & Last Line:
"I was standing on a precipice."
"Just then, a deafening, heartrending roar shook the trees."

Cover:

The picture of the cover that you see above, or anywhere online, gives this piece of art absolutely no credit! I had no clue what this cover really looked like until I held a physical copy in my own hands. The entire cover, the front and back, is cover in small and extremely shiny details! I love it!

My Thoughts:

Kelsey Hayes is a normal girl, from normal Oregon (we're Northwest Twins!), who has lost her parents, and now lives with two amazing foster parents, who have two children. Looking for a job to make a little extra money, Kelsey decides to take up the offer of becoming a helping hand at a circus that is in town, where she'll be taking care of not only dogs but also a tiger.

She's normal....that is until, Kelsey is asked to go to India to help and take care of her beloved tiger, who isn't actually a tiger, but instead a 300 hundred year old Indian prince! The only way to get rid of his curse, is if Kelsey decides to help and join him on the journey.

Still feeling weird that her tiger isn't actually a tiger, Kelsey makes the decision to stay and continue helping Ren. From staying in five star hotel rooms, dressing in pretty Indian dresses, spending time with her prince, to hiking through the jungles of India, Kelsey starts to return the feelings that Ren has for her.

The only way to break the curse is to find and put together all the pieces to the puzzle. But will the two be able to do it? Will Kelsey be able to deal with being away from home? Will Kelsey's heart or mind win the struggle she is fighting inside? Will she stay and save Ren, or will she go home to save her heart from breaking?

Not only is the cover outside beautiful but so is the story on the inside. I loved the normal-ness of Kelsey, and the way she keeps a straight head, even though the world around her is spinning. There was only two parts that I thought were kind of weird about the story; one, Kelsey went to a foreign country across an entire ocean, just because a stranger, that she meet the day before who purchased the tiger, asked her to come along to take care of Ren, and two that throughout her entire trip she called her foster parents only one time, right when she arrived.

Besides that I really like how sweet Ren was, the way Kelsey and Ren were when they were together, and Mr. Kadam is the sweetest little old man I've ever...(meet?) read about. The actual book is extremely heavy and dense, but don't let that scare you, because the story inside is capturing, and filled with romance, adventure and knowledge. I've learned so much reading Tiger's Curse.