I liked the mythology that was woven (erm, maybe more like dumped) throughout the book, a mixture of Hindu and Greek mythology, with some more Asian mythologies thrown into the mix. He became a background threat once the story moved back to India–he was happy just chilling at his secret headquarters, doing nothing much besides torturing Ren (and we don’t see any of that first-hand, just hear about it after it’s happened). I didn’t feel engaged in what could have been and probably was the biggest event in Tiger’s Quest. These adventures (the climbing Mount Everest bit was so random) were not as memorable as the highly unconvincing ones from the previous book (those ones felt pretty far-fetched), and the big battle against the series’ villain, Lokesh, was strangely handled by Houck: the battle was told by the characters after it had happened we didn’t see it first-hand. Kadam can fix it!) The three continue to try and break the ancient curse on Ren and Kishan.

(That’s cheating, or, if not cheating, way too convenient. Kadam, the princes’ most trusted aide and who is definitely a grandfather figure to Kelsey as well as a fairy godfather who has all the solutions to everything.

Tiger’s Quest takes Kelsey back to India, this time on a journey with Kishan, the black tiger/younger Indian prince, and Mr. The beginning of Tiger’s Quest is hilarious. No magical curses to break here… But just when Kelsey starts to really get used to “normal” life again, Ren shows up at her door and is determined to make her see her errors that had me so flipping frustrated in the last book. Her head’s in a different place now that she’s back home in Oregon, attending college, and meeting other people. She’s had time to cool down from all the adventures in Book 1. Quest, the second book in Colleen Houck’s fantasy series, gets Kelsey back to her normal spunky self (for the most part she’s still annoying and stupid in some instances). Curse was illogical and Kelsey, the protagonist, was insufferable when she started feeling like she wasn’t good enough for Ren, her white tiger/Indian prince. Tiger’s Quest is such an improvement, considering how all-over-the-map the first book, Tiger’s Curse, was. Format: Paperback, 479 pages, Splinter, Sterling Pubishing Co., Inc., 2013. Read my review of Book #1, Tiger’s Curse, here. Tiger’s Quest by Colleen Houck, Book #2 in the Tiger’s Curse series, a.k.a the Tiger Saga.

Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck