Audiobook Review – The Tiger’s Quest (The Tiger’s Curse, Book 2) by Colleen Huock (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 18 hours and 41 minutes (512 pages)
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: June 7, 2011
ASIN: B0054N6ISQ
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Tiger’s Curse series
Source: Audiobook through Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars
This is the 2nd book in the Tiger’s Curse series. This is expected to be a five book series but a release date for the 5th book, The Tiger’s Dream, has yet to be announced. I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the The Tiger’s Curse. It starts out a lot slower and just wasn’t as exciting.
I listened to this on audiobook and it was very well done. The narrator does a wonderful job with all of the different accents and making character voices very distinct. She also did a great job conveying emotion as she was narrating. I really really think the narration of this series is excellent.
Kelsey is back in Oregon trying to get back to her old life. She’s started college classes and is living on her own. However her thoughts constantly return to Ren. When the evil mage from the first book tracks her down she flees back to India. There her and Ren’s brother, Kishan, continue on the quest to break the curse.
This book started out quite a bit slower than the first book of this series. There is a lot of Kelsey bemoaning the fact that she left Ren behind and trying to get past that by dating three guys at once. We hear a ton about her dating misfortunes and about how no one can compare to Ren. It was incredibly boring.
About halfway through, the story really picked up pace and was exciting again. For the second half of the book it is Kishan and Kelsey trying to figure out the next part of the curse. I really enjoyed these parts with all the adventure, traps, and riddles. Pretty much those elements of the story are the reason I keep reading this series.
I really enjoyed Kelsey’s level-headed behavior in the first book. I don’t know what happened to that in this book; she makes a lot of dumb decisions and is completely dense where Ren is concerned.
Kishan is in the story a ton and, although he is an okay character, I just didn’t like him that much. He spends a lot of time mooning after Kelsey even though Kelsey is obviously in love with his brother Ren. I think the whole scenario makes Kishan kind of an icky character.
There is a “twist” at the end involving Ren that you could see coming a mile away. It was soooooo predictable. I rolled my eyes and sighed when it happened. I mean seriously it is one of the lamest plot devices ever and I was really disappointed that that was the direction that Huock decided to take the story.
Despite all my complaints I do really enjoy the adventuring, the tomb-raiding, and the interesting curse. I love the mythology throughout as well. I just felt like the story was very unevenly paced and parts were outright boring. This book could have used some serious editing.
Although I didn’t like this book as much as the first book there were parts that I did enjoy. I would recommend to those who enjoy young adult reads that include adventure and mythology; just be warned there is a bit of teen angsting in here…especially in the beginning that drags the story down some. Even give that I will continue to read this series.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mythology Reading Challenge
– 2015 Audiobook Challenge
