Tiger's Quest

Book Title: Tiger's Quest

Author: Colleen Houck

Series: Tiger's Curse #2

Date Started: April 12th 2019

Date Completed: April 15th 2019

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Two Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

Wow, this series is still kind of trash, but I think it was what I needed. Probably won't never ever again, mind you.

Amongst the questionable feminism, the predictable plot and the way-too-much-information style to the writing, there are some really nice bits of mythology in here. It's given in massive information dumps showing off how supposedly clever people are (and is about where that intelligence ends) but I do like it and appreciate the diversity of the myths. A history lesson isn't exactly what I was expecting but it has its moments in there.

The story, sadly, doesn't hold up. At all, really. The first part is pure contemporary romance, a tiny little bit of action and then it's off in fairyland for the actual quest. And that ending uses the oldest trick in the book to create drama and no real tension. As much as there's an easy answer to this, I'm still sat here thinking what was the point of the last two books if you're going to start from square one for the characters.

Let's talk about those characters for a moment. They serve one thing and it isn't the story; it's the love triangle. All good fun in objective terms (very boring on all other accounts), but there's a point where it becomes manipulative. It's not okay for someone who's been told the other person isn't interested and is uncomfortable to continue to push, flirt, touch, tease them. And no one should lead another person's feelings on when they know what their own decision is. It's one thing to struggle to push people away, but it's quite another to perpetuate problematic relationships and write them as if it's okay to be acting like that. 'It was a different time' comes to mind when I read most of this; the female characters, the romance, the world. But then again it only came out in 2011, I'm not sure it's an excuse.

It's good fun, but questionable in most others respects. That about sums it up. And I just skimmed through the reviews (and then plots) of the next book and I think I'm good to leave it off here; it sounds like more of the same.