Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Even though Kishan new that cooking wasn’t the reason he liked Kelsey so much, he didn’t tell her how he truly felt and stuck with being her friend.

Another example when Kelsey and Kishan are in the pool together playing volleyball, they end up talking about their feelings for each other. When it becomes apparent that Kelsey is still in love with Ren, Kishan makes a promise to her “‘I won’t promise that I’ll never kiss you again, but I will promise no to kiss you unless I’m sure that you and Ren are through.’”(page 405) Because Kishan saw that Kelsey didn’t want to become more than friends with him at the time he withdrew and gave Kelsey some space to sort out her feelings. This showed Kishan’s loyalty and patients for Kelsey. I am excited to see what happens in the last two books.

Tigers Voyage By Colleen Houck

Tigers Voyage by Colleen Houck is about completing the third task and finding the third object. Now that the trio is back together, Kelsey Kishan, Ren, Mr. Kadam, and his granddaughter Nilima all set of to a magical land of dragons. There are five Chinese dragons that they must face in order to find what the third treasure. In order to find those five dragons they first must find Lady Silkworm and retrieve a gift that will help them along the way. On top of that at the end of their journey, they must face Lokesh, who is back in the real world waiting for their return.This book was the most interesting book for me to read out of the series because it made me wonder if there were other worlds with dragons and other mythical creatures. The third book focuses more on the adventures and team bonding. But Ren’s memory returns after he sees Kelsey and Kishan kiss. Once the task was completed and they all came out of the nonexistent world they were once again thrown into battle against Lokesh. Only this time he managed to take Kelsey to an unknown place.

I like this book a lot because of the characters. At first it was kind of overwhelming but at the end of the book you understand all the characters and like all of their personalities. I also like the setting a lot in this book. The book takes place on Ren and Kishan’s family yacht. Kelsey, Kishan, and Ren all must take scuba diving lessons for the soon to come fight with a mythical kraken. I liked reading about how they learned how to scuba dive because it remind me of my own scuba diving lesson. The book also reminded me of the cartoon movie of Alice in Wonderland because of the comical tension between Kishan, Ren and the diving instructor Wes. For example Ren and Kishan made excuses to prevent Wes and Kelsey from sitting near each other “Kishan purposefully sat next to me, leaving no option for Wes except to take the seat across from us.”(page 151). This made me imagine a cartoon show of Alice and Wonderland tea party because I could see Kishan being the Mad Hatter, saying “No room” to Wes who would be Alice.

Another cartoon I imagined while reading this book was Scooby-Do because of all the detective skills used to solve each prophecy in the Tigers Curse series. For example in Tigers Voyage when Kelsey is in the world of Lady Silkworm she is given a black silk kimono that had five hand embroidered dragons on it. As Mr. Kadam, Kelsey, and Kishan were looking at it one of the dragons began to move. The longer they looked at it the more Mr. Kadam realized that it was a map and said “‘I believe what we’re looking at is a map with instructions. It’s telling us where to go and which dragon to seek out first.’”(page249). This reminded me of Scooby-Do because in order to solve a mystery they had to first find clues.

Tigers Destiny By colleen Houck

Tigers Destiny is the final book of the series Tigers Curse. It begins with Kelsey waking up in a cell later to have dinner with Lokesh himself on his ship. During dinner she taunts him with all her power and gets him to tell her all his plans to rule the world, which include Kelsey giving birth to his baby and becoming his wife. On the day of Kelsey and Lokesh’s wedding, Ren and Kishan crash the reception stealing away the bride and leaving the groom tied up on at alter. Back at home in India and far away form Lokesh, Ren, Kishan, Kelsey, Mr. Kadam and Nilima begin deciphering the last prophecy to tell them how to get the final treasure. Finally on they way back from Durga’s Temple Mr. Kadam, Kishan, Ren, and Kelsey run into the undead Lokesh who tries and fails to recapture Kelsey killing Mr. Kadam in the proses. But not before Mr. Kadam sends him centuries in the past. Continuing the journey to break the cures Ren, Kishan, and Kelsey each face a different task of sacrifice. After completing each one they finally have the last treasure the three go back in time to where Lokesh is. When they reach their destination the trio meet Anamika the soon to be goddess Durga. After gaining her trust and making a plan to defeat Lokesh Anamika, Kelsey, Ren, and Kishan begin battle. Using all the gifts the present day Durga gave them plus the treasures from the four tasks they finally defeat Lokesh, however not without casualties. With Ren dead it was Kishan’s sacrifice to give up his immortality and bring back Ren. The book ended with Kishan also sacrificing his relationship with Kelsey so that Ren and Kelsey could both go back to present day India and starting a new life of their own.

I would recommend this book/series to people who like a little bit of everything from romance to history. For example, Kelsey falls in love with both Ren and Kishan through out the four books. This book in particular has a lot of adventure and action. Kelsey, Kishan, and Ren do a lot more fighting. The book is also a lot more dramatic, with the death and the trio’s sacrifices. When Kelsey and the two brothers Ren and Kishan enter a new world they run into a phoenix who tells Kelsey to sacrifice her body in order to allow them to pass. “‘If you can walk the path of flame, you may cross my mountains.’”(page 158). This is one of the many dramatic parts of the book; when the phoenix tells Kelsey that the only way to continue the journey is for her to walk through a path of fire. As Kelsey is walking through flames I’m imagining the music that plays in the movie Jaws, when the shark is about to appear. The books also have a lot of religion and history mixed in with all the other genres. In each book kelsey, Kishan, Ren, and sometimes Mr. Kadam visit the Goddess Durga. Near the end of Tigers Destiny in order to defeat Lokesh, they must reenact how Durga became a goddess. “‘It’s exactly that, Kahl-see. The goddess