Kelsey Hayes was just looking for a summer job to save up enough money to attend community college in the fall. What she go was a white tiger and a 300 year old Indian curse. When Kelsey started her two week stay at the local circus she wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it for sure wasn’t forming a bond with the resident white tiger only to find out that the tiger is actually a 300 year old cursed Indian prince. Kelsey embarks on the adventure of the lifetime to help save Ren from his curse, but she ends up not only risking her life but her heart in the process.

I am not going to lie this is my second read of this series (except for Tiger’s Destiny which only came out last year) I read the original 4 when I was in high school on the recommendation of a friend and immediately fell in love with the characters and the story. I was a little worried that they weren’t going to hold up and that I was going to fall out of love with them. Thankfully I didn’t and it is still some of my favorites of all time, definitely a guilty favorite, but a favorite nonetheless. Although Kelsey annoyed me just a touch more then I remember her doing when I was in high school, then again when I was reading them the first time Kelsey and I were about the same age and I related to her decisions a lot more. As a 16/17 year old girl I related to Kelsey’s insecurities a lot more then I do now. I am a fully grown adult (ish) women who had full confidence in her body and the way it looks. Kelsey feels that she isn’t pretty enough or worldly enough to be with a guy like Ren, which for the record is never true. People are attracted to the people they are attracted to no matter what either person looks like and you can’t tell someone that they aren’t attracted to cause that’s not your choice to make. So her going from I really like him to I can’t be around him and back and forth for about 150/200 pages is really annoying and the fact that she can be around the tiger him but not the man is also a bit mind boggling because they have the same mannerisms just one can talk. Another thing about Kelsey that kinda bugged me on the reread was that she is supposed to be “Durga’s Chosen One” but like shes not all what I picture a chosen one to be. Shes not really the symbol I would pick for female empowerment; in fact shes kinda meek. While she does have her moments where she stands up for her self they are few and far between. She is mostly just a damsel in distress. Shes really not a strong female lead and she is kinda isolated. She had zero friends and no family (well kinda no family). She had her foster family but they stop being mentioned about 100 pages in. She definitely has no friends. Really the only people she interacts with, talks to or about, are Ren, Kishan and Mr. Kadam. So if I was going to change anything I would give her a girlfriend that she could talk to and tell her that shes being an idiot.

Ren is pretty much the epitome of fictional boyfriend. Hes drop dead gorgeous, brave, charismatic, romantic, and loaded. I mean really what else could a girl want in a fictional guy? Its very obvious that there are some very strong romantic feelings coming from him for Kelsey pretty immediately. They only thing I didn’t like was that was no push back? Banter? Tension? I don’t really know how to describe it, but I love when characters have a bet of something something that makes them argue and bicker a bit before they fall in love and then makes them do it more then they do. Ren and Kelsey don’t have that. Not that their relationship is easy it obviously has some issues but really I guess it comes down to neither of them are sarcastic or sassy and I love me some sassy characters ( I see you Kishan and I love you). Speaking of Kishan I love him a lot more then I did when I originally read the books. High school me hated that he tried to come between Kelsey and Ren cause I shipped them so hard (and I still do honestly) but grown me greatly appreciates his wit and his sass. I also appreciate the fact that hes a bit rough around the edges.

All in all the story and the characters held up for the most part. Admittedly the book as a whole has some issues and its not the best work of literature I have ever read (that in my opinion would be Peter Pan by JM Barrie with anything by Jane Austin a close second) nor is it the worst (I’m looking at you Star Crosses Trilogy). Its still one of my overall favorites and I can see my self reading it again and again.