Review--Tiger's Dream by Colleen Houck

A tiger left behind.

A goddess in need of an ally.

Stranded in a time and place he never wished for, Kishan Rajaram must carry out his destiny of assisting the beautiful yet extremely irritable goddess Durga. This daunting task is not made easy by the fact that he must also face the truth about the girl he loves and the brother who stole her away.

When the wily shaman Phet appears and tells Kishan that Kelsey needs him, he jumps at the chance to see her again. In his efforts to save her, Kishan discovers that the curse he thought was over is just beginning. As time unravels around him, Kishan realizes that the fates of all those he holds dear lie in hands.

The goddess’s power hangs in the balance. Kishan has no choice but to sacrifice the unthinkable to fight the dark forces swirling around the woman he’s charged to protect. As he does, he discovers that love and loyalty create their own magic and accepts that he must decide his destiny once and for all.

Tiger’s Dream is the conclusion to the epic Tiger’s Curse fantasy romance series that left you breathless. 

After six years of waiting, we finally get the conclusion to Colleen Houck's Tiger Saga! Yes, the story may have seemed over with Tiger's Destiny, but that was Kelsey and Ren's chapter, there was still one more tiger who needed to have his story finished, and naturally, that tiger was our beloved Kishan and Tiger's Dream is his story.

The book takes place in the events immediately after Kishan agrees to be the goddess, Durga's tiger. A young woman also known as Anamika. Kishan is to be her defender, her protector for all time. But poor Kishan still mourns his loss of Kelsey. He was in love and gave up his own happiness so that his brother could live happily ever after with the girl they both loved.

The story truly begins when an old friend comes along and tells Kishan that he must save Kelsey, that her very life was in danger, and naturally Kishan will do anything to save the girl that he still loves. What he didn't expect was that he was to accomplish a set of multiple tasks, ones in which he will have to travel back in time to make sure they happen they way they are supposed to. Even more concerning is that he will need Ana's help as well.

And so the two begin their audacious task of going back to key moments in the past and seeing to it that things play out the way they should. Naturally, most of these key moments are ones we've already witnessed in the series. It was kind of fun being able to revisit so many wonderful, dire, scary and exhilarating moments! It was definitely a proper sendoff to The Tiger Saga being able to reminiscent over such memorable moments--memorable in the sense that you have such memories! Lol! Since I haven't read this series in over 6 years, starting it just as it was "wrapping up", I knew there wouldn't be enough time for a re-read. Luckily, one isn't really necessary. Though if you have the time, I think it would interesting to be able to read them all back to back and then re-experience those moments that appear in Tiger's Dream with a new eye. There were moments that Kishan and Ana had to interact more than you would think and it was just kind of eye-opening in a way. It makes me wonder if Colleen truly gave us those hidden moments to begin with. Since this book was a long time coming, I feel like she did. I'm going on faith with that one!

The relationship between Kishan and Ana was an interesting one. It was meant to be a business relationship of sorts. Kishan never thought that something could form between him and Ana, but he should've known better. I will say it was a gradual process too and I really enjoyed that aspect! It seems as one is falling for the other, the other isn't realizing what's happening or does and is too ticked off at them to want to encourage the feelings. You can imagine who the latter applied to the most! But I must say, it was done rather well. There were stolen moments when Kishan and Ana were both getting along that were tantalizingly sweet, though their bickering was also enjoyable to say the least!

Again, I will mention I haven't read the first four books in years, but I do recall they were of a slower pace, that will hold true here once again. With 800+ pages, a lot is going to happen, but it takes time to get to those action building moments. There's a great deal of character development going and relationship building as well put into place. Plus a rather large section that detailed Ana's past life. If you enjoy good storytellnig and were a fan of the first four books, you know what you're getting into and the payoff you'll have by the end. It is definitely something to consider when starting this series that though the action may be slow to come, there's something magical happening along the way.

One thing that also made this one a little hard to read was the whole time traveling aspect. Time traveling is dicey business in general. How you execute the actual act, the rules, and sometimes even the places you go to. Again, since I can't remember the books very well, I am not positive on the order of events either. Sometimes it felt like the events that Kishan and Ana had to go back to were randomly chosen, but then once things were hashed out towards the end of their "list" I wondered if it wasn't, with one or two exceptions. I wonder if the list was truly chronological. It's a minor thing really, but it did make me wonder. I curse my sodden memory for this!

The ending...oh god you guys...this is the end! While things were more open-ended and you can imagine the happy lives that Kelsey and Ren would lead and the probably adventures Kishan would have with Ana...you don't get that here because it's the end! You know where all the characters are at and a part of me is torn by it! I enjoyed it, yet my heart aches that it's all over! There's still just a glimmer of hope at the end though, that things aren't really over, as I mentioned there was a great deal of time traveling, so it's like you could just go back and relive those moments. That's a more thoughtful way of looking at it rather than it's over, but still, I know it's over and my heart is sadden by this. But my, what a magical and heartfelt journey it was!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars