But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her-who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves-Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she 'like-likes' but who had pined for Ellis instead. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. Hankies, cold showers and possibly a neck brace for all the emotional whiplash are recommended.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.

Lines such as, “It’s time for me to let myself love again,” and, “Ren’s love was an all-consuming fire, but Kishan was more like…a space heater,” are representative. Having thrown a kraken, a giant shark and no fewer than five dragons at her tempestuous trio, Houck trots in the malign sorcerer Lokesh for a climactic battle, and sets up the closer with a cliffhanger reversal of fortune. (So to speak: For all the steamy snogging, neither tiger prince still even gets to second base here.) Eventually Kelsey and company set off on a nautical quest for a magical Necklace that is the third of the goddess Durga’s four promised gifts and the next stage in removing the ancient curse that forces the two men to spend part of each day as big cats. No sooner does she promise Kishan that he’s The One than Ren regains his memories, though, and, being jealous and controlling as well as still being her “blue eyed prince” and “dark Poseidon,” proceeds to screw the romantic conflict to agonizing levels. Hunky Indian were-tiger–sibling rivals continue to claw at the heart of their American lady love in this quest quartet’s penultimate doorstopper.ĭevastated that the elder brother, Ren, walled off all memory of their passionate love and psychic attachment in the previous episode (he had his reasons), Kelsey embraces the sultry affections of Kishan.

Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck