The premise of Tiger's Curse - two brothers are cursed to be tigers until someone can wish them free and then go through five adventure/trials to appease the goddess Durga - sounded like a good set of ideas. So, when I picked it up, I thought I was reading a fantasy/adventure. And really, Colleen Houck is a talented writer. She builds engaging scenes that aren't too wordy, and are fun or thoughtful by turns. But about halfway through, the book turned into a juvie-romance. And I'm not the target audience. Really. I thought Twilight was pretty dumb, and that the mismatched heroes were exactly that.

Tiger's Curse is YA for many reasons, not the least of which is that we are stuck in the heroine's head as she agonizes for pages and pages about falling in love with the hero while never showing more flesh than her bathing suit, or giving up more than kisses. This story was Indiana Jones written by Nora Roberts for a PG, 13-year-old audience. Enought with the female angst and the male sibling rivalry already! This was book one of something, but I'm already done with the series.

It's to be noted that I read the three Serenity graphic novels between my last two books. For "comics," they were both entertaining and thoughtful.


-- New-to-me books read in 2011 (as opposed to re-reads) --

January
Little Dee vol 2
Little Dee vol 3
Unusual Suspects
Harvest Moon
The Black Stallion (yes, I know, I should have read it with Black Beauty)
Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard's Name, with a pre-finished commentary here
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Fang Bangers: An Erotic Anthology of Fangs, Claws, Sex and Love
Must Love Hellhounds
Truthseeker

February
Dark and Stormy Knights
Tortall and Other Lands
River Marked (2/28 - it arrived a day early)

March
Questionable Content, vol 1
How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf
Lifeblood
Magic Bites
Skinwalker, A Jane Yellowrock Novel
Running with the Pack
Magic Burns
Blood Cross

April
"Skyblaze" Adventures in the Liaden Universe #17
Kings of the North
Goblin Tales
Do Not Sniff the Bees, Two Lumps book 6
Magic Strikes
Magic Bleeds
Mercy Blade
The Initiate Brother

May
Angelology
City of Pearl
An Artificial Night
Late Eclipses

June
After Hours: Tales from Ur-Bar
Magic Slays
Ghost Ship (e-ARC)
Warbreaker

July
Quarter Share
Half Share
Full Share
"Intelligent Design" (short story in the Liaden Universe, published online at Baen)
Heroes in Training
Serenity: Better Days
Serenity: Those Left Behind
Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
Tiger's Curse

-- Books abandoned rather than completed in 2011 --

February
Sing the Four Quarters, by Tanya Huff

-- Books Still in Progress --
These are books that I haven't totally given up on, I've just... put them aside... for now. And gee, look at how many of them are non-fiction!
The Brand Within
Gamestorming
If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails
Swords and Dark Magic
Battlestations
Wise Man's Fear