Aaaaaand we’re back with an actual Shipping Saturday! I feel like it’s been forever since I did a real romantic relationship. I mean, I’ve...

Shipping Saturday: Ren and Kelsey/Tiger’s Curse

Alexa Mintah

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Aaaaaand we’re back with an actual Shipping Saturday! I feel like it’s been forever since I did a real romantic relationship. I mean, I’ve done friendships, bro-ships, sib-ships, but I haven’t done any actual romance in months. Which I guess is because I’m not super into romance (except when I am) and I was kinda running out of relationships.

Anyways. ALL ABOARD THE SHIP.

Sorry, I couldn’t find any pictures that matched them well, so here’s the gorgeous cover instead.

So, for anyone who doesn’t know, Ren and Kelsey are from my favorite book series ever The Tiger Saga. But here’s the catch: I’m shipping them based only upon the first book (which I reviewed here, if you want more of my thoughts on it), and in my opinion Tiger’s Curse is... well, not the best of the series. I mean, I won’t even get to talk about my favorite character, Kishan, because he’s not a part of the ship and he’s not really in this book.

Oh, who am I kidding, of course I’m going to mention him. But we’ll stick to the title charries mostly, kay? Okay.

pinterest.com I'm just gonna leave this here... No it's not supposed to be a Kishan lookalike *fangirl giggles* Course not...

So like I said, The Tiger Saga is basically my favorite book series ever, but I hadn’t gone back to read the first one since I first read through the series. I revisited all the others (because they featured a lot more of Kishan, my lovely darling... But what am I saying, we’re not talking about him), but I’d never gone back to this one, and I’d honestly forgotten why I adored Ren as much as I did when I originally read the series. Then my Goodreads group read Tiger’s Curse for the month of August, and I got to rediscover why Ren is totally amazing as well.

Couldn't find a pic I liked for Ren, so here's a pretty quote from tumblr instead.

REN IS SO FREAKING ADORABLE. AND SWEET AND GORGEOUS. I love everything about him because he’s just such a fascinating, complex character. There’s the moody, kind of broken side that’s still coming to terms with this modern world, still sorting life out, still dealing with the damage of spending 300 years as a tiger, the side that’s angry, desperate, searching for answers, maybe even wondering if his curse will ever be broken; then there’s the sweet, cute boyfriend side who loves to listen to Kelsey read Shakespeare, who quotes random lines of poetry (which is surprisingly not cheesy), who could just sit for hours next to her doing nothing, just being there in that moment because he’s with her. Even his super-stubborn, super-arrogant side is at least amusing... if considerably annoying for Kelsey.

But I think my favorite Ren-scene in this book is WHEN HE ASKED FOR HER FREAKING PERMISSION BEFORE KISSING HER. In the scene, Kelsey tells him that girls don’t want guys to ask for permission; they want it to be spontaneous so they can be “swept off their feet” or some such nonsense. That may be for some girls, but it does not apply to this one. Because I just about died from the beautiful adorableness of him and how much I wanted it to be me he was asking for permission to kiss, lol.

Actually, if I continue about Ren, I just might die. From a heart attack or something brought on by excessive fangirling. Which is why I think we should move on to Kelsey.

And another quote (this one from pinterest) instead of a pic.

Kelsey is--obviously--the protagonist, the girl chosen for... whatever reason to help them break the curse. From that rather flippant opening, you might get the vibe that I don’t like her, but actually, I really do. She’s cool, interesting, and relatable; I feel like she’s kind of everygirl, but at the same time, she’s unique to herself. Even from the beginning, she’d been through some incredibly crappy times, but that didn’t keep her from standing tall on her own, and her independence didn’t keep her from jumping at the chance to help someone else (perhaps not the wisest decision in context, but hey, it showed she had a good heart). I mean, Kelsey really wasn’t an outdoors-y girl, yet she braved days (and nights) in the jungle on the boy’s behalf. She wasn’t some kind of girl-version-of-Indiana-Jones adventurer-type, yet she dove right in to helping Ren break the curse and she never held back when she had something left to give. She wasn’t particularly brave or special but she was because she went and did the quest anyway. Rather than shying away because she wasn’t remotely qualified, she chose to be there for people she hardly knew and risked her life to help her friends anyway.

Plus, this girl whips out some incredible sarcasm every once in a while. I don’t remember noticing it when I first read these books, but she can actually be really funny in this not-quite-sassy, but sarcastic, sorta cynical kind of way. It’s weird (but definitely awesome) how the MC actually ended up being the comic relief for most of the book. 

Now before I go into this next section on Kelsey, I have to say this: Warning: big spoiler in the next few paragraphs, but it’s something I feel like I have to discuss because it’s a huge part of the book and the romance. If you don’t want to read the spoilers, continue until after the next bolded area.

giphy.com

So obviously, there comes a point in the book when Kelsey realizes she’s falling in love with Ren. She’s scared because, you know, first love and everything, and she decides that it’ll never work between them because of who Ren is: he’s a prince, super rich, and perhaps most importantly, flipping gorgeous. Once they break this curse and he’s able to go out into the real world and see all those beautiful supermodels and rich heiresses and whatever other people are actually on his level, Kelsey figures there’s no way he’ll want to stay with little old her. So she breaks off their romance before he can in order to save her heart, save him the awkwardness, and hopefully, allow them to be friends in the future.

When I first read the series, I hated that. Wanted to throw the book against the wall because it was the most ridiculous thing ever and just how stupid can you be, Kelsey? HE LOVES YOU, DUMMY.

I still kind of feel that way, in the sense that it’s obvious to me that Ren loves her, but at the same time, I totally get where she’s coming from. It’s actually part of what makes Kelsey so relatable because, let’s face it, girls, these days, it can be really hard to feel good about yourself. And for a girl who figures she’s about average, nothing terrible, but nothing special, who’s settled there and set a ceiling on what she can reach, how difficult would it be for her to believe that someone rich, someone beautiful, someone literally royalty would fall in love with her? I mean, Ren’s been a tiger for 300 years; he doesn’t understand how the world works! How easy would it be to convince yourself that the second he saw a supermodel, he’d want her instead? How hard would it be to believe that he’d choose you when he could have just about anyone?

The real clincher for me was that she didn’t break it off just for herself. At one point, Ren says, “I don’t think I can live without you,” and that’s the moment when she really decides to leave him. Because, in her own words:

side henna drawings from pixabay

Now obviously, I’m not glad that she gave into those lies of inferiority, but at the same time, I’m not upset that they were in there anymore. Instead of pushing me away like it did the first time around, I feel for her, and Kelsey’s strength and willingness to do what she thought was best, not just for herself but for him too, it all drew me closer to her character, and now, I mostly admire her for her strength and courage.

OKAY SPOILERS AND DEEP TALK OVER. BACK TO THE POST.

If you didn’t read the spoiler section, in short, I admired her courage, her relatablity, and her strength. If you want to know exactly what I’m talking about, you’ll have to read the book. ;)

Together, Kelsey and Ren are just about the sweetest thing ever. Their personalities bounce off each other so well, their romantic scenes are insanely sweet, and most gorgeously, THEY WERE FRIENDS FIRST. Even though they fell in love quickly, to me, it didn’t feel quite like instalove. I mean, Ren spent days with her in tiger form before she even knew he was actually a cursed Indian prince, and even once she found out, Kelsey definitely saw him as a friend first (actually, she was kind of wary of him, but who wouldn’t be if their tiger suddenly turned into a strangely beautiful human male?). Then she grew in that love a little at a time before falling in all at once. :D

***

I feel like this post was super long, and a bit different than most of my shipping ones. Kind of deeper and maybe with slightly less fangirling. Oh well. It’s probably because I didn’t get to talk about my favorite character, and I would but baby’s best qualities are not featured in this book. Plus, like I said, this post is long enough as it is.

SO. Obviously, I will have to do another one about just Kishan some time. *giggles maniacally* That will be fun. It will also consist of a lot of this:

SO. Have you read Tiger’s Curse? What’d you think of it? What’s your favorite relationship right now, and--one more--HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO FIND ANY PICTURES THAT MATCH THESE CHARACTERS? *clears throat*. Anyways. Seriously though. Comment me!

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