A Side of Panache

Oh no, seventeen chapters in and now the story is beginning? About time, I guess. (That was a bad joke making fun of the fact that chapter 17, at just over halfway into the story, is called "a beginning," which normally happens at the start of a story. I am very funny.) Well, Mr. Kadam is back, and Kelsey and Ren are back on speaking terms (well, more accurately, they're at exactly where they were before the last couple of chapters at the waterfall, since there's no mention of them fighting again, to my knowledge). The only thing that's different is now we have an additional love interest, and Kelsey's immortal now, I guess? So, like, will she be 18 forever now? Mr. Kadam hasn't aged since he got his Matt Damon Amulet from Ren, so he's been stuck in his mid-forties for over three hundred years. I think it's for as long as she wears the amulet, but that hasn't been confirmed. Seriously, every time I have an actual question about worldbuild...

We have officially reached the halfway point in the book! But we're on chapter sixteen out of twenty-four. So, two-thirds of the chapters only take up half the book, which seems like some wonky pacing to me. Let's take a look at what's happened so far: 1. Kelsey meets a tiger at a circus 2. Kelsey goes to India with the tiger 3. It turns out the tiger is an Indian prince who was cursed to be a tiger and the only way to save him is to get all the pieces of the Matt Damon Amulet 4. Kelsey is the chosen one 5. They get a lead on how to fulfill the prophecy from an ancient temple 6. They meet Ren's younger brother the second leg of the love triangle This is the only plot-relevant stuff that's happened over the last 273 pages. Except it took eighty pages to get to India in the first place, so it's more like 190 pages. A book can't be all plot, however. There's character interaction, too! But we don't really know anything about any of the c...

Last time, we met Kishan. He's edgy and a bad boy and this is shown by him openly flirting with Kelsey , the scoundrel. But wait, isn't this just...exactly what Ren's done for the entire book so far? Like, immediately flirting with Kelsey and playing with her hair? And calling her "beautiful" right off the bat? And Kelsey found him immediately charming, just like Kishan last chapter? But I guess it's different because Kishan is wearing black because he's a bad boy . Oh, yeah, and in case it wasn't made clear last chapter (which is possible because I kind of rushed the last post out) the multiple-page-long fight that Ren and Kishan had that resulted in deep, life-threatening wounds (that would 100% kill them if they didn't have the curse's mutant healing factor) was explicitly because Kishan touched Kelsey. And Kelsey belongs to Ren and even though she just rejected his romantic advances, how dare Kishan touch what's rightfully his. ...

Oh, hey, I'm still here! Apparently my comments weren't working for ages because when I changed the color of the text in my header, this also changed the color of text in the comments section (but not the posts themselves?), which is annoying and weird. Should be fixed now! Anyway, last time Kelsey had another interminable conversation with Mr. Kadam, and then went and hung out with Ren in the middle of the jungle. And Houck didn't even take advantage of the secluded waterfall to have our lead drool over Ren. I don't know whether to think that this is very progressive or if Houck just isn't taking advantage of the scenes she sets up. Oh yeah and then Kelsey gets smacked in the head with a rock and passes out in the water. Oh no!!! Chapter Fourteen: Tiger, Tiger Oh, it's fine. Ren shakes her awake. She's got a splitting headache and the light is really bright all around her. It also looks like she inhaled a bunch of water. Ren tries to help her cl...