Chapter 8: Jealousy
Hello, and welcome back to our irregularly scheduled nonsense!
In other news, I finally worked up enough effort to finish Tiger's Voyage, the third book in the series, and hoo boy do we ever have some stuff to look forward to. It's bad, folks.
Last time, Kelsey broke up with Li and kissed Ren. Yes, I am also surprised that this is literally everything that happened. Other than plot stuff, we confirmed that Ren threatens any male who dares to even speak to Kelsey with violence, and that Li is also a sociopathic freak who can be driven into a blind psychotic rage in the name of--well, not defending Kelsey's honor, but as a display of masculinity.
God, these characters suck.
Chapter Eight: Jealousy
Oh boy! Instead of doing anything related to the curse, we just have more boy problems! I can't wait!!!
For reference, we're about a quarter of the way through the book at the start of chapter eight. Literally the only thing that's happened is Ren and Kelsey are back together. The pacing in this book suuuuucks.
We pick up again right at the end of the last chapter, and Ren and Kelsey kiss for a while. It's about as steamy as you can get for a YA paranormal romance novel. Uh, Ren possibly starts purring (which he can do as a human because Shut Up)--either that or he literally starts growling at her. It's weird.
A deep rumble echoed in his chest.
I pulled back, laughing. "Are you growling at me?"
He laughed softly, twisted my hair ribbon around his fingers, and pulled gently, loosening my braid. Biting my ear lightly, he whispered a threat, "You have been driving me crazy for three weeks. You're lucky all I'm doing is growling."
Ah, good old Ren. Gotta love it when the protagonist and his love interest literally describes his dialogue as a "threat." And I've already spoken about how Ren basically likes to have some measure of control over Kelsey, given that when she finally wanted to kiss him he refused to even spend time with her until he got her to do exactly what he wanted her to do. It's creepy and bad.
Kelsey asks if he'll be over more often, and he says he will. Great. More Ren.
"So . . . you weren't just avoiding me then?"
He put his finger under my chin and turned my face to his. "I would never avoid you on purpose, Kells." He stroked the side of my neck and collarbone with his fingertips, distracting me.
Even Ren's attempt at shorting out Kelsey's brain doesn't work, and a couple of synapses flair up with activity before they once again go dark for a hundred years.
"But you did."
And she's right! He totally did.
"That was regretfully necessary.
Says who? Ren?
I didn't want to pressure you, so I stayed away, but I was always near. I could hear you."
Ensuring that if she ever wanted to speak to her friend again in a non-romantic context outside of dates that he sets up, she wouldn't be able to do it. Therefore pressuring her into choosing him so she can have a friendship with him. He's "always near" because he followed her to America and bought the duplex next door without even telling her that he was going to be there.
He pressed his face into my cascading hair and sighed.
I don't remember if this ever comes up in Tiger's Quest, but Ren has a real complex about Kelsey's hair in the next book. It's creepy and I hate it.
"And smell your peaches-and-cream scent, which drove me absolutely crazy. But, I wouldn't let myself see you unless you agreed to a date. When you started purposefully tempting me, I thought I'd go insane."
Too bad this was resolved in less than a chapter, which makes the whole Kelsey/Ren romantic tension subplot, uh, badly paced and very boring.
But what else is new.
"Yours was the worst kind of pralobhana, temptation.
This is not how bilingual people talk.
I would have had you for a moment, but I would ultimately lose you. It was all I could do not to grab you and carry you off."
Okay, I know it gets annoying when people reference Dresden Files, but that's what I'm going to do. Mostly because I've been rereading them and they're fresh in my brain. (Spoilers if you haven't read up through Changes, and especially Cold Days.) But this kind of sentiment is the exact kind of stuff that goes through Harry's mind when he becomes the Winter Knight--the winter mantle makes him want to act violently and act on his base instincts. And, shocker, this is seen as a bad thing! This isn't something your romantic lead should be expressing unironically! It's Bad!
Kelsey isn't smart and thinks about how romantic the whole situation is and how she's just so happy now. She asks him to forgive her for wasting their time by being (rightfully) hesitant to be in a relationship with him. (Not rightfully because of her inferiority complex, but rightfully because I am terrified she is going to end up in a ditch somewhere.) He says there's nothing to forgive and blames it on himself for moving too quickly. Kelsey denies this. Because they're just ~so perfect~ for each other.
Ren says that he loved her back before she even knew he was human, and he mentions the godforsaken circus for the only time this book. What is it with the beginning sections of these books having absolutely nothing important happening in them?
Scene break! Kelsey makes Ren some pasta and she asks him how to say a lot of things in Hindi. Then Kelsey makes cookies and Ren likes them. Uh, that's it, really.
Scene break! Kelsey wakes up the next morning to Ren in her room, and he sees her sleeping with her white stuffed tiger. He seems pleased at the fact that he is "necessary for [Kelsey's] survival," because Ren is a smug bastard. Then they go hiking to the waterfall that Kelsey told him about when they were at his waterfall, which is a surprising bit of continuity that I was not expecting from this series. They stop for food on the way, and Ren eats a lot, because boy eating lots of food = comedy. He orders something called a Large Mess. This book is a Large Mess. Heyooo!
Kelsey asks what he's been doing for food because he is a Man and therefore Can't Cook for Himself. Apparently Mr. Kadam set up a food delivery service for Ren. Wait, aren't they trying to be incognito and hide from Lokesh? And wouldn't a regular delivery of things to a residence connected with Ren or Mr. Kadam be really easy to find considering Lokesh is apparently richer than God and is actively searching for them now? Especially since Ren is a transfer student at WOU and is STILL USING HIS REAL NAME?
They go to the waterfall and it's Beautiful and Perfect.
We'd been discussing the differences between the forests of India and the forests of Oregon when I had a thought and interrupted,
Hold on, I need to get over the fact that this is phrased in such a way to make it look like Kelsey having a thought is extremely rare.
Okay.
"Ren, during that whole time I was dating Li, weren't you even a tiny bit jealous?"
THIS IS HER THOUGHT? HOW DOES SHE HAVE NO IDEA? REN THREATENS ANY MALE WHO COMES WITHIN EARSHOT.
"I was extremely jealous. I see red anytime someone else comes near you."
Mhm. That seems healthy.
"You didn't really act like it."
Lies.
"I almost went ballistic. I couldn't think straight. When another guy approaches you, I just want to rip him apart with my claws. Even if I like him--like Li. And especially if I don't--like Jason."
Ren exchanged one sentence of dialogue with Jason (a threat, natch) and he hates him enough to want to brutally murder him and fantasizes about ripping him to pieces with his barehands claws. Y I K E S.
Instead of running away from the psychopath, Kelsey accompanies Ren to the waterfall and it's very Romantic and Beautiful. Ugh.
Scene break! Kelsey isn't going to wushu anymore by "mutual decision." I know she just broke up with Li, but it also feels like Ren is isolating her from her other friends which is...not great....
The two of them hang out constantly, both when Ren is human and when he's a tiger. When he's human, he plays the mandolin for her and sings and did I mention How Great Ren is? Ren spends most of his time as a human at school, which frustrates Kelsey. I'm just wondering how he manages to cram all of his classes into six hours when most of the time in college you have giant breaks between classes, and it's not like he can drive home in between because he lives a ways away from campus.
Ren speaks to Mr. Kadam pretty regularly. Kelsey says that she tries not to eavesdrop, but then immediately says that they are speaking in "hushed tones," which means she's definitely trying to eavesdrop because it would be impossible to hear otherwise. They switch over to Hindi a lot, which is weird, because they seem to be speaking about quest stuff and not just about their secret documents/relocation plan that Kelsey stumbled across earlier. You'd think they would want to clue her in on things they find out for the quest, because she's the one responsible for those parts, no?
Every once in a while, I'd hear strange terms mentioned: Yggdrasil, Naval Stone, and Noe's Mountain.
WHAT?????
Yggdrasil, as in the Norse world tree?
NOE'S MOUNTAIN? AS IN NOAH'S ARK?????? (Yes, this is explicitly referring to Noah's Ark, and I wish I was joking.)
I...this is a MASSIVE bit of the mythology of this story that has 1. Never ONCE been mentioned and 2. Is just dropped in here like it belongs without Kelsey even thinking that something is strange.
The supernatural elements in the series so far have been explicitly limited to Hinduism, Buddhism, and some traditional Chinese and Japanese folklore, all of which have blended together in real life and are largely limited to Asia. So it makes SENSE that these all exist together. Plus it was kind of cool to see a book focus on Asian mythology because that's really rare, especially in YA paranormal romance (even if it's bad).
But now, in just one sentence, we've been thrown into an "all myths are true" universe with absolutely zero warning or foreshadowing. These kinds of settings can work (see Dresden Files or American Gods) but it requires the bare minimum of effort to make it this way from the beginning. If the first book had said "oh, hey, all myths are true but we're going to focus on Hinduism" I would have less of a problem with it! But that would have required sitting down and (shock and horror) thinking through your worldbuilding, and that's hard. So it just comes COMPLETELY OUT OF NOWHERE.
No scene break, but now Kelsey is leaving class and Ren finds her, saying that she was easy to track because of her peaches and cream scent.
Kelsey has to drop something off at the language lab and runs into Artie! You remember Artie? The fat unpleasant neckbeard nerdy loser? That guy!
Despite the fact that Kelsey hasn't spoken to him in weeks, Artie still tries to pencil Kelsey in for a date, completely ignoring Ren in the process. I'm worried, because Artie is in actual mortal peril at the moment and he doesn't realize.
Artie starts badgering her about going on a date with him, and I'm a bit conflicted. On the one hand, Artie sucks, and there are people that won't take no for an answer when they ask people out. But on the other hand, Ren is exactly the same way, and I hate him.
Kelsey spends two whole paragraphs comparing how ugly Artie is to how hot Ren is. They both have the exact same personality, though, from what I can tell.
Artie says that Kelsey "obviously make[s] questionable choices based on lustful impulses," though, which is absolutely hysterical and completely true.
In response, Ren threatens to grind him into paste, which is about what I expected from him. Isn't he a prince who's been trained in diplomacy?
[Artie] didn't see the dangerous predator lurking behind Ren's eyes. Ren's nostrils were flared. His eyes were fixed on his target. His muscles were taut. He was ready to pounce. To mangle. To kill.
Holy shit! That's not normal.
The next day, Kelsey walks up to Ren after class as he's finishing up a conversation with another Indian girl. But then Jason walks up and says hi to her, so Ren and the other girl cease to exist in the scene while she talks to Jason. He hands her a magazine with the article about her saving the old lady from being hit by a car at the play. If you remember that happening.
Kelsey only thinks about how terrible she looks in the picture, which is not surprising from the girl who can look at a picture of her dead parents and only think about how ugly she is.
She thanks him and then Jason leaves. Ren rematerializes and walks over to her. Kelsey asks who the girl was, and Ren says that she asked for his number to give to her parents so they could speak to his parents. In order to arrange a marriage. Whomp whomp?
Kelsey tells him that makes HER jealous, even though Ren was clearly uncomfortable because of this and the two of them are already together.
Kelsey brings up Yesubai, and Ren says that he didn't love her even though he had accepted the idea of marrying her, because the love interests must only experience True Love with one another for the first time and any other previous relationships don't count.
Ren explains that modern arranged marriages are a bit different than his engagement to Yesubai, and that most parents give their daughters a list of potential suitors that the girl can pick from. I have no idea if this is correct, but this isn't a terribly common thing in America to my knowledge. Ren says that some parents would consider dating Kelsey, an American, to be unacceptable and would "taint" their children "forever." Again, I have no idea if this is correct, but knowing this series it probably isn't.
Kelsey asks if Ren's parents would have approved and Ren gets cagey about it (it seems that way to me, anyway). He says that Deschen wasn't Indian, so they were ahead of their time, I guess. But considering she's Kelsey, regardless of her race, I think they'd be pretty disappointed. Ren asks if Kelsey's parents would have liked him, and Kelsey says they would (and specifically says that her mom would have giggled like Sarah every time she saw him, which means that even death cannot protect the female characters from Ren's Powerful Male Pheromones).
Ren asks what Jason handed to Kelsey, and she shows him the article of her heroic rescue of the old lady at the play.
I handed him the article as we walked in the house. Ren sat down and read it quietly while I made us a snack.
Because Woman Cook for Man.
He came into the kitchen with an expression of worry on his face.
"Kelsey, when was this taken?"
"About a month ago. Why? What's wrong?"
"Maybe nothing. I need to call Kadam."
Is this--? Could it be--?
"Ren, tell me. What's going on?"
"Your name and picture are in this magazine. It's a pretty obscure publication, so we might get lucky."
"What are you saying?"
"We're afraid Lokesh can track you back here."
PLOT!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, it turns out Kelsey's date with Jason was the important date! All that stuff with Li and Artie was pointless, but Jason was actually relevant to the plot!
Kelsey asks why Lokesh couldn't have tracked her through her student ID or her driver's license, which is a pretty good question. Ren says that Mr. Kadam arranged to get them changed through his "connections," which are never explained. Her records at WOU have all been changed so they don't connect her name with her photo.
"Did you really think he could arrange a passport in a week for you to go to India last summer?"
See, this feels less like a revelation and more like Houck realizing that this part in the first book made no sense and then deciding to retcon it.
Kelsey says that she's registered to WOU under her name, and she has records in the foster system. These have also apparently been changed. There are no more remaining records that list her name and picture together at all, apparently. Even her high school yearbooks have been taken care of, and the only way that Lokesh could find her through that avenue is by contacting an old classmate that still has a yearbook, "'but the odds of that happening aren't likely.'"
Yeah, it's out of the question that the crazy, evil, immortal wizard with access to similar or greater contacts than Mr. Kadam's and who commands his own private army and is richer than God, who is also obsessed with finding Kelsey, would be able to expend the resources to do so.
This book is dumb.
But the real point of this is that the magazine article contains both her name and her picture, which is a piece of information that Lokesh can use to track her down.
"Why didn't you two tell me this before?"
"We didn't want to worry you unnecessarily. We wanted you to live as normal a life as possible."
This is also dumb! If you're trying to make it so that Kelsey keeps a low profile, how is not telling her unnecessary? This was entirely preventable if you just communicated with your girlfriend, jackass.
Houck has also completely neglected a pretty big source of information that would make it super easy for Lokesh to find Kelsey: social media. Yeah, social media has had precisely zero presence in the series so far, despite being written in (and presumably taking place in) 2011. Yeah, Facebook should be in full swing at this time, and this is when Facebook was popular with young people instead of Boomers ranting about politics and posting weird Minions memes. The characters--who are mostly in college or older--don't even really seem to have cell phones. Kelsey mentioned her new Prada phone that Ren got her, but that seemed to be more for the status symbol rather than any practical use.
Once you notice it, it's a bit weird that none of the teenagers or young adults are using their smart phones or the Internet at all. In 2011.
Kelsey asks what the plan is, and Ren says that they're going to continue on as normal, but he's asked Kishan to stay with them just in case, because he'll be less "distracted" than Ren is. Then the chapter, exhausted by actually having some Plot in it, peters out and ends.
Closing Thoughts
Why is there literally no real jealousy in the chapter titled "Jealousy" because they're already together? Don't worry about it.
But hey! The plot took another glacial step forward. That's something, at least. Just one more filler chapter, and then the Plot actually starts up again for real!
I can't wait.
Next time, Chapter Nine: Kishan! Kishan shows up, and that's pretty much it.
In other news, I finally worked up enough effort to finish Tiger's Voyage, the third book in the series, and hoo boy do we ever have some stuff to look forward to. It's bad, folks.
Last time, Kelsey broke up with Li and kissed Ren. Yes, I am also surprised that this is literally everything that happened. Other than plot stuff, we confirmed that Ren threatens any male who dares to even speak to Kelsey with violence, and that Li is also a sociopathic freak who can be driven into a blind psychotic rage in the name of--well, not defending Kelsey's honor, but as a display of masculinity.
God, these characters suck.
Chapter Eight: Jealousy
Oh boy! Instead of doing anything related to the curse, we just have more boy problems! I can't wait!!!
For reference, we're about a quarter of the way through the book at the start of chapter eight. Literally the only thing that's happened is Ren and Kelsey are back together. The pacing in this book suuuuucks.
We pick up again right at the end of the last chapter, and Ren and Kelsey kiss for a while. It's about as steamy as you can get for a YA paranormal romance novel. Uh, Ren possibly starts purring (which he can do as a human because Shut Up)--either that or he literally starts growling at her. It's weird.
A deep rumble echoed in his chest.
I pulled back, laughing. "Are you growling at me?"
He laughed softly, twisted my hair ribbon around his fingers, and pulled gently, loosening my braid. Biting my ear lightly, he whispered a threat, "You have been driving me crazy for three weeks. You're lucky all I'm doing is growling."
Ah, good old Ren. Gotta love it when the protagonist and his love interest literally describes his dialogue as a "threat." And I've already spoken about how Ren basically likes to have some measure of control over Kelsey, given that when she finally wanted to kiss him he refused to even spend time with her until he got her to do exactly what he wanted her to do. It's creepy and bad.
Kelsey asks if he'll be over more often, and he says he will. Great. More Ren.
"So . . . you weren't just avoiding me then?"
He put his finger under my chin and turned my face to his. "I would never avoid you on purpose, Kells." He stroked the side of my neck and collarbone with his fingertips, distracting me.
Even Ren's attempt at shorting out Kelsey's brain doesn't work, and a couple of synapses flair up with activity before they once again go dark for a hundred years.
"But you did."
And she's right! He totally did.
"That was regretfully necessary.
Says who? Ren?
I didn't want to pressure you, so I stayed away, but I was always near. I could hear you."
Ensuring that if she ever wanted to speak to her friend again in a non-romantic context outside of dates that he sets up, she wouldn't be able to do it. Therefore pressuring her into choosing him so she can have a friendship with him. He's "always near" because he followed her to America and bought the duplex next door without even telling her that he was going to be there.
He pressed his face into my cascading hair and sighed.
I don't remember if this ever comes up in Tiger's Quest, but Ren has a real complex about Kelsey's hair in the next book. It's creepy and I hate it.
"And smell your peaches-and-cream scent, which drove me absolutely crazy. But, I wouldn't let myself see you unless you agreed to a date. When you started purposefully tempting me, I thought I'd go insane."
Too bad this was resolved in less than a chapter, which makes the whole Kelsey/Ren romantic tension subplot, uh, badly paced and very boring.
But what else is new.
"Yours was the worst kind of pralobhana, temptation.
This is not how bilingual people talk.
I would have had you for a moment, but I would ultimately lose you. It was all I could do not to grab you and carry you off."
Okay, I know it gets annoying when people reference Dresden Files, but that's what I'm going to do. Mostly because I've been rereading them and they're fresh in my brain. (Spoilers if you haven't read up through Changes, and especially Cold Days.) But this kind of sentiment is the exact kind of stuff that goes through Harry's mind when he becomes the Winter Knight--the winter mantle makes him want to act violently and act on his base instincts. And, shocker, this is seen as a bad thing! This isn't something your romantic lead should be expressing unironically! It's Bad!
Kelsey isn't smart and thinks about how romantic the whole situation is and how she's just so happy now. She asks him to forgive her for wasting their time by being (rightfully) hesitant to be in a relationship with him. (Not rightfully because of her inferiority complex, but rightfully because I am terrified she is going to end up in a ditch somewhere.) He says there's nothing to forgive and blames it on himself for moving too quickly. Kelsey denies this. Because they're just ~so perfect~ for each other.
Ren says that he loved her back before she even knew he was human, and he mentions the godforsaken circus for the only time this book. What is it with the beginning sections of these books having absolutely nothing important happening in them?
Scene break! Kelsey makes Ren some pasta and she asks him how to say a lot of things in Hindi. Then Kelsey makes cookies and Ren likes them. Uh, that's it, really.
Scene break! Kelsey wakes up the next morning to Ren in her room, and he sees her sleeping with her white stuffed tiger. He seems pleased at the fact that he is "necessary for [Kelsey's] survival," because Ren is a smug bastard. Then they go hiking to the waterfall that Kelsey told him about when they were at his waterfall, which is a surprising bit of continuity that I was not expecting from this series. They stop for food on the way, and Ren eats a lot, because boy eating lots of food = comedy. He orders something called a Large Mess. This book is a Large Mess. Heyooo!
Kelsey asks what he's been doing for food because he is a Man and therefore Can't Cook for Himself. Apparently Mr. Kadam set up a food delivery service for Ren. Wait, aren't they trying to be incognito and hide from Lokesh? And wouldn't a regular delivery of things to a residence connected with Ren or Mr. Kadam be really easy to find considering Lokesh is apparently richer than God and is actively searching for them now? Especially since Ren is a transfer student at WOU and is STILL USING HIS REAL NAME?
They go to the waterfall and it's Beautiful and Perfect.
We'd been discussing the differences between the forests of India and the forests of Oregon when I had a thought and interrupted,
Hold on, I need to get over the fact that this is phrased in such a way to make it look like Kelsey having a thought is extremely rare.
Okay.
"Ren, during that whole time I was dating Li, weren't you even a tiny bit jealous?"
THIS IS HER THOUGHT? HOW DOES SHE HAVE NO IDEA? REN THREATENS ANY MALE WHO COMES WITHIN EARSHOT.
"I was extremely jealous. I see red anytime someone else comes near you."
Mhm. That seems healthy.
"You didn't really act like it."
Lies.
"I almost went ballistic. I couldn't think straight. When another guy approaches you, I just want to rip him apart with my claws. Even if I like him--like Li. And especially if I don't--like Jason."
Ren exchanged one sentence of dialogue with Jason (a threat, natch) and he hates him enough to want to brutally murder him and fantasizes about ripping him to pieces with his bare
Instead of running away from the psychopath, Kelsey accompanies Ren to the waterfall and it's very Romantic and Beautiful. Ugh.
Scene break! Kelsey isn't going to wushu anymore by "mutual decision." I know she just broke up with Li, but it also feels like Ren is isolating her from her other friends which is...not great....
The two of them hang out constantly, both when Ren is human and when he's a tiger. When he's human, he plays the mandolin for her and sings and did I mention How Great Ren is? Ren spends most of his time as a human at school, which frustrates Kelsey. I'm just wondering how he manages to cram all of his classes into six hours when most of the time in college you have giant breaks between classes, and it's not like he can drive home in between because he lives a ways away from campus.
Ren speaks to Mr. Kadam pretty regularly. Kelsey says that she tries not to eavesdrop, but then immediately says that they are speaking in "hushed tones," which means she's definitely trying to eavesdrop because it would be impossible to hear otherwise. They switch over to Hindi a lot, which is weird, because they seem to be speaking about quest stuff and not just about their secret documents/relocation plan that Kelsey stumbled across earlier. You'd think they would want to clue her in on things they find out for the quest, because she's the one responsible for those parts, no?
Every once in a while, I'd hear strange terms mentioned: Yggdrasil, Naval Stone, and Noe's Mountain.
WHAT?????
Yggdrasil, as in the Norse world tree?
NOE'S MOUNTAIN? AS IN NOAH'S ARK?????? (Yes, this is explicitly referring to Noah's Ark, and I wish I was joking.)
I...this is a MASSIVE bit of the mythology of this story that has 1. Never ONCE been mentioned and 2. Is just dropped in here like it belongs without Kelsey even thinking that something is strange.
The supernatural elements in the series so far have been explicitly limited to Hinduism, Buddhism, and some traditional Chinese and Japanese folklore, all of which have blended together in real life and are largely limited to Asia. So it makes SENSE that these all exist together. Plus it was kind of cool to see a book focus on Asian mythology because that's really rare, especially in YA paranormal romance (even if it's bad).
But now, in just one sentence, we've been thrown into an "all myths are true" universe with absolutely zero warning or foreshadowing. These kinds of settings can work (see Dresden Files or American Gods) but it requires the bare minimum of effort to make it this way from the beginning. If the first book had said "oh, hey, all myths are true but we're going to focus on Hinduism" I would have less of a problem with it! But that would have required sitting down and (shock and horror) thinking through your worldbuilding, and that's hard. So it just comes COMPLETELY OUT OF NOWHERE.
No scene break, but now Kelsey is leaving class and Ren finds her, saying that she was easy to track because of her peaches and cream scent.
Kelsey has to drop something off at the language lab and runs into Artie! You remember Artie? The fat unpleasant neckbeard nerdy loser? That guy!
Despite the fact that Kelsey hasn't spoken to him in weeks, Artie still tries to pencil Kelsey in for a date, completely ignoring Ren in the process. I'm worried, because Artie is in actual mortal peril at the moment and he doesn't realize.
Artie starts badgering her about going on a date with him, and I'm a bit conflicted. On the one hand, Artie sucks, and there are people that won't take no for an answer when they ask people out. But on the other hand, Ren is exactly the same way, and I hate him.
Kelsey spends two whole paragraphs comparing how ugly Artie is to how hot Ren is. They both have the exact same personality, though, from what I can tell.
Artie says that Kelsey "obviously make[s] questionable choices based on lustful impulses," though, which is absolutely hysterical and completely true.
In response, Ren threatens to grind him into paste, which is about what I expected from him. Isn't he a prince who's been trained in diplomacy?
[Artie] didn't see the dangerous predator lurking behind Ren's eyes. Ren's nostrils were flared. His eyes were fixed on his target. His muscles were taut. He was ready to pounce. To mangle. To kill.
Holy shit! That's not normal.
The next day, Kelsey walks up to Ren after class as he's finishing up a conversation with another Indian girl. But then Jason walks up and says hi to her, so Ren and the other girl cease to exist in the scene while she talks to Jason. He hands her a magazine with the article about her saving the old lady from being hit by a car at the play. If you remember that happening.
Kelsey only thinks about how terrible she looks in the picture, which is not surprising from the girl who can look at a picture of her dead parents and only think about how ugly she is.
She thanks him and then Jason leaves. Ren rematerializes and walks over to her. Kelsey asks who the girl was, and Ren says that she asked for his number to give to her parents so they could speak to his parents. In order to arrange a marriage. Whomp whomp?
Kelsey tells him that makes HER jealous, even though Ren was clearly uncomfortable because of this and the two of them are already together.
Kelsey brings up Yesubai, and Ren says that he didn't love her even though he had accepted the idea of marrying her, because the love interests must only experience True Love with one another for the first time and any other previous relationships don't count.
Ren explains that modern arranged marriages are a bit different than his engagement to Yesubai, and that most parents give their daughters a list of potential suitors that the girl can pick from. I have no idea if this is correct, but this isn't a terribly common thing in America to my knowledge. Ren says that some parents would consider dating Kelsey, an American, to be unacceptable and would "taint" their children "forever." Again, I have no idea if this is correct, but knowing this series it probably isn't.
Kelsey asks if Ren's parents would have approved and Ren gets cagey about it (it seems that way to me, anyway). He says that Deschen wasn't Indian, so they were ahead of their time, I guess. But considering she's Kelsey, regardless of her race, I think they'd be pretty disappointed. Ren asks if Kelsey's parents would have liked him, and Kelsey says they would (and specifically says that her mom would have giggled like Sarah every time she saw him, which means that even death cannot protect the female characters from Ren's Powerful Male Pheromones).
Ren asks what Jason handed to Kelsey, and she shows him the article of her heroic rescue of the old lady at the play.
I handed him the article as we walked in the house. Ren sat down and read it quietly while I made us a snack.
Because Woman Cook for Man.
He came into the kitchen with an expression of worry on his face.
"Kelsey, when was this taken?"
"About a month ago. Why? What's wrong?"
"Maybe nothing. I need to call Kadam."
Is this--? Could it be--?
"Ren, tell me. What's going on?"
"Your name and picture are in this magazine. It's a pretty obscure publication, so we might get lucky."
"What are you saying?"
"We're afraid Lokesh can track you back here."
PLOT!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, it turns out Kelsey's date with Jason was the important date! All that stuff with Li and Artie was pointless, but Jason was actually relevant to the plot!
Kelsey asks why Lokesh couldn't have tracked her through her student ID or her driver's license, which is a pretty good question. Ren says that Mr. Kadam arranged to get them changed through his "connections," which are never explained. Her records at WOU have all been changed so they don't connect her name with her photo.
"Did you really think he could arrange a passport in a week for you to go to India last summer?"
See, this feels less like a revelation and more like Houck realizing that this part in the first book made no sense and then deciding to retcon it.
Kelsey says that she's registered to WOU under her name, and she has records in the foster system. These have also apparently been changed. There are no more remaining records that list her name and picture together at all, apparently. Even her high school yearbooks have been taken care of, and the only way that Lokesh could find her through that avenue is by contacting an old classmate that still has a yearbook, "'but the odds of that happening aren't likely.'"
Yeah, it's out of the question that the crazy, evil, immortal wizard with access to similar or greater contacts than Mr. Kadam's and who commands his own private army and is richer than God, who is also obsessed with finding Kelsey, would be able to expend the resources to do so.
This book is dumb.
But the real point of this is that the magazine article contains both her name and her picture, which is a piece of information that Lokesh can use to track her down.
"Why didn't you two tell me this before?"
"We didn't want to worry you unnecessarily. We wanted you to live as normal a life as possible."
This is also dumb! If you're trying to make it so that Kelsey keeps a low profile, how is not telling her unnecessary? This was entirely preventable if you just communicated with your girlfriend, jackass.
Houck has also completely neglected a pretty big source of information that would make it super easy for Lokesh to find Kelsey: social media. Yeah, social media has had precisely zero presence in the series so far, despite being written in (and presumably taking place in) 2011. Yeah, Facebook should be in full swing at this time, and this is when Facebook was popular with young people instead of Boomers ranting about politics and posting weird Minions memes. The characters--who are mostly in college or older--don't even really seem to have cell phones. Kelsey mentioned her new Prada phone that Ren got her, but that seemed to be more for the status symbol rather than any practical use.
Once you notice it, it's a bit weird that none of the teenagers or young adults are using their smart phones or the Internet at all. In 2011.
Kelsey asks what the plan is, and Ren says that they're going to continue on as normal, but he's asked Kishan to stay with them just in case, because he'll be less "distracted" than Ren is. Then the chapter, exhausted by actually having some Plot in it, peters out and ends.
Closing Thoughts
Why is there literally no real jealousy in the chapter titled "Jealousy" because they're already together? Don't worry about it.
But hey! The plot took another glacial step forward. That's something, at least. Just one more filler chapter, and then the Plot actually starts up again for real!
I can't wait.
Next time, Chapter Nine: Kishan! Kishan shows up, and that's pretty much it.
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