Read It And Weep ... Literally

Dear Readers,

If you are reading this letter, then what that means is ... that I have died ... of sheer boredom.
I have been sitting at a computer in the Test Center and staring at a panel of computer screens, watching for potential cheating. 
There's just one thing wrong with this. It's Summer semester. There's no one here except for a bunch of mechanics taking their re-certification exams. 

I'd much rather be staring at the black and white pages of a book.
I am currently reading the second book in a series by Colleen Houck. It's called Tiger's Quest. 
For those who have read this and really, really, really love it ... I'm sorry.

I will give the publisher this much credit. The covers are very pretty and well-done. As to the author, I give her minor credit for coming up with a sorta decent storyline. It's poorly executed and reads like a late 90's Disney Channel TV show. 
The main character is Kelsey Hayes. She's 18 years old. Her parents are dead. She lives with her perfect foster family. Then out of the blue, she decides to go to work for the circus to pay for school books when she goes to college. When she's there, she meets a fuzzy white tiger named Ren and for some reason, she becomes obsessed with him. 
Fast forward a little ways ... Kelsey gets 'permission' from the foster family to randomly cross the ocean to India with a man they only met ONE time to help deliver the tiger to its rightful home. 
That's when it happens! Oh wait! Ren isn't really a tiger. He's a 300-year old prince trapped in the BODY of a tiger. Wow. Didn't see that coming. And naturally, he's also madly in love with Kelsey who is prophesied to save him. 

To make the plot even weirder, Ren has a younger brother who ALSO is stuck in the body of a black tiger. His name is Kishan and hundreds of years ago, Ren's then fiancee left him for Kishan, triggering a whole new unnecessary love triangle between Kelsey, Ren, and Kishan. 

Throw in some weird Indiana Jones rip-off adventure scenes, ancient creatures that are poorly described, and one seriously messed up love relationship, you get this book series. 

Book 2 is no short of the same weirdness. 
Kelsey has left India to return to her home in Oregon. Guess what? Ren can't live without her and follows her like a creepy stalker to the States.
Here's the other weird part. When she got home, she finds out that she's been moved out of her foster family's house (which they are totally okay with) and moved IN to a huge house in the middle of nowhere right NEXT to Ren's new house. 

It makes no sense.

Okay, my rant is mostly over. Don't EVEN talk to me about the shark fin soup incident on page 51. 
Screw it! I'm going into it anyway. Here's page 51. 

"then dinner was served: fish to symbolize abundance, a whole lobster to represent completeness, Peking duck for joy and happiness, SHARK FIN SOUP to grant wealth..."

That's IT RIGHT THERE!!! I don't care that it was supposed to be a traditional Chinese ceremony. Shark fin soup is ILLEGAL in the United States and for obvious reasons. Short answer. Because it's INHUMANE! 
Do you know what shark fin soup actually IS? Let's back up a bit.
For starters, the shark is NOT a willing donor of its dorsal fin. Nor is it humanely killed for it. The fishermen who capture the LIVE shark haul it on deck, hack the dorsal fin off and then toss the still living, still breathing shark back into the ocean. A shark can NOT live without its dorsal fin. What happens next is this. The dying shark, unable to move the way that it is supposed to, slowly sinks further and further to the ocean floor, to depths beyond its capabilities. The sharks gills are unable to provide it the oxygen it needs, so it is suffocating on the way down. When it lands on the ocean floor, it is immediately set upon by crabs, parasites, and other bottom dwellers and is eaten ALIVE as it slowly dies. 

I apologize for the graphic violence of the photo, but this cause is serious to me. I follow several groups that are trying to STOP shark finning. It is murder. Plain and simple.
Colleen Houck made a nasty faux pas to me by mentioning the soup.

Here's the actual reason behind this little rant. Shark fin soup is a mostly tasteless broth soup. It is flavored with chicken stock. The shark fin itself is tasteless. It provides no nutrition. The only thing it does is add a texture to the soup. Yes, it is still being practiced in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is also only catered to the wealthy, but it would never, never, NEVER be found here in the public eye anyway, of the United States because we have recognized this to be an inhumane and unjust practice. 

What I really want to tell Colleen Houck is this. "Learn your facts before you write them down". She could have easily looked up marriage rituals for here in the United States and wrote them accurately without mentioning an archaic, brutal, and now illegal practice. 

All right, my rant is offically over. I solemnly promise. It was just something that affected me greatly as I read that one sentence in an otherwise ... mediocre book.