READING: The Tiger Catcher (End of Forever #1) by Paullina Simons

Publication date: May 28 2019
Published by: Harper Collins
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Historical, Mystery, Suspense, Time Travel, Romance
Rating: 

Julian lives a charmed life in Los Angeles. Surrounded by friends, he is young, handsome, and runs a successful business. Everything changes after he has a fateful encounter with a mysterious young woman named Josephine. Julian’s world is turned upside down by a love affair that takes him—and everyone else in his life—by storm. For the two new lovers, the City of Angels is transformed into a magical playground.

But Josephine is not what she seems and carries secrets that threaten to tear them apart—seemingly forever.

A broken man, his faith in tatters, Julian meets a mysterious stranger who tells him how to find Josephine again if he is willing to give up everything and take a death-defying trip from which no one has ever returned.

So begins Julian and Josephine’s extraordinary adventure of love, loss, and the mystical forces that bind people across time and space. It is a journey that propels Julian toward an impossible choice which will lead him to love fulfilled…or to oblivion.

There seems to be an issue with the Spoiler buttons in this review. If you want to read the dull review with spoiler, please head over to my Goodreads review here.

That was one strange book 🤔

Let me just put it out there:
The Tiger Catcher is NO Bronze Horseman.
And it shouldn't be. We already have one BH and it was amazing.
This was something else entirely.

Some tropes were the same as in BH - sad, sad, sad, funny and happy interlude that ends in tragedy, sad, sad, sad.
But here is where all similarities with BH end.

Why? Because first and foremost, Josephine was a universally unlikeable character.
She was selfish, manipulative and a liar. She was fully taking advantage of Julian, emotionally and financially and no matter how much I tried, I could not see why Julian was so obsessed with her. I never sympathised with her at all, and overall I didn't get her.
And then 

She dies.

2 years and a change of continent later, Julian is still devastated. He stops being a functional human being, he barely works, he doesn't eat and he's addicted to drugs. The writing was brilliant here - what was pretentious and fake in LA, became real and raw in London, and I could completely feel (and believe) Julian's pain and self destruction, even though I couldn't quite understand it, because, again, I didn't like Josephine.
On his birthday, he meets a strange woman in a bar who leads him to Devi, a shaman who reveals to Julian that he can give him the answers he so desperately seeks.
Now that part I was very sceptical about. I am a realist and a cynic romance read (the worst kind!) so all this talk about God and spirituality and souls with numerous lives meant to be together just doesn't do it for me. I applaud those who believe in these sort of things, and maybe I am a little envious of them. But for me, they are nothing more than over-romanticised nonsense. 
Apparently, Julian is desperate enough to try anything to reunite with Josephine and trusts Devi enough to take the final leap and ta-da! 

He time travels!

 

To say I was shocked by this development, would be the understatement of the year! Nowhere in the blurb does it even hint on such a turn of events. Even though I was not prepared for that AT ALL, I have to admit that it was my favorite part of the book from beginning to end.

"Oh,no" was the first thing I thought when Julian time traveled. I was sure it was going to be very bad and I was prepared to abandon all hope for this book. But then, Simons worked her magic and did an exceptional job writing Julian both in the dark cave trying literally anything to see his love again, and when he came through the other side. 1600s England was pretty disgusting guys, and it was portrayed perfectly. Even though Julian was part of a rich household with noble born women, nothing beautiful and elegant was ever shown, only black, dirty bleakness, with the only bright thing being Julian and Mary (aka Josephine). Now, maybe I was just sucked in by the writing, but I thought that Julian and Mary made way more sense than Julian and Josephine. Although, from what was insinuated by Mary's past, someone could say that she too was taking advantage of Julian. So maybe souls don't change that much after being reincarnated after all. The only thing I didn't think made sense was Mary wanting to be an actress as well - too on the nose. I hope we don't get to see her trying to be an actress EVERY time! And then, she dies. Again. And Julian unwillingly is brought back to present London, as if no time has passed. That was the most gut wrenching, heart breaking moment for me. I thought Julian would for sure die by the end of the book, especially after that! (mind you, I didn't know there was going to be a 2nd and 3nd book at the time!) But, to my absolute surprise, he became better. Not fully well of course, still always thinking of Josephine (Mary), but he was making more of an effort to exist and to be. Only to try time traveling again next year. And I am assuming the year after that and the year after that, until his body is completely broken and at the end, he dies. We'll see how it works out in Book 2.

 

Secondary characters were all equally unlikeable as Josephine. Ashton, his best friend, was nice enough and always there for him, but other than that no thought or care was put behind the other characters, who were, in a nutshell, shallow idiots.

I don't know guys, this is too weird a book to just classify under "liked" or "disliked".
I believe in order to get through it:

1. You will have to be very open to accepting things that you might hate in the beginning, and
2. You will have to disabuse yourselves of any notion about this book being like The Bronze Horseman.
If you are not willing to do that, you are doomed from the start and I already see a DNF in your future.
If you are, then you are in for quite a ride. Consider yourself warned.