Not much of a review, but I especially liked the Chinese mythology in this novel. ( )

I happen to be the kind of person who likes slow books. I enjoy descriptions of daily life, and I don't need the action exploding around me. My feelings about White tiger are a bit ambiguous though. The book is slow, albeit for a definition of slow that includes fights with demons, but in some respects it felt too slow even for me, where the aforementioned fights with demons became too repetitive. So how come, even though I think the book was too slow, I still like it? I thought the love affair was too corny, and the main character Emma, the nanny who finds out her employer is a god, too unfazed. Still, I read it in two evenings. The setting is definitely original with a lot of Chinese mythology that was enjoyable and the story is engaging. I liked the descriptions of Emma's martial arts training. And the side characters particularly are vividly described. I hope some of the side story lines (like the ones with Emma's friend) will turn out to have a point in the next books. And I hope there will be a bit more story and a little less repetitiveness in the fighting (yes, I know Emma is getting better and better in these fights, but still) in the next books. But in spite of some flaws, I rather liked this one and I guess I'm going to buy number two soon...

Second read: I didn't have the best recollection about this book, but I was really tired this week and I needed to read something non-taxing. This was perfect. Admittedly, there are some incredibly boring bits in the beginning of this book. Especially before Emma finds out about the divinity of her employer and the parts where she meets with her friends. It turns out they have a role to play in the later books, but still, I can't really see why they are friends at all sometimes...
After Emma finds out, it gets better, though. Not a whole lot, it's still slow and repetitive, but this was exactly what I needed. The characters are nice, there's no need to worry about something bad happening, and how many fantasy books do you know with Chinese mythology? That bit was interesting and nicely done. Nr. 2 had been sitting on my shelf for ages, but I got that one out too, and am currently reading nr. 3 and enjoying myself.
( )

Ordinarily there's a couple of things in White Tiger that would make me get frustrated pretty quickly. Rapid fire information dump, multiple radical changes in a character's life in less than a dozen pages and abrupt transitions. What saves White Tiger however comes down to 2 important details: 1) I've been waiting for this series to have domestic publication in America for four years and 2) contextually a lot is explained because of the character's personality. I probably would have forgiven Chan almost anything, which probably makes me sound like an unreliable reviewer, but I felt I should be honest about that.

What exactly made me want this series like burning? The premise for one--Chinese mythology, martial arts and kick ass heroine. Though Emma has a lot of rough edges to her characterization--inconsistent decision making, demanding attitude, lack of listening skills during very important moments--she has a very appealing personality to me. She loves kids and wants to do her best by them, she's loyal to her friends, she's inquisitive and understanding. She is also one of the few heroines I've come across who, though she states it at least 5 times in the beginning, doesn't bemoan her state of 'plainness'. Does she wish she was as sophisticated looking as her friends? Sometimes, but she's comfortable in her casual clothes and with who she is. Later, when given the chance, she improves herself through hardwork and a chance to "show off" that she could clean up well.

My total lack of studying in regards to Chinese Mythology and practices bites me in the butt throughout this novel. I have a very, very limited knowledge of Chinese Mythology and I feel that if I understood it a little better I would have gotten some of the more subtle jokes. This book made me want to learn more and expand my knowledge and that is always a delight.

The cast of characters is a little large, but with few exceptions they are easily distinguishable from each other. I took a particular liking to Bai Hui (the White Tiger) and Simone actually, and laughed whenever Bai Hui got up to his tricks. I had, actually still have, severe doubts about Emma's friend April and her "Auntie" Kitty Kwok (Emma's former employer). As for the end of this book it seemed to resolve itself in a perfectly mundane way, but the entire thing nagged at me. April was just a little too insistent about Emma talking "Auntie" Kitty and visiting Emma at Mr. Chen's place. Kitty for that matter was highly suspicious--unless I'm missing something and Emma was the Best Employee Ever, I couldn't understand why Kitty would practically harass Emma about returning to work for her almost a year after she resigned (for very legitimate reasons). Those suspicions may be resolved in one of the two future books in the trilogy, but until that its irksome.

I read an ARC of the title, so I can't say with proper authority, but the transitions were sometimes very abrupt and without any indication that it was a new stream of thought or action. When I'm able to compare the ARC with the finished copy I'll come back and revisit this complaint.

My only real complaint with Emma as a character, that I hope is different in the next book, [b:Red Phoenix|2080863|Red Phoenix|Kylie Chan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1199058512s/2080863.jpg|2086141], is that Emma would make a firm decision, such as respecting Mr. Chen's wishes, and then in the same chapter push him and ignore his protests. She came off seeming very insincere and wishy-washy for this reason and made me want to smack her around a little. Though to be truthful Mr. Chen wasn't much better, but he at least realized he wasn't being very direct and clear.

Unfortunately I know, in a general way, what happens by the end of this trilogy because I read the blurb about the next trilogy for Dark Heaven (Journey to Wudang Book 1: [b:Earth to Hell|7489851|Earth to Hell (Journey to Wudang, #1)|Kylie Chan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1262604075s/7489851.jpg|9627839]) and learned a couple of spoilers. I have some suspicions about the nature of who Emma is however and hope I am correct. ( )

The core problem of this book is that the story is just too rushed.
The writing is inconsistent (at time surprisingly good, at other times very bad), but that would be easier to deal with if it didn't always feel like character moments and periods of drama are entirely undeserved because everything flies by so fast.
The shell of a good story is here, but it needs work to be properly filled. ( )

Really enjoyed it, neat twist reading about an Australian in China, and all the chinese culture. I can't wait to read book 2. ( )