TO TAKE BACK LIFE, ONE MUST FIRST FACE DEATH… Conditioned in captivity to maim, to kill and to slaughter, prisoner 818 becomes an unrivaled and unstoppable fighter in the ring. Violence is all he knows. After years of incarceration in an underground hell, only one thought occupies his mind: revenge… bloody, slow and violent revenge. Revenge on the man who wronged him. Kisa Volkova is the only … Kisa Volkova is the only daughter of Kirill ‘The Silencer’ Volkov, head of the infamous ‘Red’ bosses of New York’s Russian Bratva. Her life is protected. In reality, it’s a virtual prison. Her father’s savage treatment of his rivals and his lucrative and coveted underground gambling ring-The Dungeon-ensures too many enemies lurk at their door. She dreams to be set free. Kisa has known only cruelty and loss in her short life. While working for her church-the only reprieve in her constant surveillance-Kisa stumbles across a tattooed, scarred, but stunningly beautiful homeless man on the streets. Something about him stirs feelings deep within her; familiar yet impossibly forbidden desires. He doesn’t talk. Doesn’t communicate with anyone.
He’s a man beyond saving. But Kisa becomes obsessed with him. Yearns for him. Craves his touch. Needs to possess this mysterious man… … this man they call Raze.
more
I don’t even know where to start….I’ve just finished and fear I may babble..it’s all I may be capable of after reading this book in 1 session! Why Oh Why did it take me so long to read this?!
The prologue, the start, the middle, the ending, the emotion, the feels…so so powerful….the writing, the story, this book is everything!!
It’s dark but breathtakingly beautiful. It has a gut wrenching type of love ‘God put a piece of you within me so when we were born, everyone would know we matched’….waaaaaaah, I want that!!!
I need Reap!
What can I say? I love Tillie Cole and Raze was just what I was looking for in a shorter, dark, angsty and trigger ridden read. Two souls meant to be together from the moment of creation and everything in the universe is determined to keep them apart. Kisa feels a pull to Raze, Raze needs to have revenge to feel something other than the nevernedning bloodlust. When Raze meets Kisa, the only world he has known for so long starts to fall apart. Can he have her?
Triggers include:
Forced Sex
Abuse
Extreme Violence
Kisa was always told she had a soulmate. Since they were young, they were meant to be. For his eyes held a speck of color from her eyes.
I love this part of their story.
When I read this, it was so beauty and the beast for me. Beautify Kisa tamed the beast Raze.
First time reading Tillie and I was not disappointed.
Great narration as well.
“Mama said God placed a piece of my eye within his so we would always know we shared one soul. Luka was my protector.”
Tillie writes these beautiful, dark, heartbreakingly sad stories. But with a love that is written in the stars. A forever love between two soulmates. She is so brilliant!
Kisa is the Mafia princess, being the only daughter to one of the three Bratva Kings. Kisa lost her soulmate. They were torn apart when they were really young. My heart broke for them. Since she lost the love of her life, she has lived with an abusive, sadistic man. I felt so sorry for her. It was heartbreaking. One night when she is helping the church, she is assaulted. She is saved by a stranger. A man who carries the sun in his eye. She feels an instant connection. A familiarity. An unexplained connection.
Raze aka 818 is completely captivating. He is one of the most complex characters. And he is angry. He was imprisoned, pumped full of drugs, violated, abused and forced to into cage fighting. He has no memory of his previous life. All he know is that he wants revenge. Kisa is a woman that calms the darkness inside of him. She helps him remember more about his past.
This book was ruthless and crazy. Twisted and dark. Sexy and bloody. It was emotional. So heartbreakingly sad. And absolutely beautiful. I deals with abuse, death and rape. It’s two souls finding their way back together. I loved following their journey between past and present. I LOVED this story!
Tillie Cole has a gift with dark romance, which she nails once again in RAZE, the first in her Scarred Souls series. It’s got mafia, action, fighting, romance, steamy hotness, and the most f***ed up, pulse-pounding, scarred alpha male—one you can’t help but fall for. And his brave heroine Kisa is just as lovable. The attraction between them, the building tension, will make you sweat, smile, and swoon. Tillie makes you root for these two and want to fight for their happy ending just as fiercely as they do. You just might want to keep an extra pair of panties handy. 😉
PussnBooks.net Reviewing the darkest erotic books we can find.
This book was a good read. It was intense, heartbreaking, hot, and dark. It certainly pulls on the heartstrings but kind of evens out with the sex and violence, lol, ya feel me?
It’s the first in a four-book series about an illegal “fight to the death” cage fighting ring. Run by the various gang bosses around the world. This story is set in Brooklyn and Georgia and involves mainly the Bratva.
Right from the start it really pulled me in as it starts with a bang…literally, lol. The characters are believable and the story keeps you interested…until about 80% of the way through when it started to lose me a little.
I’ll be honest, I love me some gore, sex, and violence. A little dominance here, a little BDSM there, ya know? But I’m really not too god with the lovey-dovey, gushing tears of happiness and the super-soft side of the men with a dreamy happily ever after.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m totally messed up? But, I am what I am, lol. I do enjoy a HEA but not too much on the sappy stuff, please.
There were definitely some dark scenes here and it made me cringe with the violence that was endured by pretty much all of the characters at one point or another, so, yup, trigger warnings.
KISA – Kisa is a Bratva princess, only daughter to the big mafia boss man. And as such, she is engaged to the only son of one of the “Three Red Kings”. She isn’t spoiled as you might expect but she instead does everything she can to act according to the wishes of the “Family”.
She’s kind and gentle but also quite smart. I’ll give her her due, she can deal with the uglier side of the Mafia lifestyle and runs the gym for the Dungeon fights.
Sadly she is engaged to a very mentally and physically abusive man, who has her believing he needs her in order to stay even remotely sane and so she feels it’s her duty to stick with him.
ALIK – Alik is not a well man. He has severe rage issues and hears voices telling him to do terrible things to people. The only thing in the world that calms him at all is Kisa and he is majorly obsessed with her.
His possessive and controlling nature, as well as him being the undisputed champion of the Dungeon for many a gorey year, means that everyone is terrified of him. And for good reason. The man loves to torture and kill. He has even killed a man for just looking at “his” Kisa.
It would appear that he has been brought up by an abusive father, whom I suspect may also be a sociopath. He’s the guy you love to hate in this story.
He’s a pretty scary fuckin’ crazy-ass mofo. Tillie Cole really wrote this character well. He’s very intimidating, even on paper!
RAZE / 818 – Raze has lead a seriously fecked up life since his early teens. He’s been tortured, raped, drugged and all manner of horrific things that you can think of.
He remembers nothing of his life before the “Gulag” and is basically a killing machine that “They” created. His story starts when he’s introduced to his new life at around fourteen years old and gets his first glimpse of what’s to come.
Sixteen years later his life is death. That’s it. That’s all he knows, until one day all of the prisoners escape and he has only one thing on his mind. Revenge. Although he doesn’t remember why he has a name and an address that he’s been remembering for the last sixteen years. Alik Durov.
SEX SCENES – The sex scenes were hot (the consensual ones were anyway) but there wasn’t much of a build-up to them. Not much anticipation.
FINAL THOUGHTS – I really did enjoy this book, even with a fair bit of sappiness. The characters were so well written and you could clearly picture them all in your head. The suspense was great and it was fast-paced and full of action. But it didn’t leave me feeling that I wanted to read the next book in the series.
The next book is about Talia, Kisa’s best friend, but I think I’ll give it a miss.
3.5 stars.
I had this book on my TBR list for years and I don’t know why I waited so long
I knew I would love this book after the first few pages.
A beautiful dark and especially brutal story that lets you read even if you don’t want to, because it’s so cruel that you don’t really want to know what happens next.
So much misery and death. So much grief and hopelessness.
Do you believe in soulmates?
Two people designed only for each other? If not, then this book makes you believe that it’s possible.
I have so many emotions and feelings after reading this book, I don’t know what to do with them
I loved and hated this book at the same time. I loved the unique and undying love of the main charactery, but I also hated the forced and cruel love in the story. Yeah, all at the same time have I piqued your interest?
I’m sorry, but you have to discover the rest for yourself, so read this book and enjoy
Tillie Cole has once again proved to me that she is the queen of dark romances Definitely a must read for all dark romance lovers who haven’t read this book yet
This is a love story with a difference, dark, raw, gritty and utterly captivating. Based around the Russian mafia and its families and death ring fighting. Kisa the Russian Mafia Princess is owned by her fiancé Alik – a champion in the death ring, but he is brutal and unstable, Kisa being the only person keeping him sane. 818 fighter Raze is a killing machine, kept in the Gulag for fighting, his only previous memories or thoughts are that of Revenge for something Alik has done. The plot is fantastic, building between the characters. I couldn’t put this book down with its twists and turns in the plot. This is a must read book – another stunner by Tillie Cole.
This was my first Tillie Cole Book it wasn’t my last either. It is not flowery. It. Is twisted but that has become the book that Tillie likes to write. Dark romance this is for you
This was suspenseful, thrilling and erotic like the previous books in this series. And like those, it is dark and has sexual triggers.
But it’s well written for this genre, I enjoyed it.
Title: Raze (Scarred Souls #2)
Author: Tillie Cole
Publisher: Piatkus
Edition: Kindle
Amount of Pages: 304
Genre: Mafia, Contemporary, Dark, Romance
Date Read: 09-03-2019
Favorite Quote: “They were always meant to be together, one boy and one girl, two hearts split into two, sent to far-off lands on their own. For God wanted to see if true love could be tested. He wanted to see if two halves of one soul could find each other again, even against the odds. Years would pass. They would both be hurt. They would both be sad, but one day, when they least expected it, they would stumble into each other’s paths. The question is: would they recognize each other’s soul? And would they find their way back to love…?”
“My Kisa-Anna… my solnyshko… God put a piece of your blue eyes in mine so we would always know we matched…”
Review:
I’ve had this book on my to read list for a while but I’ve never gotten around to reading it. With RARE Paris coming up I decided to give it a go and I’m glad I did! It was really good!! I loved the angst.
Raze definitely was my favorite. I felt so bad for the guy, I was really rooting for him. I really liked Kisa in the beginning, I was excited to see how she would grow in the story. But sadly she didn’t change much really. I hoped she would get stronger, I would have thought a girl that grew up with the russian maffia would learn to stand up for herself. I understand why she felt so broken, totally understand that but I wished we’d seen some development in her characters. She was kind of naive for her circumstances. Raze really is the redeeming character in this story, he made it great.
What is this story about:
This story focuses on two characters. 818 also known as Raze is a 26 (something) guy that can only remember violence, death and pain. He has been stuck in a prison they called the Golag for a crime he can’t remember but is certain he didn’t commit. The thought of revenge is all that kept him going.
Kisa is the daughter of an Russian crime boss. She had it hard. Growing up in the mafia isn’t easy but she always had her soulmate, her great love and her twin brother, until she hasn’t. Since then she was in the claws of sadistic, pycho Alix. He is really insane and cruel and she takes it because she feels like she has no other option and because he needs her. She calms the voices in his head…. red flag right there.
When Kisa gets attacked one night while giving away care packages on the streets, she gets saved by this big, threatening man and she feels something for the guy. Something she can’t place. She didn’t think she’d see him again after she gave him the money he needed, until he turned out to be the new fighter in her fathers underground ring.
Rating:
4 I really liked it stars
I am emotionally and physically exhausted from this book. This story takes you to those dark places that your mind tries to not think of—ever—like a reoccurring nightmare that wakes you up, night after night, confused, panting and sweating. This story is an innocent man’s nightmare filled with nothing but suffering and death, filth and neglect, anger and revenge … A nightmare that lasts for twelve years. The only difference? This is not just a nightmare for Raze, Russian Gulag prisoner 818, this is his life. A life in a prison where you are tortured and drugged to train and fight in death matches. This is the place that takes away your memory and erases the person you once were. It is akin to human pit bull fights. This is what drives Raze, gives him Herculean strength and cause and fatefully, leads him straight to Satan himself. Straight to the Russian mob ~ to Alik Durov ~ to Brooklyn … home. Pieces of his shattered memory start to return with the help of Kisa, his love, as he connects with her again through her unknowing generosity thinking she is helping a homeless person. Kisa is his salvation ~his light ~ and unfortunately, Satan’s fiancé. With Raze’s memory returning comes more pain and heartache. The more he learns from his past, the more determined he is to kill for his future ~ there’s one more fight that needs to be won …
Let me just say that I’m in awe of Tillie Cole. Her writing is mesmerizing as she pays close attention to every detail and every emotion that she puts into her work and her characters. The supporting characters give all of her books so much depth and her alphas leave me breathless ~ Every. Single. Time.
There is just something seriously amazing about Tillie Coles writing, she gets you sucked into her books within the first page, even when she writes her darker stuff i think oh my I’m not sure i will like this but in the end i also absolutely freaking love it.
I must admit after reading the first chapter i thought this is dark and violent and I’m not sure that i can read it, but who was i kidding of course i read all of it and for a book that was so dark you still get the feels and the emotions in this book.
There was so much to this story, the secrets the betrayal and a truely amazing story that had you on the edge of your seat with what was going to happen what could happen and in the middle of all that one truely special love story that i will never forget.
I loved Kisa and Luka they were a couple where they would recognise each other’s souls forever and how these two get ripped apart to try and find there way back to each other made for such a beautiful, messy, heartbreaking, painful story.
This book is not for the faint hearted and if dark is not something to read i would still give this book a shot because this book is worth it, for a book as gruesome, violent and sometimes a little hard to read it was still packed full of emotions that had me heartbroken, crying and so consumed in the story it will be another of my absolute favourite book
Loved it 5 massive stars for these blue eyed smudged lovers
I’d had this on my TBR for quite some time and finally got to dig in to these pages. I was pleased with the outcome of it all. The storyline and the characters were definitely different from what I’ve been seeing in the popular trends these days. It does seem that most stories are following the same cookie cutter formulas, so Raze gave me something different and I loved it!
This was such a great story of a love that was predestined and I was immediately intrigued with the prologue. It got the hairs on my arms standing on end, as I braced myself for what I knew would be a story that would keep me on the edge of my seat. Tillie Cole did not disappoint me. 🙂
Kisa is a Bratva princess. Born and raised in an unconventional lifestyle with rules and protocols that she embraces. She knows what’s expected of her and does it, to make her father proud; even if she’s not happy with it all. This is the only life she’s known and she accepts it. But when Raze, a new fighter comes into play, she finds herself drawn to a man she knows she can’t have. But there’s something about him she can’t ignore.
Raze has been tormented most of his life. Tortured and drugged, he was forced into living a life in the fighting cage. His life before is a big space of emptiness. He only knows how to win/kill and arrived in Brooklyn with one mission…revenge. When he meets Kisa, there’s something about her that calms him and he doesn’t know why. She stirs feelings in him that he doesn’t understand. He’s been imprisoned and tortured for so long that he doesn’t know what to do with it all, but she is his peace and he knows he doesn’t want to give that up.
“I’m closing my eyes so I can feel being inside you.” He placed his hand over his heart and rasped out, “I’ve seen too many bad things with these eyes. This, I will feel in my heart.”
*Swoon*
This book was the perfect blend of heartache, redemption, passion and love with some suspense thrown in to keep you on your toes. I found myself falling more for Raze with each turned page.
Tillie Cole, you brilliant woman! Let’s start the slow clap for you, yet again!
I devoured this book. I seriously couldn’t put it down. Not even for a minute. If I had to, I got irritable and was itching to get back to it.
I don’t want to get to much into it. The blurb tells you a lot. It doesn’t tell about how entwined the two main characters were in each others lives. From the beginning. I went through a lot of emotions with this book between Raze and Kisa. In fact, I think I probably hit every emotion at one point. Tille’s books do that to me time and again. Don’t miss on out this one!
“They were always meant to be together, one boy and one girl, two hearts split into two, sent to far-off lands on their own. For God wanted to see if true love could be tested. He wanted to see if two halves of one soul could find each other again, even against the odds. Years would pass. They would both be hurt. They would both be sad, but one day, when they least expected it, they would stumble into each other’s paths. The question is: would they recognize each other’s soul? And would they find their way back to love…?”
A beautiful Bratva Princess- Kisa Kirill and her soul mate – Luka Tolstoi are childhood sweethearts. Inseparable since birth. God put a piece of Kisa’s soul (her blue eye) in Luka’s brown eye as a smudge, so they could match.
It’s so perfect , it made me tear up .
“Whatever our souls are made of—” “His and mine are the same.”
But Alik is a monster trying to eclipse their love because he’s obsessed with Kisa. So he plays an elaborate game of treachery that leaves Rodion (Kisa’s brother) dead and Luka convicted and condemned to dungeons of Gulag of Alaska. It’s a glorified name for a prison camp of torture, animalistic death cave, where boys are pumped full of drugs and trained to be lethal killing machines. Their memories wiped out, their past lives obliterated and they become ferocious animals . Luka becomes #818-Raze .
He survives and fate brings soul mates back together.
The journey back is fraught with blood, guilt, vengeance .
at the end of it all Kisa’s Lubyov unites with Luka’s Sunyshko.
The story is masterful . No doubt .
tillie is the Queen of Fractured heart stories.
A shout out to my friend Sharon Hall-Richardson for pushing for me to read this book