Raze (Scarred Souls) MP3 CD – Unabridged, October 28, 2015

There was just something that pulled me into this story. Until RAZE I would have told you that I was not a fan at all of Dark Romances. I've always been a reader who likes a light, fun (although no less meaningful) romance. A romance that would take me away to a happy place where even when there are challenges you know that everything is going to be okay in the end. You don't hold your breath while reading, you don't cry because someone has been so scarred that you can't help but feel a deep biting sorrow for them and all they have lost, you don't rage against the injustice and cruelty of it all. You get mildly upset because your new book boyfriend or girlfriend got the shaft or hurt feelings, but you know in the end they are going to all be okay. That is not this book and I not only enjoyed it, I feel hard for this dirty, gritty, brutal world and hero/heroine.818 (Raze) doesn't remember who he used to be before he became a number. He doesn't remember where he came from or how he got where he is. All he knows know is how to fight, how to survive. All he remembers is:"Alik Durov. Brooklyn, New York. Revenge. Kill' -RAZEHe has one chance to discover the meaning of these 7 words that rattle in his head, this battle cry that has kept him going for years while he has been brutally beaten, drugged, help captive, while he has killed only so he could survive, so he could escape.Kisa Volkova is the daughter to to the Boss of the NYC Russain Bratva. She runs her fathers underground fight club, is engaged to her father's protégé, but she's only going through the motions of everyday. She hasn't felt alive since the day the boy she loved was killed in an automobile accident. Her memories of him all she has left of the soul searing love they shared even as children and young teens. They were made for one another, meant to be together, meant to rule this underground world side by side, instead she's left in the hands of a vicious man who only cares about power and money.Raze and Kisa's lives are brutal. I know I keep using that word over and over, but there is not better word to describe what they go through. They are both abused and mistreated. It is incredibly hard to 'watch', it is at times down right viscous and more than just heart breaking, it destroys you a little to see what these two go through. Even with all the pain, hurt, and suffering they go through watching them push forward, not give in, to some how retain the core of who they are is beautiful to see and being there as their love story unfolds in the midst of it all takes all the little pieces of your soul that get destroyed and starts to put them all back together.This book is violent, dark, devastating, and cruel, but it is also one of the best love stories I have read in a long time. If you are not comfortable with violence, physical, mental, and sexual this may not be the book for you, especially if any of those things could be a trigger for you. Remember at the start of this review I said before this book I had never really been interested in Dark Contemporaries, heck Dark any kind of book, but this book has so much more to give than violence and ugliness. This is a book about never giving up even when you don't think you have one more drop of blood to give. To never let the world break you and take away the person that your soul says you are. To cherish those you love, to fight for them, to believe in them, to believe that good can and will prevail against the evil of the world if we are just strong enough to stand against it. This is a book of extremes, but it is a book with a very basic message. The message that love can heal a broken soul. That if you are willing to fight (literally in the case of this book) for what you want you can have it. There is so much about this book that makes it rather difficult to talk about. One, I don't want to go to deep into the story because I can't without giving away major plot points, 2. this book is intense and putting into words how it makes you feel, how you can't stop thinking about it when you put it down isn't easy. This book leaves you both satisfied and wanting more (and thankfully now we will get that), it leaves you sitting in your chair, your book in your lap, your mouth slightly open, your eyes staring out into space, and your mind running at high speed as you try and process what you just read. You will likely put it down thinking one thing about it and then come back to it later and have an entire different feeling for it. It's going to chew you up and spit you out then gather you back up, piece meal you back together, stitching all your pieces back together (hopefully in the right 'order') and making you smile...when a book can do all of that to you you know its worth reading, maybe even multiple times.[...]

Even though this is only the second book I’ve read from Tillie Cole, I can already see what a versatile writer she is. I mean this in a good way but never in a million years did I expect the author of Sweet Fall – a highly emotional and poignant NA romance – to come up with a gritty and twisted mafia romance like this one. Though there were a few hiccups along the way, this book was INTENSE from start to finish. There is something special about this author’s writing that is just gripping and makes the book unputdownable. On top of that, there’s this hidden element to the romance that’ll be revealed early on in the story that just made my heart RACE. I was rooting for these characters hard!Number 818 or ‘Raze’ is taken from his home when he was a young boy and then raised and brainwashed into a cold-blooded killing machine in the fighting rings, where one fights to kill. He doesn’t remember much about his past because of the drugs fed to him, only that he has one purpose: to get revenge on the man who wrongly accused him of a crime he didn’t commit. His search leads him to the heart of a ruthless death match enterprise and straight into the path of a blue-eyed girl whose face is eerily similar to the girl in his fuzzy memories.Kisa Volkova is the daughter of the man who runs a savage underground fighting ring and betrothed to the long-time champion, a demented and truly twisted man who’s obsessed with possessing her. She’s well aware that in this mafia life, she has little say in what she wants and is physically and emotionally battered by her fiancé’s demands and the invisible iron cage her family has her own. Fully knowing that her heart belongs to another – a man she has never seen again since her childhood – Kisa has resolved herself to become the dutiful wife everyone in the mafia expects her to be.On one fateful night, Kisa is saved from an unknown assailant by Raze, who’s come to the city to get his revenge against Alik Durov, who’s also Kisa’s fiancé. Without spoiling anything, Kisa and Raze have this insanely intense connection and can’t help but be drawn towards each other, even though their attraction is the last thing they need with Kisa already engaged to another and Raze only interested in his revenge plan.The first half of this book left me breathless. My heart was pounding from the fight scenes, the sizzling chemistry between Kisa and Raze, and the hidden element to their romance that gave my heart a squeeze. I just wanted them to be together without any obstacles in their way, you know? But their road was not an easy one, and I’m glad the author made it bumpy or else it really would’ve cheapened their romance. I think my main concern with this book was the big discrepancy between the first and second halves of the story. It seemed too convenient that every problem Raze had (from his memory loss to revenge plan etc…) was wrapped up and concluded so nicely. The first half of the book really set a gritty and challenging pace for these characters and though I’m sure it wasn’t the author’s intention, I felt like the second half of the book got a little too cheesy and predictable. Nevertheless, my overall enjoyment of this story was high, and I could overlook these things because I was invested in the romance and genuinely cared about the characters’ welfare.By the time I got to the end of the book, I was sad the story was ending and wished there was more. I love the mafia world the author set up and strangely enough, there were two side characters I loved just as much (maybe even a little more) than Kisa and Raze and whether or not it’ll happen, I wish the author could do books for them too: Rodion (Kisa’s brother) and fighter number 362 (Raze’s rival and friend). All in all, this story had my attention from beginning to end, got me invested in these characters, and had me wishing there was more to the story after it ended…which I think are all essential aspects that comprise a good book. I couldn’t be happier to end my 2014 reading year on a high note!Raze is a dark contemporary romance set in the mafia world. It’s a true standalone and unrelated to the author’s other books.