Title: Raze
Author: Tillie Cole
Age group: Mature new adult
Genre: Dark contemporary romance
Release date: 30th December 2014
Christy's 5+ star review!
Their love story began on the day she was born.
Tillie Cole has been that author for me this year. Every year it seems, there is one author that comes out of nowhere and I am just completely taken by their books. I have read 6 Tillie Cole books this year, and 3 of them have made it on my top favorite lists. Her writing is addictive, her stories are so different from one another, yet all unbelievably good. This book was her most raw and gritty book yet. It was down right gruesome at times. It’s one of those books that is going to be difficult for a lot of people to read because of the content. But under all that, it has to be one of the most beautiful love stories I have read and it’s definitely a favorite of 2014.
Number 818, or Raze has escaped the place he’s been ever since he was a boy. A place where he was tortured and brainwashed. A place where he was trained to be a fighter. Not a normal fighter, no, a kill or be killed kind of fighter. When you’re fighting to the death, you fight to kill.
Now that he’s out, he only has one memory from his past to go on to seek what he wants most. Revenge. Raze doesn’t know who he is, if he has family, anything like that. He knows he is a killer and he’s going to do what he does best. Find the man that put him where he was, and kill him. He’s found Alix and is preparing, but there is this girl. A girl with familiar eyes. The first person he can ever remember feeling the need to be near, the need to protect.
Kisa Volkova is a Russian Mafia princess. She lives a sheltered and protected life. Then she meets Raze. This man is dangerous, she can tell. But there is something about him that draws him to her. She can’t stay away and she doesn’t want to. No matter how much she should. No matter how destructive it could be for them to be near each other, she has to be near him.
Raze and Kisa can’t fight this instant connection and attraction they have to one another. Being together is dangerous for them both, especially Kisa, but she can’t stay away from him.
I had never felt this before. Never felt this overwhelming lust, this consuming level of instant attraction... this raw and insatiable need to be with a man. It was dangerous. It was haunting. It was forbidden. And although it was wrong, it felt so perfectly right.
There is so much more I want to say about this story, about what happens, about the stunning revelations and about the intense moments. And if you read the book we can talk all day about it, but I’m not writing any of it here. It’s one of those stories you have to read for yourself. The things in this book are so exceptionally beautiful at times it brought me to tears. How things came together. Just wow.
Raze was such a beautiful and strong man. Reading about what he went through will destroy you, but by the end I felt healed and happy. Kisa was a heroine that I loved. She had such strength and determination. She was willing to risk so much. These two characters were perfect together and both were survivors- so strong and resilient. They truly were a match.
If it’s not obvious enough already, I will repeat it. This book is a must read. It’s just remarkable, exceptional, and completely extraordinary. Be prepared to feel. Be prepared to hurt, to cry, to be moved beyond belief, to have your heart stop and to be consumed by this gorgeous and enthralling story. It’s been days since I’ve read and my heart still feels for these two. It’s an unforgettable read that I loved from start to finish!
“I need you with me. I only feel at home with you.”
BLURB
To take back life, one must first face death...
One man stripped of his freedom, his morals...his life.
Conditioned in captivity to maim, to kill and to slaughter, prisoner 818 becomes an unremorseful, unrivaled and unstoppable fighter in the ring. Violence is all he knows. Death and brutality are the masters of his fate.
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 lied.
Revenge on the man who wronged him.
Revenge on the man who condemned him and turned him into this: a rage-fueled killing machine. A monster void of humanity; a monster filled with hate.
And no one will stand in the way of getting what he wants.
One woman stripped of her freedom, her morals...her life.
Kisa Volkova is the only daughter of Kirill ‘The Silencer’ Volkov, head of the infamous ‘Triad’ 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. As manager of her father’s death match enterprise, only grief and pain fill her days. Her mafia boss father, in her world, rules absolute. And her fiancé, Alik Durov, is no better; the Dungeon’s five-time champion, a stone-cold killer, the treasured son of her father’s best friend, and her very own—and much resented—personal guard. Unrivaled in both strength and social standing, Alik controls every facet of Kisa’s life, dominates her every move; keeps her subdued and dead inside...then one night changes everything.
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, and a man she must quickly forget...for both their sakes.
But when weeks later, out of the blue and to her complete surprise, he’s announced as the replacement fighter in The Dungeon, Kisa knows she’s in a whole lot of trouble. He’s built, ripped and lethally unforgiving to his opponents, leaving fear in his wake and the look of death in his eyes.
Kisa becomes obsessed with him. Yearns for him. Craves his touch. Needs to possess this mysterious man...this man they call Raze.
About Tillie-
Amazon & USA Today Best Selling Author, Tillie Cole is a Northern girl through and through. She originates from a place called Teesside on that little but awesomely sunny (okay I exaggerate) Isle called Great Britain. She was brought up surrounded by her English rose mother — a farmer’s daughter, her crazy Scottish father, a savagely sarcastic sister and a multitude of rescue animals and horses.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7074846.Tillie_Cole
