Title: Raze
Author: Tillie Cole
Age group: Mature new adult
Genre: Dark contemporary romance
Release date: 30th December 2014
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.
MY REVIEW:
Dark. Dark. Dark. Those were my first thoughts upon finishing Raze. I love a good dark and gritty romance and Raze fits the bill. This book is filled with intense drama and brutal scenes of torture so be warned. I have a very strong threshold for dark reads, but there was an extra element that didn’t quite sit well with me. That being said, this book has an incredibly creative storyline and some hot, steamy, passionate and over-the-top sex scenes that are alone worth reading the book for.
This story is told in flashbacks. Raze was brutally ripped from his home as a teenager and subjected to all kinds of physical and mental abuse at the hands of an underground fighting ring. He loses his memories of his family and his childhood and literally turns into a fighting machine, bent on revenge against the monster who put him away. These scenes in the underground are difficult, tough and gritty.
Raze has the vaguest memories of a girl who is Kisa, the daughter of a New York Russsian mobster. She, too, is condemned to a live of confinement as the fiancee of Alik, a sadisitic, brutal and controlling fighter. The stage is set for her past and her present to collide. Will she able to save Raze from almost-certain death? Will Raze ever remember Kisa, the only girl he ever loved?
“I’ve seen too many bad things with these eyes. This, I will feel in my heart.”
There are scenes of incredible beauty in this book along with scenes so brutal they are difficult to get through. But all in all, this story kept me turning the pages to see where these characters’ journeys would take them. I was cheering for Kisa to stand up to Alik and rooting for Raze to be able to find the peace he so desperately needed. If you like gritty fighter stories, then Raze is the book for you!
AUTHOR BIO
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.
