Tag Archives: Scarred Souls

Scarred Souls (TEAM Zulu 4) by Julie Weaver-review tour

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Scarred Souls (TEAM Zulu 4) by Julie Weaver-review tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 22, 2024

Vaughn

The macabre tattoos concealing my scars deliver a clear warning. They scream that I’m vicious, unhinged, and to stay the hell away. My venomous tongue only reinforces that message.

Which means I’m the worst guy on my black ops team to babysit a cartel princess.
Once she spills the location of her father’s hideout, my team will take him down, and she’ll be free. Adiós. Good riddance.

Except her amber eyes, sassy mouth, and sinful curves draw me in like a siren’s song. And when guarding her becomes an unhealthy obsession, it’s clear the defiant little minx is working her way under my ruined skin.

But I can’t risk letting her get close. If she touches me, I could break her.

Hope

I have a new identity, a new home, and a new peaceful life in a seaside village. All of it will come crashing down if the cartel discovers I’m still alive.

Then he sweeps into my world like a bad omen. Huge. Menacing. The Grim Reaper in the flesh. I tell myself the shiver his piercing dark eyes sends through my body is from fear, but my erratic heartbeat calls me a liar.

The worst part? He knows who I am, he knows what I’m hiding, and he’s not leaving my side until I submit to every one of his demands. In an ironic twist of fate, Grim might be the only thing standing between me and the dangerous men I’ve escaped.

He says he’s broken, that one touch of his scarred flesh will unleash a crazed beast. But I don’t believe my lethal protector would ever hurt me.

And I’ll do whatever it takes to tear down his walls and prove it.

••••••

REVIEW:SCARRED SOULS is the fourth instalment in Julie Weaver’s contemporary, adult TEAM ZULU erotic, romantic suspense series, and the first book in Vaughn and Hope’s duet. This is former US Navy/Special Ops members Vaughn Decker, and Hope Lopez’ story line. SCARRED SOULS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Hope and Vaughn) SCARRED SOULS follows Vaughn Decker on his latest assignment in Mexico, hunting down the head of a Mexican Cartel, a man involved in human trafficking, drugs and weapons but Vaughn never expected to come face to face with a woman who has seen her own fair share of abuse and torture, a woman whose own secrets run dangerous and deep. Enter Hope Lopez, bartender and dog rehabber, and the woman with whom Vaughn will fall in love. As Vaughn struggles with his attraction to the woman whose own life is spiraling out of control, Hope’s only chance is to trust our hero, or run for her life.

The world building focuses on several pathways including the brutal history that destroyed Vaughn’s faith in humanity, and Hope’s belief in family and love. As the search for the heads of the Mexican Cartel continues, the need to stop the distribution of weapons and drugs, and the abduction of women and children is foremost on their mind. More or less on his own, Vaughn quickly discovers not all is as it appears to be, and he too must learn to trust a woman whose keeping secret a threat to them all.

The relationship between Vaughn and Hope begins acrimoniously. Hope is not whom she claims to be, and in this, Vaughn struggles with the reality of what is . In hiding from her past, Hope believes she is a target, and Vaughn may be the man to destroy her heart. The $ex scenes are provocative and intense.

The secondary and supporting characters are limited although there are numerous tertiary side characters throughout. We are introduced to Hope’s best friend and physician Daphne, as well as the return of Brandon and Sage (The Payback #2).

SCARRED SOULS is a story of secrets and lies, power and control, friendships and acceptance, tragedy and survival. The premise is haunting and captivating; the romance is spicy; the characters are desperate and determined.

 

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Hit
The Payback
The Heist

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Julie Weaver is a RWAus Emerald Award winner and author of spicy, action-packed romantic suspense novels.
Her Team Zulu series features morally gray, ex-elite military heroes and the feisty, kick-ass heroines who challenge them.
Get your free Team Zulu Christmas novella here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hvreeguzny

Find me here:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/juliewe…
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Website: https://www.julieweaverbooks.com/

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Riot (Scarred Souls #4) by Tillie Cole-a review

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RIOT (Scarred Souls #4) by Tillie Cole- a review

Riot

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / BAM /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 7, 2017

Stolen by the Arziani Georgian crime mob as a child, 152 was raised and conditioned to be a Mona—the most subservient of the Arziani Blood Pit slaves.

Gorgeous and kind, she has been and under the imprisoning influence of the Type B drug and under the command of the Blood Pit Master’s sister, Mistress Arziani, for most of her life, until the Master calls her back home to Georgia.

He wants her under his total control, and Master always gets what he wants.

But when 152 is gifted to the Blood Pit’s fearsome champion death match fighter as a prize, 152 suddenly finds out that the men who appear most brutal, may just own the kindest hearts. And love may be found, even when living in hell.

Freedom, family, love, 152 will have to fight for what she wants and ultimately make an impossible choice.

•••••••••

REVIEW: RIOT is the fourth and final? Installment in Tillie Cole’s adult, contemporary, SCARRED SOULS dark, erotic, romance series focusing on the Russian Mafia, the Georgian Bratva criminal underground, cage fighting, sexual slavery, and the Russian blood pits. This is death match fighter Ilya Konev (aka 901) and Inessa Belrova’s (aka 152) story line. RIOT can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty although I recommend reading the series in order for cohesion and backstory. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. Inessa Belrova is the missing sister to Valentin (Ravage #3).

WARNING: RIOT contains scenes of graphic violence and sexual imagery including scenes of rape, murder and torture that may be disturbing for some readers.

Told from three first person points of view (Luka, Ilya and Inessa) RIOT focuses on the struggle to be free. Ilya aka 901 was kidnapped as a child and trained in the death matches for the Arziani Georgian crime mob. As a fighter 901 has never known anything outside of the arena and the cell that has imprisoned him for close to twenty years. Drugged to perform 901 is eventually caged with a young woman known only as number 152, the Master’s High Mona (or consort). When 901 refuses to accept the gift from his Master he soon realizes that to reject 152 could mean the death of the woman that will eventually call to his heart. What ensues is the building but forbidden relationship between 901 (Ilya) and 152( Inessa), and the struggle to gain freedom from the man who has destroyed too many lives.

The relationship between Ilya and Inessa struggles with the question as to the how and why. Why were they thrown together and for whose benefit will their relationship help. Ilya and Inessa have never known love, comfort or the touch of friendship without the pain or repercussions of torture and abuse. The $ex scenes between Ilya and Inessa are intimate and intense.

There are a large number of secondary and supporting characters including all three of the previous story line couples. We are also introduced to several other slaves and death match fighters-some will not be so lucky to survive, as well as the Arziani Georgian crime lord whose psychotic personality fuels the life and death fights in the arena.

RIOT is a graphically violent story line with scenes of rape, torture, abuse and death. Some of the slaves wish for death on a daily basis, while others struggle to stay alive through the torturous beatings and daily drug injections used for submission and control. The premise is dramatic and intense; the characters are broken, tragic and dynamic; the romance is fated and traumatic. RIOT is a heartbreaking story of betrayal, loss and pain; rescue, love and revenge. For fans of the Starz Network’s SPARTACUS the final showdown is akin to Spartacus’s take down of the Dominus- Quintus Batiatus.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Raze
Reap
Ravage
Riot

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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Ravage (Scarred Souls #3) by Tillie Cole-a review

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RAVAGE (Scarred Souls #3) by Tillie Cole-a review

Ravage

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / BAM /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date august 16, 2016

Is finding one’s true love worth committing the greatest sacrifice of all?

Taken as a teen, prisoner 194 was stripped of his name and freewill, meticulously honed to be a ruthless machine. Even as he tries to fight his captors hold on him he knows that obedience is the only way to save his sister, who is the one person that keeps him from turning into a monster.

As a young girl Zoya Kostava barely escaped the brutal attack that killed her entire family. Now twenty five she lives in secrecy. That is until she hears her brother also survived and is living with their greatest enemy.

Zoya risks her safety and anonymity to find the brother she thought dead and is captured by a beautiful, brutal man. A man who both captivates and scares her, in him she sees a soul as lost as her own.

They both have so much to lose will they be able to save each other…and survive.

•••••••••••••

REVIEW: RAVAGE is the third installment in Tillie Cole’s contemporary, adult SCARRED SOULS dark, erotic, romance series focusing on the Russian Mafia, the Georgian Bratva criminal underground, cage fighting and blood pits, and two families torn apart by power and greed. This is enslaved killer 194 (aka Valentin Belrov), and New York Russian mafia princess Zoya Kostava. RAVAGE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading the series in order for cohesion and back story.

WARNING: RAVAGE contains graphic violence and sexual imagery that may be disturbing for some readers.

Told from several first person points of view including Zoya and Valentin, RAVAGE is a graphically violent story of one man’s struggle to remember his past and survive to live another day. 194 is a killer with no idenity; a warrior trained to torture and maim, a scarred and brutally savage killing machine, and a man determined to free himself from bondage to save his sister from a similar fate. At twelve years old, Valentin and his younger sister Inessa were taken from an orphanage, and their fate and future became part of a series of illegal, underground drug tests towards building the ultimate fighting machine and obedient soldier. 194’s latest target assignment is Zaal Kostava, the head of New York’s Russian mafia and there is nothing he can do when designer drugs used to keep him under control turn the once loving young man into a monster with no heart. But 194 finds himself falling for his latest captive- a woman long thought dead with connections to Zaal Kostava, and a woman that begins to tame the beast within. Zoya Kostava will become 194’s prisoner; his target of torture and abuse; and the woman with whom Valentin will fall in love. There is a Stockholm Syndrome feel to the relationship and rescue.

RAVAGE is a heartbreaking and tragic story of Beauty and the Beast, and Anastasia Romanov; a tale of torment, aggression and exploitation; a distressing look at power and control. The brutality and violence is fierce; our heroine will become the victim of a drug-controlled monster but a woman who continues to fight to remain alive. 194 is a broken and mutilated killing machine who is desperate to hold onto his humanity and his memories of who and what he was before he became the monster of his own nightmares.

Once again, the world building focuses on the imprisonment, torture and training of young boys; the men and monsters they will become; and the people who destroyed their lives. As the series progresses, each of our story line heroes sets into motion a string of events that will ultimately free both their bodies and their souls finding love and a happily ever after in the arms of a woman that calms the dark and damaged beast. The premise is disturbing and dark; the characters are tragic and intense; the romance is controversial and dramatic-sometimes monster deserve a happily ever after.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Raze
Reap
Ravage

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

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Reap (Scarred Souls #2) by Tillie Cole-a review

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REAP (Scarred Souls #2) by Tillie Cole-a review

Reap

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / BAM

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 10, 2015

Raised as a prototype for the Georgian Bratva’s obedience drug, 221 fails to think, act, or live for himself; he’s his master’s perfectly-crafted killing puppet. Standing at six-foot-six, weighing two-hundred-and-fifty pounds, and unrivaled in to-the-death combat, 221 successfully secures business for the Georgian Mafiya Boss of NYC, who rules the dark world of the criminal underground. Until his enemies capture him.

Talia Tolstaia dreams to break from the heavy clutches of Bratva life. She dreams of another life–away from the stifling leash of her Russian Bratva Boss father and from the brutality of her work at The Dungeon, her criminal family’s underground death-match enterprise. But when she stumbles upon her family’s captive who is more monster than man, she starts to see the man underneath. A powerful, beautiful, damaged man whose heart calls to hers. But sacrifices must be made–blood for blood…life for life…souls for scarred souls.

•••••••••••••

REVIEW: REAP is the second installment in Tillie Cole’s contemporary, adult SCARRED SOULS erotic, dark romance series focusing on the Russian Mafia, Georgian Bratva criminal underground, cages fights to the death, and two families torn apart by power and greed. This is Zaal (aka 221), and Talia Tolstoi’s storyline. REAP can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order for background history and cohesion.

Told from three first person perspectives (Zaal, Talia, Luka) REAP follows the imprisonment, torture and freedom of enslaved killer Zaal ‘221’ Kostava. Kidnapped as a young boy, 221 has known nothing but pain and poison for the past twenty years: trained to kill; drugged into obedience 221 remembers nothing of his previous life only that he is meant to kill both in and out of the arena; freedom is a distant memory. What ensues is the rescue of 221, and his slow rehabilitation where memories of the past begin to consume his entire world until he meets Talia-the woman who would eventually hold his heart and his soul, but a woman who is a member of the enemy family.

REAP is a violent storyline with graphic language; scenes of rape, vicious abuse and gladiator-style killings. The ‘killers’ are victims of kidnapping, abuse, drug-induced mind control, and a need to kill or be killed. Years living in the dark have left the fighters broken and feral, with no hope for freedom or a chance at a normal life. Trained from a young age, killing and torture is all they have ever known.

REAP is also a story about family. As an eight year old child, Zaal, along with his twin brother Anri, witnessed the execution of his entire family. Anri would become best friends with Luka in the pits of hell; Zaal would become the number one killer in the fighting ring. But the Tolstoi’s and Kostava’s are bitter enemies-murder and revenge but a heartbeat away. Ivan Tolstoi-Talia’s father-is the new king-a man who abhors everything the Kostava’s represent.

Tillie Cole writes a story about forbidden love; a second chance at life; and a broken man whose heart and soul have been shattered by years of torment and abuse. REAP is an emotional storyline that will break your heart for the childhood that never was; for the men that never will be; for the yearning of freedom and what is to come.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

 

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