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Review

4 stars!

It took a monster to revive my heart. It took a killer to touch my soul.

Ravage immediately transports us back into the world Tillie Cole created for her Scarred Souls series. It is once again dark, gritty, gruesome, and heartbreaking, and a suspenseful romance that sucks you in from the very first page. Cole delivers a story of pain, heartache, loss, and healing, and creates a love story out of the depths of hellish pasts.

Taken as children, Valentin and his sister, Inessa, are thrown into a world of experimental drugs. Whereas Inessa, now known as 152, is subjected to drugs that effectively make her a sex slave, Valentin becomes 194 and is injected with obedience drugs to turn him into a vicious killer.

As the years passed, I became a ghost in the night.
I because the deliverer of death.
I was torture.
I was pain.
I was the fucking nightmare that no one ever saw coming…
…until it was too late.

194 has been living in hell, forced to listen to Mistress and carry out her orders while she controls 152’s fate and sparks the hope of seeing his sister again before every mission. He hates her and everything she makes him do, but even though the drugs are not 100% effective, he will do anything Mistress commands in order to protect his sister. So he does what is asked of him and bides his time until he can have revenge on the people who took them as children.

Zoya has been living in hiding since the massacre of her family and has only just discovered that her brother, Zaal, is alive and well. She desperately wants to see him and let him know that she is alive. Now that the threat of the Jakhuas is gone, she decides to go see him and this is when she makes a terrible mistake that can effectively end her life and that of her brother.

194 and Zoya cross paths when Zaal becomes the next target. Willing to do anything to accomplish the mission, 194 has no qualms about taking the woman staring at the target’s house with a picture of the target in her hand. 194 has no remorse for his actions and he has no reason to start now. Abducting Zoya is a means to an end and he will do anything to get to Zaal.

194 is determined to find the connection between the woman he captured and his target by any means necessary including torture. The woman does not give in easily though and when Zoya refuses to confess what her relationship to Zaal is, 194 becomes more desperate to break her. Something stirs inside him and for the first time, he feels something he is not accustomed to for a female. He tries unsuccessfully to push any feelings, sympathy, or remorse away by thinking of his sister, yet something draws him to this woman.

Zoya is terrified at first and the torture is almost to much to bear, but she is determined to protect her brother at any cost. She will not “heal to this monster, no matter what he tried.” However, she starts to see that 194 isn’t just the vicious monster that she first met.

She was touching me softly. Me, the Mistress’s ugly beast. Me, the Russian bringer of death. It was impossible; Mistress made this face to keep all females but her away, so she would own me completely. But that fucking ache wouldn’t go at the thought that the little Georgian wasn’t seeing the scars. She was somehow seeing the forgotten me living underneath the beast’s scars.

There is something more to him and he is different at times that make her really consider what and who he is. Slowly she discovers that they have both been living in their own form of hell and she sees past the monster he believes himself to be.

I knew his life had been as impossible as mine.
Knew he wasn’t truly as evil as he seemed.
He was just like my Anri and Zaal. Like me.
Broken.

As with the other books in this series, Tillie Cole has made me feel an array of emotions on both sides of the spectrum and everything in between. Ravage is full of pain and is a difficult story to get through with the disturbing themes, yet it is full of healing that will warm your heart. I loved Zoya and Valentin’s story and being back in the Scarred Souls world.

My heart broke completely for what Valentin went through from such a young age. He was stripped of his free-will, forced to kill, and grew up with no affection or love other than that of his sister. Even before he was taken, his home was broken and little love surrounded them. It was devastating that he had to watch his sister’s abuse and be unable to do anything to stop it. I completely understand that “desperate people do desperate things” and that Valentin would do anything for his sister. I hated that he did not think he deserved Zoya and her love and it made my heart weep for all he went through to force him to think that way.

I loved Zoya’s determination to protect her brother and the strength she held onto when she was abducted. Her loyalty was admirable and she was not about to give Zaal up no matter what the consequences. When Zoya loves, she loves fiercely, and I liked that she fully accepted the feelings she felt for Valentin. She was all in and determined to make him see that he wasn’t the monster Mistress made him out to be.

“I’m not soft or kind or loving, or-”
“That’s fine, because I am all of these things and, besides, I love you. You, not someone you think I should have.”
…
“I love you unconditionally, and I will not break. You can be who you need to be with me. You can dominate me, possess me, and own me. Because I want you and accept whatever that comes with. I want to love you and want you to love me back, so that we both are never again alone.”

Though the romance was emotional, it felt a bit rushed and I did not feel as strong of a connection between Zoya and Valentin as I would have liked. I do understand why Zoya saw past the monster exterior and related to the broken parts of Valentin, but the “insta-love” was too quick for me. I would have liked more time for their relationship to evolve. However, I do like that Zoya did not question her love for Valentin and was committed to him. I also think the ending wrapped up a little too easily but I am still happy with the way things turned out.

Written in multiple POVs, I loved that we not only got to see what was going on with the hero and heroine, but also got to see what was going on behind the scenes with Luka and Zaal while Zoya and Valentin were hidden away. Reading Luka’s POV was an added bonus to the story. I loved not only seeing the loyalty that Luka and Zaal had for Zoya, but also what they would do to get her back. I am glad we got to see more than just a glimpse of Luka and Kisa, and Zaal and Talia again.

Overall, I really enjoyed Ravage, and after reading the teaser into 152’s story, I can not wait to get my hands on the next book, Riot!!

*ARC generously provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*