Raze--Tillie Cole

Let’s start out by saying, I LOVE Tillie Cole! There is something about her writing style that is just addicting. Also each story she writes has this vibe about it, that there is enough fact that it could happen. Probably wouldn’t but it could. It’s like plausible deniability or something.

Back to the important things, Raze. This book was very dramatic; our prologue leads the character who will become 818 through the belly of a death fighting prison. In just the first few pages we see his resolve to survive even if it means to kill.  818 is one of the top fighters in the underground prison. He has over six hundred kills and thrives on bloodshed and adrenaline. He had been in the Gulag, as the inmates called it, for ten years. His body is a myriad of scars and gruesome tattoos. He blacks out his eyes with mud before each fight; it unnerves others and centers him. One night the Gulag rebels setting him free, 818 is on his way to New York City. He needs to get his revenge; he needs to kill Alik Durov. That is all he knows, and that is what he will find.

We meet our main female character Kisa when she is having sex—or should I say getting fucked. There is nothing loving and gentle, or even rough and raw. It is hateful, forceful and possessive. Kisa is the princess to the Russian syndicate known as the “Red” Bratva Kings in New York City. Her father is the top boss, he fiancé’s father is the second in line and the enforcer to the Bratva. Alik and Kisa grew up together, but in her mind and everyone else’s they were not meant to be, until fate stepped in. From the time she was in her early teens she was destiny or promised to Alik Durov. Kisa had always felt sorry for him, she knew his father was an abusive asshole and she knew he depended on her. That was one of the reasons that she put up with all his abuse. He’s said that she’s the only one who quiets the voices in his head, the ones who tell him to hurt others. The guy is a sadistic bastard so it is probably true.

The other reason she puts up with Alik is because that is what the women of the Bratva do. Since her father already approved the marriage there is very little that she can do about it. I also think that there is a part of her that almost condemned herself to this life of torture as penance for having to hate and losing the man she loved. A bit extreme but I can’t see any reason that she wouldn’t tell her father that her fiancé is a dickhead, of course she should say it a bit more tactfully than that but oh well.  Her character starts out almost weak, she knows what she isn’t supposed to do and she doesn’t really do it. But one chance encounter changes that, she starts pushing the limits and breaking the rules. Her character growth while not extreme, is her really finding that she still has something to live for and fight for—herself and her happiness.