A dark romance with some scenes that will have a trigger warning for others.

If you like your romance on the dark side then this is for you.

Thank to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review.

I have loved so many of Tillie Cole's previous books, even returning to reread them which I don't do often but this was just too dark for me.

May be a bit spoiler-ish

I’m not huge on mafia stories but I love the intense emotion and passion in these type of books, and this one didn’t disappoint! I was a little worried after reading some other reviews, but I’m glad I didn’t listen to them since they weren’t fully accurate. I read a lot of reviews saying 192/Valentin raped Zoya, but that’s not exactly how I saw things. There’s more to it than that. When someone is being drugged to be obedient, the fault falls to the person who did the drugging. The obedient drugs cause a Jekyll and Hyde type deal, so Valentin isn’t fully in control of himself. Valentin does sexually touch Zoya with no straight out consent while he was aware, but full on rape doesn’t happen to Zoya. He actually causes pain to himself in order to protect her. He’s not an angel, but everything isn’t black and white. Valentin is the one that has been raped since he was a child and has been a slave for 18 years. I think Zoya explains it well in this book about how she can fall for her capturer; I don’t see Stockholm’s syndrome, I see Zoya’s ability to understand the torturous situation Valentin finds himself in. After all the things he’s been through, I’m surprised Valentin had the mental capacity that he did.

The development of the romance is a spot of sweetness in this dark, disturbing world. The connection between Zoya and Val is awesome and I love how protective each of them is over the other. I haven’t read any of the previous books, but I want to now. It was great to see a bit of the stories for the past characters; even without reading their stories. If I can feel the depth of connection already between the characters, I know I’ll love their books. So, I’m really looking forward to reading those. I’m not too keen on the next book because it’s bound to be brutal, but I still want to read it.

Overall, I loved this story. Entertaining and engrossing.

5 Unbelievable Stars!

I’m not sure how to put into words the way I feel about this book. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to do this book justice with my review. This is definitely not an easy read. There are so many heartbreaking moments in this story that brought me to tears more than once, but there are so many more heartwarming moments that made me fall in love with these characters and their story over and over again. Tillie Cole is one of my favorite authors simply for her ability to pull me completely into the story she’s telling and making me feel like I’m living it along with the characters. You must read Raze and Reap first to be able to follow the story, and if you haven’t…stop what you’re doing and #oneclick these now.

Angela – Alphas Do It Better Book Blog

I love how dark and gritty Tillie Cole's Scarred Souls series is. A brutal underground world where people are taken and turned into savages for the entertainment of others. Dehumanised and drugged, their name exchanged for a number, these poor souls do what they are told for they are powerless to do anything else.

194 - our hero - desperately wants to save his sister. As part of that anything, he kidnaps Zoya who was about to be reunited with her long-lost brother (she thought he was dead). He's ruthless, he's mean, he's brutal. It's not nice and you could easily accuse Zoya of developing Stockholm syndrome in falling in love with the guy... However, as this is a romance, there's healing (but there's a <i>long</> way left to go on that front for the poor men of this series!) and there is redemption. There are moments of light in the darkness. It's beautiful and it's sad.

This series is not for the faint of heart, and those with certain triggers will certainly want to avoid it, but it's gripping from the first page until the last.

I am by far in the minority here. And I'm perfectly okay with that.

I kept asking myself why this book wasn't working for me. Why could I not get past 50% and why the hell was I eye rolling so much through a Tillie Cole book?!

I NEVER EVER thought I would be one starring a book in this series or this author.

I love dark. I love mind fucks. I love the depraved and finding love through all that gritty rawness. I love Tillie. I love the Scarred Souls series. What I don't love is Ravage's Valentin and Zoya.

I find the fractured and mangled broken souls to be beautiful. And I usually root the hardest for them. Not this time. I couldn't connect with Valentin. And let me tell you, that man was definitely cracked and damaged. Which was partly Zoya's fault.

I've hidden my reasons behind a spoiler as they can be a trigger for some:

[ Valentin tortured and raped her. He told her he was going to kill her brother. He touched her on multiple occasions. And she forgave him INSTANTLY! As the act of rape was going on. I don't care if he was seducing her instead of ruthlessly taking her. He still violated her, repeatedly. She was making excuses for his behavior. Giving him her immediate forgiveness.

"I realized the torturer had a weakness after all— a need for someone to see the him trapped underneath the monster on the outside. And yearning to be touched. I knew I had to be that person for him. I had to try. Something inside me made me need to try. His hand on my breast moved again, and I shifted under his"

There was no need for him to work towards forgiveness. We didn't get to see his struggle and redemption because Zoya gave it INSTANTLY. During the act of rape. We didn't really get to see any remorse-tiny moments here and there during. Yes, he was drugged up on serum, but there were moments he wasn't under the influence and he still did the things he did. And she still gave her forgiveness and understanding INSTANTLY, during the act of rape.

Did I mention she is a VIRGIN? She's never even touched her own self. Violated and tortured. Zoya's only known Valentin for several days, when he kidnapped her, and none of them are nice days. Instead of showing us fear inside her head, which any normal, sane person would feel, we are seeing her make excuses for her abuser. She doesn't show anger, instead shows sympathy, compassion, pleasure, lust, and want. There are plenty of moments she wants him to continue and go further. It seems like within moments she finds herself falling hard for him.

"A part of me didn’t want his touch, but at the same time I wanted it more than anything else in my life. It was that tone of disbelief in his deep voice, the tone of vulnerable disbelief, that made me want to know him more. Made me want his touch more. To show him he wasn’t just the monster he believed himself to be."

I can't get past her begging for release. I know the body will naturally react. But she's begging a man who's brutally tortured her, all because she saw a moment of remorse in his eyes and she thinks he reminds her of her brothers. Again, no fear nor anguish. You would never know she was being raped if not for the couple of times she mentions him as a monster or the few flinches she gives. It was as though fear was an afterthought.

However, what really irked me was the whole insta taken to a whole other level. I've come to appreciate love at first sight and what not, but not in this case. Nope. There is not an ounce of true affection that makes me believe this is love at first sight. Hell there isn't even kindness or good will coming from Valentin, until sometime after he rapes her. No joke. Zoya goes from "fear" one second to so in love with her monster with the flip of a switch. HARD EYE ROLL!! Even if you can understand he was driven by the drugs and whatnot. Even if you can forgive and show compassion, how in the world do you fall in love so instantly with a man who has violated you multiple times?

And my favorite part...

“Do you find me beautiful? Do you find this fucked-up beast beautiful, too?”
“Yes,” I said shockingly but honestly, “you are beautiful to me.”

Again, she's known this man for only several days. He is heavily disfigured. He's violently tortured her, told her he was going to kill her brother, and raped her. And she tells him she finds him beautiful?! What the what?!

This seriously seems implausible. Far from realistic reactions and emotions. I get this is a gritty, ominous world but seriously?! I also get this is fiction and anything goes. I just can't imagine any victim acting like this-and yes I get it is a book and the whole suspension of disbelief and all. (hide spoiler)]

I'm nowhere close to being a prude. As I said earlier, I LOVE dark reads. The darker the better. I love when an author can make me root and feel for the villain, the monster under the bed. This just wasn't one of those books.

My other huge pet peeve was the over use of their names. At 40% we learn Valentin's name. Within 60% of the book his name was mentioned 464 times. Hers 338. It drove me in-fucking-sane.

I truly hope if you pick up this book you enjoy it more than I did. Lots and lots of others have.

This is not an actual review of this title because back in 2015 when I received this title I was unaware of how to work with acsm files--which is how this title was given to reviewers. I wasn't aware that it couldn't be accessed through a Kindle or other reading device and it could only be viewed using the Adobe app on a computer. Now I'm aware of the BlueFireReader app, but since this title had been archived to finding this out, that knowledge does little for me regarding this title. I had thought I'd be able to buy this title and review it, but I never got around to doing so.

I had originally posted my 'review' using NetGalley's 'I will not be reviewing this title' feature but upon realizing this new feature negatively affects a reviewers' ratings, I transferred my thoughts over to the regular review option. I do apologize for having to use that route and for not being able to access this title, but I appreciate the opportunity I was originally given to read it.

Again!? Cole cannot lose! Just when I think I’ve read the best she releases a new book and knocks me off my feet. Top ten book for the year. A must read that’ll give you all the feels and leave you breathless.

As soon as I learned what Ms. Cole's Scarred Souls series was about, I wanted to read it. I love this genre, there's not a lot of books like it out there, or at least not a lot that I have found, but there's just something about it that pulls me in. They break my heart and make me want to cry, but there's something so satisfying about reading these heroes and heroines find their freedom and love. It's beautiful and moving and Ravage was no different. It captured my attention, my heart, and my love.

After seeing Zoya in Reap and how much she meant to Zaal, I was excited to meet her and she did not disappoint. She earned my respect early and it only grew the longer the book went on. Zoya is incredibly strong, she has a core made of steel and I was in awe of her determination, courage, and conviction. Even more than that though, I loved her pure heart - she's unbelievably kind and good and sweet. Zoya accepts Valentin for who is and she sees him for the beautiful man he is. Zoya has a heart of gold and I loved her wholly.

My heart has broken for all of the Scarred Souls men, but especially for Valentin. His whole life has been about protecting his sister and securing her freedom, no matter the cost to himself. If his unwavering devotion didn't make me fall in love with him, then his broken and vulnerable, yet sweetness and love for Zoya would have done me in. My heart ached at Valentin's broken heart and for the way he saw himself, but also for how he saw Zoya. She's everything to him and even with all the darkness staining him, what he feels for her is so bright and true and pure that it sent me head over heels in love with him. Valentin might be dark and deadly but I love him just the way he is and wouldn't want him to be any different.

Ravage, although not the darkest book I've read, is still not for the faint of heart. It will infuriate you, horrify you, and sucker punch you. There will be tears and heartbreak, but there will also be light and love and peace. It's beautiful, heartwarming, remarkable, and worth all the heartache, darkness, abd pain.

Ravage can be read as standalone, it's told from multiple points of view, and even though Valentin and Zoya do get their HEA, the ending will also leave you excited for the next book in the series - I know I am.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Romance
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

First off, I have not read the previous books and I highly recommend that you do, as I had a much more difficult time figuring out who was who. Also, the names are very similar, so I continuously had to backtrack to figure out who was being spoken about because I wasn't familiar with their names, backgrounds, etc.

Honestly, I almost didn't finish this story. Not having the background made jumping into the story very tricky.

Valentin is an assassin. The deadliest, most brutal assassin that is within his group. Despite his demeanor, he's really a slave. He is injected with brutal drugs, forced to please his mistress, and kill whomever she wants killed. When he was younger, he and his sister were kidnapped from an orphanage – taken prisoner, held hostage, and forced into their own slavery. Killing for him, sexual slavery for her.

Valentin never forgot his promise to his sister, and he continues to live in a prison of unimaginable horrors as he tries to figure out how to keep his sister, Inessa, safe from Mistress.

Zoya is living in a prison of her own. She has been sheltered all of her life because she was supposed to have been killed at the age of 5. The rest of her family was slaughtered in front of her and those loyal to her family hid her away and raised her. When it is discovered that she is not the only living relative, the search begins. Can she find her brothers? The brothers who were taken from her? Just as she's about to find Zaal, her brother, she is abducted by Valentin.

This begins their strange tale of torture, breaking each other down, putting each other back together again, and figuring out how to survive in a free world.

There is a lot going on in this story, but at the heart, it is about two people who learn to live free of the confines that were placed on them when they were just kids – can they figure it out enough to forgive those around them, love themselves, and learn to love someone else? Despite not knowing if I could finish this story, by the end, I couldn't put it down.

I can't wait to see if there is more to their story and to see who else discovers a way through hell.

I liked the content – it was well developed, steady, fast paced, and there was a lot going on.

Despite being advertised as a standalone, I would recommend reading Raze and Reap before starting Ravage to get the full back story and to understand the plot fully.

Ravage continues the Scarred Souls series and my goodness these protagonists are just that - scarred souls.

We are introduced into 194's existence from his darkest days, the darkest part of his life - or existence - and the most tortured years imaginable they were.

He was lost as a child and had been there for over 2 decades. Captured and used for his inner strength in protecting his sister, 194/Valentin was literally treated like a dog. His inner anger and rage fuelled him. His love and need to protect his only living relative drove him to do unimaginable things. Justification that it was all for his sister allowed him to carry out his mistresses' desires.

He knew one day that vengeance would be his, he just had to bide his time.

Enter Zoya. Zaal's believed-dead sister. She stirs emotions inside Valentin he doesn't understand or have time for. She has a strength he wasn't expecting, or expecting to admire.

They intrigued one another and soon became everything for one another. How their story unfolds is down to you to explore and discover but Tillie is at her absolute finest. The imagination that this woman has astounds me. I am in absolute awe and cannot wait for Riot - one more story in the Scarred Souls series. Let there always be "one more story" to come, I'm not quite ready to say goodbye.

5 absolutely deserved stars.

Such an exciting and intriguing series. These characters have had their childhoods stolen from them and become killers. It's a sickening concept but somehow I don't think the reality is far off. Crazy sick people in this world. How the men, previously killers, adjust and realize they are very connected is extremely clever. Zaal, Lukas and Valentin are frighteningly powerful yet they have fallen for these strong understanding women. Their lives still aren't complete as Valentin's sister is still under Master's control. Very important to read the books in order. I have voluntarily read and reviewed after receiving an advanced copy through Netgalley.

Every single time I read a Tillie Cole book, I am once again wow’d by her ability to create a work of genius!! You will be intrigued from the moment you open the book, till you reach that last page. Make sure you are ready to read for the long haul, because you won’t be able to put this book down.

This is my first Tillie Cole novel and what a book it is. The third book in the Sacred Souls series this story is frustrating, extremely dark and so very interesting all rolled up into one. Not having read the first 2 books in the series I was a little worried that I would not be able to follow along but I am happy to say I could and in all honesty that was the least of my worries once I started reading Ravage.

Zoya Kostava has seen her fair share of devastation, after watching her family gunned down in her home country of Georgia she shouldn’t be alive, but she did survive and was taken to the US where she has been in hiding for the last 20 years. Now it turns out that her brother she thought had been long dead is very much alive and as she tries to determine what has been happening she is kidnapped by a man who knows nothing except the pain and suffering he inflicts on his prey, a definite beast.

194 is a killer something he has been trained for all his life when his Mistress assigns him to kill Zoya’s brother and anyone who gets in his way he finds Zoya to be the perfect target to fulfill his mission. He kidnaps her, tortures her to get information but the more time he spends with Zoya the more she sees through the beast and starts to see the man – Valentin he is. Now can he protect her and himself from his capturers to save them all?

One thing that I have to say about reading this story is that Tillie Cole doesn’t hold back in any way. The scenes of torture between 194 and Zoya are graphic, scary and in some cases extremely hard to read. There are quite a few flashback scenes that are also so vivid that I felt I could see exactly what the author wanted me to in my mind. When the story starts to shift and 194 starts to become Valentin the love story between Zoya that is equally difficult though since the story is told in dual POV’s you start to understand why Zoya feels the way she does and why Valentin is really doing this. The writing is well done in trying to humanize the story though I will say it takes a little while to get there and when you think everything is ok the graphic nature of the novel starts again. There is a lot of history between all the characters and in some cases a little difficult to follow but the true heart of this story, Zoya and Valentin is what drives it all and that I did enjoy.

After reading this I will go back and read the first two books and there is a fourth novel that I am extremely curious about so after all is said and done I do recommend Ravage.