Duchess Nicole's Reviews > Reap

This second book in Tillie Cole's Scarred Souls series was perhaps not quite as brutal as the first book. I adored the first half of this book in which fighter 221 begins to come back to life after over 20 years in captivity. The series has a slight sci-fi bent, as the premise circles around an underground mafia fighting ring in which the fighters are prisoners hyped up on drug cocktails that make them into rage machines with no memory of their previous lives, and no will to do anything but kill. Thankfully, Cole doesn't get into the specifics and leaves it up to the reader's imagination, so we can't pick it apart.

I'm all about the hero who is primal, chest beating, and brutal, but turns powerless when it comes to his woman. That is for sure 221, or Zaal, as we come to know. Talia brings him out of his shell slowly but the attraction between these two is evident from the first moment she reaches out and touches him while he's chained to the basement floor, trying to overcome the drugs coursing through his system. It's the first soft touch he's felt in 21 years, and my heart just melted at that point. The next 150 pages were golden. I lost a little steam during the super sappy ending for this couple. The purple prose was a little overwhelming. But the good parts way overshadowed those bits and the series arc progressed even more with the last couple of pages. I think readers might guess what's coming up for the next book, and I can almost say that I think a handful more pages could have really enhanced this story. However, it's not a cliffhanger per se. Just a teaser for book three, I'm assuming.

These two books were my first by this author and I'm very impressed! I can see why all the fuss now. She does caveman alpha very, very well.

Advance copy provided for review