Title: Souls Unfractured
Series: Hades Hangmen #3
Author: Tillie Cole
Age group: New Adult
Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance
Release date: 11th August 2015
Dark Contemporary Romance.
Contains explicit sexual situations, violence, disturbingly sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language, and very mature topics.
Recommended for age 18 years and over.
BOOK LINKS
BLURB
"For fractured souls are like
magnets.
Drawn to collide into an
impossible bliss…"
Labeled a ‘Cursed’ woman of Eve from birth,
Maddie has endured nothing but pain and repression at the hands of The Order’s most abusive elder, Moses. Now living with her sister
in The Hangmen’s secluded compound, finally, Maddie, is free. Free from
the suffocating faith she no longer believes in. Free from endless years of
physical and mental torment.
Just… free…
At age twenty-one, the timid and
shy Maddie is content to live within the confines of her new home—safe from the outside world, safe from harm and,
strangely, protected by the Hangmen’s most volatile
member; the heavily pierced and tattooed, Flame.
Flame.
The man who ceaselessly watches
over her with his midnight dark and searing eyes. The man who protects her with
a breath-taking intensity. And the man who stirs something deep within her
numbed heart.
But when circumstances conspire
for Flame to need HER help, Maddie bravely risks it all for the broken man who
has captivated her fragile soul.
The Hangmen’s most infamous member, Flame, is ruled by one thing—anger. Plagued by haunting demons from his past, an
all-consuming rage, and isolated by an abhorrent hatred of being touched,
Flame's days are filled with suffocating darkness, pierced only by a single ray
of light—Maddie. The shy, beautiful woman he cannot purge from his
thoughts. The woman he has an overwhelming need to possess…
... the only person who has ever
been able to touch him.
Flame’s mission in life is to protect Maddie, to keep her safe.
Until a trigger from his troubled past sends him spiraling into madness, trapping
him in the deepest recesses of his disturbed mind.
His Hangmen brothers fear that
Flame is beyond saving.
His only hope of salvation: Maddie
and her healing light.
Excerpt
Gathering my floor-length dress in my
hands, I walked into the body of the church, rushing forward until the bright
sun from the open entrance lit up the dark wooden floor.
“I won’t say it again. I
need you to leave or I’ll call the police.” Pastor James was talking when I arrived
at the large doors. The man from the choir immediately saw me and tapped her on
her arm.
Pastor James turned round and paled. “Maddie, darlin’, stay in the
church and call your sister, or even better, Mr. Nash.”
Her face betrayed her fear but her
protests quickly turned to white noise in my ears as I reached the exit and
saw, waiting below, at the edge of the busy road was him…
Flame. He was
pacing back and forth. As always, I counted his steps. Eleven to the right,
eleven to the left.
As I drank in how he looked, I feared my
legs would collapse. That confusing sensation of my stomach swooping hit me as
my eyes focused on his leather-clad legs and the Hangmen cut partly covering his
bare torso.
His strangely cut dark hair was in its
usual state of disarray. His skin was pale and he had lost weight. I frowned.
His muscles were twitching more than usual. His hands clenched into fists more
than normal. His lips were muttering something inaudible from this distance,
yet…
he was still Flame.
He was still the man who protected me. He was still the silent shadow that kept
me safe.
The man I had missed with the most
incredible fervor.
His friends, Viking and AK, stood off to
the side. Viking, the enormous red haired brother, looked distressed as he
talked to the dark-haired AK, and when he ran his hand through his hair, he
turned and his attention locked on me.
Viking’s large chest deflated in what looked
like relief and he said something to AK. AK looked toward me and threw a small
tired wave.
But I did not have the time to spare for
them. All I could concentrate on right now was Flame.
I winced as I caught sight of white gauze
on the side of his neck. The gunshot graze. The bullet that should have hit me
if he had not thrown himself in its path...
... to protect me.
Flame’s pace increased. I could see his hands
shaking as his fists became impossibly tight. Then, with a corded neck, he
began to scream. His croaked and rough voice made it to “MADD—”
before his eyes
whipped to the top of the stairs.
Where they collided with mine.
Flame’s bellowed call caught in his throat and
his body came to an abrupt stop. He staggered on uneasy feet as though he was
too tired to be standing. But that midnight stare remained. His hands stopped
shaking, his wide bare chest pumped at a heady speed, yet a strange kind of
calm seemed to flow over him.
I wanted to speak to him.
I wanted take his hand in mine and thank
him. Thank him beyond words for saving my life.
But I could not. I did not have the
courage.
AUTHOR BIO
Tillie Cole is a Northern girl through and through. She
originates from a place called Teesside on that little but awesomely sunny
(okay I exaggerate) Isle called Great Britain. She was brought up surrounded by
her English rose mother — a farmer’s daughter, her crazy Scottish father, a savagely
sarcastic sister and a multitude of rescue animals and horses.
SOCIAL MEDIA
LINKS
GIVEAWAY
3.5 Stars
Hades Hangmen, #3, my good ole boy Flame finally gets his story. And what a story it is. The infamous Tillie Cole does it again. Infamous, because this woman must be criminal to write such brutally raw and invigorating, heartbreaking and touching depictions from her mind.
Flame is the psychotic member of the Hangmen MC. Withdrawn and emotionless, cannot be touched, and always within his own head. His most discerning features are the tattooed Flames on his body and the blades he carries, that he uses to self-inflict eleven counts of physical punishment. Cuts, slashes, gashes, that eases the burning flames within his body.
After rescuing the Cursed sisters from the Commune, Flame encountered a phedophilic elder, Brother Moses, whom he brutally murdered. So he shall die as he has lived. When Maddie embraced Flame for the first time, it was shocking and relieving. His touch didn't hurt her, it didn't kill her. Her touch calmed him. From this moment on, Flame's mission was to protect Maddie.
Maddie's past haunted her every single day. She had nightmares of Brother Moses. The Elder assigned to her. To rid her of her sin. A man that thrived and lusted on inflicting pain. Maddie was always quiet and kept to herself. Her passion was to sketch, living out her life on those pages.
They were both afraid of touches. Maddie because of the unwanted, unthinkable and brutal ways she was sexually exorcised of her inherent sin. Flame, for he was a timid boy whose mannerisms and quiet demeanor, made him different from other children. Whose father deemed him, evil. Exorcising his sons evil through vicious beatings, and drunken sexual attacks, while physically marring Flame's body. Attempting to remove the devil's Flame from his body. Making his son believe he was evil and his touch was death.
In this moment, seeing the man who had become the centre of my world, breaking, I wanted nothing more than to save him.
The innocent depiction of two tarnished souls, in body and mind, was emotional and gut wrenching. The vivid images of their past and the way it affected their present, stole every ounce of strength out of me. The book focused solely on how they came to be and how they dealt with circumstances that made them into who they are. I truly enjoyed seeing Maddie and Flame unravel. Seeing their fears and emotions worn on their sleeves, the way they both came together and were shattered by their pasts.
"You, Flame. My Flame. My tortured boy. You gave me life and light."
Their coupling was bitter sweet. Flame and Maddie never had this intimacy before. It was only ever physically forced upon them. Flame only knew the act through pain, and that's the only way he associated sex. His arousal depended on pain. Maddie though, could not associate with pain. Especially while in the act with Flame. Because she only saw brother Moses face as he shackled her and took her painfully over and over again. This act was different for her. It meant something and she couldn't tarnish and sully the act by inflicting pain on Flame.
“I used to wonder how two people- one broken girl, and one broken boy- could ever move on from their dark and tortured pasts. But now I know. Together, that’s how. They fight their way through… together.”
I must say that Tillie Cole depicted Flame perfectly. His tortured past, his haunting present and the living nightmares he succumbed to. This book brought out both characters fears and it showed their resilience towards the atrocities they endured. We were given some surprises, which, were, for me at least, predictable. The ending flawed me, even though I knew it was inevitable.
The book was well written and encompassed the true essence of the entire series plot. However, in my estimation, this book didn't capture me in the way I initially imagined it would. Even though I loved it, I started to get bored with Maddie's character. Sorry TC. It's just me.
*ARC provided by Have Book Will Read on behalf of the author for an honest review* Thanks!!
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