Raphael
Leave it to Tillie Cole to make me feel so uncomfortable for liking a book. Most of her books deal with hard subjects. They make you feel bad for liking certain characters, and she makes unconventional people the hero of her books.
"They are the Fallen. A brotherhood of murderers whose nature compels them to kill. But guided by their leader, Gabriel, the Fallen have learned to use their urges to rid the world of those it is better off without. For Raphael, sex and death are intertwined. Where there is one, there must be the other. He is a lust killer, luring his victims with the face of an angel and a body built for sin. And Raphael lives to sin. His newest mission takes him to the sadistic underworld of Boston's secret sex clubs, and puts him face to face with his greatest fantasy made flesh. Maria is everything he's ever dreamed of, the kill he's always longed for. She's not his target. And he knows he must resist. But the temptation is too strong..Yet Raphael is not the only one with a mission. Maria is not quite what she seems. And as her secrets and Raphael's unravel, Maria begins to question everything she thought she knew- about evil, about the place she calls home, about the beautiful sinner she was sent to destroy."
*Dark contemporary romance. Contains sexual situations, violence, sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language and topics some may find triggering. Recommended for age 18 years and up. The Fallen: Genesis a prequel novella in The Deadly Virtues Series MUST be read before Raphael (DV: Book One.)*
"The angel willingly living in a den of demons. Unrepentant, soul-stealing demons."
Tillie Cole's books always go from one end of the spectrum to the other. You can get the sweet and soul shattering beautiful with A Thousand Boy Kisses, or you can get the dark, hard to read, and disturbing with the Hangmen series or this book. I felt extremely uncomfortable reading this book, but I was still hanging on to every word.
Raphael isn't misunderstood, he is plain and simply a murderer. He gets joy from killing people, and he gets great joy from having sex with people while he's killing them. He is dark and disturbing, some of the scenes were overly graphic, and it would definitely take some kind of special person to find any redeeming qualities in him. Aside from being devastatingly handsome, he is a terrible person. You have to read the prequel to this series to really get an understanding about him. You can see why he does some of the things he does. This book also gives you a glimpse into his past, which explains why is so obsessed with killing people the way he does.
"And I will break you. I will make it so you can't breathe without me. Can't awaken without seeing my face in your mind. You'll dream of me..and I'll consume you. And when all is said and done, I'll own you. You'll never be rid of me. You'' give me all I ever wanted. Dreamed of. Finally..my little rose."
Maria was so pure. She had been through a terrible tragedy, and an unspeakable crime. She pledged herself to the church to become a nun, when she was asked to do something out of character. She finds herself with Raphael, and while she is at first scared of him, she soon accepts her fate, and finds herself feeling safe and loved by someone who seems incapable of love. She truly is the only person in the world that could love someone like him.
"One dweller of dark, one dweller of light, brought together to collide? To share the burdens of their pasts..to heal?"
I knew what Raphael was capable of, and I knew he had these urges he really couldn't control. I liked that Tillie brought Maria into his world, and she seemed to be the only person that could calm him, that could bring him some sort of peace in the darkness that was his mind. It wasn't really a romance I was rooting for, because I didn't want to see Maria get hurt. I was terrified about how the book would turn out, how it would end. Tillie doesn't worry about giving someone a happily ever after, she just wants to tell her story. When you read a "romance" as dark as this, you really have to expect the unexpected.
"He would be her demise."
Overall, I'm giving this one 4 STARS. I love Tillie, I love her books, and I did enjoy this one. It was so taboo and it made me so uncomfortable, but that's what you would expect to feel with a book like this. I think the book would have been disappointing if it didn't make you feel awful when you were reading it.
"They are the Fallen. A brotherhood of murderers whose nature compels them to kill. But guided by their leader, Gabriel, the Fallen have learned to use their urges to rid the world of those it is better off without. For Raphael, sex and death are intertwined. Where there is one, there must be the other. He is a lust killer, luring his victims with the face of an angel and a body built for sin. And Raphael lives to sin. His newest mission takes him to the sadistic underworld of Boston's secret sex clubs, and puts him face to face with his greatest fantasy made flesh. Maria is everything he's ever dreamed of, the kill he's always longed for. She's not his target. And he knows he must resist. But the temptation is too strong..Yet Raphael is not the only one with a mission. Maria is not quite what she seems. And as her secrets and Raphael's unravel, Maria begins to question everything she thought she knew- about evil, about the place she calls home, about the beautiful sinner she was sent to destroy."
*Dark contemporary romance. Contains sexual situations, violence, sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language and topics some may find triggering. Recommended for age 18 years and up. The Fallen: Genesis a prequel novella in The Deadly Virtues Series MUST be read before Raphael (DV: Book One.)*
"The angel willingly living in a den of demons. Unrepentant, soul-stealing demons."
Tillie Cole's books always go from one end of the spectrum to the other. You can get the sweet and soul shattering beautiful with A Thousand Boy Kisses, or you can get the dark, hard to read, and disturbing with the Hangmen series or this book. I felt extremely uncomfortable reading this book, but I was still hanging on to every word.
Raphael isn't misunderstood, he is plain and simply a murderer. He gets joy from killing people, and he gets great joy from having sex with people while he's killing them. He is dark and disturbing, some of the scenes were overly graphic, and it would definitely take some kind of special person to find any redeeming qualities in him. Aside from being devastatingly handsome, he is a terrible person. You have to read the prequel to this series to really get an understanding about him. You can see why he does some of the things he does. This book also gives you a glimpse into his past, which explains why is so obsessed with killing people the way he does.
"And I will break you. I will make it so you can't breathe without me. Can't awaken without seeing my face in your mind. You'll dream of me..and I'll consume you. And when all is said and done, I'll own you. You'll never be rid of me. You'' give me all I ever wanted. Dreamed of. Finally..my little rose."
Maria was so pure. She had been through a terrible tragedy, and an unspeakable crime. She pledged herself to the church to become a nun, when she was asked to do something out of character. She finds herself with Raphael, and while she is at first scared of him, she soon accepts her fate, and finds herself feeling safe and loved by someone who seems incapable of love. She truly is the only person in the world that could love someone like him.
"One dweller of dark, one dweller of light, brought together to collide? To share the burdens of their pasts..to heal?"
I knew what Raphael was capable of, and I knew he had these urges he really couldn't control. I liked that Tillie brought Maria into his world, and she seemed to be the only person that could calm him, that could bring him some sort of peace in the darkness that was his mind. It wasn't really a romance I was rooting for, because I didn't want to see Maria get hurt. I was terrified about how the book would turn out, how it would end. Tillie doesn't worry about giving someone a happily ever after, she just wants to tell her story. When you read a "romance" as dark as this, you really have to expect the unexpected.
"He would be her demise."
Overall, I'm giving this one 4 STARS. I love Tillie, I love her books, and I did enjoy this one. It was so taboo and it made me so uncomfortable, but that's what you would expect to feel with a book like this. I think the book would have been disappointing if it didn't make you feel awful when you were reading it.
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