ARC Review: Reap by Tillie Cole

★★★★★ 5 stars!!!

"You are... for me?"

I think I may have found a phrase more romantic and heart-melting than "I love you."

I just looooved REAP! It is intense, thrilling, exciting, and very sexy. After reading the book, it felt like I just finished a marathon. I had a stupid grin on my face, I was giddy, I felt like thumping my kindle in a "I just finished reading something really awesome!" kind of way. If there was a fellow romance reader sitting beside me at that time, I would have talked her ear off about it.

REAP is everything and had everything I want to see in a story with this kind of premise: the hero being screwed up emotionally and mentally, transformed into a killing machine with no history and no feelings. I have come across a few books before with a similar premise, but they lost their edge halfway through the narrative. I don't even remember those titles anymore, that's how little they impacted me. But that's definitely not the case with REAP. This one is a winner!

"You are... for me?"

Oh God...! *cue in stupid, silly, swoony grin here* I just... could not! I have no words for how much I swooned and silently squeed whenever these words were uttered. The first time it was said, you could just tell something significant just happened. The fuel has been poured, the key is now in the lock, and the cannon is already loaded. There's no stopping the inevitable; there is no stopping the universe from bringing these two people, Zaal and Talia, together. Those four words packs so much history, meaning and emotion. The only way to fully understand what I mean is to READ THIS BOOK!

I feel like I could babble and gush incoherently for 10 more paragraphs, so I'll sum up my LIKES here:

• The way Tillie Cole wrote the character of Zaal was excellent for me! There was consistency in how he acts and thinks. He manifests both 221 (he shows the qualities of the man the captured boy was transformed into) and Zaal (as the reader, I could also recognize the young boy who was depicted in recall scenes).
• Zaal and Talia's connection did not feel forced at all. They have chemistry, and they somehow make sense in spite of the complicated, Romeo and Juliet-esque situation they are in.
• The truth behind 221's identity. Heartbreaking and shocking, in a "what the F do we do now" kind of way.
• Anri. 362. "Be strong. Keep strong." What happened to him broke my heart, but he is nonetheless one of my favorites, and one of the best things in this book.
• Even though 221 was recalling being Zaal, he didn't lose his dangerous, unstable edge. He is still very much 221, the brainwashed dog who murdered countless people. He didn't suddenly have a personality transplant and turned into a meek, law-abiding, civilized man.
• Luka and Kira, the leads of the previous book, continue to have significant roles in REAP. I think people who haven't read RAZE will still understand how this couple started, what they had to go through to finally be together, and the struggles they continue to face.
• Luka's parents. They are just good people. 
• You are... for me? (it begs to be repeated!!! =D *supersquee!!!*)
• That ending. I. Love. It.
• That epilogue. Give me the 3rd book now PLEASE!