DARKNESS EMBRACED (Hades Hangmen #7) by TILLIE COLE

‘I love you, princess…Never forget that, even when I’m gone from here…I’ll only ever protect you…I’m gonna find a way for us to be together…someday…No matter how long it takes…’

Tanner and Adelita finally got their story and what a wild emotional ride it was. Tillie Cole had us hooked with her first Hangmen book and every single book thereafter. And yet again, there was so much we loved about Darkness Embraced we’re not sure where to start or how much to say as we don’t want to spoil it for readers yet to pick it up.

‘The princess and the prince of opposing kingdoms, unable to stay away from each other.’

If you think dark fairy-tale set in the world of the Brothers Grimm, where the Prince and Princess must fight for their true love you’ll be headed in the right direction. Add in the Hangmen MC, the Ku Klux Klan and the Mexican cartel and you’ve got an explosive addition to one of the most brilliant biker series out there. Tillie Cole is a natural storyteller, one of the most gifted we know, and we’re as stunned and in awe of her talent as we were when we picked up her first book six years ago. In Tillie’s own words, which we share the sentiments of: “Our Hangmen world kicks ass!”

“It’s all I know. I was born, then crafted into the perfect White Prince. Beaten if I dared speak to someone outside of the white race.”

Tanner, ‘The White Prince who betrayed his race’, has intrigued us since we met him. Abhorred for what he once stood for, loved for what he has endured and survived. As we learn of his story where he was groomed by violence and how he fell for the ‘forbidden’ we read the words with tears in our eyes. “We are not our Fathers.” When love is seen as betraying your race, in a world you’ve been indoctrinated to inhabit and serve by any means, you know you have a fight on your hands. Tanner stole our hearts as his story unfolded from a man who was rightly hated to a man trying to redeem his past atrocities.

‘The love I felt for Tanner…Sometimes, in my darkest of moments, I wondered if this level of love, this soul-shattering kind of possession, was worth all the pain and heartache.’

Adelita, The Mexican Cartel Princess, a fierce and beautiful girl who lives in a world of lies, deception, brutality and hatred. An isolated girl who has her entire world turned upside down yet she displays such an inner strength with dreams of love and family. A lonely girl lost. Until Tanner and the Hangmen. Adelita was a beautiful character with her loyalty and need to protect.

“Adelita Quintana. You’re making me want things I never dreamed I could want.”

Darkness Embraced was just perfection -in all its twists- the pages literally felt alive in our hands. Told in past and present we live with our characters through their terror and tragedy, their love and passion, their discovery and redemption. We were with our beloved Hangmen as we experienced the utter despair of violence and its horrific consequences. Once again, there’s a fine line between love and hate, but ultimately love will win if you light up the way and fight for it with your entire being.

“It is you, Adelita. You are the one for Tanner, and he is the one for you. You are one another’s light in the dark.”

And so the story continues….and we can’t wait to embrace more of this deliciously intense and passionately dark world, penned by the magnificent Tillie Cole.

See our Hades Hangmen Series reading order and reviews here