MY MADDIE (Hades Hangmen #8) by TILLIE COLE

**Spoiler-free Review**

“I…I’m tired Maddie. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t breathe anymore. I can’t keep feeling the flames anymore…”

My Maddie by Tillie Cole made our hearts hurt so much. We weren’t expecting a full length emotional crying fest when we began reading. Maddie and Flame is one of our favourite Hangmen couple, and we have loved the tortured Flame right from the get go. His journey has broken our heart continuously, but this time…it annihilated it. A broken man who found calm and love with the sweet Maddie, who herself needs Flame to soothe the deep scars from her horrific cult life.

“Angel.” I could not move as he spoke. “The angel in my dreams who rescues me from the flames, from the cellar.” I exhaled, my heart shattering into a thousand pieces. “The angel who finds me when I’m lost…”
‘Love was a powerful remedy, but it was not a cure for some scars. They ran too deep. They were incurable.’

Once again Tillie Cole wrote a hauntingly emotional story in the Hangmen series that was so vividly expressive, we felt everything. We felt the heat from the demons and the flames and shook from the excruciating hopelessness of it all. Whilst Yes, this is Flame and Maddie’s story it was also quite the journey for Ash, albeit only the beginning in some respects. The sheer intensity at times was astoundingly overwhelming. At times we forgot to breathe. In amongst the seemingly never ending darkness, which at times became a tad too repetitive, there were rays of pure beauty and light.

“Wherever he has gone, we will find him and remind him that he is ours. We are his. He is our deepest love.”
“Because I have found the one whom my soul loves.”

Being back with the Hangmen is always a wonderful treat, one which we will never tire of. Catching up with everyone, finding out what’s been happening and just spending time with them. Well it’s like donning our cuts and being back with our biker family.

‘Together we would burn and, in the very depths of the inferno, we would be reborn.’

Tillie Cole managed to weave in moments of light-hearted banter and it sure did make us look forward to Viking’s book! What we dread though, but cannot wait for at the same time, is Ash’s book. This boy has our tummies tied up in knots, and we’re scared for him. So very scared. Whilst he found some aspects of healing, he has a very long way to go in finding peace and overcoming his demons. These Cade boys own our hearts and all we want for Ash is to find his own calm, his own love. We’re prepared for more tears to come…

“We can do this, Flame. Our souls may still be fractured, but they are healing. Someday, only faint scars will remain.”