Reviewed by Sheena

Do not read this as a stand alone. You simply must first read them in order: King, Tyrant and Lawless.  Call it sage advice.  Call it a moral imperative.  Call it because-I’ve-read-them-so-I-know-what-I’m-talking-about-trust-me-on-this-one-eh?  Call it what you want but please do not attempt to start this series at Soulless.  There is a reveal so utterly game changing that you probably really, really want to know why your mind is blown away so righteously.  Me- I can barely see through the chunks of grey matter siding down my forehead and between my eyes for what it’s worth.

Besides boasting my favorite bad ass book cover, book 3, Lawless, left us dangling for our lives at a cliffhanger that was equal parts beautiful and sad.  I hate cliffies, but Lawless was Bear’s story and there was no way I was passing that up so there I was dangling away until Soulless dropped into my lap.  The King series builds book upon book.  To care about Soulless, you first have to understand King.  The dark story of a man lost on his own dark path and the young woman he saves along the way.  He has two friends, Bear and Preppy (*swoons*) and together they have a brotherhood forged in blood and loyalty.  King walks his path with Doe and they both make it out alive. Bear is just starting his own tumultuous journey and when a series of events tear him away from his MC and reunite him with young, troubled Thia, both of their lives hang in the balance.

Soulless is the culmination of carefully planted seeds and plot twists that make me mighty proud of author TM Frazier.  My chief complaint regarding the first three books has been that there is so much good, gritty, dark substance that I revel in, but then, there is always a departure where the envelope is pushed too far and I am jarred out of my sweet reading spot because something completely odd or non sequitur occurred.  It happened in every book and I shook my fists to the heavens each time.  It was akin to drawing a weird, awkward line through a masterpiece.  Never enough to turn me completely off- but enough that it absolutely bears mentioning.  Nevertheless, King was powerful stuff and the break out star Preppy captured my heart in every way.  The quiet force in the King series is Bear.  Bear is the son of the most awful MC President you could fathom. In fact, imagine the most depraved club president you can, then imagine him ten times more brutal and conscious-less, and only then can you begin to scratch the surface that is Chop. Walking away from the MC is by blood or casket in this world, so Soulless begins and ends with the conflict between Bear and his evil incarnate father, Chop.

The world was dark and you turned on the fucking light switch and now it’s so bright, I’m walking around blind.

Thia is Bear’s heart beat.  Drawn to her years before and reunited when she needed him most, their connection is tangible and wild.  He knows little about love, but knows he wants to care for and protect Thia.  The daughter of a deranged mother and murdered family, Thia is also searching for a home- a place where she is loved and safe.  Bear’s in every way, their bond is rock solid and the catalyst to THE BIG REVEAL.  They fight for, along side and on the behalf of the other- equals in their own way.  Thia was no whimpering willy, and she was not ridiculously courageous either.  She was just your average broken woman, trying to keep all the pieces together.  I seldom disagreed with her actions and I enjoyed her point of view.  Bear’s pint of view was so full of emotion and longing that I wanted to beat his father bloody for everything he did to ruin Bear.

Chop grunted his approval, “Hopefully this will teach you a lesson you seem to have a hard fucking time learning.  I do not need or want a son.  What I need is a good fucking soldier.”

He released my cut and pushed me to my knees.  Kicking me in the tailbone with his boot, I feel flat onto the floor, my cheekbone smashing against the black-and-white checkered linoleum.

“Man the fuck up and start showing me some fucking respect before I send you to the same place I sent your cunt of a mother.”

It is a miracle that Bear survived his old man and was remotely salvageable as a man.  It is astonishing that these two people with royally messed up backgrounds survived at all.  Good thing they did, because their smexy times were good.

A few minutes earlier, I’d thought I was dead, and now I’d never felt so alive.  Bear rocked against me, running his hard length through my wetness, and I relentlessly ground against him like I couldn’t get enough.

Because I couldn’t.

I didn’t want to.

Not then.   Not ever.

“You want me, baby?” he asked.  “You want this?”

I knew what he wasn’t just asking if I wanted his cock, he was asking if I wanted this life.

“Fuck me,” I said, answering his question in a language I knew Bear was fluent in.

When Bear met resistance, it was like all of his resistance fell apart. He groaned.  “I love how fucking tight you are.  I love how I have to fight your fucking pussy to push my cock all the way inside you.”

…

I was almost afraid of how deep our connection was.  It was about more than sex.  It was about us, and we were a lot like our sex in a way.  It hurt. It felt amazing.  I never wanted it to end.

The best parts of Soulless lends itself to epic spoilers that I don’t dare ruin for readers.  There is a new female character that I am convinced will be prominent in the next book.  I’d like her to be a surprise, but she is a savage and the hint of her background that we do receive begs for more page time in the future!  Books 1-3 are all fast reads, so the journey to Soulless will pack a punch – but will be quick and worthwhile.  As expected, T.M Frazier did not break her pattern of “wait – what?” scenes and I spent about twenty-five pages more perturbed than I have ever been in my life.  But then I arrived at 99%- the epilogue… and all was forgiven.  Wonky series of events forgotten. The who, what, where, and how- meaningless. The only thing that mattered, the sole resounding question was WHEN??  When is King 5 releasing and WHEN can I get my hands on the blurb that will change everything?  In my own purgatory between disbelief and frightened elation, I nearly bruised my fingers clicking back through King and Tyrant frantically searching for clues and glaring at the moments where my assumptions came back to bite me!

Spoiling an ounce of Soulless would be such a disservice, the best I am willing to do is give you a warning.  This is a violent series and both primary couple’s road to their HEA’s are paved in blood and bones.  It is dark, but deliciously so.  You will laugh, cry, cringe and have your mind blown, so if you are game, give it a chance.  If you are looking for well dressed, polite young men courting their crushes with sweet tea and cupcakes, this is not the series for you.  The only character in this series who dressed well at all wore a bow tie, pressed shirt and slacks- and was perhaps the most visceral dangerous of them all.

Grade: B+

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