Sins & Needles
by Karina Halle
Publication date: January 25th 2013
Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary, Drama
Source: eARC, NetGalley
My Rating: 
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Ellie Watt is used to starting over. The daughter of a grifting team, Ellie spent her childhood being used as a pawn in her parents’ latest scam. Now she’s much older, wiser and ready to give her con artist life a rest. But returning to the dry desert town of Palm Valley, California means one more temptation than she bargained for – Camden McQueen. Once known as the high school weirdo, Camden is bigger and badder than the boy he used to be and a talented tattoo artist with his own thriving business. Ellie’s counting on Camden still being in love with her but what she’s not counting on is how easily unrequited love can turn into obsession over time. When Camden discovers Ellie’s plan to con him, he makes her a deal she doesn’t dare refuse, but her freedom comes with a price and it’s one that takes both Ellie and Camden down a dangerous road.
***The Artists Trilogy is a dark and sexy contemporary ride about three flawed individuals caught in a world where it’s so easy to justify the bad things we do. This is a pure adult read (Not YA or NA).
My Thoughts
Ellie Watt is the daughter of grifters — con artists that began using her at a young age to help them get what they wanted. She’s had a rough life, to say the least. After being deserted by her parents and left to struggle through her high school years in the home of her Uncle, Ellie takes off and starts her own life as a con artist. After years of perfecting her craft, twenty-six years old now, she is on the run from a con gone wrong, which is nothing new for her, and ready to take back her real identity.
I was used to running and always kept a spare life in the trunk. Spare clothes, spare driver’s licenses, spare Social Security numbers, and a spare tire.
Ellie has played the role of many different people through the years and she wants nothing more than to go back to her home town with her Uncle and start over – totally legit. When she arrives back in Palm Valley, though, her plans to head down a straight and narrow path go right in the crapper, and it all starts with smokin’ hot Camden McQueen. Of course, it doesn’t end there. It’s not nearly as simple as just a guy from her past. There’s another guy, from a time between her past and present, loads of dirty money, and a stolen car.
Sins & Needles is … WOW. I don’t even know where to start with this one. There’s simply not a significant enough way to express how well written this book is, how gritty and intense the plot is, how vibrant the characters are portrayed. The story flows so perfectly, even the flashbacks to Ellie’s high school years, when the relationship between she and Camden first developed, is seamless. This book is not for the faint of heart. It’s raw and real, no sugar coating involved, and at times very steamy.
My feelings for Ellie Watt flip flopped a few times. At first I thought, “Yeah, this chick is totally bad ass!” She’s tough, clever and freaking hilarious, she doesn’t put up with any shit from anyone. After meeting Camden.. oh, Camden.. I became so angry with Ellie. I didn’t understand why she was scheming again so quickly after declaring her plan to change her ways. I really wanted to punch her. Why does she have to screw everyone over? I felt protective of Camden, which is strange because he is this beautiful, blue-eyed, muscular, tall drink of water, obviously not in need of my help, but still. Throughout the story my feelings for several characters alternated, which was extremely interesting to me. It was incredible how much I felt like a part of this story, as if I was watching it unfold with my own two eyes. And then the way it ended.. GAH! I wanted to immediately begin reading On Every Street, the prequel/backstory on Javier — oh, you’ll meet him, too, the evil, sexy bastard — but I had a NetGalley to Kindle issue and just about screamed and woke up my family in the middle of the night when I realized it was missing. I really want to read that one before moving on to Shooting Scars!
Anyway, Sins & Needles is freaking phenomenal and I highly recommend it to all fans of adult contemporary (dark, twisted, sexy) romantic thrillers. This is a fast-paced book full of intense action, heartache, and an extremely dangerous road to redemption mixed with steamy romance. I may just have to set aside a few weeks to do nothing other than read Karina Halle books.
About the Author
The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with). Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiance and rescue pup.
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