SINS AND NEEDLES
THE ARTIST’S TRILOGY BOOK ONE
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).
This is the 1st book in the trilogy. It is followed by the novella On Every Street (released in March 2013) and the sequel Shooting Scars (released in May 2013). The third and final book in the series will also be released in 2013.***
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On Every Street
When young con artist Ellie Watt decides to call herself Eden White and go after the drug lord who ruined her as a child, she never expects to fall for one of his henchmen. But Javier Bernal is no ordinary man. Subtly dangerous and overwhelmingly seductive, Eden finds herself passionately in love with Javier, the very person she’s set-up to betray. With her body and heart in a heated battle against her deep need for revenge, no one will walk away from this con a winner. This novella takes place six years before Sins & Needles
COMING MARCH 2013
Shooting Scars
A second chance at first love.
There are a few things worth risking everything for – even your life. For Camden McQueen, this is one of them.Shooting Scars is the second book in The Artists Trilogy and is told from the dual POV of Camden and Ellie.
COMING MAY 2013
REVIEW: Sins and Needles
OK, like I said last week when I did the cover reveal for Shooting Scars – I LOVE KARINA HALLE. I’m not even gonna lie, she gets five stars every time I review her, and Sins and Needles is no different. In this review I’m going to try and explain what she does that I like.
OK, first, here’s the run down in a few sentences. Ellie is a born and bred con artist, she’s gotten into some big trouble, and she wants to go straight – but there’s that one last job to get her through. There’s always one last job, right? 😉
Camden is a loser from high school who makes good. Errr…sorta. He looks good on the outside. Ellie is kinda out of options, so she goes back home to the high desert in CA to see her uncle, the only family she has left. Sorta.
Everything is a sorta in this book. It’s all sorta relative. Anyway, she bumps into Camden, they have a past, let’s just leave it at that for now, and she finds him very attractive. He’s cleaned up since high school, and he’s got money.
Enter Ellie’s last con job. That’s right, she falls for a guy while she’s conning him, and then things get interesting.
Karina writes like people talk. When she’s writing a character, you feel like you are that character, that’s how deep in the mind you get. I love that. Maybe some people don’t, but I do. I enjoy first person point of view (when done RIGHT) for this reason. Karina Halle does it right.
I’ve read some of the reviews and at first I thought there would be nothing but sex in this book. There is some, but it’s not about sex – this story is about making good. Fixing past mistakes. Second chances.
This is the best part about this book, in my opinion – because if you’ve never needed a second chance before, then you haven’t lived.
Second chances, and the life that leads up to needing them, are what reveals your true character. And that’s what this book is about – we’re looking for who Ellie really is. Who Camden really is. And maybe, if they do it up right, maybe they’ll finally be able to reveal who they were meant to be, instead of who they were told to be.
It’s a journey for Camden and Ellie and WOW – the end. I can’t wait to read On Every Street (I bet that’s a freaking hot relationship! Holy crap! I’m really interested in learning more about Javier!!!) and Shooting Scars.
Five stars for Sins and Needles by Karina Halle.
AUTHOR BIO
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.
Author Links:
Lily B
Awesome review I hope to read this one soon myself, so many seem to have loved it
J. Anne Huss
It’s a good one Lily. And it’s a quick read – because everything Karina writes is paced so well and the words just flow.
Aman
This was one first Karina Halle book and now I can’t wait to read more from her. Sins & Needles had such an unexpected storyline, and i loved the twist along the way. PS: I’m a Javier fan, and I can’t wait to read his fan. It will be epic.
J. Anne Huss
Me too Aman! I there was definitely something about Javier that got to me.