Group Therapy Book Club Blog & Review: Review & Signed Paperback Giveaway: Sins & Needles by Karina Halle

Monday, June 3, 2013

Review & Signed Paperback Giveaway: Sins & Needles by Karina Halle

Title:     Sins & Needles (The Artist Trilogy #1)
Author:     Karina Halle
Release Date:     January 25, 2013

Rating: 5 Star *****

See the Rafflecopter at the end of the review to enter to win a signed paperback of Sin & Needles. These paperbacks are no longer available for purchase so here is your chance to own one.

My Review:

Who is Ellie Watt?

They say you can always go home, but for Ellie it’s a little more complicated than that. She hasn’t been that girl for a long time now. She’s a vagabond, a drifter… a con. Her sole focus has been revenge. Revenge against the person that ruined her so long ago, but she messed up, she let her emotions get involved in the game. So now she’s in trouble and running. She doesn’t know where to go or who to be next so she heads “home” to regroup and plan her next move. She is tired of the game and ready to go legit… or is she? She needs money to go legit and how does a girl like her get money? A con of course.

Who is Camden McQueen?

Camden is a man from Ellie’s past. Her one and only friend. That is until she hurt him… embarrassed him and pushed him away. Crushing him and adding herself to the list of abusive people in his life. He’s not that boy anymore though. He is a man… a gorgeous man… a forgiving man. No longer the freaky Goth she remembers from High School … Camden is all grown up and grown up well. After a bad divorce and losing custody of his son he is back in Palm Valley running a successful tattoo parlor and playing guitar in a local band. He wants to get to know the girl he loved all those years ago. They still have a connection, but Ellie needs that last con, an out, and seeing how successful Cam is and how trusting he is of her… makes him an easy mark right?

Cam is not as naïve as Ellie had hoped. He sees her game coming and is prepared when she makes her move. She is blindsided and now she is at his mercy and has to make a deal with him to keep herself out of jail. Turns out Cam’s life isn’t so idyllic after all. He wants out. He needs her help and she can’t refuse, but Cam has no idea what he just signed up for. Ellie has enemies, very powerful enemies who want her back. Disappearing is going to be much harder than he thought and now he is caught in the middle of her fight to survive. Oh and that pesky little crush he had on her way back when… not exactly done with that either. Great!

I love a story with flawed heroes & heroines. Life is not sunshine & rainbows all the time. Every girl is not an ethereal virgin and every boy is not a young, gorgeous billionaire who needs to find the right girl to tame him. Sin & Needles delivers in the raw, gritty, scary story of life. Life where you mess up and make some stupid choices that affect not only you but the people you care about. A ripple affect of shit. Ellie is the product of her upbringing. Raised by parents who were thieves & cons and used her in their schemes. She was a child thrown into a very adult world and she was irrevocably hurt in the process. All she ever wanted was to be avenged so she set out to avenge herself. Turns out that she is not as good at the game as she hoped. Now she and Cam have to find away to start new and stay alive. It’s a wild ride that will leave you breathless and have you cheering for the bad guys… or the good guys… oh hell, I am not even sure which is which???

Favorite Quotes:

"I'm not bad. The world is bad and I'm just trying to survive in it.”

“You know how I feel about your scars. They only make you more beautiful.”