Sins and Needles by Karina Halle

Book: Sins and Needles
Author: Karina Halle.
File type: E-book
Publisher: Metal Blonde books
Release Date: 25th January 2013
My rating: 3 out of 5.

synopsis:
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).


Now, where do I even start.

I like Karina Halle. I absolutely adore her writing. She takes the most messed up characters, puts them in a situation where you have to either fight or run away. Then she makes them do things which completely flies over my head, which frankly speaking messes with my ridonkulous brain a bit and then finally, she ends it with a cliffhanger. 
Nice. 

I think the best thing about Karina Halle, is that she introduces characters who have problems that I can't relate with, but I sort of understand why or what led them to do whatever they did. It's like saying that you maybe the weirdest and the most ridiculously brave adventure junkie on the planet or you may be a person who loves to smoke weed, but in both the cases there is only one fact that motivates you: Your need to feel that rush. A person, a spectator, who isn't either one of those people, would still understand what led the others to be an adrenaline or you know, weed junkie, because he or she understands what it feels like to be suspended in a rush, even if he doesn't relate to any of the situations.
So it was something like that for me. 

Ellie Watt, Camden McQueen and Javier.. (I don't remember his surname. oops.) are three characters who are people who do what they want to do and I don't get why. Like for example, there were several situations where I thought that hmmm, maybe I'd do that differently, but you know what, it was okay. 
I wasn't too sold out when it came down to the plot. Initially, yes I was, but 100 pages in and I realised that maybe, just maybe, I know exactly how this would play out and eventually, it did.
But I like how it was built upon. There were these tiny yet powerful complex elements that jumped right at me through the pages and it made the lack of direction, okay.For instance, the part where we get to see this entirely new side of Camden and you realise that beneath his tattooed and sexy exterior there is a restrained animal, waiting to be unleashed onto the world. Now, that really excited me. 

Maybe my accusation of this book being directionless isn't the best way to describe the book, but I do believe that there was something terribly incomplete. Although, it is a trilogy and I see the purpose of a cliffhanger, I just felt so unsatisfied by the end of it that I wanted to pounce on the next one immediately. On second thought, maybe this is a tactic to lure me into buying the second one. WELL, GOOD FOR YOU BECAUSE IT DID THE TRICK.

Another flaw, a very major one, in my opinion was the relationship between Camden and Ellie. Honestly, I don't buy it. In fact it's funny how Javier attracted my attention much more than Camden ever did. While I couldn't understand Camden and Ellie, I was excited by the prospect of Javier and Ellie and that is precisely why I intend to devour the novella, 'On every Street', with happinesss.

Overall, even with its flaws, Sins and Needles proved to be a nice start of my journey to devour Karina's books. It was very promising and I can't wait to get over with this review and jump onto the next one. Which is now. Ta-ta!