Dual Review: Sins & Needles - Karina Halle

YA Vixens DUAL Review

Sins & Needles - Karina Halle

 

Kait's 5 Star Review

Ellie is on the run, again. After screwing over the wrong guy she decides the safest place to hide is under the only name she hasn't used to scam someone, her real name. She heads back to the place she grew up to visit her uncle, and to figure out a plan. Then Ellie runs into Camden McQueen. It's been years since they last spoke, and the last thing Ellie expected was for things to get complicated with him.

“I took the application from him, our fingers brushing against each other. I felt a spark, electricity.

No, literally.

“Ow,” I said, as I snatched my hand and the application away from him.

He grinned sheepishly and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sorry. I'm a good conductor.”

And that's just the beginning. When Ellie sets her sights on conning Camden things don't go as planned. Camden has her figured out and now he's making her an offer she has to accept. But when Ellie's past comes back to haunt her they have to trust each other to get away alive.

Sins & Needles is an absolutely stunning book. I know a book is good when I get to that last page and I scream “No!”. And I was yelling more than just that one time. The storyline never slowed, and the heat between Ellie and Camden could melt the panties off a prude. My favorite part was the twist that completely blindsided me. I was reading along, enjoying the sexy tension and then BAM! I was hit with the twist. I can hardly explain my love for this book, but I will try.

Karina Halle created characters flawed and fucked up, but she somehow made them loveable too. In a typical novel the male would be the “bad guy”, but this book switches it up. The chemistry, holy balls of fire was there chemistry, between Ellie and Camden had me drooling and panting[quite the image, huh?]. And this isn't the kind of tension and teasing with no pay off, there is pay off. So much amazing pay off... I can get lost just thinking about it again.

“That is what I thought of you, Ellie. Heartless, reckless, selfish, and cruel."
He was back to shooting me when my armor was down. I turned my face away from him, not wanting to let him see the hurt in my eyes. He reached up and put his fingers under my chin, bringing my face forward again, forcing me to look at him.
"Beautiful, sad, wounded, and lost," he continued. "A freak, a work of art, a liar, and a lover."
His gaze was starting to eat away at my insides. Razor-blade butterflies whirled in my heart.
"I hate you, Ellie Watt," he whispered, lips coming closer to mine, "because I still love you after all these years.”

Ellie is the product of her parents, two grifters who care more about the chase than their own daughter. With the life she's lived it's hard not to understand how she could become so jaded. I'm sure there are some who might think the stuff Ellie does is inexcusable, and at some points it was, but I still loved her. I have said it a million times, I am a sucker for a flawed character, and Ellie is so wonderfully flawed.

“That's the trouble with pain, Ellie. If you're lucky, you can wear it for all the world to see. Most people have their pain deep inside, in places no one ever goes. Not until it's too late.”

Camden... I don't even know where to begin with him. From the moment Ellie laid eyes on him in the coffee shop I was sold. I have a things for wounded boys, especially the ones with tattoos. His passion left my breath hitching and my heart trying to break free of my chest. He will go down as one of my all time favorite book boyfriends.

All of this, plus an amazing storyline, make for one of the best books I've read this year. I was shocked more than once, cried more than once, and fell in love completely. And that cliffhanger ending was one of the best/worst. This book earned every one of the five stars. I am not so patiently waiting for the next book in the series. 

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Beth's  ♥♥♥♥  review 
  

 I'm so glad that a fellow bookish friend of mine gifted this book to me, because she was absolutely RAVING about it. [THANK YOU Megan @ The Book Asylum!!]  I actually  didn't get to it right away, cause I was reading god knows what. Then I met Megan at the Pitch Dark Days tour, and she asked if I read it, and I [ashamed] said that I hadn't started it. So then Kait baught it on her Nook since it's on sale right now. So I figured Let's do a dual review!

Ellie grew up with Con Artist parents, also know as Grifters. As a kid, her parents would use her on their scams. Until the one scam that went wrong... severely hurting Ellie. After that, they went to Ellie's uncle's house and decided to go on the 'straight and narrow'. Soon enough, Ellie's parents left her with her uncle and continued grifting. At 19 she seeks revenge on the man that hurt her so badly. So she heads out on her own cons. After being on the run for so long, At the age of 26, Ellie decides to head back home. When at home she runs into Camden. Well, this is when the story REALLY happens. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book... However I was NOT prepared for what happened! I thought it was gonna be a sexy story about a con artist who scams a former friend. Hahah! Fooled was I. That's not even a smidgen of the stress that goes on! WOW. just WOW. seriously. I'm not sure I can say wow enough times. I was completely thrown by the occurances in this novel. Just as I thought I knew where it was going... HOLY SHIT. like fall off the bed shock, twists.

The layers to this book are ridiculous, but it works SO well. There are just so many sides to each character. I was in awe of the raw emotion I found in this novel. However, I wasn't really fond of the "Then" chapters. To be honest, I wanted to skip them all together. I just wanted to get back to the story about Ellie and Cam. And.. as every amazing book goes, there is a cliff hanger.  Why must authors make their characters so selfless!? Summer can't come soon enough. I'm dying to know how this is going to play out. 

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