Review: Sins & Needles by Karina Halle

 

“When all hell starts breaking loose and sh*t starts getting real, you won’t want to be bothered by the outside world until you’ve read the last word!” ~Under the Covers

This is a hard book to sit down and put into words, just as it was a hard book to read at times.  Nonetheless, I had to know what happened next!  A page turner for sure, and another great read I have to thank my friend Sharon for, and then the awesome UTC followers on Facebook for pushing me to read right away.

The first thing that caught my attention was the Then and Now format of the book.  I’ve always liked it and it’s being used more and more.  Sometimes it doesn’t work.  In this case, I loved the slow unfolding the story and finding out why things in the now happened, and how they might’ve originated in the then.

Ellie Watt is a con artist, has been her whole life.  Raised by con artist parents who home schooled her only on the basics she would need to get by in their line of work, and who then dragged her into what would be a job gone wrong.  This forced them to move out of town and start a different life.  Ellie was put in school but she was always the outcast, for several reasons.  Her one friend during that time was Camden, a weird goth kid who got bullied about his goth looks, among other things.

But that has all been in the past for Ellie, who moved out of town again after high school and has been changing identities ever since.  Going from con job to con job, and bailing when things get dicey.  Now it’s time to make a change and go back to being Ellie, back in CA, and hopefully on the straight and narrow.  Except when she comes back into town, the easy way out is to plan another con.  Apparently no matter who it is, or if she cares about that person.  Oh, and did I mention Elie is also on the run from her crazy drug cartel ex-boyfriend, Javier?

When Ellie meets Camden again he’s all changed, and all sexy.  Owner of a tattoo shop, with sexy piercings, tats, a sexy body and a lot more confidence than the last time she saw him.  But he also has a secret, or a few actually.  This is when I fell for him:

“Like an abstract painting. You can find art and beauty in everything, if you look hard enough. But your beauty is just staring you in the face.”

And then right after that he ripped my heart out.  In his defense, I understand where he’s coming from.  He’s harboring a lot of anger from the past and looking for revenge.  And Ellie just doesn’t know how to be a different person than what she’s been doing her whole life.  So there you have it.  A true unhealthy relationship with two broken individuals, trying to make the best of it and their lives.  I guess that’s the best way to summarize this book, actually.

I’ve often read in reviews that this book is compared to a Quentin Tarantino movie, and in all honesty it can be.  What would be really cool is to actually see this story in a movie.  I think a lot more people would be willing to watch a movie like this then to read the book.  Because I don’t think it’s a book for everyone.  This is a great book for people that like darker themes, gritty storylines, without any pretty decorations.  This is raw life, not sugar coated.  And these are not the best people.  Things are definitely not pretty, there’s lying and cheating and mobsters.  Scars and sins.  Betrayal, guns, car chases and overturned vehicles.  The hero and heroine are most certainly not perfect, even in their dealings with each other.

“This was good. This stranger had flaws. I couldn’t stand perfect people.”

SINS & NEEDLES was an edge of my seat read towards the end.  When all hell starts breaking loose and sh*t starts getting real, you won’t want to be bothered by the outside world until you’ve read the last word!

And I can’t finish this review without acknowledging how much this book brought tears to my eyes.  By the end of this book, I could understand Ellie and I hurt for her and the choices she had to make.  I cried for a good 20 minutes while I was reading the ending and then…..I read the words THE END.  And I screamed, and cried, and sobbed.  Because if we talk about cliffhangers, what a way to end this book!  The author is a mean, mean person to do this to readers and not have the next book out.  That might just be the biggest cliffhanger I’ve read in a while!  This will be one of those books that I might do crazy things to get my hands on an early copy of because I don’t think I can wait until May.  My nerves can’t take it!  In the meantime…I am SO getting her UF stories ASAP.

Favorite Quotes:

“Nothing’s even when you’re being blackmailed.”

 

“Definitely not a Morgan Freeman fan.”

 

“Everyone needs a little excitement…even cars.”

 

“That is what I thought of you, Ellie. Heartless, reckless, selfish, and cruel.” ….“Beautiful, sad, wounded, and lost,” he continued. “A freak, a work of art, a liar, and a lover.”

“I regret my actions but I can’t regret the consequences. We all make our own path in life. Everyone we meet, everything we do, it changes us. It makes us who we are. And, if we’re lucky, we’re given the chance to make things right again.”

 

“This wasn’t a Carrie Underwood song. This shit went fucking Antrax for a while.”

 

 

 Did you like this review? If so, please tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

[about-author author=”Karina Halle”]