On Every Street by Karina Halle

(The Artists Trilogy, book 0.5)

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 50K word (100+ pages) novella takes place six years before Sins & Needles. It can be read before or after Sins & Needles and may also be read as a stand-alone.

Javier…YOU SON OF A BITCH! You make me fall for you when I didn’t even want to like you in the first place, and then even though I knew what was coming, you managed to rip my heart right out of my chest! There has never been a more perfect example of a love/hate relationship with a character – ever. I want to smack him across the face and rip all his clothes off at the same time. Karina, what have you done to me?!?

This novella is Javier and Ellie’s story, and it’s a fucking whirlwind. After reading Sins & Needles, I was torn on how I felt about a novella involving Javier. I had already made my mind about him and firmly planted myself on Team Camden. But there’s no way this novella would make me change my mind about him, right? I had to read it anyway. Then the unthinkable happened – I started seeing people’s posts about how dashing and charming and sexy Javier is, and now they don’t know who Ellie should end up with. Um…excuse the fuck out of me…but WHAT?! How could you possibly change your mind about this man??

And then I read On Every Street and I’m just as confused about my feelings as everyone else. Well, maybe not as torn, but there's some hesitation in my decision now. This novella allowed us to see the side of Javier that never surfaced in Sins & Needles, and really delve into their relationship. It wasn’t a huge train wreck or horribly one-sided like I thought it would be; it’s sweet and kind and loving…with a dash of crazy mother fucker. With having read Sins & Needles prior to On Every Street, I knew how their relationship would play out and just what actions would lead to their demise, but you know what? My heart hurt just as much this time as it did reading about it in Sins & Needles. Ellie is one of my favorite characters of all-time, and her meltdown in the truck was like taking a freaking hammer to my heart.

I didn’t want to like Javier or think that there might be some good underneath all that asshole, but I can’t help it. He got under my skin. I’m not to the point where I can say I don’t care who she ends up with, but Karina Halle definitely planted a little seed of doubt in my mind. Sure, Javier’s batshit crazy, but Camden isn’t perfectly sane either. On Every Street was an intense and suspenseful novella, and while I’m still Team Camden – the lure of Team Javier is giving me it’s come hither stare and the temptation has made its presence known. There is only one thing I know for sure at this point; I need Shooting Scars, like, yesterday! 

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Sins & Needles Blog Tour

*I was gifted an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Synopsis & My Review:

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 was a high contrast world and I lived a high contrast life." - Ellie

Sweet Jesus – This book took a toll on me. If my emotions were a person, they would be the person drinking straight from the bottle of Jack; because really, who has time for a chaser or a mixer when you feel like you could cry, scream, and throw things all at the same time?! My emotions don’t.

Sins & Needles is a story about deception, manipulation, justification, and redemption. Ellie Watt grew up being used as a pawn in her parents’ schemes and con jobs, and as if it was in her DNA, she followed in their footsteps and decided to make her living conning men out of money. That is, until she cons the wrong man, and is forced to run back to the only place where she can ditch her alter egos and con lifestyle, and just be Ellie Watt – no schemes, no cons, no games. The only place she can attempt to go legit; Palm Valley. Her plans of making a decent living screech to a halt when she runs into Camden McQueen, her former best friend, and finds out he runs a tattoo business. Correction: a very successful tattoo business. While Ellie sees nothing but dollar signs and sets her plan in motion to con Camden, he devises a plan of his own – one that leaves Ellie with no choice but to agree to his terms, regardless of how dangerous they may be.

You know why I loved this book so much?? Well, one reason I loved this book so much…because it was something foreign to me. This story line was brilliant, and took me to a place I knew nothing about – con artists, fake identities, drug cartels, mafia relations; this story made me experience things I have never come close to being involved with in reality. Sure, it’s nice to be able to relate to the story line and the characters, but every so often you need a book that is purely alien to everything you know; a book that takes you out of your comfort zone. Sins & Needles is that book. The characters were extremely well written, albeit incredibly frustrating at times! Ellie damn near broke my heart when she went through with her plan to con Camden, and Camden kind of scared the hell out of me after he caught her. I mean, this line gave me fucking chills: “I own you, Ellie Watt.”

Sins & Needles by far exceeded my expectations, and I will definitely be waiting on pins and needles until the sequel is released. (See what I did there? Huh? Yeeeeah, you see what I did there). This book will take you on a roller coaster of a journey that will rip you apart, put you back together…and then rip you apart all over again. But it’s worth it; hot damn, it’s soooo worth it!

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The Devil's Metal by Karina Halle

(Devils series, book 1)

It’s the summer of 1974 and 21-year old Dawn Emerson has only three things she wants to do: compete one last time in the Ellensburg Rodeo, win back her ex-boyfriend Ryan, and become the best damn music journalist at Central Washington University. But all her plans are left in the dust when she’s contacted by Creem magazine to go on the road with one of her favorite groups, the up-and-coming metal band, Hybrid. 

At first the assignment reads like a dream come true. Not only will Dawn land some much-needed credibility as a female music journalist, but she’ll finally get to experience life from the other side of the stage, and maybe crack the drunken, enigmatic code that is guitarist Sage Knightly. Instead, Dawn finds herself on an aging tour bus filled with ego-maniacs, band politics and a whole lot of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. When monsters start showing up in dressing rooms and some of Sage’s groupies become increasingly strange and dangerous, Dawn discovers the band is not only going places – they’re going straight to Hell.

And Dawn has a backstage pass.

*I was given an ARC of this book for review on The Indie Bookshelf. I have tweaked this review a little bit from the original…*

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll; that’s what this book is about. Oh, did I forget to mention demons? Yeah, throw some demons in there, too. Intrigued? Yeah, that’s right, you should be. The Devil’s Metal is an absolute trip that will leave you feeling like you were right there on the tour bus with Dawn, Jacob, and Hybrid experiencing all the highs (literally) and lows with them. Karina Halle perfectly captures the 1970’s lifestyle and uses extensive, but not overbearing details to paint a picture of life during the bellbottom-wearing, Quaalude-popping, rock and roll era. I’m a late 80’s baby, so I never experienced the rock & roll, hippie, Woodstock craziness of the 70’s, but this book made me feel like I was going through the motions right along with Dawn; from living on a sweaty, dirty tour bus to watching the shows backstage to being surrounded by a cloud of pot smoke in the middle of the concert crowd. Karina knows how to paint a picture, no doubt. She also gets a couple extra points in my book for the several Led Zeppelin references (they are one of my favorite bands), and a reference to Lawrence, KS (home of the KU Jayhawks!!) Yeah, I’m a nerd and get excited about things like that; don’t judge me.

There is an omnipresent hair-raising factor that casts a shadow over the entire book that will make you always feel like something just isn’t right; there is just always something or someone that is a little off. There is quite a bit of foreshadowing that leads you to believe maybe the band knows exactly what’s going on and they just aren’t telling Dawn, like this line for instance: “We all lost our souls when we joined this band…” Hmm…do they mean that figuratively or literally?? However, even with all the hints and foreshadowing, the cause behind everything happening isn’t super obvious; Karina picks the perfect moment to pull you out of the dark and bring to light the reasoning behind all these strange happenings…and strange is putting it mildly. I mean, it is just a big bucket of crazy topped with a nice, heaping pile of WTF?!

Karina does a wonderful job of giving each character their own, very distinct personality traits. It’s obvious she spent a great deal of time developing each character into their own, which makes it so easy to love these characters. Well… some of them. The relationship that forms between Dawn and Sage is slow moving, ridiculously teasing, and eventually crazy hot; the friendship between Dawn and her best friend, Mel, is heartwarming, hilarious, and in one particular scene, gut wrenching. One of my favorite lines of the whole book actually comes from Mel when she’s referring to Dawn’s ex-boyfriend: “He’s good for sloppy kisses and cherry popping and looking slammin’ at our prom.” That line makes me laugh every time! Dawn’s relationships with her Tourette’s-ridden brother Eric, Jacob, and the other members of Hybrid add to her likability as well.

The end seriously gave me chills, and I'm pretty anxious to read the sequel. I don't believe this is classified as YA, and most of the material really isn't appropriate for young adults; there is sex, drug use, profanity, and some pretty scary stuff, y'all. The only paranormal books I had read previously involved vampires, werewolves, things like that; I can't remember reading a book that involved demons and all that other freaky jazz that showed up in Lake Shasta, but I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed that different aspect of paranormal craziness. I'm not big on horror because I'm a big baby, but this book had my interest from almost the very beginning. If you want to read a dark, paranormal, creep-tastic novel with a little romance and a lot of rock & roll on the side, check out The Devil's Metal; it'll take you on one Hell of a ride...

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