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RELEASE DAY BLITZ, GIVEAWAY and EXCERPT: BOLD TRICKS by KARINA HALLE

October 16, 2013

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BOLD TRICKS
by Karina Halle
Publication Date: October 15, 2013
Genre: Contemporary/Romantic Suspense/New Adult
Digital Original eBook
ISBN: 9781455552214

We are so excited to feature BOLD TRICKS by Karina Halle, the final installment in The Artists Trilogy! I am a huge fan of this series and absolutely loved this book. If you haven’t read it yet, go grab it now, you won’t be disappointed! Scroll down for an excerpt and enter the Raffelcopter giveaway for an ipad mini!

Summary:

The Faster They Live, the Harder They Fall . . .
Raised by con artists, Ellie Watt has a lot of crazy childhood memories-but none crazier than being scarred with acid by the demented crime boss Travis Raines. Now Ellie is a full-grown woman who lives for
revenge, and Travis is a full-blown drug lord who kills for pleasure. The sadistic bastard has kidnapped her good friend Gus as well as her mother, whom he’s been holding as prized possessions in his heavily guarded lair. And Ellie has only one chance in hell
of getting them out alive-using two dangerous men who love her to death . . .
One is Camden McQueen, a talented tattoo artist who’s made a permanent mark on Ellie’s heart. The other is Javier Bernal, her fiery ex-lover who’s busted more than a few heads in his time. From the crime-ridden streets of Mexico City to the predatory jungles
of Honduras, this unlikely trio forms an uneasy alliance in the deadliest game of all-a gun-blazing battle to the finish that will pit enemy against enemy and lover against lover. And Ellie must choose the right man to trust . . . or die.

EXCERPT:

Ugh. Sharing a room with Javier would be a nightmare at this point, but Camden did have a point. I didn’t trust Javier and knew he was capable of screwing us over at the first opportunity. Staying in separate bedrooms this early in the game would be the perfect opportunity for him to up and leave us. Javier’s alliance only extended to his sister, not to Gus, and the fact that he was even agreeing to help us at all said a lot. Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly what it said.
“I’m staying with you,” I quickly said to Javier. I didn’t bother putting on an act, smiling or acting coy. He’d see straight through me anyway. He always did.
He raised his brow. “Is that right, angel? And to what do I owe your angelic company?”
“Because you’re both the same,” Camden filled in. He stepped forward and quickly swiped a key out of Javier’s hand. “You’re meant for each other.” He took off for his room, his back straight and proud. My heart both lurched and ached at his words, how badly he was brushing me off, how I’ll he thought of me.
Javier was surprised and loving it. He turned to me, mouth slightly agape. “Wow. Something tells me he was trying to be insulting.”
I couldn’t even fake a smile. “Which one is our room?” I asked, feeling sick as the words came out.
He grinned at me, all snake, no conscience. “Whichever one I choose, angel. Have you got all your belongings?”
Normally I would have brought out everything from the trunk, but there were an awful lot of lives in there, an awful lot of stuff. With me keeping an eye on Javier all night, it was probably safe.
I shook my head. “It’s fine.”
He smiled again, especially as Camden shut the door to room number one.
“Let’s take numero tres, sí?” Javier asked. “More privacy.” He grabbed my hand and led me toward it, though there was nothing gentle or warm in his touch. Just like that, those days were over. I was back to dealing with the spurned Javier, the hunter and the sadist.
He opened the door and flicked on the lights. A few cockroaches skittered underneath the bed, and moths darted to the threadbare light fixture hanging from the ceiling. The room was as run-down as I’d ever seen, and for one twisted second I was glad I wasn’t sleeping there alone. In the next second, though, I was reminded that the company of insects was preferable to his.
He closed the door behind us and put his hand at my neck, holding me there, and leaned into my ear. “Do you want top or bottom?”
I stiffened for a moment then rammed my elbow back into his gut. “Fuck you.”
He let go of me and coughed loudly, still trying to smile. “You should be glad I’m giving you the option, angel.”
“You’re a sick pig.”
He straightened up and shrugged. “It’s what you liked until about, oh, twelve hours ago. Tell me, angel, what is it about that boy that makes you forget who you really are? Is it the tattoos, because you know I have those.” He quickly shed his linen shirt and stood bare-chested before me, the tattoo of his mother’s name on his inner arm. He turned around slowly, making sure I saw the large cross going down his spine. “Or is it those horrible glasses of his? You know, I can look like a fucking idiot if I really wanted to.”
I narrowed my eyes, keeping far away from him like wary prey. “He sees the good in me.”
He laughed. “The good. Of course. The good. So, is that why you’re spending the night with me? Because I looked into that boy’s eyes tonight and there was no good in there left for you.”
My gaze locked with his, a war without further words. His eyes shone yellow-green in the light, looking more inhuman by the moment. Deep in his insanity, he was making some sense. That’s what I hated most about Javier, that there was always a kernel of truth to his words, a truth that made you fall for the lies.
I sucked back my breath and nodded at the sagging bed. “You better get a good night’s sleep.” Then I grabbed one of the pillows and the top sheet and brought it over to the thin Mexican rug that ran along the foot of it.
“You’re serious?” he asked as I started making my bed on the floor.
“Good night,” I told him, lying down on top of the sheet. I didn’t trust the cleanliness of the floor and it was too hot to have a sheet on top of me anyway. I rolled over so I was facing away from him. He was still standing near the bed.
“Come now,” Javier said. “Sharing a bed with me isn’t that bad. You’ve been doing it for the last week. Is the inevitable sex too distracting?”
I ground my teeth together but didn’t say a word.
Suddenly he dropped to the ground on top of me, flipping me over so I was on my back, pinning both of my arms to the ground, his face just inches from mine. Wild strands of his hair partially obscured his feverish eyes.
“I’ll scream,” I said hoarsely, fear pulsing through my veins.
He grinned. “You know I love that.”

Buy Links:

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Author Bio:

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The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic
appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She
eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently splits her time between her apartment in downtown Vancouver and her sailboat, where a book and a bottle of wine are always at hand. She’s hard at work on her next novel.

Authors Social Networking links:

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

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Rafflecopter Giveaway Details:

1 WINNER: ipad mini pre-loaded with all three digital Artists Trilogy books (SINS & NEEDLES, SHOOTING SCARS & BOLD TRICKS) and ON EVERY STREET novella included!

5 WINNERS: A signed print Artists Trilogy (SINS & NEEDLES, SHOOTING SCARS and BOLD TRICKS) prize pack!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Categories : 5 Stars, Book Launch, Contemporary Romance, Giveaway, Romance Tagged : 5 stars, Bold Tricks, Camden, contemporary romance, Ellie, Excerpt, Giveaway, Javier, Karina Halle, Release Blitz, Romantic suspense, The Artists Trilogy

REVIEW and GIVEAWAY: SHOOTING SCARS (THE ARTISTS TRILOGY #2) by KARINA HALLE

August 19, 2013

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Title: Shooting Scars 

Author: Karina Halle

Series: The Artists Trilogy #2

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance 

Publication date: August 20th 2013 by Grand Central Publishing
Goodreads

Sometimes the right choice can be the deadliest.

When Ellie Watt made the ultimate sacrifice for Camden McQueen, she never thought it would be easy. But walking away with her ex-lover, Javier Bernal, in order to ensure Camden’s safety has brought a whole new set of dangers. With Javier’s plans for Ellie growing more secretive by the moment, Ellie must find a way to stay ahead of the game before her past swallows her whole.

Meanwhile, Camden’s new life is short-lived. Fueled by revenge and pursued by authorities, he teams up with an unlikely partner in order to save Ellie. But as Camden toes the line between love and retribution, he realizes that in order to get back the woman he loves, he may have to lose himself in the process. He might just turn into the very man he’s hunting.

Spoiler-free Review

If you like your writing fueled by a little testosterone, then Karina Halle’s The Artist Trilogy series is for you. Before you read any further, you MUST first read Sins & Needles (Book #1) and the novella On Every Street before Shooting Scars. Both books provide a rich and detailed look into the minds and motivations of the three main characters, Ellie, Camden and Javier.
With that said, buckle up, because Shooting Scars is one hell of a ride. Shooting Scars plunges back into the action right where Sins & Needles ended. Ellie and Camden are thrown into an impossible situation which leaves Ellie back with Javier, the former love of her life. Does she hate him? Does she love him? All is revealed in painfully beautiful detail in Shooting Scars.

Ellie, Cam and Javier are all incredibly complicated characters. What I love about Karina Halle’s writing is that there is no black and white, no good or evil, no angels or demons (in my opinion). Each character has their own complex motivations for their behavior, and Karina refreshingly lets the reader form their own opinions about the characters. I don’t want to describe the plot in detail here because Shooting Scars is a very intricate tale that is best enjoyed fresh.

Shooting Scars is filled with lots of action, romance and twists and turns. Is it painful? Hell, yes. And that is why it is such an amazing story. My problem? I need Bold Tricks like, yesterday.

*A copy was provided by Grand Central Publishing for review*

Favorite Quotes:

“Unanswered questions can stay with you a long time, riding on your shoulders, wearing you down.”

“Such an angry little angel. Your wings are certainly dirty. They’re black.”

“He made me feel safe. Whether I was in his arms or at his side or just in his presence. For the first time in my life, I had a protector – and I never knew I needed one until then.”

“He was like a fragment from my dream, a faded portrait of masculinity, heart, and ink.”

Buy Links:

Barnes and Noble

Giveaway: One (1) set of Sins & Needles and On Every Street paperbacks signed by Karina Halle (U.S. and Canada) and a Shooting Scars eBook (open internationally)
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Categories : 5 Stars, Contemporary Romance, Dark and Twisty, Giveaway, Romance, Tattooed hero Tagged : 5 stars, Camden, contemporary romance, Ellie, Giveaway, Javier, Karina Halle, Romance, Shooting Scars, The Artists Trilogy

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