Review: OMG! One of the best series EVER!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2013
Review: Bold Tricks (The Artist Trilogy #3) by: Karina HalleBlurb:  With more lives at stake and games in motion, Ellie, Camden and Javier form an uneasy alliance that will take them from the treacherous streets of inner-city Mexico to the wilds of the Honduran jungles in order to find their freedom. But with liberty just on the horizon, the cost might come at their own redemption.**If you haven't read Sins & Needles and Shooting Scars, STOP NOW!  This review contains spoilers**I've been saying for quite some time that I'm tired of trilogies.  It hurts me to have to wait, months on end to see what happens next.  I'm impatient. The anticipation kills me and usually when I read I want instant gratification, a couple hours of escape and an ending HEA or not--some sort of closure.I "liked" Sins & Needles, but I didn't love it.  I wasn't going to even read Shooting Scars because I thought "Uhhgg, do I really want to bother with ANOTHER trilogy?"  I stuck with it though.  I'm such a huge fan of Karina's work that I pressed on and finished Shooting Scars.  (Loved it! Gave it a 5-Star review!) And so this brings us to today.  Having downloaded and read Bold Tricks in one sitting.  Couldn't wait to get it. Dying to know how it was all going to play out and end.  I'm almost in tears because it's over.  I absolutely fell in love with this series and can't believe I almost didn't continue with it. What an idiot I am sometimes.Plot: 5.  Bold Tricks picks up right where Shooting Scars left us.  Ellie, Camden and Javier together in the jeep having just escaped Travis' compound. Awkward doesn't even begin to describe the feeling inside that jeep.  As awkward as it is, they know that they have to work together to achieve their goals and survive.  Zooming through the crowded streets of Mexico, running from drug cartels, Ellie and her boys didn't seem to stop and are in constant danger, while trying to save Gus and Ellie's mother (I don't know why really. Evil witch that she is!) and kill Travis.  Besides the action, this story is packed full of emotion.  (Nothing like a heart-wrenching love triangle to keep me interested!)  Ellie's situation is so tragic.  Sure, she has to accept the responsibility for her actions, but it's not like the poor girl was really given a fair shake from the beginning. It's easy to sit back and judge, but do you REALLY know what you'd do if you were in situations similar to hers?  I suspect not.  Survival is a primal instinct and you do what you have to do to survive.  And that's exactly what Ellie did.  She didn't mean to fall in love with two men.  She didn't mean to break their hearts.  It was an unintended consequence--one that has scarred her as much as the acid did her leg. What will poor Ellie do?  She will do whatever it takes to survive not only her current situation, but to be able to finally live happily ever after.Sex: 5.  I'm giving it a five because while there isn't a ton of sex in the book, it's the good kind.  The scenes were wrought full of passion, tension and emotion.  I never once felt that they were just gratuitous sex scene. No, these were the types of scenes that have purpose, are so meaningful that they make me cry and make me feel.  It couldn't have been more perfect.Overall: 5.  The word AMAZING really isn't an accurate enough description for this book.  I can think of about 100 more, sublime, excellent, outstanding, heart-breaking, frustrating, consuming and so on and so on.  This book really has everything and after all the questions have been answered, all the pieces to the puzzle have been set into place, the book ends with perfection.It's probably a bit silly or cliché, but after having read Bold Tricks, I feel complete.  I cannot thank Karina Halle for sharing one of the best series I've ever read.  **sniff, sniff.  I'm so sad it's over.**