Shooting Scars Review

Shooting Scars (The Artists Trilogy #2) by Karina Halle
★★★★★
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Age: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Dark, Suspense, Drama, Con Artist
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

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.

Told in dual POV from Camden and Ellie.

Shooting Scars is the follow-up novel to Karina Halle's Sins & Needles. If you've read Sins & Needles you already know that Karina had some big freaking shoes to fill with Shooting Scars. How do you improve upon perfection? Well, if you're Karina Halle that's pretty easy; just do what you normally do and then shake everything up!

Shooting Scars is in one word, INTENSE. It's filled with nail biting twists, anxiety creating adrenaline, and CAMDEN MCQUEEN. Karina is not afraid to be raw and real; she's also not afraid to do what you least expect and I'm pretty sure she doesn't care if you like it or not because in the end YOU WILL LOVE IT! I'm a huge Experiment in Terror fan and a huge fan of Karina's in general and this book simply rocked; it's a great sequel and I'm now anxiously awaiting book 3, Bold Tricks!

We follow Ellie and Camden's POVs in alternating chapters. We see where each of them are in this sequel that takes place right after the end of Sins & Needles that jumps right back into the story. In SS we really get to know Gus, and I must say I am a Gus fan! We also really get to know Javier and get inside Javier and Ellie's past and I must say I'm not okay he's growing on me entirely a Javier fan. I KNOW I KNOW, I'm having mixed emotions. Damn you Karina and your mind bogglingly (is that a word?) excellent writing, I SO DO NOT WANT TO LIKE HIM! I'm still rooting for Cam, and that won't change, but I'm... I don't even want to finish that sentence.

I found myself glued to the pages in the second half of the book and I was unable to look away. I was full on engaged in the story and am just a huge fan of Karina's writing style and these characters. Dex and Perry are awesome but I don't know; there's something about Ellie and Cam too. Karina is just fantastic, people; she is a writing Goddess and I promise she will suck you into this story and into the worlds of these characters and you will become an addict (like the rest of us)! So read EiT, read Sins & Needles, read Shooting Scars, and Keep Calm and wait patiently for the release of Bold Tricks! Haha, calm! Never!

Don't forget to go and enter The Artists Trilogy giveaway!