Review: On Every Street by Karina Halle

Book: On Every Street (The Artists Trilogy #0.5)
By: Karina Halle
Published: March 9, 2013
Published by: Self Published

Description: 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 standalone.

My Thoughts: Want to know why I love Karina Halle? It's because she puts out book, after book, after book, multiple times in one year (granted some are novellas, not full novels) and you arent left waiting an entire year to see more of the series you are obsessing over, and they're all great. On Every Street is one such novella, released a mere 2 months after it's predecessor, Sins and Needles (though it takes place before the events of Sins and Needles) and it doesnt disappoint.

On Every Street details the events that shaped who Ellie Watt (con name Eden White) is today, why she is so terrified of Javier Bernal, and why she fell in love with him in the first place. It's crazy, we know how the story will end (if you've already read Sins and Needles) but we cant help watching it happen. Some masochistic tendancy inside me allows me to be won over by Javier just in time to have him ruin me. I mean seriously, who wouldnt fall for a man who says things like:

"I once told you to leave and not to love me,” he cried out, muffled. “I’m taking all of that back. Not because I deserve it or because I’m worthy of your love. But because I need it like the air I breathe. I need you. I need you to believe in me. I need your love to make me feel like I can be redeemed.”

“I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. More than I thought I was capable of. Eden, you’ve taken my heart by surprise from the day I first saw you. It hasn’t been my heart since.”

"I want to stain you, Eden. I want myself imbedded in your skin, in your heart, in your soul."

That last quote alone sends shivers down my spine. OMG, I want to scoop this (seemingly) broken man up in my arms, cradle him on my chest, and show him what love is all about. I want to fix him, and I want him to stain me in all the ways he can (TMI?...I mean seriously, he is an amazing lover...okay back to the point). This love between Eden and Javier is passionate, strong, intense, and all consuming. It's blind and vindictive and tragic. I knew what was going to happen but I couldnt help but be blinded into a false sense of security, only to have my heart ripped out of my chest. I wanted to un-see some of the events of this book, and go back to my blissful ignorance
.
This book is so amazing it's terrible. How dare Karina Halle do something like this to me?

If you havent yet read ths series, you need to. Sins and Needles, and On Every Street can be read in any order but just know it's real. Yes, I know it's fiction, but these fictional people have real vulnerabilities, make real mistakes, and are more like real life people than most non-fiction books are (not that I read much non-fiction). I wouldnt be surprised if, at the end of the trilogy, Karina told us that the story was based off the life of a real  person's diary or something. I dont know how she does it.

If you dont listen to anything else I say, listen to this, read something in the Artists Trilogy. It'll have you looking at life in a whole new way. I have no doubt you know my rating.....5 stars.

Oh, and I finally met Karina at the Boston Author Event!!! She's just as amazing in person as I imagine her in my head!

So, why havent you read Sins and Needles yet?

RRT: The Hatred of Ellie Watt (of The Artists Trilogy)

Hey Guys!!! This will be a regular old post for now. I havent decided if I'll be doing a video for my YouTube page but we'll see. If I do, I'll post a link here.
I just got finished reading this post over on The Experiment in Terror Official Site page talking about the backlash from women about the character of Ellie Watt; liar, thief, con-artist, and 100% bad-ass from the Artists trilogy. (See My review for the first book, Sins & Needles, here.) It seems women pretty much hate everything about her, all of her decisions they hate. Even the one bug huge decision at the end they hate; the one that shows that maybe, perhaps, Ellie Watt is attempting to be a better person. To some women readers, her decision is selfish, and in some ways maybe it is. Regardless, the decision is made.

I really dont understand the backlash. As Karina Halle, Author of the Sins & Needles book, said, we love our male characters to be bad boys. They can lie, cheat, steal, kill, rape, abuse, and do pretty much anything else and as long as they have rippling abs and sexy dark eyes and decide not to kill the one damsel in distress, they're officially swoon worthy. Excuse my language, but What the Hell? Seriously. How is Ellie this horrible person because she's made bad decisions whereas the guys are completely sexy and gorgeous? Double Standard anyone?

It's my belief that there are little bits of Ellie in all of us women. Maybe that's why it's so hard for some women to accept her. We all put on these innocent fronts for everyone around us of being good little girls who always do the right thing and only want to fall in love and blah-de-blah-de blah. We act like we would never do anything wrong, like we never lie, or cheat. We spend our time pretending we dont think badly of ourselves as Ellie does, that we dont always deserve the perfect life for our mistakes, and we therefore make even more mistakes. We act like there hasn't been a time when we hear our conscience screaming at us to just do the right thing. That this time you probably shouldn't do that one bad thing you always do, because this time you may just get caught, but you do it anyway, and stupidly you get caught. Sure our actual events may not be as serious as Ellie's or as dangerous and damaging, but still, I think we're more like her than we know. We just grew up in a different situation.

We all have skeletons that not even our closest friends know about. Yet we prefer books where the guy is the bad-boy and women are the good girls because it ensures that no one knows our secret. It ensures that no one knows that women can sometimes be just as bad, if not worse, than all those sexy men we love in the books.

I love Ellie Watt because she shows the good, the bad, and the ugly. She shows our weaknesses, not just as women but as humans in general. She shows our strengths and our ability to go on despite all odds. She show's our innate ability to survive no matter what. Her final decision in book 1 shows the sacrifice we as women make time and time again to protect those we love from getting hurt. No, it may not have been the best decision, but it was the one she could deal with.

I love Ellie Watt, I love Sins and Needles. It's my hope that we as women can see the good in her the same way we can see the good in our male book heros and stop puting her down.

What do you all think about this topic? Do you agree that this may be the reason people put down the character of Ellie Watt or do you think I'm wrong? Could it be that we hold our fellow women to a higher standard than we do men? If so, do you think that's fair?

Message to the Author: (if by some miracle you're actually reading this) Thanks so much for making all your characters as flawed as we as humans really are. It makes your books so much more real and it keeps me hooked!