Review: Bold Tricks (#3, The Artist’s Trilogy) by Karina Halle

My Thoughts

An exciting, action-packed ride!
Filled with suspense, drama and surprises, Bold Tricks was the perfect, riveting conclusion to a highly addictive and original series.

• Characters and Casting: Ellie Watt, Camden McQueen and Javier Bernal
• Related Posts: 2013 Favorites, Dark and Intense, My review of Sins and Needles (#1, The Artist’s Trilogy), My review of Shooting Scars (#2, The Artist’s Trilogy)

Synopsis

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.

My Review

“I was cold and soaked to the bone in my muddy evening gown. On one side of me was Camden McQueen, on the other was Javier Bernal. One more light than dark, one more dark than light.”

Light and darkness. Good and bad. White and black. This story lives in the murky, gray in-between, where the road to redemption is paved with ugly choices, past mistakes and a whole lot of violence. This was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy, ending the way I thought it should, but done in a way that shocked and surprised me along the way. I thought the culmination of each character’s evolution was gripping and poignant.

Javier began to shed his exterior facade, betraying his true self, his true intentions. He is a driven and ruthless man who would do anything required to rise to the top. He is merciless, manipulative and shrewd… always plotting to be a step ahead in the game. I think his heart has become too callous to make the right choices. He’s too far in for redemption. Somehow, however, Javier is still intriguing and alluring as flashes of vulnerability inadvertently seep through at different moments.

“All that was left was Javier Bernal, a drug lord with only one thing on his mind—his own rise to the top. He was steel and hard lines and ice in the middle of the tropics. He was the only thing that would never melt, no matter what pressure was applied to him. He was a human, a machine, a man who I knew had lost his soul forever.”

In Camden, we got to see how much stronger he’s become. His experiences have definitely hardened him but his heart remained steadfast and honest, despite him becoming almost fearless in his quest to save Ellie… in more ways than one. I really hurt for Camden, for everything he’s had to suffer through… for scars left over from constant disappointment, betrayal and even from heartache. But the sum of his experiences have given him an unrelenting instinct to survive, a desire to get himself and Ellie out of this mess and then be able to find his son.

“Every time I looked at Camden, I saw the ways he’d changed. He was stronger, tougher, and more ruthless. He was also hurt, scarred deep inside by what I’d done.”

With Ellie, we see much more of her heart in this book. We see her determined to find her redemption and make right the wrongs with Camden. Camden is naturally still upset with Ellie, wary that he’ll be betrayed by someone he loves yet again.

“You broke me, you broke my fucking heart… You broke me into so many pieces that I didn’t think I could find myself again.”

Camden, however, continues to appeal to the goodness in her while Javier insists that she cannot deny her true nature. Javier has an innate talent of twisting words, manipulating people and orchestrating situations to his advantage. He is the ultimate master of the game and in this book, we really get to see his malicious intelligence. Despite his vicious DNA, we can’t help but wonder if his feelings for Ellie really are sincere… and if they are, is that his last opportunity for a changed life?

Camden, Javier and Ellie are forced to work together in a deadly quest to rescue Gus and Ellie’s mother from the ultimate evil pumba, Travis. The story is full of action and nail-biting moments that had me flipping through the pages as fast as my eyes could read. I couldn’t put it down!

I don’t want to divulge too much, Ellie finally makes her choice and meets her destiny, but not without more loss, deception and sacrifice. This is a great, happy conclusion to an original, twisted, suspenseful series and I assure you that you won’t be disappointed! It’s one wild ride!

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