Shooting Scars by Karina Halle

Narrated by Veronica Den and Peter Coleman

Shooting Scars, the second book in the Artists Trilogy, continues Ellie Watt’s dramatic story and her internal struggle between love and revenge. Before you dive into this one though, I highly recommend that you read or listen to both the novella prequel, On Every Street, and Book 1, Sins and Needles, as each contains essential background material to a full understanding of this character driven, action-filled, suspense romance.

With its intricate plot structure and good versus evil symbolism, Karina Halle continues to surprise and fully hook her audience with her completely unpredictable roller coaster of a ride to self-discovery. Further enhancing the quality of this listen is the addition of narrator Peter Coleman. Mr. Coleman joins Veronica Den, who narrated On Every Street and Sins and Needles, adding a new dimension of credibility and talent to this production, making this a great title to enjoy in audio format. But be forewarned, Shooting Scars ends in another mind bending cliffhanger, so only listen to this one if you are prepared to commit to also listen to Bold Tricks, the final book in the Artists Trilogy.

Shooting Scars begins where Sins and Needles ends: Ellie has just turned herself over to Javier Bernal, the evil drug lord and her former lover, in exchange for his release of her present lover’s (Camden McQueen’s) son and ex-wife. Ellie, who was raised to be a con artist, attempted to make Javier her mark, but instead he became her first lover, completely changing her life by immersing her in his, until she left him six years ago when she caught him cheating. Given that she stole a large sum of money and his treasured car before leaving him, Ellie has been on the run ever since. Now back in his grasp, she is completely devastated. Not only has she lost Camden, the only other man she has ever allowed herself to care for – in fact a man who she thinks she may be falling in love with – but she also fears why a cold-hearted killer like Javier, a man who has such a deep (even if completely wrong) pull on her heart, has gone to such extreme measures to hunt her down.

Little by little Javier starts revealing his true plans and desires for Ellie. Convinced that Camden, her path to goodness, is lost to her forever and determined to keep Camden safe, Ellie begins to again allow Javier to exercise his mysteriously dark pull on her heart. But Camden McQueen is not prepared to let Ellie go that easily, and is willing to lose himself to the dark side, if that’s what it takes, to bring Ellie back to the light. Teaming up with Gus, one of Ellie’s close family friends, he starts a wild mission to track down and save her. So begins the fight between good and evil, love and revenge, and the reality that lies somewhere in between.

This was a difficult novel for me to rate. While I was fully mesmerized by it and couldn’t put it down, listening to all ten hours in about a day and a half, definite aspects of an A listen, there were others – particularly of Javier’s relationship with Ellie – that I didn’t want to like. Even though it follows the good versus bad theme, proving just how bad Javier truly is, it nonetheless bothered me that Javier didn’t follow the typical alpha hero conventions, instead willingly exposing Ellie to danger in order to prove just how bad she is. I love alpha heroes but they have to be protective, not just overbearing and controlling. Still I get the underlying message, and it did hook me, even as it caused me to wince at times. And then there is Camden, not your typical alpha hero in the least, but nonetheless bearing the protective qualities of one. If only I could combine them both, and perhaps, in the end, that factors in to Ms. Halle’s final message. Guess I will need to read the last installment, Bold Tricks, to ultimately be able to fully figure it all out!

While I found the message a little more difficult to decipher in Shooting Scars than the prior books, the narration was a definite improvement. Now that there are two narrators, the parts are split up via alternating chapters which are told alternately in the POV of Ellie and Camden. Although I typically frown upon this division of parts (and instead generally prefer a male narrator to portray all the male parts and a female narrator to do all the female ones), it works well in Shooting Stars.

Veronica Den again does a great job of acting out Ellie’s parts, differentiating male and female voices and even managing interesting Mexican accents for Javier and his henchmen. Peter Coleman enhances the audio presentation with his depiction of Camden, as I believe Ms. Den’s depiction of Camden in Sins and Needles was her weakest. Mr. Coleman’s performances of Camden and Gus are spot on. Not only does he use completely different voices for each one of his characters – ones that are so different in tone and appropriate accents that they don’t even sound like they are coming from the same person, but his delivery of emotion and his superb pacing bring it all to life in a completely satisfying manner. Even his female characterizations sound relatively good and are pretty believable, a factor which I frequently find missing when contemporary romance audiobooks are narrated by a male narrator.

All in all, I highly recommend the Artists Trilogy to lovers of contemporary romantic suspense novels with unique plots.

BJ

Narration:  B+

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  Escalated Fighting

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Hachette Audio

Shooting Scars was provided to AudioGals for review by Hachette Audio.