On Every Street (The Artists Trilogy #0.5) by Karina Halle

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.

Type: Dark Romance
Heat: 3 out of 5
Rating: 4 out of 5

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On Every Street was a dark and twisty little read but pretty entertaining. I mean, how could it not be when the heroine is a con artist who falls in love with her mark-- who just so happens to be part of a drug cartel. Uh-huh. Throw in obsession, lust, deception and even a touch of love and it's quite the set up as Eden seeks revenge on a man who destroyed her childhood but falls for one of his men instead.

Eden and Javier were a trip. I liked them and I didn't like them and I liked them again. LOL I'm so wishy washy when it comes to their romance and lord it is a messy romance. It could be kinda sweet at times--you know the whole broken souls finding peace with each other--but it definitely had a side dish of obsessive infatuation going on that gave it that 'oh hell this could be bad' edge to it. Things do get steamy and eep! the sex is...rough. Javier isn't what I'd call a gentle lover. Oh, he takes care of her but damn he just fucks her and enjoys her pain too. My girly bits would so not want to be near him no matter the dark and sexy he's working. Whew, yeah.

He was watching me carefully. "You've never tasted yourself before?"

I shook my head, clearing my throat, finding my words. "No. Should I have?"

A grin slowly spread across his face, and he gave a quick shake of his head. "Ah, dear, sweet Eden. To quote the great Rhett Butler, you need to be fucked and by someone who knows how."

"What version of Gone with the Wind did you grow up watching?" I squeaked out.

He bit his lip and pulled down the edge of my tube top. "There are a lot of liberties taken with Spanish subtitles."

There's not a ton to the novella. It's pretty much background for the series to come and what their lives were like for the year the novella covers. You get peeks into his darker sides with the cartel and how ruthless he can be and how love can really make you do and ignore the messy things around you. Things don't end well for these two and I'm kinda looking forward to seeing how things are going to go down for them in the series to come.

Have you read Karina Halle? What did you think?

What's your favorite dark & twisty read?