Bold Tricks (Artists Trilogy, #3)

by Karina Halle

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Well, that was a disappointment. If there's anything I hate worse than middle book syndrome--which this series had a mild case of--its when the finale fizzles rather than going out with a bang. Actually, there's plenty of banging (of the gun variety, you perverts!), but Bold Tricks felt like two different books mashed into one. It also didn't carry over all of the fun and sexiness of the previous books. There's a lot of eye-rolling moments and by a third in things were already feeling dragged out. I also had a hysterical moment, which forced me to stop reading for a good twenty minutes. I just could not get myself under control, because it was too funny and felt so out of character, but I'll get to that in a moment.

In Bold Tricks, we're back to getting only Ellie's POV, which is fine, but I did miss Camden. He's around, but I liked getting into his head. Ellie can be a bit exhausting at times with all of her pity parties. But at least she knows it. And I do think getting Camden's POV would have made the last third of the book better. The beginning is all about Ellie, Camden and Javier hunting down Travis and rescuing people. Then all that gets resolved and the plot switches to Camden getting his son. I honestly couldn't care less about his son, especially since we're getting all of this from Ellie. There would have been an added emotional connection if we could see how this was all effecting him, but nope. I just didn't care...at all

However, Camden let me down in Bold Tricks anyway. The hot sex has returned, although not quite as hot, but the author gets bonus points for unique locations. It was actually the sex that had me laughing so hard that my face was burning red. Camden says the most unsexy thing I could imagine hearing in the throes of passion: "I want to put a baby in you (75%)." Gross and hilarious.

Ellie is really not a very good con artist at all. We've seen her screw up time and time again throughout the series, so it's hard to believe she's ever pulled off a successful con job. She's too emotional, which isn't a bad thing, but she lets her emotions get in the way of doing what she's set out to do. Also, she just makes really stupid decisions even when everyone around her points out that it's just plain dumb. For instance, the opening scene of Bold Tricks involves Ellie insisting that they go back to the car to get her duffel bag, even though there are helicopters gunning them down! Does she see Javier and Camden worrying about having clean clothes and IDs? No! They want their lives! Of course, without her bizarre (and quite unbelievable) decision making process the story would have lost the exciting, yet eye roll inducing, high speed chase.

Speaking of bad character choices, I never believed Javier at all. Clearly, he's a bad guy, and we've known he's not exactly trustworthy since the prequel, but that's not what I mean. I mean that I could not think of any reason for him to be helping Ellie and Camden. I felt this at the end of Shooting Scars, but I overlooked it because I figured he had some kind of selfish plan or ulterior motive that would be revealed later. I really doubted his helpfulness was out of obsessive love for Ellie. I found myself questioning his every move and every word, trying to figure him out. That didn't work, because it just doesn't make sense. It turns out that he did have some double crossing plan, but it wasn't well thought out. It had too many holes, and was very unJavier-like. It seemed like plot for the sake of plot without any consideration for the character.

Sooo...Bold Tricks simply didn't work for me, especially not as a conclusion to an exciting series like this one. It's like the characters all forgot who they were and started behaving in crazy ways just to make the plot more dramatic. I didn't like that. The sudden shift in focus was also jarring and the latter part wasn't even that interesting. I appreciate the author tying up all the loose ends, but it was all so dragged out that I had already checked out.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.