Tag Archives: elemental assassin

Venom in the Veins (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

The Spider has a new adversary, she’s more powerful than the last adversary. It’s Book 17. It’s entertaining but nothing new.

17 is a big number for an Urban Fantasy series and I think maybe it’s time to think about a spin-off series.

I’ve been saying it for a long time. Sophia is a great character and she could easily carry her own series. Bria and Xavier could carry a series.

I’ll keep reading and I’m sure I’ll continue to enjoy the books but it’s more because it’s a habit than anything else.

Snared (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

Gin Blanco has a lot on her hands. She is not only the unpopular boss of Ashland’s criminal underworld but she has discovered there is a rival and perhaps even more insidious organisation called The Circle that is pulling strings from the shadows.

She really doesn’t have time to track down a missing person but when one of her lieutenants calls in a favor she finds herself doing just that. A serial killer is on the loose in Gin’s patch and she’s determined to hunt him down and save his latest victim.

In Snared Jennifer Estep runs with the same tried and true formula that has made her one of the biggest names in Urban Fantasy. This whole series is like buttered popcorn. There isn’t much to it but it’s so much fun that you won’t be able to stop until all that’s left are those few sad unpopped kernels sitting in the bottom of the bucket.

Position in Series: Book 16

screen-shot-2017-02-22-at-6-53-19-pmYellow, Orange, Red: What it means.  YOR-Guide

Many thanks to Pocket Books 

Unraveled (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

Ever since taking over as boss of Ashland’s underworld Gin has had every two bit hood gunning for her, now to top it all off she has learned that an insidious criminal organisation has been manipulating her from the shadows. She really needs a holiday so when her brother Finn inherits a wild-west theme park and hotel she joins him as he travels south to scope out the joint and hopefully catch some long overdue R&R.

But all is not as it seems and they quickly realise that the whole inheritance was a sham to get Gin and her friends down to the park where they can be taken care of.

Unraveled is great fun. Jennifer Estep fills her pages with brash, almost cartoonish heroes and villains. They are larger than life and occasionally over the top….but they’re always good fun.

It’s not perfect, she gets some technical details wrong (e.g. when the last shot of an automatic pistol is fired, the breech locks open, and yet we get the “click, click, click” you expect in a 1950s matinee). But in some ways, those little foibles make her books better. It’s like she just wants to pound out the stories, entertain her readers and couldn’t be bothered with the small things.

And after 15 books it still works. I keep waiting for the series to lose it’s appeal but here I am eagerly awaiting book 16.


Screen Shot 2015-11-28 at 6.44.49 PMMany thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC

Orange, Red, Yellow. What it means: YOR-Guide

Bitter Bite (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

When Finn’s mother, Deirdre shows up out of the blue, Gin knows something is up. But there is a part of Finn deep down and well hidden that wants to be loved and he’s determined to believe his mother despite Gin’s misgivings.

With Finn spending more and more time with Deirdre, it’s left to Gin and Bria to get to the bottom of what she’s doing in Ashland and stop her.

 

I’m in two minds about this book.  Yes it’s entertaining as are most of the books in the Elemental Assassin series. It’s a page turner. It’s gritty. And yes, it’s good fun.  It’s all of that and I enjoyed the book. Not for a single moment was I bored.

But I have a problem and maybe (probably) it won’t be a problem for anyone else. With each book, the villains get more villainous, the challenges get more challenging.  For a short series, a trilogy or even a five book series that can work but this is book fourteen and while it’s still working at the moment it’s hard to see it working for much longer.  God forbid it ends up being the train wreck that Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series has become.

So here is me wondering if it isn’t time to think about taking the story in a different direction. Perhaps breath some new life into the series.  Sophia has always been a favorite character and under-utilised in my opinion.  I would love to see the series shift focus and put her at the centre.

Screen Shot 2015-11-28 at 6.44.49 PMMany thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC

Orange, Red, Yellow. What it means:  YOR-Guide

Black Widow (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

When Gin finally killed Mab Monroe she thought her life would get easier. Unfortunately since that day, every single gangster in Ashland has been out to make a name for themselves by taking her out. That is until Madeline Monroe (Mab’s estranged daughter) shows up.

She’s a powerful acid elemental and she’s decided to take over her mother’s empire, but first she needs to take care of business, and that includes getting rid of Gin and all her friends.

She’s one of the most powerful elementals Gin has ever faced and her acid magic can burn right through Gin’s ice and stone magic.

 
This series had a bit of a shaky start for me –– I wasn’t expecting to be reading book twelve, to be honest I considered walking away from the series after the final showdown with Mab. But I’m glad I continued. The last three or four books have been the best of them all and the series has very much found it’s groove.

The only thing that really didn’t work for me in this book was the romance. I want it to be there, just not necessarily on the page –– and that’s coming from a romance reader. Still that’s such a small part of the story and it’s done and dusted in ten minutes.

Everything else is kind of perfect. It delivers everything I expect from urban fantasy.  And as usual the cover art is sublime!  Whoever is creating these covers needs to be paid more.

Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 6.21.53 pmMany thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC

Yellow, Orange, Red –– what it means: http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

Poison Promise (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

All Gin wants is to be known as the owner of the Pork Pit, home to Ashland’s best BBQ. Unfortunately she can’t shake off her other title, The Spider, the assassin who killed underworld king-pin Mab Monroe. Now every two bit hood who wants to make a name for himself is gunning for her and she spends as much time dealing with them as serving pulled pork and coleslaw.

When she stumbles onto one of her waitresses being threatened by a drug dealer and his goons she steps in and makes short work of them, but it soon becomes apparent she’s bitten off a little more than even she can chew. Now she has come to the notice of Beau Benson, a sadistic vampire who doesn’t just drink blood, he sucks the very life force out of his victims, feeding on their fears and insecurities. And he sees her as the perfect guinea pig to test out his new drugs on.

 
Poison Promise is book #11 in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series. It should be getting old. I should be pointing out recycled plots.

I’m not.

Her last few books are easily the best in the series. Heart of Venom (book #9) is a stand out as my personal favorite, but Poison Promise is definitely in the running for the silver medal.

This whole series is brash and violent. It’s unapologetically in your face. It’s great fun for lovers of urban fantasy.

Screen Shot 2014-02-16 at 4.32.33 pmMany thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC

Yellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

The Spider (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

Gin (The Spider) and Fletcher (The Tin Man) are assassins. They have been contracted to kill Cesar Vaughn a powerful stone elemental and with Cesar’s daughter, Charlotte showing all the signs of being an abused child, Gin is champing at the bit to get the job done before she is hurt any more. But Fletcher smells a rat and wants to err on the side of caution.

When Gin, literally runs into Sebastian Vaughn, Cesar’s charismatic son there are immediate sparks, but her job is to kill his father and there is no hope for a relationship…still she finds it hard to stay away.

The Spider takes us back to the beginning of Gin Blanco’s career, back before her mentor and adopted father Fletcher was killed inSpider’s Bite (Elemental Assassin Book 1). It’s a bit of a ticker tape parade, showing younger versions of all the stalwart characters in the series.

I keep telling myself I’ll stop reading this series after the next book. I never do. Honestly, I don’t quite know how the author manages to hook me but she always does. The series is a little bit like a car I drove in the late 1980s…a lime green Alfasud. It wasn’t perfect, occasionally frustrating, but it was also great fun and I really loved that car. Just like this book.

Many thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC

Heart of Venom (by Jennifer Estep)

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Urban Fantasy

Many years earlier Sophia was kidnapped and brutalised by Harley and his sister, both powerful fire elementals.  She escaped with the help of Gin’s mentor and surrogate father Fletcher, but it nearly killed them.  Now Fletcher is dead and Harley has returned and dragged Sophia back to his mountain fortress.

Gin launches a suicide mission to rescue Sophia and kill Harley once and for all, but when Harley and his sister combine their fire magic they are all but unbeatable.

In Heart of Venom Jennifer Estep turns her attention to Sophia, one of my favorite characters from the series. The entire series is brash and in your face, and this book is quite possibly the best yet.

I also want to say, that cover is superb. The artist has absolutely nailed it.

Many thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC.

Deadly Sting (by Jennifer Estep)

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Gin Blanco (the Spider) returns in this the 8th instalment in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series.

In Deadly Sting, Gin finds herself attending the gala opening of an exhibit of Mab Monroe’s collection of art, jewellery and other artefacts. But when a gang of giants hold up the venue and take all the guests hostage, Gin finds herself once again cast in the role of rescuer.

There is nothing subtle about this book. It’s violent, brash and in your face. Jennifer Estep beats you down with words in much the same way as her protagonist takes down her enemies with her collection of five silverstone knives.

Deadly Sting is great urban fantasy. It doesn’t try to be too tricky, just delivers what fans of the genre expect.

Many thanks to Pocket Books for providing me with this ARC.