Spider’s Bite
(Elemental Assassin, #1)
By: Jennifer Estep
Publisher: Pocket Star
Published: Jan 26, 2010
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating:
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“My name is Gin, and I kill people.”
My name is Gin Blanco. They call me the Spider—the most feared assassin in the South (and a part-time cook at the Pork Pit BBQ joint.) As a Stone elemental, I can hear the whispers of the gravel beneath my feet and feel the vibrations of the soaring mountains above me, though I don’t use my powers on the job unless I absolutely have to. Call it professional pride.
After a ruthless Air elemental double-crossed me and killed my handler, I’m out for revenge. And I’ll exterminate anyone who gets in my way. I may look hot in a miniskirt, but I’m still one of the bad guys. Which is why I’m in trouble when irresistibly rugged Detective Donovan Caine agrees to help. The last thing a coldhearted killer needs when she’s battling a magic more powerful than her own is a sexy distraction… especially when he wants her dead just as much as the enemy.
This is a really good urban fantasy. I will admit that I didn’t fully get into it until about 25% in and I think that was due to the fact that Gin still hadn’t teamed up with Donovan yet. However, regardless I was still entertained.
I think what I enjoyed most about this was Gin. She’s an assassin and at no point in the story did you forget it. Yeah she has her carefree moments but the second that she senses danger her… God help me… Spidey Senses kick in. She’s always assessing the situation and is always calculation possible outcomes. My favorite part of the book is the fact that the author doesn’t skip over the assignments and all of Gin’s jobs. There is a lot of killing in this book with detail. Since Gin’s weapon of choice are knives, there’s a lot of knife throwing and slitting of throats. Like I said, at no point do you forget that she’s an assassin.
This is definitely a series that I will be keeping up with. I really hope that in the upcoming books, Donovan plays a larger roll. Maybe it could’ve had something to do with the fact that after the descirption of Donovan, I immediately thought of Daniel Sunjata.
“No matter how bad people were, no matter what evil they committed, or who they fucked over, nobody ever really believed death was coming for them, courtesy of an assassin like me. Until it was too late.” -Gin
