Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin Series #1)

Pass it up

Spider's Bite was a story I could not take seriously. The main character, Gin, was just not believeable. She describes herself as a cold blooded assasin. She "gets people dead". Gin just does not come across as a killer. The character development is so shallow, I could not either love or hate her, or develope any feeling for her. The book seems to be thrown together. Much of the detail is overdone. Describing how she makes a sandwich, down to the type of cheeze, bread and pickles is like reading Martha Stewart. And, detracts from the story. There are nonhuman characters thrown in, vampires, giants and dwarves. But they do not have any superhuman powers. Sunlight does not bother the vampires. They are as vulnerable to knives, bullets and fists as any human. The vampires are not stronger or faster than humans. All the female prostitute are vampires. And they enjoy liquor. The only difference is the vampires have fangs and drink blood. It is as if vampires and the others were thrown into the story just to get on the paranormal bandwagon. The story also has some very steamy explicit sex scenes. Not that I am opposed to explicit sex, but it adds nothing to the story and seems out of place. Agin, like these scenes are added just to be adding sex. There are redundant phrases way overused. When Gin is describing something she likes, like sex or good food, the paragraph always ends with "Mmm". Over and over again. Her favorite phrases, "get dead" and "sloppy sloppy sloppy" get a little annoying. The fictional city of Ashland, where the story takes place, is a typical urban setting with malls, a college, parks and stores. Not the dark and seedy back drop that would have been appropriate for this type of story. The writing style and phrasing seems disjointed. There was never a point in the book where I really cared about reading further. I finished the book for no other reason than I paid for it.

10 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

Great Read

This book had me from page one. This book had great characters that you cant help but like and a fast-paced and action packed plot. And best of all, it wasn't dripping with to much sex. If her next books are just as good I can see putting her on my top 10 favorite authors.
Anyone who likes Butcher, Kim Harrison, or Patrica Briggs would like this one as well.

7 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Disappointing UF

As a teenager, Gin Blanco lost her family to a brutal attack which left her homeless, friendless, and running scared. All that changed after she met Fletcher, the kind own of a local BBQ joint. Fletcher got Gin back on her feet while wiping away her fear with the knowledge of how to protect herself and those she loves. Years later, she's become a tough assassin, known as the Spider, with a killer record. And if her sharp knives don't do the trick, Gin's ace in the hole happens to be an affinity for stone, making her a rare elemental.

After agreeing to a risky contract which ends up going south, Gin quickly finds herself fighting tooth and nail to protect those she loves while trying to stay alive herself. But the only way she's going to make it out alive in the corrupt and brutal city of Ashland is by aligning herself with by-the-book Detective Donovan Caine. Which can only complicate matters since said easy-on-the-eyes Detective happens to loathe every single aspect of Gin's chosen profession. Figures.

Jennifer Estep has created an intriguing new world in her newest series Elemental Assassins. As a dangerous and corrupt city with dirty cops ready to look the other way, Ashland reminds me of a southern Gotham City with an added bonus of powerful magic. Though equipped with an appealing world-building concept, I struggled to connect to Gin as a character. Even in the face of tragedy, I never really felt that her grief was genuine. Sad to say, her narrative often seemed forced and quite repetitive. I often found myself hearing Gin describe the same types of scenes over and over again. Her enemies were always "sloppy, sloppy, sloppy" and every description of the attractive Detective Caine ended with "Mmm." While I'll give you that a good lookin' man can be mouth watering, I don't need the blatant reminder every time he pops up. Though I did catch a glimmer of chemistry between Gin and Caine, their awkward exchanges tended to leave me surprisingly uncomfortable and a little squeamish more often than not. How unfortunate. Gin's story really had the potential for becoming a honest and hard-hitting UF series but Spider's Bite ultimately failed to deliver on the entertainment front.

On a side note, I am actually totally digging this cover. In a Urban Fantasy market awash of books that have no relation whatsoever to their story, the cover art for Spider's Bite is refreshingly accurate, and really eye-catching.

5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Buyer Beware

The first two books in the Elemental Assassin series had it all - humor, creativity, action, heart, sizzle. The author clearly knows how to develop characters and stories. Unfortunately, I bought the next four books in the series together, thinking they'd be the same. The author apparently went on vacation from writing for the remaining books. She spends about 60-70% of books #3 and #4 re-telling the story from #1 and #2. So you read pages and pages of re-told plot, a few pages of new plot, and back to re-told plot. Sometimes she even puts the re-told plot into boring and unnecessary dream sequences. I’m not going to suffer through #5 and #6. The author of this series obviously has the intelligence and creativity to write great books, she just chose not to exercise it after Book #2. If there's one thing I'd like to see changed about eBooks, it's the ability to get refunds for bad novels.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Well written, captivating escapism in the fantasy genre

Let me start by saying I enjoy this genre. It allows me to escape from the pressures of the world by tickling that inner part of me that wonders if there is more to our world than we see.

That being said, this book (with an unusually appropriate cover, by the way), is captivating escapism from the first page onward. The author does a good job of bringing you into the mind and feelings of the lead character, a young lady who has found her calling but is a bit overwhelmed by it - to be an assassin of bad guys - many of whom have supernatural attributes.

We all talk about fairness, equal rights, and all that, but deep inside we thrill to the bad guy getting his just due - at least I do - and this book touches that primal urge, as the bad guys lose. There is a touch of sensuality but nothing overt - enough to give that needed dimension to the lead character.

Her writing reminds me of Patricia Brigg's writing - the Mercy Thompson series. She is consistent, articulate, and filled with touches of dramatic omnipotence. You always want to jump ahead to see how the story unfolds, but you don't want to miss any details.

The book is free of those 'dead' pages where authors sometimes seem to want to display their knowledge of underworld legends while letting the story line sit and fester. Rather she is able to weave those concepts into the story without slowing the pace. Quite a difficult thing to achieve, I believe. I am impressed.

The book cover is unusually appropriate. I don't think that the character depicted on the cover matches some descriptors of her scattered throughout the book. But the pose and stature shown and the implied temperament of the character on the cover gave me a visual image to use as I read through the early chapters, and it worked for me positively.

On the down side, true, there are a few places where it is difficult to stretch the imagination far enough to mnake it believable, even for fantasy, but in general, I think this book is one of the best ones I have read in this genre.

I think this is her first or at least an early book for her. I hope that she develops a fan base and that her work continues, and that she continues to write stories involving this interesting character.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book grabs you & doesn't let go!!

Jennifer Estep's Spider's Bite grabs you from page one and doesn't let go. The book left me breathless and wanting more. Highly recommended.

Excellenr

This series was wonderful. So much so that I hate seeing the end with book 5. Original and a can't-put-down read.

Light and quick assassin read

Gin, a stone Elemental finishes a job at the asylum and returns to the Pork Pit, like after every job, to meet with Fletcher - her handler and father figure - who hands her a folder with information on her next job. A job that she doesn't want to take as she wants to go on vacation, but after seeing the obscene pay for it, she will go on vacation afterward. She is to assassinate the CFO of an important company as he's been found at playing with the books. Gin thinks the touchy part...he's an Air Elemental, but he may not be the Air Elemental she needs to be worried about. Taking this assignment quickly turns Gin into the assignment and fall guy, and brings grieving and great danger to the family she's acquired. Now the man she was to kill, she needs to save in order to save her own neck, along with the man meeting with him - the one and only cop that is on the straight and narrow, and hot looking, Donovan Caine. Will an honest cop be able to work with an assassin? Let alone the assassin who killed his partner?

This is not the dark gritty assassin read I usually read. It had a light feel to it, and a fast read. And I enjoyed it for that. It was a quick read for me to sit down, pick up, and flip the pages. A relaxing read for me. Hard to believe relaxing with an assassin. lol.

I seemed to be flying through the pages, looking to see what would happen with Gin, what would she find out, what next fight would she get into. And wanting to see the elemental magics held by her and others. Then I was worried about Finn, Fletcher's son, wondering if he would stay safe. And we can't forget about the handsome "good" cop, Donovan Caine. I wondered if he would come around to seeing the world really isn't all black and white, and Gin falls in the gray area. And what would become of them.

I really like the elemental magic here. Being a Stone Elemental Gin can feel all the emotions ~ good and bad from stone; roads, walls, and so on. But she has a touch of Ice Elemental too. There are different elementals and degrees to their powers, as we see through the book. This city Gin calls home, isn't such a happy place, and by the end of the book we start to understand that feeling more.


The first chapter starts with Gin on a job, and hints at what all this world has to hold for us. And starts us out with action, Gin at her best work - killing with a screw and a pen. We then slow down for a few pages to meet Fletcher, see more of the world, and get hints to Gin's past. The hints make us curious to know more.


In the end, I got most of my answers. I say most as the ending leaves me stunned with what Gin finds Fletcher had a file on. A file that references Gin's past, which he pieced together and still loved Gin wholly. I have the second book here, and look forward to following through with Gin to learn more about her, her past family, and keeping an eye out for Donovan. And there is a tie to that Fire Elemental, Queen Mobstress I'm wondering on too.

I got the feel of much more to come, that ties with who we have learned about here in this book.

Amazing

This is one of my favorite series. It is totally worth the time and money to read Gin's story. A great read for fans of kim harrison's hollows series

eh,

Took forever to get into this. Not my favorite paranormal series, probably wont go any further with the series. Just couldn't get into the characters.

Highly Recommended

I love this series, and this is only the first book!! Characters that you can relate to and situations that feel possible. A great read!!

Not deep, but very fun!

If you're looking for a deep-thinking or technical UF story, this one isn't for you. Gin Blanco is a sassy assassin with supernatural elemental skills. I've read the first 3 books in the series and each was a quick and very fun read. I call books like this "popcorn" because they're pure entertainment without a lot of substance...highly enjoyable and fun to share with friends without too much time required.

Hmmm

Did not like all the swearing and sexuality in this book. 15 years or older u can read this or 14 if you can handle it. Very disappointed. Not reading another book from the series

Very enjoyable.

Great book, I am working my way through the series and loving each book.

Spectacular!

Review by Zita: Spectacular. This is a well-written, fast-paced, thrill-a-minute story that will pull you in and drag you along until you turn the last page. Ms. Estep has created an interesting world and peopled it with believable characters. Even though the main protagonist is an assassin, you have no trouble emphasizing with Gin and the life she leads. Her interactions with Detective Caine are all the more interesting because she understands why he struggles against the attraction between them. What I like most about Gin, however, is that she stays true to her own code, even though it's not exactly legal or moral. Her own set of ethics are strong and steady throughout the story and I can't help but admire that. I am very impressed by this first in the Elemental Assassin's series by Ms. Estep and look forward to joining Gin in her upcoming adventures.

Wouldn't recommend!

In all honesty, there are much better UF books out there than Spider's Bite.
I was really looking forward to reading about elementals, but Jennifer Estep's writing just didn't deliver, which is a shame.
The author lacks the ability to set the mood and really draw a reader in. She has trouble conveying feelings through dialogue and actions. Instead, she explicitly writes the emotions into the paragraph, usually in pairs of three. For example, a sentence would be followed by: Anger. Desperation. Lust.
I'm not kidding. This happens quite a lot in the book. Felt like I was reading a poem.
Gin, the main character, is an assassin whose family had been killed by a fire elemental seventeen years earlier. Due to her past, she has a very cold personality and doesn't show emotions very easily. Makes sense, but the author takes this too far by trying to make her sound like the most bad-ass person there is. Estep used the F-word in all the wrong places.
The only reason I finished reading this book was because I didn't want it to be the first UF book I didn't finish.

Loved it

Can't wait to pick up the next one

Actually this was pretty good!

For a fantasy book this was very well written, suspenseful, and kept me reading every chance I got. A pleasant surprise for a book you can't identify with the characters in.

Liked it a lot

neat setting, highly immersive, you should read this...

Wow- not your ordinary supernatural romance

Fantastic world set up and believable characters- very interesting using magic in terms of Elemental characteristics. So good I had to get all the rest immediately.