Snared (Elemental Assassin #16) by Jennifer Estep

Gin continues to try and unravel the deadly and complex web of the Circle, the complex criminal group that rules Ashland – and seemed to include her mother, deeply enmeshed in its coils as well.

As she learns more, it complicates the connections still further as they learn just how deeply her mother was enmeshed – and the relationships she had then

But even with this huge mystery to unravel, Gin has more immediate crisis’s – a missing girl and a serial killer and not much time to save her.

Since Spider’s Trap we’ve had a definite change of this series. For a while I was concerned that this series was becoming very very patterned – Gin meets a big bad who has New Big Scary Magic and she must fight them and she gets captures/tortured/fights/nearly dies/win.

Instead as we have Tucker and the revelation of the Circle of secret forces who control Ashland. It could have been easy to change “random enemy with super powers” to “random circle member with super powers” and continue that same pattern again. But it hasn’t done that

Oh we have similarities – and that’s not a bad thing. I mean I say that pattern was becoming predictable but I still liked every last one of those books. The fight scenes are amazing, the action amazing. Seeing Gin being the skilled and lethal woman she is is always amazing –and not just her magic or her fighting skills – but her assassin skills; her investigative abilities and, above all, her patience. She is the Spider and it means something – she is lethally patient. And it’s really nice to see that showcased and how her rune, her label, is more than just a cool sounding name. All of these elements are here, all the elements that made Gin Blanco a character I loved and these books always stories I always picked up eagerly.

I also like that Gin’s ultimate strength is her friends. It’s the people she saved. It’s the circle of family she has around her. Gin is made all the stronger and all the more powerful by Owen and Finn and Bria and Jo-Jo and Sophia and Silvio and Rosalyn. Which is why I love that this plot, while touching on the Circle and definitely involving the Circle, also heavily draws upon another woman who has earned Gin’s respect, who Gin likes – and who Gin’s compassion demands she helps. Because it’s Gin’s social network of people she cares for, of people who will fight for Gin and support her because she’s earned their trust and respect. It’s also excellent to see her ongoing respect for so many women in Gin’s life. Her sister, Jo-Jo, Rosalyn, Sophia and now Jade. Gin is not someone who hates other women, even if the signature antagonist for so long was a woman. She has always had female friends, female family and women in her life she’s valued.

We have some racial diversity – with Rosalyn and Xavier both being Black (but only briefly appearing) and Silvio and his niece being latino (again, briefly appearing and in a service role) and Silvio is also the series’ only gay character. I don’t think his sexuality is even mentioned in this book. We have the introduction of Ryan Colson, the coroner is Black who I hope will be more commonly appearing. As a coroner added to the new focus on investigation will definitely help more.

Nice Guys Bite (Elemental Assassin #15.5) by Jennifer Estep

  

The foreward of this book says it’s for Silvio fans. Which was a hook for me because I’ve been desperate for Silvio to be developed in this series for some time.

Silvio is an interesting concept – the admin support for the criminal empire. The PA for the mob boss. A man – well vampire – who lives in a city that is so corrupt and so overtaken by criminal gangs that it needs its own bureaucracy.

And Silvio has been such a blank slate for a long time which is a shame and deeply problematic. He’s a skilled administrator who likes order and values Gin –but that’s not exactly a personality, it’s a series of quirks that just make him useful to Gin. Which is basically what we see of him – an admin assistant who is there to, in Gin’s words “mother her” without actually having anything in the way of his own life.

This was a chance for us to see a lot more of him, his memories, how he feels about working for Gin. Also what it means for him to be a vampire, what blood he drinks, how he gets it, how he feels about that. This series often treats the various creatures that inhabit the world somewhat casually – “Fred is a Giant”, “Latoya is a Dwarf” without much looking through the eyes of them. So seeing Silvio talk about his blood drinking, think about it and relate to it is an interesting expansion not just of him but the entire world.

This story gave Silvio a relationship, opinions, nice quirks like his sweet tooth and generally made the first steps towards turning him from a random extra who existed to serve into an actual character.

I do have issues though. Firstly, my issue is that this is a short story. Silvio has, since his introduction, been a blink-and-you-miss-it LGBT inclusion, as well as a Latino character (though we do have other latino characters as well) There are several books with Silvio in them which you can read and you won’t realise he is a gay character at all. So this definitely needed expanding and developing to actually make his inclusion more than the very thinnest of tokenism – but this doesn’t do that. This is exactly what we talked about in our post of Quite Portrayals of minorities. Rather than having Silvio’s relationships, sexuality and character development happen as part of the main plot line, it’s relegated to a side-book, a short story, a fluff piece that has no real connection to the main plot line. More, the story is even set up so Silvio doesn’t tell Gin, Sophia or anyone else what happened so they will never bring it up again. Sophia, Roslyn, Finn, Owen all had major books devoted to their personal storyline and trauma – and the whole cast were involved in it. They reference it because of that (I am currently reading Snared in which Gin refers to Sophia’s past as a perfect example)

Silvio’s story has been put in a short story aside from the main plot, ensured it’s completely separate from the other characters and generally has the feeling of box ticking; like “damn we’ve only had one LGBT character in 18 books and short stories (just the ones I've read - there are several short stories I haven't. Which is kind of my point, I'm not the only one who doesn't read short stories for series), and single mentions don’t cut it any more” so this book is released and lo, problem is solved. Now Silvio can go back to “mothering” Gin as her gay latino assistant while having no story or life of his own all without a single ripple in the main plot line.

Unraveled (Elemental Assassin #15) by Jennifer Estep

When Finn inherits a western-themed theme park it is an opportunity for the gang to actually have a holiday – certainly necessary for Gin who is extra stressed trying to find out the truth behind the Circle

Of course, this was a resort owned by Finn’s mother and Circle member and generally not a pleasant person – and the Circle is fully involved in the resort – inevitably the Spider has to take care of business.

Two books ago I said that I was concerned with this series of books becoming very very repetitive. We had the same pattern coming up over and over again and it was starting to feel dull even if it was also extremely fun.

Last book helped reassure me and this book well and truly sealed my hope this is going somewhere new.

Sure, we still has Gin, the Assassin, killing bad people who really needs to be stabbed in the head. But previously this had a repeated pattern: a big bad would appear, they would attack Gin, she’d be terribly beaten. She’d then limp back to Jojo, be healed, make a plan and promptly murderise the big bad.

But this book doesn’t have a big bad per se. We have a powerful, dangerous woman who is dangerous for reasons beyond having big shiny dangerous magic (which is a really nice change from the rest of the books – we’d have dangerous women but they’d usually be dangerous because of shiny magic, not combat skills like Gin). But she’s not the big bad. She’s not the main focus. She is there – but the main enemy is Tucker. And not as a dangerous threat, but as a representative of the mysterious and sinister Circle. The tone of book has changed a lot. We don’t have a single big bad like Mab Monroe, nor do we have random killers of the week – we have a mysterious shadowy cabal that needs investigating, discovering and manoeuvred around.

Along the way we have good ongoing issues with Finn and his mother- but they’re touched on but not gone into too much depth because we already did that in the short story

Unwanted (Elemental Assassin #14.5) by Jennifer Estep

This is a short story in the greater Elemental Assassins’ Series and I think it’s one that does an excellent job of hitting the balance of what a short story should be: i.e. it’s not compulsory to understand or follow the greater series, yet at the same time it does a good job of enriching the greater series

There are some things I really like about this story

I like that it looks at the ongoing effects of a traumatic experience, it shows that someone cannot be betrayed and tortured without it having lasting damage on their feelings and emotional well being.

I really really really like that we look at collateral damage. This is a series that has piled up many many many many many many oh gods so many bodies. Now we do see a lot of grieving families who then turn to Gin and ask her to slaughter a whole lore more people in the name of justice

And along the way she, her friends, her allies, her enemies, have killed a small nation worth of Giant guards. Seriously, the gravediggers union is probably lobbying to ban giant guards just because 80% of all the bodies they have bury are these huge muscly giants. But since Ashland is the most criminal city in the entire world

So seeing one of them have a funeral? Having grieving families? Actually seeing a human cost to the endlessly disposable bodies hitting the ground? I like that – I like that a lot. I think it’s vitally important to truly depict this world and what is happening. Especially if we want to consider the ethical problems Gin faces or the danger that the city faces from the criminal gangs controlling the city.

Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassins #14) by Jennifer Estep

Gin Blanco has a new enemy. Deidre, Finn’s mother. Unfortunately she’s not just powerful and dangerous – but she’s also very very very good at manipulating Finn’s desperate emotions. Which means Gin has to play nice

She’s not very good at it. And definitely not a fan. Sometimes it’s easier when you just have to stab someone in the face.

I said in my last review of an Elemental Assassin book that this series has become very very formulaic (not bad, because I love the formula, but still) following the same basic pattern

Gin: *cooking BBQ*

Big Bad: Rawr, I am big bad and will control all Ashland and it’s improbably huge crime rate despite the Spider’s habit of stabbing everyone in the face which would suggest I’d be better off going somewhere else.

Gin: I will find you Big Bad and stab you in the face!

Big Bad: no because I have awesome powers! Super duper rare awesome powers like the last 10 face-stabbed people who tried this.

Gin: Oh no! *is captured/tortured/despairs*

Gin: Wait, past 50% of book! Escape time! See you, Sugah, bless your heart, belatedly remembered southernism. And I remember I have super powers! And Awesome friends!

Awesome friends: Yo!

Jo-Jo: *Cure Major Wounds*

Gin: Now I stab you in the face!

Big Bad: Aaaargh *is stabbed in the face*

Gin: *Makes dinner*

When I finished this book, my first thought was that we’d finally broken the pattern! And then realised that I was being, perhaps, a little optimistic there. I mean we have deviations but that same basic is there – super powerful enemy appears, we have the original set back and then the come back of awesome

So, it’s not exactly not following the same formulaic pattern. And a lot of the twists – with Deidre being Finn’s long lost mother, are somewhat repeating the same patterns we saw when Owen was dealing with Salina (which the book even gives a nod to).

However, while there are a number of similarities still, the pattern itself is disrupted by a whole lot of revelations towards the end of the book. And the introduction of a new big bad. Ok, since Mab Monroe died there have been a number of big bads brought in to replace her (including her daughter) and has followed the same pattern only briefer. But this book introduces an antagonist that is a concept, an organisation rather than a big bad scary elemental who is scary because of their big, bad scary powers. More, this affects the whole structure of the city, everything that Gin has done and everything she is part of.

In general, it feels like this book is bringing in a series reboot, a different focus and a change from the current pattern of repeated powerful one shot enemies. While we have a lot of similarities here, we can see the change of direction – we’re going somewhere new from here, or I hope so

Quiet Portrayals of Minorities

We, along with many others, have said time and again how important it is for us to have marginalised people depicted. Erasure is extremely damaging, and tokenism is little better improvement.

Many authors and writers are catching on to that - either due to a genuine hope to make things better or because they’ve caught on that diversity may be a useful marketing ploy in some circles (yes, I tend to be that cynical - indeed anyone looking at the conquest of the Shondaverse should have realised there’s money in diversity).

One of the things that feeds my cynicism are the “Quiet Portrayals.”

“Quiet Portrayals” can come in many forms: the Blink-and-you-miss-it-bisexual, the ambiguously-olive-skin-tone, the absent POC ancestor, the careful avoidance of labels and identities, relying on vague descriptors or relying on brief one off mentions in long series.

Ultimately, they are portrayals of marginalised characters - but kept as low key as possible. It very closely resembles the idea of having to Google The Minorities, but while there you can only tell that a character is marginalised by looking for extra-textual clues and statements by the author (the infamous Word of Gay which renders Dumbledore gay, honest), in this case you have to carefully study every book and every episode and pick out the one or two references that indicate that a character is a minority. The information is in the book, it’s definitely there - it is just very brief and easily missed to people who aren’t taking careful notes.

The marginalised person is portrayed as marginalised in the book or on the show - but

but carefully masked, subtly presented to not be too overt or too present or too offputting for the privileged mainstream. That’s not saying that the writers here are expressly thinking in those terms - in many cases I would say certainly not. However the pressures of “maketability”, the societal default and our overwhelming sense of what a protagonist should look like, as well as the ongoing insistence that a book with marginalised characters must be entirely about marginalised issues make the Quiet Portrayal a very easy trap to fall into.

For marginalised readers this may be a portrayal of themselves - but it comes with a subtext: yes you can be in these stories so long as you are quiet. So long as you aren’t TOO Black/gay/Asian/trans. So long as you don’t “flaunt” or “stuff it down people’s throats.” Again, this may not be the intended message of the author - and they may even have more overt marginalised characters (but who are probably not more prominent, not as major a character or not the protagonist), but it does carry this message. The main characters, the protagonist can be marginalised so long as they are sufficiently “low key” while marginalised characters who cannot hide, cannot pass or whose marginalisation is not easily overlooked are pushed to supporting roles.

There are many ways this Quiet Portrayal can be achieved. One of them is to make references to the character’s marginalised nature to be brief and one off in a more overarching story. Take Sanctuary, Dr. Helen Magnus, who despite being a co-protagonist and appearing in 58 episodes over 4 seasons there is one, one single episode, where her bisexuality was referenced. If you missed that episode, you would think this series completely lacked LGBT characters, it certainly didn’t help that this belated revelation only crept onto the scene in the second-to-last episode of the show. Doctor Who also lept on that trope with River Song giving us a last minute spoiler that she is bisexual. Witches of East End lasted only two seasons - but it was two seasons full of overwhelming amounts of graphic sexuality and sexual relationships between opposite sex couples; except two episodes. Two episodes in which it was revealed Joanna is bisexual and has had a female lover who we briefly meet. Her bisexuality is not mentioned before this and never mentioned again - in a show that is wall-to-wall naked skin and humping.

Spider's Trap (Elemental Assassin #13) by Jennifer Estep

When a bomb nearly destroys her friend Phillip’s boat while Gin is negotiating a deal on board between several underworld leaders, Gin naturally assumes that she is the target. After all, becoming head of the underworld (however reluctantly) has hardly reduced the number of attempts on her life

But sometimes not everything is about Gin. And when she realises that one of those bosses has a difficult and dangerous past – a past Gin herself was involved in – it’s clear she isn’t the target. Of course, that doesn’t mean Gin won’t feel responsible – or feel the need to help. Whether her help is wanted or not.

There’s an issue with this book – and this series – that I find myself a little torn over. In this book, Gin is driven to fight a big bad guy because he is a terrible abusive arsehole hunting someone down and she just can’t bring herself to say no to anyone in distress. The big bad has Super Special Magical woo-woo that is either a) very rare or b) very powerful. They fight, Gin does badly for a while and then comes up with plan, goes in and stabby stabby killy killy. Job’s a good ‘un to Jo-Jo’s for healing (because the fight will involved Gin apparently losing and being terribly injured for some portion of the fight before the big triumphant end where Gin fights back and/or the victimised person manages to lend help that tips the scale so they can be directly involved in their justice).

Right, that, right there? That’s the plot for pretty much every book in this series, even more so for every book after Mab’s death and the lack of any particular meta-plot afterwards. This is the 13^th book in the series and it’s not just following the same theme – it’s following the same formula. The basic plot elements, story progression, everything is pretty much the same

We have the opening attack. We have some flashbacks from Gin’s past. We have the initial defeat. We have the injuries. We have the working with her team for a solution. We have the unique power (acid, lightning, vampire soul draining, water, etc etc). We have her leaning on her friends but them not taking up too much page space and then we have the victory. It’s the same very rigid, very narrow formula.

But I do enjoy it. And I think there are several elements of this series which are excellent with it. We have a hero who is extremely powerful and skilled but who, despite all that, continually relies upon her support network and friends to get the job done. I like that she doesn’t do everything alone, that she is close to her support network and that includes other women (gasp!) and family! (who are not all dead tragically – well except her parents of course). I like the little snippets into the past that her dreams bring. I like her interactions with her friend. I like that she manages to bring down the big bads with intelligence rather than just awesome gnarly power (which also being immensely frustrated that she never seems to use her power in anything like an effective manner).

I like the pacing of the book, I like how the story develops, I like the balance of character interaction, victory and defeat. I like how the fight scenes unfold and how they’re described. I like Gin’s cooking and how much that matters to her and is an important part of hr life. I like her signature patience and how that has been developed throughout the series. I like her mutual respect with Sophia, Jo-Jo and her sister which has developed nicely over the series. I like her relationship with Owen and how, though he’s always there to back her up, he never tries to take over or “protect her”. I like that there are other powerful figures in the world, including powerful women, who are not evil nor part of Gin’s fanclub

Black Widow (Elemental Assassin #12) by Jennifer Estep

Gin was waiting for Madeline Monroe, daughter of her nemesis Mab Monroe, to strike – it was almost a relief when she finally did so after so much waiting.

But she didn’t expect her to strike with lawyers and health inspectors and crooked cops. And she didn’t expect her to strike against her friends and family as well.

This is an entirely new threat – and one more dangerous in many ways  than anything she has faced before.

After the last book I was conflicted – I was both excited about the Elemental Assassin series getting back on track with a new big bad and a new meta arc to pursue while at the same time leery that the new big bad – Madeline Monroe – was so much like the last big bad that we were going to tell the same story arc a second time. So I went into this book both full of hope and wariness

And hope won out. First of all, the attacks Gin faced were radically different from the kind of attacks that Mab through at her. Madeline doesn’t fight head on – she’s a planner, she’s cunning, she’s a schemer. She uses the organs of law and corruption to her own ends to attack Gin with paperwork, red tape and bribeable officials. She attacks Gin through a system she has constantly ignored and disdained and she attacked Gin through her friends.

It was a completely unique threat and something that brought a whole new lens to Ashland. We had always known the city was corrupt and, in some ways, it was almost ridiculously so – but it worked. This dark, gritty, incredibly corrupt setting is the perfect backdrop for Gin as an assassin – she works as a moral character because there’s not even a pretence of a justice system in this city. We got to see that this book through the lens of that corruption being directed against Gin, not just as a passive force refusing to do this job, but actively used as a weapon bringing down the vast power of the bureaucracy against Gin in a way she can’t just fight with her magic and weapons.

In many ways this makes Madeline a terrifying enemy – far more so than her mighty magic – her ability to plan, always thinking three or four steps ahead, always having a plan b or a plan c made her far more of a threat to Gin than any previous enemy with powerful magic and a large army of goons.

It also means Gin fights back in a more involved manner than just “I will sneak in and stab it until it does.” Instead she was very very cunning which I appreciated a lot

I also really liked that while Madeline did target Gin’s friends, we didn’t have the inevitable “oh you would all be better off without me” angst scene that is almost compulsory in Urban Fantasy. Gin knows how valuable she is to her friends, she knows she matters to them, she knows that their being targeted isn’t her fault – for that matter, after the events of the last 11 books, she knows they’d all be dead without her. More, she involves her friends in her plans to turn the tide because they are integral to her life and her success. Gin isn’t a lone hunter and she’s better for that – she has good friends, excellent friends, who have skills and capabilities that match Gin’s and are fully worthy of (and get) her respect.

Poison Promise (Elemental Assassin #11) by Jennifer Estep

Gin is tried. Tired of the killing. Tired of the fighting. Tired of trying to survive. And when one of her employees finds herself in a whole lot of trouble in the crosshairs of one of the more dangerous crime lords in the city, she has to wonder just how far this is her duty to fix?

But Bria is also deeply involved and Gin can never abandon family. Even when that family is being reckless, foolish and perhaps more dedicated than she should be.

When Gin killed her nemesis in Heart of Venom it was clear we were going to have some books of transition. Gin getting used to her new reality, dealing with the fallout, dealing with some personal stuff, spending some time on the other characters and generally transitioning into a new story arc

Which we did. But Heart of Venom was book 5, Poison Promise is book 11. That’s an awful long time to transition. The other books did everything I said – but in general the series was beginning to falter and become boring – as I mentioned in my review of The Spider.

This book started and we had not one, but two enemies with weird powers (which seems to have been something of an attempt to keep the last few books interesting), I expected the worst – another random assassination of the week book; not bad, but still leaving the series floundering

But no! This book is the start of so much more! I hope anyway

Yes, we seem to have turned a corner on several issues. Firstly, and most obviously, is the new big bad coming to town. I am a little leery because the new big bad, as introduced, feels far too much like the last big bad. I know that makes for great symbolism, but I also hope there isn’t going to be too much rehashing.

The second major change is Gin’s own attitude and awareness. There was a lot more focus on not just Bria but on the conditions of Southtown. Southtown is desperately poor with virtually no opportunities that are not crime related – the only people we know who have managed to escape life in Southtown have resorted to dangerous or criminal enterprise (or both) to do so. It’s their only option. The police have given up on the area, the crime boss openly rules the area and it’s all very grim. I particularly like how we’re repeatedly forced to see the grey in all the characters – like it would be easy to see Troy as an abusive drug dealer or Coral as an addicted kidnapper – but both were forced by desperate circumstances into the lives they lead. Both did terrible things, both faced terrible consequences if they failed to do those terrible things. This was their lives in Southtown, a place with no options. It’s a really good class analysis.

And for much of the series this has been seen and accepted. Some got out (like Rosalyn and Catalina) but most didn’t and the characters – and Gin – accepted this as something they couldn’t change. This has an interesting parallel with how Gin has dealt with the constant attacks by various crime bosses trying to prove themselves. She has accepted this with the same fatalism, she has to fight them, she has to save herself, and then move on. Her daily life now includes fighting for her life. She can’t change this.

The Spider (Elemental Assassin #10) By Jennifer Estep

After Gin receives a mystery gift, she tells Own about one of her first assassin jobs – and a job that she screwed up royally. Too young, too emotionally connected and too hasty, it was the job that truly forged Gin into the Spider she is today.

This book had a lot of good in it. It was nice to see Gin’s development as a character and as an assassin and nice to see her training. It was particularly good to see her training not just in the basic physicality of being an assassin – actually killing people and knowing how to fight - but also the hard lessons in the mindset of an assassin.

I’ve always thought it was odd that Fletcher’s sobriquet was the “Tin Man” because he had no heart when he was clearly a, well, “ethical” assassin, as much as that is a contradiction in terms, with strict rules about who he killed and why, rather than just taking the money and getting the job done. In many ways he acts as a vigilante hero in a town where the police are unfit for their purpose. But this book made it much clearer and more sensible – how even being ethical means not getting emotionally invested or distracted. This, along with Gin’s signature patience, is shown through the mistakes Gin makes as she personalises the pain of her target’s victims and consequently rushes in without due care and attention – or research.

It added some nice backstory to Gin and just fleshed the whole process out a little more as well as emphasising the qualities that make Gin a good assassin above and beyond most.

But as far as the series goes I have to say I’m losing interest a little. It’s a shame because I love this character and I love this world – but there’s a limit to how many times you can do they “Gin has to kill someone, look she has” and make it original. To be fair, each book has introduced different elements and they were good books in their own right – but the first half of the series had lots of drama and intrigue and meta with us learning about Gin, learning about her life and her ongoing quest to defeat her nemesis. Which she did in Spider’s Revenge. Since then there have been 5 more books and 2 novellas in the series and no knew meta. It’s not that the books are boring by any stretch and we did cover issues that added to Gin’s world: Sophia’s past, Owen’s past, Gin and Owen’s relationship drama, her relationship with her sister Bria, and now some insight into Gin as she was learning her trade as an assassin – but we’re spending all this time developing the characters for what? Because it feels like the series ended on the 5^th book and then just kept going. It’s all background with no foreground.

Heart of Venom (Elemental Assassin #9) by Jennifer Estep

Gin is trying to have a fun day out with her friends, at the spa with a whole lot of food (and a whole lot of chocolate) when assassins, kidnappers and thugs interrupt things. Life as the Spider, the most lethal assassin in the corrupt city of Ashland, means never having a day off.

But this time the thugs do not focus on Gin, they focus on Sophia, one of Gin’s closest friends. The demons in her past have finally caught up with her; kidnapping her and imprisoning her where she had escaped so many years before.

Of course, these kidnappers don’t realise who they’re dealing with – and how very loyal the Spider is to her friends.

So many things I love about this book – and most of them I have covered so many times in the series. I love Gin, I love the world and its diverse elements that create a truly unique feel. I love the fight scenes and how they’re laid out. But there are also several elements to this book that put it above most of the series.

One thing I really liked about this book is Gin only gets incidentally beat up – and most of that from random blows in fights and her taking a nose dive off a cliff. There’s no prolonged torture/beating scene of Gin (albeit some witnessed of Sophia) that leaves her a complete wreck (there are times when things try to beat her – and find that it doesn’t do a lot with her Stone magic) which made me feel a little more comfortable. Apart from anything else, Gin is an awesome, lethal assassin; I don’t expect her to get out of any situation unscathed but I don’t expect her to have prolonged “Gin gets tortured” scenes every book either. It felt a little torture porny and I was glad to see it skip this book.

I also liked that Gin used her magic so overtly. My old complaint about this series is that Gin is supposed to be the most powerful elemental ever (or one of them) but she very rarely uses that power, even when faced with other elementals. It was frustrating. So I loved to see her just doing her epic thing and taking down small armies with her power

In fact I loved the whole epic of this book. I know that overpowered characters can be hollow – but Gin has had 8 books to hone her power and skills, how nuance et al. Sometimes it’s nice to have a character who is just unassailably awesome. Shallow of me? Maybe, sometimes I just like to see someone who kick’s arse in epic fashion. I especially loved her embracing her notoriety. People knowing she’s the Spider is a constant source of aggravation to her these last few books, but it’s nice to see her turn that into a source of power – to look at enemies and announce that she’s the Spider and how dead that makes them.

But Gin is more than that – yes she’s deadly and powerful – but she’s also intelligent. She didn’t just run into a gang of men and show off her powers and kill them all – she used strategy, she used tactics, she used the terrain and the vulnerabilities around her. She’s not just a terrifying fighter – she’s a clever one.

And she’s a clever one with friends – good friends. I love how Gin has built up her network of friends and supporters since the first book. I like that all of them have had sufficient backstory and attention paid to them to have their own storylines, their own personality and their own characterisation. I love that it doesn’t just say “Gin loves this person and is loyal to them” but we’ve seen the reason for that loyalty, the reason for that connection and the shared history between her and the people in her life. So I really liked that this book explored Sophia and Jo Jo more since they’[d been background characters for so long, integral parts of Gin’s life, but never with any real explanation as to how they joined her circle. It felt like a completion, making sure every one of the people around Gin were fully realised as people.

Kiss of Venom (Elemental Assassin #8.5) by Jennifer Estep

Owen and Phillip are having a guy’s night out in the club – but Owen’s having a hard time letting go and enjoying himself with his head fully absorbed in how badly he messed up with Gin – which only gets more depressing when Gin and Bria come to the club for their own night out

With so much regret to mull over, it’s almost a relief when Owen hears a couple of assassins planning to take Gin down. The least he can do is try to keep her night undisturbed.

In some ways, this is exactly the kind of short story I want in a series that is this established – something to give me an insight above and beyond the standard plot, taking someone else’s point of view other than the protagonist I’ve seen over and over again, getting their perspective on things that maybe will show the events in a different way from what I’m used it. After all, the series is 8 books long, not including short stories, it’s good to hear from the characters who follow Gin around, see what their version of events are especially since Gin has had personal conflicts with just about everyone.

So opening the book and seeing Owen’s point of view was a big plus to me. Especially after everything that happened in the last few books with his ex-girlfriend and then the action at the Rotunda and trying to make up with Gin.

And because of that, I was very very very tolerant of recapping. Even if there was a lot of recapping – and oh boy is there a lot of recapping – because if you’re going to get someone else’s point of view on past events then you need to look at those events again.

But… Owen doesn’t exactly have an informative or deep point of view; about the only new insight I gained was his regret of all the years he lost with Phillip, the friend he cast aside because of Salina’s lie. Other than that?

Woe! I let Gin down! Wooooe!

Woe! Bria hates me because I let Gin down! I deserve it. Wooooe!

Woe! I am such a bad person!

Woe! Gin hates me – and she totally should!

Woe! A woman flirted with me and Gin saw and now she’s hurt! Woe, I’m a terrible person!

Woe! I treated Phillip like shit for years because I’m a terribad person! Woe!

Woe! I let my sister down! Because I’m a terribad person! Woe!

Woe! My extreme depression is now ruining Phillip’s night! I’m the worst person in the world! Woe!

Woe! I didn’t tip the waitress enough! I’m scum beneath her shoes! Woe!

Deadly Sting (Elemental Assassin #8) by Jennifer Estep

 

Dragged by Finn to an auction so they can paw through the remains of Mab’s estate, Gin is predicting a boring night (certainly more boring than dress shopping with added fun mugging).

A boring night that quickly becomes slightly nightmarish when she sees her sort-of-ex-Owen with another woman on what may be a date.

Thankfully relationship issues are rapidly overruled by a new threat – art thieves with guns, bombs and a willingness to shoot hostages.

The Spider just can’t have a night off.

In have to say, I wasn’t that thrilled with this story. I mean, the action was well done and well written as usual, I love these characters and the setting was intriguing. It had action, it had excitement, it had this wonderful world I love.

But it came down to being “Gin goes somewhere, bad guys try to rob it, Gin stops them.” I actually had trouble writing a summary that wasn’t just one sentence. I kept waiting for the whole museum robbery to end and us to move on to the main plot now the prologue has finished until I got to 75% in and I realised, wait, this is actually the whole story. There’s no real twists, no grand revelations, there’s a couple of side issues taking up a tiny amount of room, but that’s about it. It’s a linear, simple, action story.

I mean, it’s good at that. The fights scenes are excellent and there’s a wonderful bit of stylistic writing in that Gin often stops and watches her prey for a long time before actually acting. It can be really frustrating reading because you’re urging her to move and she isn’t – but she is the Spider, renowned for her patience and that was really brought home in this book; just how patient she is, how long she is willing to wait for the ideal situation. Except… someone was actually bleeding to death while she was being this patient. Great stylistically, a bit less so in terms of fitting the situation.

And I liked her flashback with Fletcher, giving another sense of who she was and how she became who she is – but also the ruthlessness that has been instilled into her. I liked it, it would have been great character development for… someone who wasn’t Gin. Sorry, but while I loved so much of it, the idea of Gin getting the job done no matter what, even if it meant using a loved one as bait, doesn’t quite gel with how she’s acted towards her extended family.

I’d also quite like her skill as an assassin be showed by her not getting hurt in a battle rather than her constantly being severely beaten before getting magical healing – less kamikaze Gin and more skilful, awesome Gin.

Having said that, I think it’s a real mistake to look at any of the Elemental Assassin’s series in terms of individual books – this is one of those series that works incredibly well as a collective whole. The pacing of the series, the way each book is presented as its place in the series and general development of the series are all extremely well done – looked at as a whole the writing and organisation is incredible, some of the best I’ve ever read.

Review: Widow's Web by Jennifer Estep, Book 7 in the Elemental Assassin Series

Gin has almost settled into a routine, albeit one dogged still by amateur assassins trying to prove they’re more deadly than the Spider. That is until Philip Kincaid, crime boss and one of the contenders for Mab’s old throne, comes into her BBQ restaurant to hire her. Not as an assassin, but as a caterer.

Of course, nothing’s that simple and when a deadly Elemental assassin tries to kill Kincaid during the party, it’s only Gin’s actions that save his life. From there it takes only a little while to discover Kincaid’s shared history with Owen, her lover and Eva. And Salina

Salina, Water Elemental, deadly, manipulative assassin and wannabe underworld boss. And Owen’s ex-fiancée. A lethal killer who wants Owen back, who wants revenge for her father’s death and is willing to destroy anything in her path. A tough call for Gin to bring down – and preserve her relationship with Owen.

After the last book, I wasn’t really ready for another relationship drama. We’d just finished with Gin and Donovan Caine last book, I wasn’t up for having Owen then deal with his ex. I did think it was handled well, Gin was jealous without being unreasonably so. Gin disliked Salina but, again, she had reason to dislike her. It could have been a lot worse, it really could. And there were several moments when I cringed and expected it to be worse. I expected Owen to ignore or downplay what Gin told him about what Salina did to Eva. I expected Owen to defend Salina more than he did. I expected there to be a lot more “get your hands off my man” moments. In short, I expected a hot mess, and didn’t get it. There were uncomfortable elements – Owen wanting to go easy on Salina, Owen defending Salina, Owen assuming the best about Salina – but none were excessive or beyond what I would expect. I still wasn’t happy with the love triangle, but it didn’t dominate. Ultimately, Salina’s past relationship with Owen was a complicating factor, but the main reason was that Salina was dangerous, that Salina is trying to kill people - people who don’t deserve it.

Face Off: Have Sex Later, Damn It!

Many Urban Fantasy books, and certainly Paranormal Romances, contain a fair amount of sex. And there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s nice to see adults who are happily sexual (well, usually) but sometimes we do have to wonder about, well, the timing.

Sometimes, something is more important than getting it on. Maybe you’re under attack, maybe you have a mission, maybe the end of the world is coming – whatever, sometimes you might want to zip your trousers and deal with things before the dry humping starts, just maybe.

I’m not even talking here about the habit of protagonists going all goo-goo eyed with lust at even the most ridiculous moments (Sherrilyn Kenyon, do you really think how ZOMG HAWT that guy is really going to top of someone’s priority list when they’ve been kidnapped?) but actual stopping everything and outright having sex in the middle of the action.

Gin Blanco from Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series will always be able to fight for this title – not least of which because it was so out of character for her and her usual professionalism. But in the first 2 books she has sex with Caine when she should be running away, and another time she has hurried sex in a closet rather than keeping an eye on her target and being ready to act. The assassination was jeopardised because Gin decided that would be the opportune moment to shag Caine in a closet. Uh-huh. Needless to say, this is not professional.

Review: By a Thread by Jennifer Estep, Book 6 of the Elemental Assassins series

Gin Blanco is having a holiday. There’s just too much stress in Ashland, especially since everyone knows she’s the Spider now and she’s constantly having to fend off petty thugs trying to take her down for the reputation. Time for some relaxation with just her, her friends and her sister Bria, to see if they can finally build a relationship in the aftermath of the epic battle they just fought

Of course, even on holiday there’s no peace. Bria’s best friend since childhood is being menaced by a powerful vampire of extreme influence and power. Past people who have stood up to him have died – and he’s virtually untouchable from the police. Of course, being untouchable to the police doesn’t make them beyond the Spider’s grasp. And she’s just killed the most powerful and devastating elemental in 500 years  - how hard could this be? But Gin’s own over-confidence may be her undoing.

And there’s another problem – her old lover, Donavon, is Bria’s friend’s fiancé. And he’s just as judgemental and disapproving as ever – firmly holding to his morality that won’t have anything to do with assassins no matter who they are killing and why. He doesn’t want her help, even if it costs his fiancée her life. Worse, will opposing Donavon’s morality also put her at odds with Bria, another police officer who is more than a little disapproving of Gin’s murderous ways?

I won’t say the story was exactly a twist per se – but it wasn’t linear either and it did catch me by surprise. Because of the aftermath of killing Mab, there was a strong sense that Gin was just going to walk over the enemy – the real conflict was going to be Donovan and Bria disapproving of her naughty murderous ways and getting in the way of her actually getting the job done. It wasn’t going to be difficult to kill the bad guy – but it was going to be hard to do so without Bria and Donavon knowing and/or handling the fallout. So I was shocked by the twist that all that confident set up was a case of supreme over-confidence and  cockiness – which turned into a storyline to run along side the much better planned assassination attempt, the hecklers disapproval  and Gin’s re-examination. I think this made the story work on many levels and in many ways because we had the same plot line but multiple different themes and twists on that plot and the implications of it and what it means for all of the characters and their interactions. It took the plot line and made it far more complex and nuanced than imagined – while keeping the excitement of hunting down a truly evil, exploitative and powerful foe and examining related issues without being bogged down in angst

I did like how Gin learned in this book and grew in many ways. In particular I liked the mistake she made. She’s just killed her nemesis, the most powerful Elemental in centuries, or so everyone says. And she’s, well, cocky. She’s a little arrogant about it – which is a very natural human mistake, but it’s also a mistake and it does end up costing her.  This was really well done because it was a humanising element of Gin – yes, the Spider believed her own press too much and after spending the last few weeks killing low level thugs she’s underestimated a severe situation. It also helped re-establish tension in the story. We have killed the big bad, but something doesn’t have to be on par with Mab’s level of personal power to be dangerous nor is Mab the only person out there with that kind of power. For the story this is a great step because it re-injects the tension and threat rather than us, like Gin, resting on the laurels of Gin’s power and Gin’s victory – the fact that the bad guys are still dangerous and deadly has been really well reinforced.

Now while I’m not especially pleased at the amount of violence Gin has inflicted on her, she does have a violent profession and she usually stabs the people who attack her so it’s very much redeemed. Similarly, the mistakes that Gin made in this book were reasonable not Spunky – and she asserted her agency and self-worth (and had both validated) in an amazing way which we have needed for a while.

Review: Thread of Death by Jennifer Estep. Book 5.5 in the Elemental Assassins Series

 This is book "5.5" because it's a novella between book 5 and 6.

Normally I don’t like short stories or novellas, so I was in two minds about reading this book or, maybe, just maybe, moving on the next one. Or maybe reading it without reviewing it because I know my own personal dislike for the style would skew my opinion.

But I was really pleasantly surprised. This book worked – not only did it work but I’ll go so far as to say the series needed a short story at this point. After the last book, Gin had just defeated her arch-nemesis. This had been books and books in the making. The build up and the execution was also pretty involved and pretty epic.

Which leaves a problem of where to go from there. What do you do, introduce a new Arch-Nemisis? What, so soon? It looks contrived shouldn’t she have some time to live first. But then – can you write a full book about a “day in the life of Gin Blanco”? Maybe, but following up with that after the epic plot of Spider’s Revenge would be a bit of a climb down to say the least.

So we have the novella. And it’s just perfect for what the plot needs. We see Gin recovering, hints of some of the aftermath of what happened (including the fact that she isn’t physically healed and that the victims aren’t all mentally healed either – which is an important point that is often overlooked).

And of course, there are consequences to destabilising the corrupt city of Ashland’s criminal power structure. People are manoeuvring to get into the top spot that has now being vacated which will, no doubt, include much plotting and many deaths,.

And, of course, we see the foreshadow of a different world for Gin Blanco – one in which it is commonly known she is the Spider – and the assassin who took out the most powerful elemental in the city. Aside from the fact that anyone who takes out a crime boss is usually expected to step into their shoes and Gin has no intention of leaving her BBQ restaurant.

All in all, this book is just perfect for the series. We’re getting the new themes set in place, we’re establishing exactly where the city stands now. We have a reminder of what enemies she had who are still alive and an introduction to the new antagonists that are encroaching on the scene.

And we have some nicely written action to remind us just how much Gin kicks arse. We also see her using her magic more casually which I really hope is a sign of things to come – as it was definitely something that frustrated me inearlier books.

All in all, it’s a short story, but it’s what the series needed and essential to maintain the pacing of the series, I think. It's also well paced and developed - too many short stories I've read are either hurried or just don't have enough concrete plot for their existence - they have an idea and they try and stretch it out into an actual book. This got the balance perfectly.

I didn’t expect to like it, I read on the assumption that I wouldn’t enjoy it but needed to get through it in case any new information was revealed – it was a great surprise.

Review: Spider's Revenge by Jennifer Estep. Book 5 of the Elemental Assassin's series

The plot was simple yet epic. It wasn't complicated with nuances and twists and there's not a lot to summarise of it without going outright into spoilers. Gin has reached the final showdown. Her or Mab. Mab has been targetting her sister too often and while Gin can hide her identity and be the ghost biting at Mab's flanks, Bria cannot. And the longer this fight continues, the longer Gin keeps to the shadows and plays the long game against Mab, the more and more danger Bria is in.

Especially now. Mab has put her vast resources on the table and sent out a call to every bounty hunter in the country. The Spider – dead or alive. Or Bria, Gin's baby sister, alive only. Except, with some of these bounty hunters, “alive” covers a great deal – and Mab herself certainly never hesitates at torture.

And this book is the showdown. Gin avoiding the bounty hunters and aiming to kill Mab, by magic or blade, even though Mab I the most powerful elemental there's been for 500 years. One way or another, she has to die and the people Gin loves have to be kept safe.

It is a direct plot. There are no side-plots, there are no real twists, no shades. This is an epic confrontation, the end game – side plots would be a distraction at this point and twists wouldn't make sense when we consider the careful planning of the Spider. Neither would fit this story and I'm glad they're not there. This is about one thing – Mab vs Gin and it isn't distracted from that.

Tangled Threads by Jennifer Estep, Book 4 of the Elemental Assassin's series

Gin's war against Mab is now declared and Mab is feeling the Spider's bite. First killing her lieutenant, Elliot Slater in Venom she has now started hitting Mab's operations around the cities. Her minions and dealers are all under threat, smoothly assassinated and the Spider rune left by their corpses.

Mab can't tolerate this any more and calls in LaFleur, her own assassin. An expert assassin of the Spider's calibre and an Electricity Elemental. She's in town to run Mab's operations – and take out the Spider. As a bonus prize, she's also to take out Bria, Gin's sister, to finally remove that thorn out of Mab's side as well. To complicate things, Mab has not missed Gin's friendship with Roslyn and is looking to spy on her and undermine her as much as possible

Gin faces an assassin of equal calibre to herself and with extremely powerful magic. Killing her is not just about another blow against Mab – this assassin is hunting her. And she has not only to protect herself, but also her sister and her growing circle of friends and loved ones.

And with that she needs to deal with Bria finally learning that Gin is her sister – and what the honest, law abiding police detective will do with the vigilante assassin? And can she accept her as her sister?.

Venom by Jennifer Estep, Book 3 of the Elemental Assassin's series

Gin's retirement doesn't seem to be sticking. This time Roslyn comes to her with nowhere else to turn, the vampire is being stalked by one of Mab's minions. The giant Elliot Slater. Her chief enforcer, he is a dangerous opponent with all the power of Mab behind him, the most powerful figure in the Ashland crime world. The authorities can't help her, justice and safety can only come from the Spider's knives.

And there's a new cop in town – honest, true, trying to do as much good as she can in a system that is corrupt and compromised to the hilt. Detective Bria Coolridge – Gin's long lost sister. Gin has to decide what to tell her sister, how to help her, how to protect her from Mab and her minions – while at the same time risking her profession as an assassin driving her away just as it drove away Caine.

And there's Mab. Mab who is looking for the person who killed her associates, who lurks behind everything in Ashland and who Gin has more than a few reasons to kill herself.