Elemental Assassin #2
Published May 2010 by Pocket Books
400 pages
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Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating: Loved It
Curiosity is definitely going to get me dead one of these days. Probably real soon.
I’m Gin Blanco.
You might know me as the Spider, the most feared assassin in the South. I’m retired now, but trouble still has a way of finding me. Like the other day when two punks tried to rob my popular barbecue joint, the Pork Pit. Then there was the barrage of gunfire on the restaurant. Only, for once, those kill shots weren’t aimed at me. They were meant for Violet Fox. Ever since I agreed to help Violet and her grandfather protect their property from an evil coalmining tycoon, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m really retired. So is Detective Donovan Caine. The only honest cop in Ashland is having a real hard time reconciling his attraction to me with his Boy Scout mentality. And I can barely keep my hands off his sexy body. What can I say? I’m a Stone elemental with a little Ice magic thrown in, but my heart isn’t made of solid rock. Luckily, Gin Blanco always gets her man . . . dead or alive. (Source: Goodreads)
Gin gives retirement a try. But when trouble comes a knocking, she knocks some heads. As you can see from the summary, she does a little pro bono work protecting the little guy against evil big bullying business. In her effort to help, she also discovers more about herself.
She learned a bit more about her stone magic in the previous book, but here she will unlock her ice magic. Gin is glad to shake off the cobwebs and get back into mix. She is a woman of action and I loved tagging along for the ride again. In the lowest moments, she proves that she is a survivor. “F*#@. It hurt to be alive.” Made me laugh. She will persevere and, especially with new revelations on what happened to her family and the Fire Elemental responsible. Venom. I can’t wait to see the next step.
Despite a very sexy rain scene, Gin and myself were ready to punch Donovan Caine in the face. In Caine, Estep creates a character where you understand Gin’s attraction but you grow to hate him. As much as this goes against everything I would root for in my Urban Fantasy, I am happy to see where that story line headed in the end. Estep has me very interested in new possibilities with Mr. Tall, Dark and Powerful.
Note: Only real complaint is that Estep does a lot of rehashing. I caught myself skimming at moments to get back to the action. But the story is worth it. I’ve heard around that this continues through book 5.
Gin may be made of Stone and Ice, but she is OK with it and so am I.
Series: .5 Poison | .6 Web of Deceit | .7 Spider’s Bargain | 1 Spider’s Bite | 1.5 Web of Death | 2 Web of Lies | 2.5 Waisted | 3 Venom | 3.5 Tangled Dreams | 3.6 Tangled Schemes | 4 Tangled Threads | 4.5 Spider’s Nemesis | 5 Spider’s Revenge | 5.5 Thread of Death | 6 By a Thread | 7 Widow’s Web | 8 Deadly Sting March 2013) | 9 Heart of Venom (April 2013)
She does that A LOT in the first 6 books. These are very hard to read back to back because of that. It does get a bit distracting.
She does rehash but I think it’s useful for those who go a long time in between reading the book. It’s easy to skim over, too.
So happy you are loving the series!
That’s what Felicia told me. The distance between releases…the publisher wanted her to add it all in. It’s all good, because she is awesome.
Rehashing bugs me, but I’ve come to accept that most of these series do it in some form or another. Gin sounds like an awesome heroine. Clearly I need to check these books out too!
There are always more books to check out. It is both a YEA! and a Urgh! because I want to read them all.
The re-hashing is a fine balance, isn’t it? Sometimes I forget everything after a one year wait, but it’s annoying when you’ve just read the last book. Still, glad you’re loving Gin!
A fine line. I’m lucky not to have to wait. I think 7 are out now, so I’m reading them closer together than her original fans. But I’m going to give myself a little space between each of my reads so I don’t get annoyed. ;D
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