Venom (Elemental Assassin #3)

Venom by Jennifer Estep
Book 3 of An Elemental Assassin series. Best read as part of the series. Urban fantasy.
Gin Blanco, aka The Spider, is a retired assassin. Sometimes the work comes home and becomes personal. Old enemies and found family have The Spider back at work.

Gripping and non-stop action. Giants, dwarfs, and elemental magic have Gin on the ground over and over again but shes not one to let the bully win. Now that her police detective sister is back in town, subtle may be the way to go. Ha.

Wonderful action and story especially for readers of the series.

While I am sort of enjoying the series, every book is exactly the same. The main character says and does the exact same things every book. Every book has WAY too much background information and explains in great detail the exact same things every book. It’s a series and the books are not meant to be read as stand-alone stories, so really there’s absolutely no reason to re-explain the same stuff in EVERY book. The main character consistently refers to herself as being the best in her profession as an assassin, but every book she gets her a** kicked, screws up the hit and has to go back and clean up the mess later…. um….that’s NOT the best. I would love to read about her actually being the best. I’d like her better. Instead every book she’s damaged nearly to death and has to be brought back from the edge by JoJo. I’m currently on book 7, but I have to skim through a lot of the repeated stuff constantly and it’s getting boring. The author has a good idea, but she’s basically just writing the same book over and over with slightly different characters and slightly different settings.

Sometimes there are tag lines in a TV show, book series or movie for a set of characters that really work and you look forward to seeing them or hearing them. For Brandon Sandersons Mistborn series it was There is always another secret and for Heroes it was Save the Cheerleader. Save the World and Highlanders There can be only one. I wish I could say the Estep accomplishes this toobut while she has a ton of repetition and things that could be tag linesk none of them are endearing to me and most of them just annoy me now.

For example:

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy is actually one of the better ones
Then there is

Gray eyes on violet (or gold or blue insert arbitrary eye color of various character here)

And

two up my the sleeves, two in my boots, and one at the small of my back. referring to the locations of all of her Silverstone knives.

It is a little distracting. I think problem Number 1 that Im having with the series is that Im listening to it and so I cant just eyeskim the parts that are redundant. I remember who Donovan Caine is, he was just in the last book and the guy you were uber hung up on. I dont need to be reminded multiple times why your semi-relationship (seriously more like 2 rolls in the hay) didnt work out. I know that you have 5 blades on you at all times. I remember character XYZ because we have met them multiple times. Stop with all the recounts of EVERYTHING. Problem Number 2get a new danger factor. Rape or threat of rape to the MC or side characters only carries for so far. It cant be one of the main danger factors in every book. Does every bad dude have to threaten to rape Gin or the Client??? There are other ways to create fear and drama in a book.

BUT

Even with those things said the story is easy and I am starting to like Gin just a little more all the time. I very much like the introduction of a new love interest that can like our assassin for exactly who and what she is. I also like that he calls her on her bulls***.
I don’t judge you for what you’ve done, Gin. Why are you judging me for another man’s mistakes?

Owen can definitely stick around.

The plot was decent. Another member of Mabs crew has targeted Rosalyn and is playing a nasty little game with her. The more I learn about Mab and her minions the more I want her dead and Gin would just be the assassin to take care of that. The addition of Gins sister into the mix was really interesting too. Im looking forward to seeing where all that goes.

Im still waiting for this series break out moment. It hasnt happened yet. The stone cold assassin with a soft spot hasnt found my soft spot just yet. But I still see a lot of potential and overall these are easy and dont require a lot of thinking on my part so they are a good easy read so far. Still Im waiting for that one book that just hooks me and makes me decided that I cant wait to get to the next book in the series.

If you like kickazz heroines with biting wit, sarcasm, and compassion for the underdog, you’ll love reading about Gin Blanco, A.K.A The Spider. What I like best about this series is you can pick up any book and start reading. You don’t have to read the first one to know about Gin’s background. This is book 3, and even though I’m reading them in order, some readers may not be. So, it’s very helpful that the author includes information from other books just in case someone hasn’t read them in order. To me, this is not redundant at all.

Gin is an assassin who’s trying to retire after the death of her mentor. She lives in the corrupt town of Ashland, which gives her plenty of business–because there’s an endless supply of sleazebags who need to die. The fact that she can control stone and ice adds a unique twist of flavor and excitement. She tries to harden herself against all those mushy feelings of emotion, but she really has a heart of gold. That’s what makes her the perfect assassin–she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get vengeance for the victims that hire her.

I also like the backstory of her romance with Grayson as well as her quest to find the murderer of her family. We need more books like this: filled with action, drama, and just the right amount of steamy romance! I highly recommend this book, and I’m looking forward to reading all of the others in this series.

I have severe chronic pain. So when I look for a book, I need something that engages every part of my brain – not easy to find. But the Elemental Assassin series has it all. It has a strong (and realistic – meaning she has areas she needs to grow and heal – female main character. It has tons of excitement – very active books – but it also has great character development and even better development of relationships – changing and growing from book to book. There is some sex, some romance, some deep love (platonic and otherwise). It really has it all. I just love them.

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