Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, #1) in Challenge Overload (PNR and UF Edition)

Mar 30, 2010 Natasha rated it it was amazing

Spider's Bite is the first book I've read by Jennifer Estep, and I have no idea why I haven't heard of her before this. She's brilliant!
Why? For starter's, she really knows how to open a book and drag you right in.

Her first line says all...

"My name is Gin, and I kill people."
I really do judge a book by it's first chapters. Sure, I can still love a book when it's only really good from half way on, but to be promising from the start? That's a 5 star + for sure, for me. And this really is promisin ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 11, 2012 CassieCruel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: vampires-read, magic-read, i-own-new-shelf

Amazing first in series, will definitely be reading the rest of the series to follow Gin!

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 13, 2011 Yui rated it it was ok

Fast-paced, lots of actions, good story.

It was an ok start with just enough excitement and world building to make you want to pick up the next in the series. The writing style is smooth and straight so it's easy to get lost in the story and turn the pages to finish.

The story is about Gin, an assassin in a world where magic and other supernatural creatures lives in harmony with humans. Well, I say in harmony only in terms that non-human beings aren't shunned nor discriminated but the world or par Fast-paced, lots of actions, good story.

It was an ok start with just enough excitement and world building to make you want to pick up the next in the series. The writing style is smooth and straight so it's easy to get lost in the story and turn the pages to finish.

The story is about Gin, an assassin in a world where magic and other supernatural creatures lives in harmony with humans. Well, I say in harmony only in terms that non-human beings aren't shunned nor discriminated but the world or particularly the city where Gin lives is in no way peaceful. Her world greatly reminds me of the Sin City. Only instead of guns (although the use of guns are still popular) they have the elementals who looks like humans and acts like humans but live longer and can use one of the 4elements. Fire, Ice, Stone and Air.
In Gin's city, there is a mob boss named Mab. She is the strongest elemental ever in 500years and she rules this whole city where pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and corrupt cops are not only common but are in every corner of every alley. When a client double crossed Gin to avoid the notice of Mab in an ongoing attempt to overthrow her forces, things got a little complicated. Instead of a last hit to retirement Gin's handler hopes for her and despite of their efforts to avoid it, Gin may find her self closer to Mab's attention.

The book is certainly interesting but despite the fact that I don't give 2stars as lightly as I don't give 4-5stars. I'm inclined to give this one 2stars even though I liked it for two reasons.
The first one is due to the fact that the plot only worked because the bad guy is crazy. Mab's power and influence was strongly suggested piece by piece through out the book. But the villain in this book planned to overthrow Mab even though she has only used her elemental magic for a few years. This villain is weak and only came to power thru madness. In a normal world she may have enough reasons and power to play the part but as I've said, Mab's tyranny is hammered to a point where a lost of money and a member of family is so ordinary that opposing her for these reasons alone is just plain crazy. Which of course is what the villain is.
The second reason is because of an another weak character. The love interest. The guy isn't weak per se, He has a strong moral beliefs and he can be yummy in a normal world but again, it's the Elemental Assassin world so I don't buy his character. At first glance he seemed to be a potential and the Lead female went out of her way to ask for his help and it seemed romantic and yippey at first but he turned out to be completely useless and totally replaceable. He doesn't have any distinguishable talent except for his morality. This could be a good thing but the lead is an assassin so it's obviously a mismatch. His morals can be bent in the future books perhaps but then if the author does this then he will be no more different than any other good looking guy and will lose his only value in the series. This is the thing that bothered me most in this book. My first complain is easy to fix and if it's only that I could have swayed my 2stars to 3 but the uninteresting male lead is a total let down for me.
But all will be well as soon as Gin dumps his ass. :-D
The world building of this series is vast and has a lot of potentials either in this series or if the author decides to write a whole new series based on this world. I'm betting on the latter because so far this one would seem to focus on the Elementals only.
...more

Like · see review