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Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, #1)

Jennifer Estep

Start date: April 1, 2011

Finish date: April 30, 2011

Discussion: (2011) April Read: Spider's Bite

Discussion leader: TheGeekyBlogger

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(2011) April Read: Spider's Bite

Spider's Bite: Full Book Disussion
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last updated May 13, 2011 04:05PM

Spider's Bite Chapter 1-8
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last updated May 05, 2011 06:07AM

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What Members Thought

Sep 17, 2011 Chelsea rated it really liked it

Shelves: uf-pnr, vampires, magic

This review was originally published at Vampire Book Club.

Gin Blanco is the kind of protagonist I love. She knows who she is and is completely at ease taking charge. Also, she has wry wit, which is always appreciated.

Spider’s Bite heroine Gin kills people for a living. She’s an assassin, and has never had any real qualms about killing people. They deserve it. She’s good at it. And it’s never personal. However, when a client sets her up to be murdered, to take the fall for some nasty things and i This review was originally published at Vampire Book Club.

Gin Blanco is the kind of protagonist I love. She knows who she is and is completely at ease taking charge. Also, she has wry wit, which is always appreciated.

Spider’s Bite heroine Gin kills people for a living. She’s an assassin, and has never had any real qualms about killing people. They deserve it. She’s good at it. And it’s never personal. However, when a client sets her up to be murdered, to take the fall for some nasty things and involve her family — well, she’s going to make them pay.

While Gin uses typical fighting skills, she is actually an elemental. She, like others within the Elemental Assassins world, is one who can wield magic tied to her element. She can call on stone to bring down a building if she wanted, but, well, that’s too easy. Plus, those who use their magic too much go insane. While investigating who is after her, we get to meet some engaging characters including a vampire former prostitute, a goth who loves to dispose of bodies and even an air elemental who runs a salon.

There’s a great juxtaposition of high society and its seedy underbelly. Mob queens out flaunt their power on the charity circuit and just about every cop is dirty. I say just about because the one good guy left on the force, Donovon Caine, finds himself under attack from the same person after Gin. They strike a truce, though he tells her he’ll hunt her down the moment it ends. I liked these two together. Gin makes no apologies about her serious crush on the detective and I appreciated her owning her sexuality by taking the lead.

There were a few writing quirks that threw me off while reading Spider’s Bite – mostly repetition of phrasing — but I believe they may be purposeful. Gin is methodical. She will wait as long as it takes to get revenge. So, it makes sense that she might say the same things or repeat her process of strapping on knives, each time. The function is well-thought, but I kept thinking “I just read that.”

With such a rich world, Spider’s Bite offers so much potential for an amazing series, especially as Gin begins to question what she really wants out of life. The events of Spider’s Bite shake her, and I will definitely continue with the series to see how she progresses. Fun and edgy, Jennifer Estep’s writing voice hooked me. I’m game for more.

Sexual content: Sex scene ...more

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Jun 30, 2010 Anna rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, read-2011, magic, assassins

Review originally posted at http://bookstobrightenyourmood.blogsp...

Spider's Bite is an amazing first book to an urban fantasy series that promises to become even more exciting in the books to come.It's been quite some time since the last time I picked an urban fantasy title,and boy did I miss them!And Spider's Bite was just the perfect book to make me crave for even more!

Jennifer Estep's writing style is really good.Fast paced,straight to the point and with an ability to create such fully devel
Review originally posted at http://bookstobrightenyourmood.blogsp...

Spider's Bite is an amazing first book to an urban fantasy series that promises to become even more exciting in the books to come.It's been quite some time since the last time I picked an urban fantasy title,and boy did I miss them!And Spider's Bite was just the perfect book to make me crave for even more!

Jennifer Estep's writing style is really good.Fast paced,straight to the point and with an ability to create such fully developed characters that you can feel her heroes feelings.I liked Gin from the very first pages.It's not that common to have an assassin as the main character.Assassins are in most cases the bad guys and to have one as the actual good guy was what intrigued me in buying this book.And Estep's portraying of her assassin hero didn't disappoint me in the least.
Surely, Gin is ruthless,cold blooded and with no feeling of remorse towards her killings,but she is also devoted and strong willed,courageous and ready to die for those she loves,qualities that make an amazing heroine.
I've read in many reviews that what bothered most readers in Gin was that she acted more like a guy and less like a woman or that they didn't like her advances towards Caine but for me,all those things are what made Gin an unforgettable character and what I loved most about her.
I've grown tired of damsells in distress,waiting for their men to save them and save the day in the end of the book.Gin has no need of a white knight or anything.She's perfectly capable of taking care of herself and the other's around her and I so much enjoyed that she was the one to save men around her and not the other way around!

The plot was action packed and fast paced,leaving little time for the reader to get bored or tired.In general,Spider's Bite was a really good book in a series that from what everything indicates will only become better.The only things that bothered me a bit were two: That Donovan Caine was a bit of an irritating character and a bit narrow minded for my taste and the fact that same sentences kept appearing the whole time.All those "mmmmmmmm's" and "sloppy,sloppy,sloppy" and the way Gin arranged her knives really distracted me after seeing them thrice or more.But in whole,those two things didn't spoil the fun of the book for me and didn't keep me from ordering the next book in the series as soon as I finished reading this one.

All in all,Spider's Bite is a book I highly recommend to all urban fantasy lovers and one I can't wait to read its sequel!
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Nov 16, 2010 Heather Book Savvy Babe rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Spider’s Bite is book 1 in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassins series. I have seen this book around for awhile, and finally got the chance to read it. I am happy to report, I was not disappointed! Gin Blanco is my type of heroine, she’s tough, magical, sensual, and proud of who she is. She is an assassin, not a CIA sanctioned assassin, she’s a stone-cold contract killer. I love her character, she brought herself up from tragedy, with the help of her handler, Fletcher. In Spider’s Bite, Gin is ...more

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