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The Spider (Elemental Assassin, #10)

Jennifer Estep

Start date: October 1, 2017

Finish date: October 31, 2017

Discussion: Challenges: What's the Rush

Why we're reading this: Part of our group series (re)read: Elemental Assassin …more
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Challenges: What's the Rush

* 2025 Series Read: K.N. Banet's "Jacky Leon"
By Steph , Serious series addict · 103 posts · 33 views

last updated Sep 26, 2025 08:29PM

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* YEAR-LONG CHALLENGES
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last updated Aug 17, 2010 11:14PM

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What Members Thought

Aug 28, 2013 AH rated it really liked it

Shelves: vampires, urban-fantasy, sos-bookshelf-bingo, giants, dwarfs, babr-reviews, magic, assassins, arc-edelweiss, bl-reviews

Initial Thoughts: An interesting plot device whereby Gin receives some beautiful dark blue roses, which remind her of one of her first hits. The story is 10 years in the past and Gin is younger and a little brash. There's still a lot of details in the cooking, so have a snack ready while you read. There are some nice cameos from main characters in the series before they became main characters. Nicely done.

The Review:
I’ve often wondered about Gin’s early days and how she learned how to be one of Initial Thoughts: An interesting plot device whereby Gin receives some beautiful dark blue roses, which remind her of one of her first hits. The story is 10 years in the past and Gin is younger and a little brash. There's still a lot of details in the cooking, so have a snack ready while you read. There are some nice cameos from main characters in the series before they became main characters. Nicely done.

The Review:
I’ve often wondered about Gin’s early days and how she learned how to be one of the most lethal assassins in the Ashland area. The Spider goes back 10 years as we watch a young Gin Blanco go after her first target.

The story begins in the present when a mysterious package arrives. When Gin finally opens the package (after checking for magic, explosives, and explosive magics), she finds a bouquet of black roses inside with a cryptic “Happy Anniversary” message. Only one person would send Gin those roses and Gin begins to reminisce.

Gin tells the story of her first hit on the Vaughn family. Gin was still living with Fletcher and was learning her trade from The Tin Man himself. Finn provided the financial background and assisted during fight training. When Fletcher is approached for the hit, something just doesn’t feel right, but Gin continues to tail her mark.

What follows is the story of Gin’s early days when she was younger and more naïve. Gin gave her heart easily to Sebastian Vaughn, the son of her target. It was nice seeing a happy and more care-free Gin. As an added bonus, many of the supporting characters from the present day series appear in cameo roles. Owen appears as a knight in shining armor (well, he had a car and he was in the right place at the right time). Gin even meets a young girl who was a dead ringer for Bria.

You can really see the growth in Gin’s character from this book. Gin is young and more impulsive. She really wants to prove herself. Now she is much more meticulous and takes the time to properly research her marks.

The writing is kind of fun. The author likes to describe everything, so if that’s not your cup of tea, you may want to skip this series. Gin likes to cook and some passages read like recipes. Have a snack ready as you read. I wish the author would go ahead and publish the Pork Pitt cookbook already. There is still a lot of repetition of eye colors but that’s just the charm of this series. The story is good and it should keep the reader engaged.

The Elemental Assassins series is full of magic, corrupt officials, and really good barbecue. If you have not yet had a chance to start this series, give it a try. Gin is one kickass heroine.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Pocket Books for a review copy of this book.

Review posted on Badass Book Reviews. Check it out! ...more

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Oct 02, 2017 Moondance rated it really liked it

Shelves: betrayal, family, kick-ass-heroine, child-abuse, elementals, elemental-assassin, assassin, gin-blanco, bad-ass-heroine

The day the box came started out like any other.

Gin receives a very nondescript box at the Pork Pit that contains blue roses and a card that says "Happy Anniversary". This leads her to tell Owen a tale about her early years as an assassin.

This book goes back ten years in Gin's life and show that even as the Spider she can make mistakes. Fletcher has received a hit that makes him uneasy. Gin reads into it what she wants and is gung ho to complete the contract. Unfortunately, Gin makes a huge mist ...more

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Feb 23, 2015 Vivian rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2015

I really enjoy this series overall. Over the years the elements I used to have issues with have become fun quirks I look forward to - chicory coffee, eye colors, three-peats (e.g. sloppy, sloppy, sloppy). Gin is a cold, hard assassin on the exterior with a gooey marshmallow interior, I absolutely love her and her growing group of trusted friends and family. Each book is an opportunity to visit with these awesome characters Estep has created and they keep me coming back for more.

In the 10th insta I really enjoy this series overall. Over the years the elements I used to have issues with have become fun quirks I look forward to - chicory coffee, eye colors, three-peats (e.g. sloppy, sloppy, sloppy). Gin is a cold, hard assassin on the exterior with a gooey marshmallow interior, I absolutely love her and her growing group of trusted friends and family. Each book is an opportunity to visit with these awesome characters Estep has created and they keep me coming back for more.

In the 10th installment we travel back in time as Gin recounts her first solo mission as The Spider. As an origin story, it was interesting to see how much influence this job has on Gin and explains why and how she is the assassin she is but to be honest I felt that everything could have been told as a novella. Gin is recounting this tale to Owen and from the huge hints she's giving, it is fairly obvious what is going down. I don't even know if I would call it predictable because I don't think anything was meant to be a surprise (view spoiler). So yes, nice to read about but maybe more enjoyable condensed and I did end up skimming through some of the second half.

Initially, it was fun to see cameos from characters who are now such a huge part of Gin's life. Gin meets Xavier for the first time and it's interesting to hear about their first interactions. Then Bria's father comes into the picture and I like how his character is tied into the story. But after that, Gin meets Mab, then Roslyn, then Bria, and by the time we come across Owen all the charm is gone for me. As mentioned earlier, I do love these characters and it would have been neat to discover that Gin had crossed paths with them in the past or hear how they first meet but for everything to occur in this one story was a bit overkill.

One of my favorite parts of these books is the ending. Even when there are longer story arcs that leave you in want of the next book, there is usually some sort of conclusion which makes me happy (I think). It was so good to see that (view spoiler). After a long story involving betrayal, deceit, and heartbreak this was a nice way to end. ...more

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Sep 18, 2013 Karyogini rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-on-2013

I totally love JE! :) Her books, novellas and shorts(?) are super entertaining. You never really know what kind of UF you'll get when you pick up a book from this series. Some books are action packed, some are more on relationship, some are just sad and depressing, and then there is this book. All of which shows us JE's talent in humor, character building and plot twisting.

This book, it's a flashback book. A painful flashback but very educational. We learn all about the Spider when she was still ...more

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Dec 25, 2013 Diane ~Firefly~ rated it really liked it

Shelves: uf, magic, paranormal, kindle, pb-also

I was kind of iffy about a prequel, but once the story got going I was all in. It was nice to get more of a sense of Fletcher and cool to see current characters make cameos in the past. It was a bit painful to watch Gin go through her painful learning experience (part of growing up). You just know everything is going to go sideways.

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Oct 31, 2017 KarenF rated it liked it

Shelves: own, urban-fantasy

I liked this one but didn't really love the flashback/origin story. I was interesting to get a glimpse at what will later be major players but still, I would have preferred to stay with the present. I think there was a glimpse at the elusive MM Monroe but I also think I missed it. ...more

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Jan 03, 2014 Daffodil rated it it was amazing

Shelves: urban-fantasy, vampires, assassin, magic-users

I really enjoyed this peek back into Gin's past, especially catching glimpses of people who would eventually become influences in her life, good and bad. Gin learns a few hard lessons about why Fletcher's rules are important and begins to see the value of patience. ...more

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