Gizmo's Reviews: #Blog Tour/Giveaway/Review - SPIDER'S TRAP by Jennifer Estep (UF)

Series: Elemental Assassin # 13
Published by: Pocket Books
Release Date: July 28, 2015
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Source: Publisher for Blog Tour
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Keep your friends close but your enemies within stabbing distance.

One important lesson I’ve learned in the assassination business is that to be the best you have to roll with the punches. Now that I’m queen of Ashland’s underworld—by default, not by choice—a lot more punches are being thrown my way. But I suppose that’s the price of victory for taking down some of the underworld’s top dogs. Good thing I have my Ice and Stone magic to help me survive my volatile new position. Just when I think things are finally settling down, someone tries to murder me during a hush-hush underworld meeting. But the real surprise is how strangely familiar my shadowy assailant seems to be.

My job is to maintain order among killers, crooks, and thieves, and soon I’m embroiled in a bloody game where the ability to keep secrets could be the greatest superpower of all. My enemies have all sharpened their knives and laid their traps, waiting for me to fall. But this Spider weaves her own webs of death

*Overview*

The Elemental Assassin series focuses on Gin Blanco, an assassin code named the Spider who can control the elements of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing people and righting wrongs, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit in the fictional Southern metropolis of Ashland. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vampires, and elementals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.

*My Thoughts*

Spider's Trap is the Thirteenth installment in the Elemental Assassin series. Things are never easy for Gin and her gang of misfits which includes her sister Bria, her lover Owen, her step-brother Finn, and the rest of the odd squad who help keep her alive. Since Gin defeated the queen of the nasties in Mab Monroe and her daughter, she's become the uninitiated Queen of Ashland's underworld. A title she can really do with out since she already has her hands full trying to stay alive and running the Pork Pit.

Being Queen comes with being forced to attend boring meetings between underworld leaders, and negotiating disagreements before they turn bloody. But, what happens when yet another powerful Elemental comes to town looking for a score to settle? If you are Gin, you put the pieces together, hope that nobody in her circle of friends/family is targeted for being associated with her, and end the threat before it spreads fast and far. If that means getting beaten up and bloody, so be it!

Estep has once again added flashback scenes between Fletcher, Gin's mentor, and how she became the assassin known as the Spider. I dare say that I am hopeful this time around. I am hopeful that a change in Gin's future may be due to a sort of detente, if you will, between herself and another underground boss. I won't spoil things because that would be just rude. However, I do believe that Gin and another unnamed character have a whole lot more in common than they don't. But, I also worry that yet another scheming villain is just over the horizon waiting to pounce and stir up trouble. You really can't count on any peaceful times for Gin and her group until the last villain is laid to rest.

Next in series: Bitter Bite (February 23, 2016)

My friends turned their attention back to Dimitri and Luiz, who were still yelling and pointing their fingers at each other, each one of them trying to shout the other man down. But instead of listening to them, I glanced at the third boss who had shown up—Lorelei Parker.

Unlike Dimitri and Luiz, who were both dressed in business suits, Lorelei was sporting black stiletto boots, dark jeans, and a long-sleeve T-shirt, just like I was. The only real difference between us was that her leather jacket was a bright, royal-blue and mine was a subdued, midnight-black. Her black hair was pulled back into a French braid, and her blue eyes were focused on her phone, since she was busy texting. The quick motions of her fingers made a silverstone rune ring glitter on her right hand—a rose wrapped in thorns dripping blood, all of it outlined in impressive diamonds.

Of the three bosses, Lorelei was the most intriguing, since she was a smuggler known far and wide for her ability to get anything for anyone at any time. Cash, guns, precious jewels, pricey antiques, and exotic animals were just a few of the things she was rumored to dabble in.

Only a single guard stood off to her side. Jack Corbin, her right-hand man. He too was dressed in boots, jeans, and a leather jacket, but his blue eyes continuously scanned the deck and everyone and everything on it.

Corbin realized that I was watching him and tipped his head at me, before smoothing back his brown hair. Then he sidled a little closer to his boss, ready to protect her from everyone on deck, including me. I nodded back at him. My deceased mentor, Fletcher Lane, had a thick file on Corbin in his office, so I knew that he was far more dangerous than he appeared to be.

Then again, so was I.

Lorelei was here because she owned the coin laundries in question and was more than willing to sell them—to the highest bidder, of course. I didn’t know if she’d approached Dimitri and Luiz about buying the front businesses or if they’d come to her, and I hadn’t had the chance to ask any questions since the gangsters had been screaming at each other the entire six minutes I’d been on the riverboat. Either way, the men just couldn’t agree on who was getting what, and things had escalated to the point that Dimitri and Luiz were about to declare war on each other. That would mean shootings, stabbings, kneecappings, and lots of other messy crimes.

Don’t get me wrong. As the Spider, I’d made plenty of bloody messes in my time. It was sort of my specialty.

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About the Author

About Jennifer Estep:

Jennifer Estep is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author prowling the streets of her imagination in search of her next fantasy idea.

Spider’s Trap, the 13th book in her Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, will be released on July 28.

Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, Tangled Threads, Spider’s Revenge, By a Thread, Widow’s Web, Deadly Sting, Heart of Venom, The Spider, Poison Promise, Black Widow, and Spider’s Trap, along with the e-shorts Thread of Death, Parlor Tricks, and Kiss of Venom, are the other works in her Elemental Assassin series.

Jennifer is also the author of the Black Blade and Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series and the Bigtime paranormal romance series.

For more on Jennifer and her books, visit her at www.JenniferEstep.com, her blog or follow her on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter (@Jennifer_Estep).

Website: http://www.jenniferestep.com

Blog: http://www.jenniferestep.com/blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferEstepAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jennifer_Estep

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/580315.Jennifer_Estep

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