#Blog Stop/Review/Excerpt/Giveaway! Jennifer Estep's Bitter Bite (Urban Fantasy)

Series: Elemental Assassin # 14
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: February 23, 2016
Publisher: Pocket Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Which is stronger: blood ties or a battle-tested friendship?

It’s not easy being queen bee of an underworld abuzz with crooks and killers. Wielding my potent Ice and Stone elemental magic will only get me so far—my real secret is my tight-knit makeshift family, a motley crew of cops and criminals, dwarves and playboys. My foster brother Finnegan Lane is my right-hand man, but when his suddenly not-dead relative comes back into the picture, I’m the one on the outside looking in. 

It’s funny how life works: one minute your best friend is rock-steady, and the next he’s doe-eyed and buying into this whole loving-relative routine to the point of ignoring you. I’d like to be happy for Finn, I really would. But all of my instincts are telling me that beneath the syrupy sweet demeanor and old-fashioned charm, this sudden interloper is planning something. The whole shtick leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. This person might have avoided the grave once, but I’ll put anyone who hurts Finn in the ground—for good.

Bitter Bite is the Fourteenth installment in Jennifer Estep's best selling Elemental Assassin Series. The series features Gin Blanco as an elemental assassin known as the Spider who has two powerful abilities; the use of Stone and Ice elemental magic. When she's not avoiding assassination attempts that seem to spring up like jack-rabbits on a hot summer night, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit. Currently, Gin is also the default head of the Ashland's Underworld, a title that came from the fight to the death with Mab Monroe, and more challenges than you can shake a stick at. 

At the end of Spider's Trap, Estep left readers with a shocking surprise that could separate friends and families. As a result of that surprise, Gin now has to deal with another diabolical villain who is a very powerful Ice Elemental. It has to change because Deirdre Shaw is also Finn's long thought dead mother! Can readers trust this sweet, charming, Southern lady, or should they be wearing a silverstone vest to protect their backs? Even the deceased Fletcher Lane tried to tell Gin to be weary by leaving bread crumbs for her to find. Change is the only permanent in Gin's world. 

Change shakes things up, and throws alliances and feelings into disarray thanks to twisted machinations and the evil intent of Deirdre Shaw. Change isn't necessarily a good thing when Gin's own mother's history is brought into question by a secretive society that finally comes out of the darkness and reveals themselves to Gin. Change creates a chink in the armor of Gin's family that she has surrounded herself with. Finn, Owen, Bria, Jo-Jo, Sophia, Silvio, and Xavier. Gin's past is once again featured in this story. It is something Estep has been doing for awhile now. It's just a brief flashback, but it's definitely necessary to the storyline. 

Holy cats! You can definitely call me shocked by the way things ended, and the apparent direction Estep is taking Gin. I dare say that I am eager as a beaver to read the next installment called Unraveled. There are so many questions about the past, that I want to see what Estep comes up with. Readers have always been told certain facts about Eira Snow, Gin and Bria's long dead mother. Without spoiling things, I'll leave it right there. Gin faces some difficult challenges in Bitter Bite, but when hasn't she? I dare say that the bloodshed in this book is mild in comparison to previous novels but Gin still holds nothing back even when she faces her own mortality. I dare say that Gin is a conflicted character. She has so much stuff on her plate, that it's easy for something to fall through the cracks. Thankfully, Gin's relationship with Owen is now rock solid and hotter than a cat on a tin roof, and her relationship with Bria has found a warm spot in my heart. 

Digging up a grave was hard, dirty work.

Good thing that hard, dirty work was one of my specialties. Although this was a bit of a role reversal. As the assassin the Spider, I’m usually putting people into graves instead of uncovering them.

But here I was in Blue Ridge Cemetery, just after ten o’clock on this cold November night. Flurries drifted down from the sky, the small flakes dancing on the gusty breeze like delicate, crystalline fairies. Every once in a while, the wind would whip up into a howling frenzy, pelting me with swarms of snow and spattering the icy flakes against my chilled cheeks.

I ignored the latest wave of flurries stinging my face and continued digging, just like I’d been doing for the last hour. The only good thing about driving the shovel into the frozen earth was that the repetitive motions of scooping out the dirt and tossing it onto a pile kept me warm and limber, instead of cold and stiff like the tombstones surrounding me.

Despite the snow, I still had plenty of light to see by, thanks to the old-fashioned iron streetlamps spaced along the access roads throughout the cemetery. One of the lamps stood about thirty feet away from where I was digging, its golden glow highlighting the grave marker in front of me, making the carved name stand out like black blood against the gray stone.

Deirdre Shaw.

The mother of my foster brother, Finnegan Lane. A strong Ice elemental. And a potentially dangerous enemy.

A week ago, I’d found a file that Fletcher Lane—Finn’s dad, and my assassin mentor—had hidden in his office. A file that claimed that Deirdre was powerful, deceitful, and treacherous—and not nearly as dead as everyone thought she was. So I’d come here tonight to find out whether she was truly six feet under. I was hoping she was dead and rotting in her grave, but I wasn’t willing to bet on it.

Too many things from my own past had come back to haunt me for me to leave something this important to chance.

The mother of my foster brother, Finnegan Lane. A strong Ice elemental. And a potentially dangerous enemy.

A week ago, I’d found a file that Fletcher Lane—Finn’s dad, and my assassin mentor—had hidden in his office. A file that claimed that Deirdre was powerful, deceitful, and treacherous—and not nearly as dead as everyone thought she was. So I’d come here tonight to find out whether she was truly six feet under. I was hoping she was dead and rotting in her grave, but I wasn’t willing to bet on it.

Too many things from my own past had come back to haunt me for me to leave something this important to chance.

Purchase links 

Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/1KkKXr2

Amazon paperback: http://amzn.to/1g4K63X

Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/jqwn96z

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Google Play: http://tinyurl.com/q4nzojf

iBooks: http://tinyurl.com/qazgh9y

IndieBound: http://tinyurl.com/poydj78

Kobo: http://tinyurl.com/nzwgne3

Audible: http://tinyurl.com/jnxmucb

Amazon audiobook: http://amzn.to/1JJnl3g

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.

 

Jennifer writes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series for Pocket Books. Bitter Bite, the 14^th book in the series, will be released on Feb. 23.

 

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

 

For more information on Jennifer and her books, visit www.jenniferestep.com or follow Jennifer on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter.

Tour Wide Giveaway!
You can win a complete set of the Elemental Assassin series, a $25 Amazon gift card, and 3 signed copies of BITTER BITE. Series & Gift Cards US/Canada only. Signed copies US Only!

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