Book Review: Spider's Bite

Spider's Bite

By:  Jennifer Estep

Publisher:  Pocket Books

Publish Date:  February 2010

Format:  Paperback 395pgs, pocket size

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  1st book in An Elemental Assassin series

Recommendation:  Yes, a light, quick assassin action read.

Book Synopsis:
My name is Gin, and I kill people.

The call me the Spider.  I'm the most feared assassin in the South - when I'm not busy at the Pork Pit cooking up the best barbecue in Ashland.  As a Stone elemental, I can hear everything from the whispers of the gravel beneath my feet to the vibrations of the soaring Appalachian Mountains above me.  My Ice magic also comes in handy for making the occasional knife.  But I don't use my powers on the job unless I absolutely have to.  Call it professional pride.

Now that a ruthless Air elemental has double-crossed me and killed my handler, I'm out for revenge.  And I'll exterminate anyone who gets in my way - good or bad.  I may look hot, but I'm still on of the bad guys.  Which is why I'm in trouble, since irresistibly rugged Detective Donovan Caine has agreed to help me.  The last thing this coldhearted killer needs when I'm battling a magic more powerful than my own is a sexy distraction...especially when Donovan wants me dead just as much as the enemy.

First Sentence:
"My name is Gin, and I kill people."

My Thoughts and Summary:
Gin, a stone Elemental finishes a job at the asylum and returns to the Pork Pit, like after every job, to meet with Fletcher - her handler and father figure - who hands her a folder with information on her next job.  A job that she doesn't want to take as she wants to go on vacation, but after seeing the obscene pay for it, she will go on vacation afterward.  She is to assassinate the CFO of an important company as he's been found at playing with the books.  Gin thinks the touchy part...he's an Air Elemental, but he may not be the Air Elemental she needs to be worried about.  Taking this assignment quickly turns Gin into the assignment and fall guy, and brings grieving and great danger to the family she's acquired.  Now the man she was to kill, she needs to save in order to save her own neck, along with the man meeting with him - the one and only cop that is on the straight and narrow, and hot looking, Donovan Caine.  Will an honest cop be able to work with an assassin?  Let alone the assassin who killed his partner?

This is not the dark gritty assassin read I usually read.  It had a light feel to it, and a fast read.  And I enjoyed it for that.  It was a quick read for me to sit down, pick up, and flip the pages.  A relaxing read for me.  Hard to believe relaxing with an assassin. lol.

I seemed to be flying through the pages, looking to see what would happen with Gin, what would she find out, what next fight would she get into.  And wanting to see the elemental magics held by her and others.  Then I was worried about Finn, Fletcher's son, wondering if he would stay safe.  And we can't forget about the handsome "good" cop, Donovan Caine.  I wondered if he would come around to seeing the world really isn't all black and white, and Gin falls in the gray area.  And what would become of them.

I really like the elemental magic here.  Being a Stone Elemental Gin can feel all the emotions ~ good and bad from stone; roads, walls, and so on.  But she has a touch of Ice Elemental too.  There are different elementals and degrees to their powers, as we see through the book.  This city Gin calls home, isn't such a happy place, and by the end of the book we start to understand that feeling more.


The first chapter starts with Gin on a job, and hints at what all this world has to hold for us.  And starts us out with action, Gin at her best work - killing with a screw and a pen.  We then slow down for a few pages to meet Fletcher, see more of the world, and get hints to Gin's past.  The hints make us curious to know more.


In the end, I got most of my answers.  I say most as the ending leaves me stunned with what Gin finds Fletcher had a file on.  A file that references Gin's past, which he pieced together and still loved Gin wholly.  I have the second book here, and look forward to following through with Gin to learn more about her, her past family, and keeping an eye out for Donovan.  And there is a tie to that Fire Elemental, Queen Mobstress I'm wondering on too.

I got the feel of much more to come, that ties with who we have learned about here in this book.


I read this book for my own enjoyment.