Jennifer Estep has a fascinating set of characters in her "Elemental Assassin" series and Spider's Revenge is the conclusion to this story arc that includes Spider's Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, and Tangled Threads. Gin Blanco is the main character and was trained as an assassin by her mentor who also encouraged her to learn about the art of cooking which she has honed at the diner called the Pork Pit. The main characters have the ability to manipulate various elements such as ice, stone, air and fire and Gin can go from chilling a drink using her hand to blocking a bullet or a punch by changing her skin texture. Estep has a deft hand at creating interesting situations and can make the reader crave a delicious barbeque sandwich even while marvelling at such things as a goth dwarf or her sister who has a beauty parlor/healing salon. The overall unifying theme of spiders travels through the stories from the rune that is burned into Gin's palms which gave her the alias that she uses as well as the incentive to seek revenge for the tragedy that shaped her life. There is significant tragedy in the backgrounds of many of the characters and the final book does a very nice job of tying together the threads that make up the web of Gin's life without making this a final ending point. My Night Owl Reviews can be found at:
Spider's Bite
Web of Lies
Venom
Tangled Threads
Spider's Revenge
I highly recommend these tales if you like kick-butt heroines who can love just as fiercely as they fight and have plenty of characters around them who deserve their own tales even as they enrich the life of the main character.
I've been hearing good things about this series but I haven't picked it up yet. I do have it in my wish list at the moment.
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