Jennifer Estep’s Tangled Threads is the fourth book in the Elemental Assassin series. At the end of Venom, professional badass Gin Blanco declares war on the sadistic, fire elemental Mab Monroe by leaving a giant spider rune at the site of Elliot Slater’s murder. Now, Gin spends her nights slaughtering Mab’s underlings and doing her best to aggravate the fire elemental. Of course, there is only so much a person can take before snapping, so Mab Monroe hires the skilled assassin Elektra LaFleur to bring the Spider to a permeant end. With terrifyingly strong electrical elemental magic that rivals Gin’s Ice and Stone abilities and the skillset of an experienced killer, Elektra establishes herself as the strongest opponent Gin has ever faced.
As previously mentioned, this is the fourth book in the series, and, by now, Gin has clearly earned the title of professional badass. She is a strong and smart assassin (a surprisingly rare combination) that can kill mercilessly while protecting her loved ones, deliver a witty retort, and maintain an aura of don’t-mess-with-me-unless-you-want-an-early-death.
In addition to being the epitome of a strong female lead, Gin also has a kind heart that causes her to constantly risk her life for the weak and helpless. She helped Violet Fox drive a coal tycoon off her land, killed a man who stalked and almost raped Roslyn, and now a man asks her to save his young daughter from the clutched of Mab Monroe. Being the soft-heart she is, Gin takes the job bringing her into direct contention with the powerful elemental Elektra, who has Gin Blanco and Bria Coolidge on her list right after the Spider. To protect her sister, rescue a girl, and antagonize Mab, Gin needs to kill Elektra while also trying to figure out how to reveal her identity to her cop sister.
At the same time, Gin is also starting to date Owen Grayson, an attractive businessman who has been remarkably accepting of Gin’s past and present. Due to her relationship with Donovan Caine, she is hesitant to trust Owen and waits for his kind acceptance to turn to condemnation.
Tangled Threads is another great installment in the Elemental Assassin series. Just like its predecessors, this book drops straight into the action and the plot rockets off from there, increasing in excitement and tension until the climax.
Unfortunately, just like its predecessors, the book contains the series’ signature repetition. This series is impossible to binge due to its tendency to spend half of the book recapping the events of the previous installments. While this is great for anyone who hasn’t read the book in a year, it is endless frustrating to those who read the previous book recently. There are only so many times a person can hear Gin mention the number of knives she carries, explain her dislike for other elements, or say she doesn’t believe in the strength of her magic. Honestly, after hearing it once, no one needs to hear it again.
Speaking (or writing) of repetition, Jennifer Estep has a tendency to repeat elements of her stories. Exhibit A: Gin constantly gets beat up. From book one, Gin established herself as a powerful assassin, so why is she constantly taking a beating or needing to be saved by a friend with a gun. There is nothing wrong with needing help sometimes, but when your assassin seems to be constantly seems to be pushed to the brink of her pain endurance, you start to wonder if she is as competent as she claims to be.
The second repeated element is the excessive use of rape or threat of rape. In Web of Lies and Venom, Gin only killed Jake McAllister, Tobias Dawson, and Elliot Slater after they threatened to rape her or a close friend. Finally with a strong female antagonist, some may have hope that Jennifer Estep might find a different way to propel her story. Watch those hopes shatter as, once again, the threat of rape prompts Gin into action instead one of thousands of awful things Mab’s underlings can do to her and those around her.
Thankfully, instead of one of the usual rapists (that is a surprising and disturbing phrase to write) the main villain Elektra is a sadistic woman who revels in electrocuting people to death and can rival Mab Monroe in tests of cruelty and arrogance. With her powerful magic (Gin really couldn’t stop mentioning how powerful it was) Elektra feels like a fearsome villain (until you remember that this series currently has 15 books) and acts as a great foil to Gin’s cautious, careful nature.
While Elektra gets great characterization, many of the supporting characters don’t. Their growth is agonizingly slow or completely nonexistent. Other than providing mental and physical support to Gin, they have no purpose or presence in the story, which is really unfortunate as many have interesting characteristics that could make for a great individual arc. Normally I would hold onto hope for that character arc, but now on the fourth book, prospects are looking grim.
Despite their lack of presence in the story, can create some really heartwarming and uplifting scenes that, when juxtaposed with the murder and violence of Ashland, provide a calming safe haven of rest.
I give this 357 page book 4.5 stars.
Elemental Assassin
In this world. humans share society with elementals. dwarves, giant, and vampires. Elementals have control over one of the four elements: Ice, Stone, Air or Fire. Some have power over offshoots like water, metal, and electricity. Vampires suck blood, giants are distinguished by their strength and height while dwarves are known for their lack of it.