Web of Lies
Jennifer Estep’s Web of Lies is the second book in the Elemental Assassin series. After the death of her beloved foster father Fletcher Lane, Gin Blanco retired her career as the infamous assassin Spider and began a quiet life as the owner of the Pork Pit (only after killing Fletcher’s murderer, of course). Although she has thrown in the towel, the city of Ashland isn’t done with this ex-assassin. With a recent robbery putting her at odds with a powerful lawyer and shooting in her restaurant that targeted the unassuming college student Violet Fox, Gin has to wonder if she is really retired. Once again donning the title of Spider, Gin decides to help Violet kill a wealthy coal tycoon who is a powerful associate of Mab Monroe, wealthy and vicious Fire Elemental.
Gin Blanco was a snarky badass assassin in Spider’s Bite, and she keeps that same attitude as she saunters into Web of Lies. Put simply, Gin is smart, strong, and stubborn. She has the strength to fight for herself and others. At the same time, she is smart enough to know when she is outmatched and has the patience to wait another day to get her prey. This basic idea of living to fight another day is undervalued, and it amazing to have a character wise enough to know when to give up. It is also amazing to have a character who can suppress her feelings in order to make logical decisions and show an admirable amount of strength to survive. Despite her logical mindset, her internal monologue reveals a lot of her strong morals and emotions that don’t always come across in her speech. She may have no qualms about killing, but she never kills innocents and only kills to achieve a precise (often moral) motive. Web of Lies was a fantastic book. Jennifer Estep launches straight into the action with the words “Freeze! Nobody move! This is a robbery!” establishing a lightning fast pace that continues throughout the majority of the book (1). Web of Lies flies through action and anguish with exhilarating speed, rocketing from action scene to action scene. Of course, the drama is almost immediately undercut by the following words: “Wow. Three clichés in a row. Somebody was seriously lacking in the imagination department” (1). Just like that, Gin saunters into the story oozing her usual sarcasm and snark. While pure sarcasm alone can get irritating, Jennifer Estep makes sure to establish Gin as a caring person with a bleeding heart of gold. At the same time, Gin keeps her emotions under control so she doesn’t end up making poorly planned decisions. Gin is still grieving after the death of her foster father Fletcher. Instead of crying and remaining in a constant state of misery, she works toward the future and moves on. As a person who has read books where characters dwell on death so long that it hinders the stories pacing and development, it is amazing to a read a book where character continues to move forward while remembering the loved one that passed. For the majority of the characters there aren’t any noticeable character arcs. Both Gin and Donovan grow as characters, but the rest are remain relatively static. Despite this, the relationship between Gin and her support group is enhanced over the course of this book. Considering that this is the second book in a series has 15 installments, I’m not worried about character development. There is likely more coming. While on the topic of future installments, the Web of Lies gives the series a direction. A definite goal and villain are established and future novels will probably focus on them. While I have lots of praise for this book, its not perfect. The book has a borderline annoying tendency to repeat phrases constantly. While this seems to simply be Jennifer Estep’s writing style, there are only so many times a reader can hear “my gray eyes” or read a recap of something that happened 50 pages ago. I give this 400 page book 4 stars. P.S. Those who have read this book and those who have read Spider’s Bite (if you’re not in this group why are you reading this) know someone is missing from this review. That’s on purpose. I have a lot of things to say about Donovan Caine so I wrote a rant about it. You can read it here. |
Elemental AssassinIn 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.
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