Review: Heart of Venom

HEART OF VENOM
Elemental Assassin #9
Jennifer Estep
Adult Urban Fantasy
384 pages
Pocket Books
Available August 27th
Source: e-ARC vie Edelweiss for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
When I say you’re a dead man, take that literally.

To me, killing people is like a day at the salon: cut and dry. Well, more like rinse and repeat when you moonlight as the assassin the Spider. But my last spa day ended redder than my freshly painted nails after a twisted Fire elemental and his goons kidnapped my close friend Sophia Deveraux and nearly killed her sister Jo-Jo in the process.

Up Ashland’s most dangerous mountains, and deep into the heart of its blackest woods—I’ll track these thugs no matter where they take Sophia. It doesn’t matter what kinds of elemental magic they try to throw at me, my Ice and Stone powers can take the heat and then some. I will get Sophia back, over their dead bodies.

Because anybody that hurts Gin Blanco’s family becomes a body.

MY THOUGHTS
With the Elemental Assassin series we are always guaranteed a knock-down, drag-out fight between Gin and whatever villain is currently thinking of replacing Mab Monroe as Ashland's Biggest Bad, but what so often surprises us no matter how many books we read is the emotional intensity that accompanies the swinging of Gin's fists and the slashing of her knives. While the previous installment was a little lighter in tone overall (relatively speaking of course), Ms. Estep plunges us deep into the darkness of Gin's world in this newest book, a horror from Sophia's past emerging once again to grab hold of both characters' and readers' hearts alike, giving them a brutal twist and yank as family fights desperately to save family.

Gin has been a fighter from word one of book one, always the first to defend those she cares about even if they are undeserving of her loyalty and affection, but where she has always been nearly indestructible physically, her emotional armor has always been far softer. She's highly susceptible to rough words in a way she isn't to rough hands, the former cutting deep and drifting like a slow-working poison through her veins, while the latter simply glance off and then go limp, no longer a threat as the person attached to them is dead by her blade. Her stoicism and her cool, controlled demeanor are a point of contention for us as readers; we can't help but admire everything that makes her both woman and Spider, but at the same time, her constant internalizing of emotional pain can be frustrating, as it was in the previous book when things with Owen so rapidly deteriorated.

Luckily for us in this book however, Gin makes a few small efforts to voice her hurt when she has a quiet moment to actually talk to Owen amidst the fight to save Sophia, listening to his apologies and his reasoning for past behavior, but instead of simply accepting the way he treated her as her due given the life she leads as an assassin, she hesitates, taking the much-needed time to really think about what her heart can and cannot handle moving forward. She doesn't hold Owen's actions against him or try to make him hurt as she's been hurting, she simply takes stock of the wounds he's inflicted, lets him know he caused them, and then decides if she's up for the not-insignificant job of rebuilding her trust in him. Owen, for his part, acknowledges his role in how things turned out between them, and the ice we'd built up around our hearts when it came to him can't help but melt a little in the face of the warmth we can practically feel when he looks at Gin.

In addition to the tension crackling between Gin and Owen as they feel one another out, Heart of Venom also gives us perhaps the most violent and dark of Gin's battles thus far, a brother-sister team of fire elementals raising the bar when it comes to sadistic cruelty, their vile games made all the more horrifying given Sophia's involvement. The bits and pieces of her past alluded to in past books were enough to send shudders racing down our spines, but to bear witness as Sophia is forced to live her nightmares all over again is a special kind of torture, and we find ourselves appreciating Gin's ruthlessness more than we ever have before. All in all, this latest gritty adventure of Gin's is perhaps the most gripping one yet, overflowing with pain, love, family and more than a little blood to leave us even bigger fans of the series than we were when we started.

Rating: 4.5/5

Find Jennifer:

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon

If you didn't get a chance yesterday to check out my interview with Jennifer and enter for your chance to win a copy of Heart of Venom, you can do so here!

This book was sent to me by the publisher  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Book Boyfriend: Owen Grayson

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by Missie at The Unread Reader, one that gives us the opportunity to introduce our latest literary crushes and match up their descriptions with a few pictures of a gentleman we think fits the bill. This week I've picked Owen Grayson from Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin books, a fabulous urban fantasy series I just cannot get enough of. There are three books out at the moment, and the fourth, Tangled Threads, releases on April 26th.

A brief description of Owen:

He had a thick head of hair that was a glossy blue-black, while his eyes were a light violet. A white, thin scar slashed diagonally across his chin. It offset the crooked tilt of his nose. Those were the only two flaws in his chiseled features, which somehow added even more character to his face, rather than detracting from his good looks.

He cut an impressive figure. Striking, confident, aggressive, forceful. Someone who demanded attention. (pg 32 of Web of Lies)

So, per usual, I have completely ignored the dark hair description and gone in favor of my sudden attraction to blonds. However, I wanted to pick someone who seemed to capture the feel of Owen, exuding that confidence mentioned above and I think Chris Hemsworth has that striking swagger to him. Hope you enjoy some of my favorite Owen moments!



Owen speaking to Gin:

"...Curiosity is a trait of mine, I'm afraid. But I was much more interested in just holding your hand."

"What are you? Twelve?"

Grayson flashed me another smile. "Sometimes the most sensual pleasures are the simplest ones."

I looked at him a moment. Then I threw back my head and laughed. "Wow. That was lame. Do you try that line out on all the ladies? Or just me?"

Instead of being insulted, Grayson's smile deepened, and his violet eyes glowed with warmth. "Just you, Gin. You're the only one who's ever called me on it."

...

Grayson's thumb traced over the circle embedded in my palm, the center of the spider rune that marked my skin. A little tingle of interest sparked to life in the pit of my stomach. A small sizzle of awareness, of potential, of possibilities.
(pg 55 of Venom)



"No problem Mr. Grayson. Just taking out a bit of trash that got onto the riverboat this evening."

Trash wasn't the worst thing I'd ever been called. Hardly enough to make me roll my eyes. But the word made Owen's gaze simmer like violet fire. For a moment, I felt a blast of cold emanate from his body...Owen's face remained smooth, except for the scar under his chin. It whitened under the strain of his clenched jaw.

"Ms. Blanco is my date for the evening," Owen replied in a mild tone. "She's hardly trash. I suggest you let go of her arm. Most ladies don't like to be manhandled."

"Only in bed," I quipped. "And even then, I still like to be on top."

His mouth quirked at my flip remark, and our eyes met and held. Gray on violet. Desire simmered in Owen's eyes underneath his anger, and I knew he could see the emotion reflected in my gaze. But there was something else, another emotion in his cold face that surprised me–concern. For me.
(pg 208 of Venom)



"I don't judge you for what you've done, Gin. Why are you judging me for another man's mistakes? Because Donovan Caine did make a mistake," Owen said in a soft voice. "Letting someone like you go."

"Someone like me?"

Owen got to his feet and moved until he was standing in front of me. "Someone strong and tough and smart and sassy and sexy as hell. That's why I'm interested, Gin. Because you're all of those things and more..."
(pg 254 of Venom)

And just in case you wanted to see the muscles that accompany that pretty face, this is a screen capture from the upcoming movie Thor. You're welcome:)




TANGLED THREADS (Elemental Assassin #4) from Goodreads:

I’d rather face a dozen lethal assassins any night than deal with something as tricky, convoluted, and fragile as my feelings.

But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assassin known as the Spider. Hovering outside sexy businessman Owen Grayson’s front door like a nervous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my forehead. Cold-blooded Fire elemental Mab Monroe has hired one of the smartest assassins in the business to trap me. Elektra LaFleur is skilled and efficient, with deadly electrical elemental magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone powers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t survive this battle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assassin to take out my baby sister, Detective Bria Coolidge, too. The only problem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sibling . . . or that I’m the murderer she’s been chasing through Ashland for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead. . . .