Genre: Urban Fantasy

Elemental Assassin’s #3

Pages 389

Amazon

received a copy for review

Venom is Jennifer Estep’s 3rd installment in her Elemental Assassins series where we meet back up with assassin Gin Blanco. Gin’s ties to her family thought to be lost during a horrific massacre, reappear in the face of Detective Bria, aka Gin’s sister.  Although retired Gin’s new personal mission is to take down fire elemental and murder Mab Monroe…

This is one series where each book is just as solid and awesome as its earlier predecessors. What I liked the most(est) about Venom was her interest with Owen who actually ‘gets her’ and the a-c-t-i-o-n.   At times you are wondering if Estep will have Donovan make a come back (and no I can’t tell you because that’s CLASSIFIED).  I’m always amazed on the author’s ability to merge well-written character development and suspense that makes my heart literally  go ba-da-dump. I could go on and on about my favorite scenes but I won’t because KC is not supposed to put spoilers in her reviews.

The bastards never would have even got ten close to me if I hadn’t had the flu.

Coughing, sneezing, aching, wheezing. That was me. Gin Blanco. Restaurant owner.  Stone and Ice elemental. Former assassin.  And all-around bad-ass.  Laid low by a microbe.

One second, I had my face buried in a tissue blowing my sore, drippy nose for the hundredth time today. The next, I looked up to find myself surrounded by three giants.

Oh, fuck.

I stopped, and they immediately closed ranks, forming a loose triangle of trouble around me. The giants were all around seven feet tall, with over sized, bug-like eyes and fists almost as big as my head. One of them grinned at me and cracked his knuckles. Someone was anxious to get down to the business of beating me.

I was also one of the rare elementals who could control more than one element. Stone and Ice, in my case. Until recently, my Ice magic had been far weaker than my Stone power. But thanks to a series of traumatic events, I could do much more with it now. Like create a wall of Ice knives to fling at the men. I’d sliced through a dwarf’s skin doing just that. Giants weren’t quite as tough as dwarves, at least when it came to cut ting into them. Even if they did have more blood to spare that their shorter compatriots.

But the odds or how to go about killing the giants wasn’t what was holding me back. Not really. It was the consequences, what would happen after wards when their boss, Mab Monroe, got involved.

All that left me with only one option tonight—I was going to have to let the giants hurt me, beat me. That was the only way I could keep my cover identity as Gin Blanco safe, along with who I really was, Genevieve Snow.

Fuck. This was going to hurt.

 If you liked Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks are you waiting for? Venom is a fast-paced urban fantasy adventure,  that takes us deeper into the life of assassin Gin Blanco. For those romance lovers out there, (“K-Khan put your hand down”), we do see Gin have a little somethin’ somethin’ with SOMEONE in this latest installment. Jeez, if you don’t have a little naughty-time K-Khan starts to have withdrawals. 

Tomorrow author Jennifer Estep is stopping by and she is bringing gifts  people.

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