Web of Lies

Elemental Assassin, Book 2

By: Jennifer Estep

Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

"Curiosity is definitely going to get me dead one of these days. Probably real soon. I'm Gin Blanco. You might know me as the Spider, the most feared assassin in the South. I'm retired now, but trouble still has a way of finding me. Like the other day, when two punks tried to rob my popular barbecue joint, the Pork Pit. Then there was the barrage of gunfire on the restaurant. Only, for once, those kill shots weren't aimed at me. They were meant for Violet Fox.

"Ever since I agreed to help Violet and her grandfather protect their property from an evil coalmining tycoon, Im beginning to wonder if Im really retired. So is Detective Donovan Caine. The only honest cop in Ashland is having a real hard time reconciling his attraction to me with his Boy Scout mentality. And I can barely keep my hands off his sexy body. What can I say? I'm a Stone elemental with a little Ice magic thrown in, but my heart isn't made of solid rock. Luckily, Gin Blanco always gets her man...dead or alive."

©2010 Jennifer Estep (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“The second chapter of the first-person ‘Elemental Assassin’ series is just as hard-edged and compelling as the first. Gin Blanco is a fascinatingly pragmatic character, whose intricate layers are just beginning to unravel. Estep has truly hit the jackpot with this outstanding series!” ( Romantic Times)

Stepping out of retirement

Naturally Gin couldn't stay totally in retirement, although this time she doesn't do it for the money. Violet and her grandfather are being harassed by a dwarf mine owner who wants their property. Gin helps them out by going after him There's a couple side stories, lots of action and, of course, violence. A little sad when she loses her love interest but probably for the best since they were too different, but there's a new one on the horizon that would be a lot better fit. It will be interesting to see how that storyline develops.

The narrator was a good fit and pretty good on the male voices.

The "Caine" component nearly ruins the story...

I didn't like it as much as the first one. It is very similar in some ways, but had a lot more "angst" between Gin and her completely unexpected, out-of-character and out-of-the-blue "love" for Caine. To the point that her continual harping on about him became annoying. At one point she decides she's had enough of his cold shoulder and yet, a bit later in the story, she's upset over his neglect again. They were never a couple, he never indicated he wanted to be one - sure he shagged her a couple times, but so what? - and yet she spends way too much effort being "upset" because, gasp, he doesn't want to be in a relationship with her? I think that much was clear from book one sweetheart.

There was also a long "trapped in the mine" scene that went on and on and on with nothing much happening... like it was a page quota filler. Oh, and I thought the whole drama with Jake thing was a bit weak too - an unexpected problem pops up and is cleared up as unexpectedly. It wasn't even very believable: if someone kicks your butt once, chances are she's going to be able to do it again next time, so don't go following her around and expect to live.

Overall, I was disappointed in the story. I will read the next one and hope Gin stops being so sad-sack and gets on with her life. That, and if she's supposed to be an assassin, ex-or-otherwise, she should really be more competent than she was in this story - all her "successes" here were due to luck, not skill.

The narration was very good.

3.5 Overall.

Okay series, but the repeated descriptions were about to drive me nuts. “My gray eyes” if I have to hear those words again I might puke. In the first 45 minutes I heard about them a minimum of six times. Unfortunately I bought the whole series up to book six on a sale and now I’m regretting that, I learned my lesson with that one. Not completely a horrible story but again I couldn’t bond with any of the characters, although I did like it better than the first book. I will try to continue on with the next book and see how it goes since I already purchased them. Narrator okay but a little slow for the listening.

Another great book in an AWESOME UF series

Ok let me get the rant part of this review over with….. Bye, Bye Dick-tective Douche Bag! That’s all I will say so that I don’t spoil you guys but those of you that have read this series will know what I mean.

Web of Lies takes place about 2 months after the events in Spider’s Bite. And we find that Gin has been retired after taking a long vacation and is now running the Pork Pit full time. But what does a retired assassin do when she gets bored?

She plans the murder of one of the rich douche bags in town, which is trying to strong arm an old man by having one of his thugs rape and kill the old man’s granddaughter one night on the college campus.

Gin dusts off her skills and goes to work. The whole team from Spider’s Bite, Fin and the Deveraux sisters are back to help Gin with the dirty work. Also detective Donovan Caine is back to get Gin’s warm spot, hot again.

Gin is juggling a few things this time around. She has a few bad guys to deal with, she’s still grieving over Fletcher’s death and not to mention her conflicting feelings about Donovan. Plus Gin is trying to figure out how to hand the news she learned about her past in Spider’s Bite.

After all is said and done, Gin gets her man….well the man she means to murder and plus one. As far as getting her man in her personal life that’s a bit harder for her.

Web of Lies ties up a few things just to build up more things to come in the coming books in the Elemental Series by Jennifer Estep and I for one can’t wait to dig into the next book, Venom. In fact, see y’all botches later. I’m off to start it on audio NOW.

Great Character, Great story, Great Narrator

Web of lies builds on the promise of the first Elemental Assassin novel. Gin is an attractive, well drawn character, and the other minor characters are also well drawn, adding dimension to the story. Lots of action, great descriptions of the world in which it takes place - so good that you feel like you know it! What really makes this series is the outstanding narration Lauren Fortgang brings Gin to life - the right accent, right intonation and believable voices for the other characters. I love this series!

Book 2

Any additional comments?

Interesting story with an assassin as the lead character. Good character, plot, and storyline. More of Jen's handler's history is revealed, people are saved, and some problems are resolved.

Starts Slow, then Gets Going

The first half of this book is rather slow. I know it's because the author needs to set up the rest of the book, but it feels like it takes longer than it should.

Once it gets going, though, the rest of the book is excellent. It doesn't turn out the way I thought it would, but the "twists" are telegraphed well in advance.

The reader does an amazing job.

Love Gin!

if you love Anita Blake series, you will love this series. it's awesome. thrilling and suspenseful.

Love Gin!

Note: This review will have some spoilers for those who haven't read the first book

What happens when an assassin retires? They get bored. And what happens when a former assassin gets bored? They find trouble. Or it finds them. At least that's how it worked out for Gin in Web of Lies. Surprised? Me either. What fun would it be if Gin's retirement were quiet and peaceful?

As soon as I started listening to Web of Lies I started kicking myself for taking so long to pick it up. I read Spider's Bite in September 2013 and didn't pick up Web of Lies until October 2014. Well that was dumb, because Web of Lies was great!

I just love Gin's personality - she's a smart aleck and likes to pretend she's hard as stone. And, while she can use her elemental stone magic to make her physically HARD AS STONE, she's a softie deep down. And she's still feeling a bit hurt from the events of Spider's Bite. She feels a little bit betrayed, because she feels like maybe she didn't know Fletcher after all. Why does he have the folder about her past and why hadn't he told her he knew that her sister was alive? What does he want her to do with this information?

Gin's frustration, though, became mine. Ok, you're feeling a bit lost. But golly gee whiz, can you stop moping about the folder Fletcher left you and do something about it? If, like me, you were hoping this book would have a lot to do with the contents of that folder, you're in for a disappointment. For all but maybe the last 10% NO progress is made on that front. Gin just wonders about it the whole book.

Ultimately that was okay, because Web of Lies had plenty of action to keep me happy. Fletcher's life before Gin and Fin (his son) comes to light and sends Gin down a very different, and yet somehow familiar, path. The good detective Donovan Kane is back for the fun - once again trying to figure out the balance between what's legal and what's right - not to mention how his feelings for Gin factor in. A new potential love interest and big player also shows up - Owen Grayson - and I'm VERY interested. He may just be better for Gin than Donovan. Or he may be trouble - I'm not quite sure.

For me, the highlight was once again the magic/world that Jennifer Estep has created. It's so intricate and even after leaving it for more than a year, I easily slid back in and had no trouble remembering how things work. In fact, it was so easy to reorient myself, I found myself saying things with the narrator - Lauren Fortgang. I think this was mainly that there was a bit of predictability - not boring in the least, but takes away some of the potential wow factor. It could also be that Lauren's narration is so slow paced. I love her voices for the characters and for me, she's the perfect Gin, so I'll definitely be continuing in audio. She just has slightly longer than I would like pauses - sometimes I would think I accidentally hit pause or something, they would be so long. Not a deal breaker, especially if you can speed up your playback (I can't on my Audible app).

If you're a fan of action, snarky main characters, and well developed worlds, I recommend this series. I'm eager to see if the next book will dig further into the mystery of Gin's past than Web of Lies did!

Retirement...well maybe not.

Gin is enjoying her retirement when her BBQ joint had two guys try and rob it. Well, them dummies picked the wrong place because this BBQ joint is own and run by no other than the Spider, the South's most lethal assassin-recently retired. But then meets a young girl looking for her recently deceased mentor, and foster father. After Gin and her foster brother save the girl Gin finds out the girl is related to her mentor's former childhood best friend and their in trouble. So after talking with Warren Gin decides to help by coming out of retirement for one last kill, but her on/off lover Det. Caine may not let her. But during an encounter with the problem and seeing he's not going to back down and a recon finding millions of dollars are the cause Det. Caine relents but won't help. So the adventure begins.
This book is a fast paced supernatural adventure thriller with great characters who the readers can know and continue to route for the anti-hero. So if you like urban fantasy like Briggs you should enjoy this book and its series.