Heart of Venom

Elemental Assassin, Book 9

By: Jennifer Estep

Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

The hotly anticipated ninth novel in the hugely popular Elemental Assassin series finds Gin Blanco on a dangerous mission to rescue a friend.

When a terror from the past threatens Gin’s friend and body-disposer, Sophia, Gin will stop at nothing to protect her, even if it means walking straight into a killer’s trap. Meanwhile, the rocky romance between Gin and Owen reaches a turning point - can they reunite and rekindle their love? Or will the things Gin has been forced to do in her line of work as the deadly assassin the Spider keep them apart forever? Assuming, that is, she survives long enough to find out....

©2013 Jennifer Estep (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Bitchy female Lead! Love it!

Would you consider the audio edition of Heart of Venom to be better than the print version?

Not at all, i love both versions.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heart of Venom?

The ending when Sophia finally kills that MAN!!!!! Won't say his name.

What does Lauren Fortgang bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Yes, i still can hear her voice within my mind.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All of it moved me.

Jennifer Estep Spider Series is Awesome!!

Jennifer Estep is just one of my favorite authors and I absolutely love her Spider Series. I would love to see this series get turned into a TV series. It had triller, action and love all rolled into one. Jennifer keep writing and I'll keep reading!!

Good story!

I absolutely enjoy these books. There is one character in the story that the narrator really makes sound hilarious. And that character is the old man, Warren. I absolutely like this series although Gin has a habit of blaming herself for everything. That characteristic gets a little tiresome at times. However, really liked this book.

Good story, great author, great voice actress

I missed really missed that line Gin says about someone "needed to get dead in a hurry". I don't recall that in this book. But it always makes me laugh in the other ones. The voice actress has the perfect accent for the characters in the book. I know many people who have that accent, so it is very believable. And reminds me of people I know. After seeing how choppy and strange a great audio book series becomes when the author suddenly decides to switches narrators, I'd definitely quit reading this if Lauren Fortgang wasn't reading it anymore. To date I've quit buying two series because I couldn't stand the switch.

Bloody Good!

Heart of Venom is a bloody fast pace ride through the backwoods of Ashland with a heroine that shows no signs of slowing down.

I’m a HUGE fan of the Elemental Assassin series. I love how we are 9 books into the series and Estep still manages to deliver great storylines. Books 1-5 has one story arc about Gin’s past and the person that was responsible for the death of Gin’s family.

The second half of the series has more wiggle room for other storylines and we are slowing building to what could be another arc with a new evil on the rise. But before we get there we take a side trip to deal with a story that has been building for a while about one of the beloved secondary characters, Sophia Deveraux.

I have always wanted more info on Sophia’s history. Estep has teased us here and there about how she got her ruined voice. Now we finally get the whole story on Sophia and it gives Gin’s back story a run for it’s money.

Several years ago a brother and sister, Bonnie and Clyde act kidnapped Sophia after the brother, Harley Grimes became obsessed with her. The part did horrible things to Sophia, leaving her with the ruined voice. All those years ago Jo Jo went to a little known assassin called The Tin Man. That’s right Gin’s foster father and mentor, Fletcher is the one that rescued Sophia. Now with Fletcher out of the way Grimes thinks it’s safe to take Sophia again.

Heart of Venom follows Gin trying to save Sophia after Grimes grabs her during a by a person a girls’ day at Jo Jo’s salon. Gin is always cool and collected when it comes to being The Spider. But she loses it all when Sophia is taken. She tries to run off with guns knives ablazing until her friends make her see that it would be suicide to go up on Grimes’ mountain alone.

“Grimes might be a bad, bad guy, but I happen to be a bad, bad bitch.”
Gin gets unexpected backup from Owen, her estranged lover. Gin agrees to let Owen come along with her. leaving the rest of the group to protect an injured Jo Jo. But it’s not just Gin and Owen to the rescue, they pick up an guide for the mountain hike. And of course Gin and Owen get a little time for an heart to heart between all the killing. ( I highly recommend you read the short story, Kiss of Venom that’s told through Owen’s POV which takes place after Deadly Sting and Heart of Venom).

As Gin and her small crew make their way up the mountain we get flashbacks about Fletcher (I love these) like it other books in the series, along with flashbacks on how Gin and Sophia interacted in the early stages of their friendship.

Heart of Venom is fully charged with emotion and adrenaline. Gin really is a one woman killing machine and I loved every bloody moment of it.



“Even my socks squished with blood….. Please, …. step up and die.”

Lauren Fortgang is on my top 5 favorite narrators list. She does an outstanding job with Gin and all the other characters. I’ve done most of series on audio and when reading the few books I've not listened to I have Fortgang’s voice in my head.

Not Bad.....

This book was not bad....not bad at all. I wish they would reveal Mab's heir already....I can't wait to see who it is.

Lacking and redundant story telling

It was really difficult getting through this book. It's the classic Gin thinks her day is going well, something happens, she's the spider and she's badass, almost dies, survives, she's the spider she's badass, almost dies again.

I want to like the series, but for someone who's suppose to be the greatest assassin and strongest elemental she's always being overwhelmed by other elementals. She doesn't use her magic in any ways that seem even remotely useful besides draining her of all of it in a quick amount of time. Everyone she faces uses their magic so well, and apparently is stronger in it then her (Despite only having one element. Unlike her who has two different pools to draw upon). Everything has been dumbed down to physical fight scenes that are lackluster and redundant.

Pretty much the same

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

Heart of Venom is the ninth book in Jennifer Estep’s very popular ELEMENTAL ASSASSIN series. I skipped it a while back because I’m not crazy about this series and I didn’t want to purchase it. I had the later volumes and went on. (I’ve only continued to read ELEMENTAL ASSASIN because I already owned most of the books and I wanted to report on it for FanLit.) However, a copy of Heart of Venom fell in my lap recently, so I read it. I feel the same way about it as I do about all the other books in this series, so I’ll be brief here.

Gin’s friend Sophia (the goth dwarf) is kidnapped by the man who tortured her many years ago. Gin must get her back because she has a hero complex — she sees it as her job to protect everyone she loves. So instead of asking her sister Bria, a top cop in the Ashland police force, to call in her troops to raid the bad guy’s backwoods compound, which he’s styled in a kind of Old West theme, Gin decides to go it alone. (I really can’t figure out why Bria never calls in the cops.) But of course her friends won’t let her do this alone and some of them show up to help, including Owen, her ex-boyfriend who came off looking like a real dick in the last book. Interspersed in the story are flashbacks in which Gin shows us her earlier relationship with Sophia. (These flashbacks have now become part of Estep’s usual technique in the last few books.)

Fans of the series (of which there are many) will enjoy getting to know Sophia better and they’ll be extremely happy that Estep fixes the problem of Owen’s recent assholery. Other than that, though, Heart of Venom is pretty much the same as all the other ELEMENTAL ASSASSIN books. We’ve got Gin exhibiting her mother-hen tendencies by cooking huge meals for her friends and brooding about her inability to keep everyone safe. Finn worries about getting blood on his wardrobe and car. The villain is a cliché — an Old West outlaw type, this time. The sex is predictable and boring. The prose is uninspired and repetitive. The story is simply a narrative about how Gin kicks ass and there’s no beauty, humor, or thoughtfulness to it.

Lauren Fortgang continues to do a brilliant job with the narration of the audiobook versions. Her voices are completely convincing and I like her performances a lot better than I like the stories. But as much as I admire the audio versions, I think I really am done with this series now. I’d be happy to try something else by Estep, but I’m just tired of the repetitiveness of this series.

Deja vu

C'mon Jen, you have milked this series long enough, same people, same plot (almost) sloppy sloppy sloppy.

Then again I hear book 10 is also just a recap. Both my wife & I have enjoyed most of the books but it is time to move on.

Slow as slow can be..!!

This book drags..This story could be told in 30 minutes... No surprises, you know what coming up all the way....