Venom (Elemental Assassin #3) by Jennifer Estep.

From the first page, all the way through to the last, this is a well-written, none-stop, action packed tale with murder, magic, suspense and a dash of romance.

Gin gets involved when a local Vampire Madame is being stalked by Mab Monroe's head of security, a giant named Elliot Slater.  Besides being Mab's chief enforcer, Slater has a thing for stalking beautiful women, forcing them to act as his girlfriend before he brutally tortures, rapes and murders them and he's now set his sights on Roslyn Phillips.

Gin feels responsible as she thinks Roslyn only came to Slater's attention after doing a favour for Gin.  Seeing how terrified Roslyn is, she makes a promise to get rid of Slater for her.

Just to spice things up a bit, Gin's baby sister Bria is back in Ashland, she's a detective who is determined to rid the town of corruption and also seems set on helping Roslyn too, it's unfortunate that she doesn't get the help from the police force but Mab owns a large majority of the force.

Gin finally finds out why Mab killed her family and why she sent Slater and his men after Bria and now she's coming out of retirement and declaring war on Mab.

On to Tangled Threads, I can't wait to see what's next for Gin and Co.

Web of Lies (Elemental Assassin #2) by Jennifer Estep.

This story continues from Spiders Bite, it's set two months after Fletcher 's funeral.  Gin is now retired from the assassination business and is finding it to be boring.

When she is approached by a young woman asking for the Tin Man, she finds her interest piqued.  It seems that a local miner, Tobias Dawson is threatening her grandfather and herself, he wants their land and he wants it now.

Gin has also drawn the attention of a very powerful lawyer who works for Mab Monroe, a fire elemental who runs Ashland with an iron fist.  She stopped a couple of young men from robbing the Pork Pit and one of them is the son of the lawyer, he's also a fire elemental.  When she insists on pressing charges, his father tries intimidating her and getting her to drop the charges but he's chosen the wrong woman to mess with.  She's the assassin known as The Spider and she always gets her way.

In the process of getting close to Dawson so she can kill him, Gin finds herself at one of Mab's parties.  When she is recognised by Jake McAllister, the young man who tried to rob her place, she ends up killing him so he couldn't give her away or burn her as he promised.

Dealing with Dawson soon becomes a matter of life and death as he recognizes her power and knocks her out.  She wakes up to find herself deep in his mine with him and some of his men.  When he challenges her to a duel, she has to use her power to defend herself and to finish Dawson off once and for all, ensuring that Violet and Warren Fox never have to sell their property or worry about being murdered ever again.

This is a well-written story with great characters and none stop action all the way through.  I love Gin, Finn and the Deveraux sisters.  The situations that Gin gets into make me laugh out loud and I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves reading, you get magic, romance, suspense and murder.  A great urban fantasy.

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep

I recently read Deadly Sting not realising it was one of a series, I enjoyed it so much that it became a goal of mine to read the first set of the series.

I started reading Spider's Bite as soon as I got it and I barely put it down. It's a fantastic introduction to Gin Blanco A.K.A The Spider, waitress by day at the Pork Pit and deadly Assassin at night.

When she is contracted to kill someone and gets double-crossed she would have let it slide, but the person who contracted her killed her handler, the closest thing to a father she has. So with the help of his son and a detective who is also targeted to be killed, she tracks down the elemental who is responsible and exacts her own retribution.

From start to finish this is a gripping tale with non-stop action, elemental magic and dead bodies galore. I can't wait to get Web of Deceit.

Jennifer's characters are well-written, very complex and very likeable. I can highly recommend this book to anyone no matter what their preference. There's plenty of violence, sex and action for everyone to enjoy.