Anna S. (annapi) reviewed on 5/19/2010 + 334 more book reviews

Estep steps away from her campy BigTime series into the urban fantasy world in this new offering starring Gin Blanco aka the Spider, one of the best assassins around and an elemental with the powers of Stone. Gin's handler and surrogate father Fletcher has been urging her to retire, and this one big job pays enough to make it her last. Unfortunately Gin has been set up by an unknown Air elemental and narrowly escapes the trap laid for her. Now she is seeking revenge.

Estep's first steps into a new, albeit similar, genre from her popular superhero BigTime series falter a little bit, but she still creates interesting new characters and a different world. Though there is a nod to one of BigTime's characters, Fiona Fine, I don't see how she can connect the two and she really makes no attempt to do so, which is okay as it does not detract from the reader's enjoyment of the book. What does detract, however, is her habit of repeating descriptive phrases that annoys but falls just short of becoming truly exasperating. "Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy" (Gin's opinion of her opponents), "Mmmm" (when fantasizing about her love interest, detective Donovan Caine), and the whole ritual of loading up with her "5-point" arsenal of knives, one in each sleeve and boot, plus one tucked in the back of her pants. She really needs to avoid copy/pasting. However, these flaws were minor and the story still enjoyable as a whole, though she has some way to go to join the ranks of my favorite urban fantasy authors.

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