Web of Lies (Elemental Assassin, #2)

by Jennifer Estep

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

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!




This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.