Review: SPIDER'S BITE

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep
Book 1 of the Elemental Assassin series
Read by Lauren Fortgang
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Spider's Bite:

They call me the Spider. I'm the most feared assassin in the South -- when I'm not busy at the Pork Pit cooking up the best barbecue in Ashland. As a Stone elemental, I can hear everything from the whispers of the gravel beneath my feet to the vibrations of the soaring Appalachian Mountains above me. My Ice magic also comes in handy for making the occasional knife. But I don't use my powers on the job unless I absolutely have to. Call it professional pride.

Now that a ruthless Air elemental has double-crossed me and killed my handler, I'm out for revenge. And I'll exterminate anyone who gets in my way -- good or bad. I may look hot, but I'm still one of the bad guys. Which is why I'm in trouble, since irresistibly rugged Detective Donovan Caine has agreed to help me. The last thing this coldhearted killer needs when I'm battling a magic more powerful than my own is a sexy distraction... especially when Donovan wants me dead just as much as the enemy.

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

Source: Info in the About Spider's Bite was taken from http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/ref=pd_rsp_4?asin=B004FT8QDU on 15/03/2013.

Review:

Maybe my crush on Agent Booth is more insinuating than I thought because I keep seeing him in different places. Now I see David Boreanaz as Detective Donovan Caine! WTF!?! But man, Boreanaz fits the image of Caine like a glove!

I won Web Of Lies (Book 2) from A Great Book Is The Cheapest Vacation a few years back and me being unable to read a series not in a chronological order, have to read Book 1 first. Thus this book got read. The premise is okey, but the story telling quality is really good! It's the story telling quality which made me continue listening to this audiobook even though I got annoyed with Gin's stupidity and some inconsistencies in the book. That tell's a lot about the compelling-ness of this author's voice. Another evidence of the goodness of this author's voice is how she can make this story work in a congested genre. The premise is not original. It had been played a few times before. But what made this story work is how the author tells the story. It's compelling even in a tired old genre. However, tired old genre or not, I still like the magical elements in the story and the use of symbolic runes, i.e., Spider Rune, Sun Rune. It's one of those things I'll probably not get tired of in a long, long time... Now the plot... That compelling-ness even trumped the holes in the plot. The plot is partially built upon the protagonist making stupid mistakes. For an accomplished and successful assassin, Gin surely keeps making elementary mistakes which is contradictory to the kick-ass acclaims that the narration constantly harps on. The stupidity is annoying. The contradictory elements in the book is annoying. Yet the story telling quality keeps me reading until the end. I say it's a promising start to a new-to-me series!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 3
Story itself = 3.5
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3
Pace = (11 hrs and 59 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Elemental Assassin series:

Thank you to Natasha of A Great Book Is The Cheapest Vacation for hosting a giveaway which made it possible for me to win a paperback copy of Web Of Lies by Jennifer Estep!