Comments on The Book Vixen: Elemental Assassin Series Read-a-Long: Spider’s Bi...

Ooh yes, the closet scene is H-O-T!

2012-09-30T10:20:08.704-07:00

Ooh yes, the closet scene is H-O-T!

Gin is strong like Merit from Chicagoland Vampires...

2012-09-29T10:53:42.322-07:00

Gin is strong like Merit from Chicagoland Vampires and it’s really powerful. I liked that she doesn’t use her power as a everyday thing and trust in her body and training to succeeded. And her confidence is really high. But she’s the Spider and always finish the job so that’s kinda expected.

I prefer 1st person, it’s always better to know how she feels and how she’s handling things after they go wrong.

I liked Finn and the Deveraux sister, they are strong and supportive of Gin, but also know the reality. Mab didn’t showed herself very much in this book and there was only references of her and her power, need to know more to actually say something, but she’s powerful.

Fletcher is another thing, since he died right at the start and the story was all about revenge, I get the feeling he treated Gin like a daughter and she’s really grateful and happy for him, but couldn’t he raise her like a normal kid? Finn is more normal than her, but I guess he wanted his legacy taken care of and she had some power to handle it.

I think Gin and Donovan have a chance on the future, but it’s only up for the detective. Their world is really bad, but he’s so nice to people and can’t overlook some mistakes. But he’s only problem to me is his blindness to his ex-partner. He treated the guy like a saint and when he died killed by an assassin he should have investigated better, because I good guy wouldn’t need an assassin in the first place.

I think Gin is going to find her sister and the elemental how killed her family, but it’s not going to be easy, so maybe she will need to kill some people on the road, and discover some secrets, maybe that’s how the series got so long.

I think Mab is part of her future and her past. Maybe she’s responsible for what happened years ago with Gin, but I don’t think it’s that easy.

I was surprised by that. And yes, they are like br...

2012-09-29T10:19:36.670-07:00

I was surprised by that. And yes, they are like brother and sister. But from what I've read in this first book, I'm not exactly convinced about Donovan and Gin as a couple. As partners trying to solve a mystery, yes. They work well together. But as lovers... so far, I don't see it :P

I am a fan of the Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Roman...

2012-09-29T07:41:55.272-07:00

I am a fan of the Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance genre and I was drawn to the idea of elementals rather than the more usual vampires or werewolves. I also liked the idea of the heroine being an assassin because this promised complex relationships and lots of gray moral decisions to keep things interesting. As usual, my only expectation was that I would enjoy the journey.

I like Gin. She is competent and composed and there seems to be a gritty realism about the way she conducts her business. I was a little afraid that she might not be totally convincing, but she certainly has the coldness required to be a successful assassin and didn’t really make any goofy mistakes that made me wonder how she had earned her reputation. I was very happy about this, because I didn’t want the edgy heroine to suddenly become useless when the manly man showed up! :)

I always imagine that a writer must spend a lot of time debating whether or not to use the first person narrative. It does give us a very deep understanding of Gin and makes here voice very clear for us. This is great for introducing her and letting us understand her motives. However, it does reduce the information we get about other characters. I suspect that Gin would be very difficult to like if she was not the narrator because she is so cold and contained, and so I like it in this case.

The secondary characters are well drawn and three dimensional, which is excellent. They each have a strong voice of their own and are memorable in their differences. I am intrigued by Sophia and would like to know more about her, although she is great as mysterious comic relief at the moment. I was actually sad when Fletcher was killed, mostly because of how it made Gin feel, which is surprising considering how early in the book he met his end.

I would have preferred more smoldering and friction in this book, with the sex saved for later in the series, because it did feel a little out of place here. I guess that grief could be cited as an excuse, but I was a little disappointed that Gin allowed her emotions to get in the way of dealing with Fletcher’s killer. I have a feeling that their relationship will continue to be mostly physical and be very on/off as they cannot ignore each other but are always at odds because of their different outlooks on life.

I thought it was pretty obvious that Bria was not dead, so I assume that we will follow Gin’s quest to find her sister. I also thought that Mab was almost too obvious as the guilty fire elemental, but I could be wrong.

Whatever happens in the next book, I do hope that we have far fewer examples of my two pet peeves from this book, “my grey eyes” and “Mmmm”, which were used so often that they were annoying me! :D

Gin's moral complexity is why I love her so mu...

2012-09-28T19:55:07.282-07:00

Gin's moral complexity is why I love her so much!

I think Gin can do better than Donovan, even thoug...

2012-09-28T19:54:00.766-07:00

I think Gin can do better than Donovan, even though I still love reading the closet scene. ;)

"tight-butt-straight-laced-do-no-harm-cop&quo...

2012-09-28T19:52:21.536-07:00

"tight-butt-straight-laced-do-no-harm-cop" - love that description! I was also angry at Gin for keeping Ingles true self a secret, but I think that was her compassionate side taking over for once. She wanted to shield him from the truth, even if she thought it might help their relationship.

Fudge, I flaked out and didn't get the book fi...

2012-09-28T19:30:18.606-07:00

Fudge, I flaked out and didn't get the book finished in time. I'll be all caught up next month!

Happy Reading :)

2012-09-28T18:45:23.395-07:00

Happy Reading :)

How funny - I started this series last year (in Se...

2012-09-28T18:45:01.053-07:00

How funny - I started this series last year (in September) and only made it through book 2 as well. And then I got busy with the baby and yadda yadda yadda, you know how that goes. LOL

I wish Gin would have told Donovan about his good-for-nothing-rotten partner too. Why didn't she??

The "bad girl" seducing a cop is HOT!...

2012-09-28T18:42:49.892-07:00
The "bad girl" seducing a cop is HOT! Yes, yes it is!!

I don't think he's the guy for her. I'm afraid you're going to be right.

I love people's reactions when they find out t...

2012-09-28T18:41:32.784-07:00
I love people's reactions when they find out that Gin is the Spider!

What's ahead for Gin? Trouble. Big time tro...

2012-09-28T18:39:05.899-07:00
What's ahead for Gin? Trouble. Big time trouble....

LMAO!! And you're probably soooo right! And I think there's going to be a big showdown with Mab too.

Female assassins get me every time too. It's l...

2012-09-28T18:37:32.945-07:00
Female assassins get me every time too. It's like I have a girl crush on them. LOL

I want Donovan to be able to get over Gin killing his partner but like you, I don't see it happening. Why doesn't Gin just tell him why she was hired to kill him??

And yes, the closet sex scene was RAWR!!

"Pure strength is one thing, darling, weat...

2012-09-28T18:34:10.001-07:00
"Pure strength is one thing, darling, weather it's magical or natural. It'll only get you so far. But how you use what you've been given-that's what really matters. When you figure that out, ain't nobody going to be able to touch you."

I like this quote too.

Yep, you hit a homerun on this one!

2012-09-28T18:13:37.595-07:00
Yep, you hit a homerun on this one!

Awesome! See you then :)

2012-09-28T18:08:42.555-07:00
Awesome! See you then :)

I'm with you ladies on wanting to get Donovan&...

2012-09-28T18:08:04.097-07:00
I'm with you ladies on wanting to get Donovan's prospective on things. I want to see more of him. I like the guy. I guess the 'hard to get' thing appeals to me :)

Gin is totally running the show and I like that!

J9 - you have no idea how happy it makes me to know that you enjoyed a book I recommended!

I've been seeing your updates on Twitter and I...

2012-09-28T18:02:28.008-07:00
I've been seeing your updates on Twitter and I'm jealous! I want to be further along in the series but I decided to wait so as not to form any opinions that could be spoilery in the discussions.

I agree with you about being bad for good reason. She's doing society a favor really, by taking out the trash.

I'm interested to see what's in store for Finn as well.

I agree, Finn and Gin are too brother/sister for a...

2012-09-28T18:00:43.077-07:00
I agree, Finn and Gin are too brother/sister for a romance. Though I have to admit, I was a little surprised they'd slept together, as Donovan was. But I liked that even in this Gin is a unique heroine

I agree, Gin is a strong heroine. And you kind of ...

2012-09-28T17:58:00.974-07:00
I agree, Gin is a strong heroine. And you kind of figure she'd have to be, considering she an assassin.

I would have loved to have gotten some of Donovan's POV too!

It's funny how we see differently about which man is good for Gin. I think her relationship with Finn is too brotherly/sisterly for there to be any romance. LOL

I started this book two days ago, but RL got in th...

2012-09-28T17:52:15.241-07:00
I started this book two days ago, but RL got in the middle and I'm not finished yet, but promised to came back tomorrow and answer all those questions, because tonight is all about Gin!!

"What’s your take on the secondary charact...

2012-09-28T15:49:34.321-07:00
"What’s your take on the secondary characters like Fletcher, Finn, Mab Monroe, and the Deveraux sisters?

I love all the secondary characters in this series. They are all colorful and pop right off the pages. Gin is a strong protagonist and the secondaries are a great backdrop. Finn is my absolute favorite secondary and I think Estep write fantastic villains as well. As the series has progressed I've come to love the Deveraux sisters.

I started this series last summer but only made it...

2012-09-28T13:44:58.002-07:00
I started this series last summer but only made it through Book 2. I was hooked on the series via TTS on my Kindle 3, but Book 2 - 7 has TTS disabled so I had to "read" and I went on a kind of strike in protest LOL. So this read-along was a great opportunity to get back into Gin's life.

What I loved most about this book is Gin's complete badassness. She's an unapologetic assassin. What's not to love?

I think First person POV is a great way to get inside her head and see her life only. I'm a huge fan of this style of writing because I really feel deeply engaged with the narrator and the story.

All of the supporting characters are well written and stand out on their own. Fin especially. His relationship with Gin is pure love you/hate you sister brother love and JoJo and Sophia are simply icing on the cake. I instantly fell in love with Fletcher and was sad when he was killed. But alas - every good series needs a good death to drive the story :)

I'm not sure how I feel about Gin and Donovan. Estep did a FANTASTIC job with writing Donovan as a tight-butt-straight-laced-do-no-harm-cop. I was irritated that Gin never told him his partner was a beast. Yes the sex was hot - but it really stood out as an oil and water combo that left me wanting more. Again - I blame Estep for being such a great writer -- I was just as conflicted about their relationship as they were LOL.

Since I'm on book 3 right now (Venom) I'll skip the last two questions since I know more. But Spider's Bite was a great entry into this fabulous series.

This series came highly recommended from many revi...

2012-09-28T13:28:49.248-07:00
This series came highly recommended from many reviewers. I expected a Nikita-type story line.

I think Gin is a badass chick! She's not afraid to get her hands dirty.

It's not easy to write a good 1st person POV. I think Estep does a phenomenal job.

Fletcher intrigued me so I was sad to see him get killed off in book 1 but Gin has a lot of flashback memories involving him in the next few books so we don't stop learning more about him even though he's dead which I like. I'm still if-fy on Finn and not sure how he'll fit in as this series progresses. I LOVE the dwarf sisters! They're super fun. As for Mab... I'm on the 3rd book so... DIE B!&$h DIE! Lol

I like the chemistry between Gin & Donovan. The "bad girl" seducing a cop is HOT! But ultimately, I don't think he's the guy for her.

I don't think she'll be able to stay out of the killing business for long.

Jennifer Estep has succeeded in grabbing my attention with this book so it's wide open right now. I'm willing to follow wherever she leads.

I think the flashbacks are setting up the main plot line of this series. I think we've only met 1 fire so far so I have an idea who the ultimate big bad might be. ;)