Review: By a Thread (Elemental Assassin #6) by Jennifer Estep

Title: By a Thread

Series: Elemental Assassin #6

Previous books in this series: Spider's Bite (#1) | Web of Lies (#2) | Venom (#3) | Tangled Threads (#4) | Spider's Revenge (#5)

Short stories in this series: Poison (#0.1) | Web of Deceit (#0.2) | Spider's Bargain (#0.5) | Web of Death (#1.5) | Wasted (#2.7) | Tangled Dreams (#3.5) | Tangled Schemes (#3.7) | Spider’s Nemesis (#4.5) | Thread of Death (#5.5)

Author: Jennifer Estep

Genre: Adult, urban fantasy

Publication date: February 2012

Published by: Pocket Books

Source: Own paperback

Add it to your Goodreads shelf

Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository | Thrift Books

Synopsis:

When killing people is your job, there's no such thing as a vacation.

Then again, how often does an assassin live long enough to enjoy her retirement? In this line of work, you either get lucky or you get dead. And since I destroyed my nemesis Mab Monroe a few weeks ago, all of Ashland's lowlifes are gunning to make a name for themselves by taking out the lethal Spider—me, Gin Blanco. So I'm leaving behind my beloved barbecue joint and heading south with my baby sister, Bria, to cool my heels in a swanky beach town. Call it a weekend of fun in the sun. But when a powerful vampire with deadly elemental magic threatens an old friend of Bria's, it looks like I'll have to dig my silverstone knives out of my suitcase after all. Complicating matters further is the reappearance of Detective Donovan Caine, my old lover. But Donovan is the least of my problems. Because this time, the danger is hot on my trail, and not even my elemental Ice and Stone magic may be enough to save me from getting buried in the sand—permanently.

My rating: ★★★★★
Gin and Bria go off on vacation to the town where Bria grew up, but poor girls can’t catch a break from trouble. Bria’s best friend is in trouble so, of course, Gin lends her brand of help against the awful vampire that is tormenting Bria’s friend Callie. Looks like there’s no such thing as a vacation for this assassin.

I might be on vacation, might have wanted to leave all the blood, bodies, and violence back in Ashland for the weekend, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let some vampire thug take Callie’s restaurant away from her, not when I could do something to help her. Not when I knew just how much she and this place meant to Bria.

I always say that Gin is an assassin with a heart for this particular reason. She may not even know Callie, but she adores her sister and knows how much Callie means to her and Gin is willing to do anything to help out this innocent woman. I absolutely love Gin! She is an assassin and ruthless, but she is so caring and fiercely loyal to those she loves! I really cannot express how much I adore this assassin! I never thought I’d ever say that about a killer, but there you go. Lol.

Another thing I love about Gin is that she can be snarky and even sassy sometimes.

Four of them, one of me. Bad odds for them.

You may think this is arrogant of her, and okay, it might be, but it’s also true! She is a badass and absolutely amazing at what she does! Every time there is an action scene she kicks ass and it is just awesome! I absolutely love that about this series! But as amazing as she may be, she still makes mistakes, she is still sometimes outnumbered/outpowered and she has to use her wits to get herself out of things. So not only is she a badass fighter, but she is also smart and can get herself out of the worst of situations. I absolutely adore her (as I’ve mentioned a million times already lol)!

One thing that is not the best it could be is Gin and Bria’s relationship. Bria is a cop, and one of the good ones amidst all the corruption in Ashland PD. So it’s understandable that she’s not exactly thrilled with what Gin does: help people stop breathing, as Gin herself so eloquently put it. Lol. Anyway, this made me so sad because they’re sisters after all. In this book we get too see how they deal with their new found relationship as sisters when just recently they thought the other was dead. I loved seeing this journey between the sisters and their bonding—especially the heart to heart they had at end of the book and Bria’s realization of her perception of Gin and how Gin was feeling about things.


Donovan Fucking Cain... Gin’s former love interest, he's back. I was never the biggest fan of him because he never accepted Gin like Owen does. It did worry me a little that Donovan was back because I love Owen so much because he accepts Gin and all her murderous self.

Seeing Donovan again had only made me appreciate Owen that much more because Owen did he one thing that Donovan never had and never would—he accepted me for who and what I was.

Owen is the absolute best! I adore him! And I still don’t like Donovan. Lol. So yeah, I was a little worried that Gin and Owen’s relationship would be in a bit of trouble because of him.

But Gin handles things really well. I was very happy with how she dealt with things in the end! I particularly enjoyed the bit where she punches him in the gut for getting handsy with her. That made me immensely happy! Lol. And yeah, after all this time, Donovan apparently still wants Gin, but he still does not like the Spider side of her. Ugh. Hate him. You can’t have Gin without the Spider, asshole. And also he is just pathetic. He found himself a knockoff Gin, one who wasn’t an assassin. Ugh. But I don’t care as long as he is out of the picture permanently! And he is now! Yay!

Another person I adore is Finn! He is definitely very brother-like to Gin—I just love their relationship! He is very charming but also quite self-absorbed. But the thing with Finn is, he is a very caring, protective person when it comes to his family and friends.

And I also just gotta mention Gin’s cool powers! We get to see quite a bit of her Stone and especially her Ice magic in this book. I just loved the interesting and unique way Gin uses her abilities to fight the bad guys! Speaking of which, that last fight scene at the end with the vampire was absolutely amazing! Just when you think she’s done for, the smart little Spider comes up with a plan. So much suspense! Jennifer Estep is very good at putting me on the edge of my seat! Lol.

Anyway, I think it goes without saying that I absolutely loved this book! I loved all the action, the change of scenery, and of course all the characters... well, except Donovan. I never liked him but in the end, I’m glad he showed up because it gave Gin the chance to deal with her unresolved feelings for the guy. Amazing book all around!

Easter Eggs: Gin used a fake name to rent a beach house: Aurora Metis, as in the professor from Mythos Academy! Oh my gods that is so cool! I love the Mythos Academy series! Another fake name she uses is Carmen Cole who is from the Bigtime series! I have not read this series yet but it is on my tbr list. Man, I hope Gin doesn’t get these girls in trouble, I mean she is an assassin after all. Lol.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)