Review: Spider's Trap (Elemental Assassin #13) by Jennifer Estep

Title: Spider's Trap

Series: Elemental Assassin #13

Previous books in this series: Spider's Bite (#1) | Web of Lies (#2) | Venom (#3) | Tangled Threads (#4) | Spider's Revenge (#5) | By A Thread (#6) | Widow's Web (#7) | Deadly Sting (#8) | Heart of Venom (#9) | The Spider (#10) | Poison Promise (#11) | Black Widow (#12)

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) | Carniepunk: Parlor Tricks (#8.1) | Kiss of Venom (#8.5)

Author: Jennifer Estep

Genre: Adult, urban fantasy

Publication date: July 2015

Published by: Pocket Books

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis:

Keep your friends close but your enemies within stabbing distance.

One important lesson I’ve learned in the assassination business is that to be the best you have to roll with the punches. Now that I’m queen of Ashland’s underworld—by default, not by choice—a lot more punches are being thrown my way. But I suppose that’s the price of victory for taking down some of the underworld’s top dogs. Good thing I have my Ice and Stone magic to help me survive my volatile new position. Just when I think things are finally settling down, someone tries to murder me during a hush-hush underworld meeting. But the real surprise is how strangely familiar my shadowy assailant seems to be.

My job is to maintain order among killers, crooks, and thieves, and soon I’m embroiled in a bloody game where the ability to keep secrets could be the greatest superpower of all. My enemies have all sharpened their knives and laid their traps, waiting for me to fall. But this Spider weaves her own webs of death…

My rating: ★★★★★
If you thought things would calm down for Gin now that she killed M.M. Monroe, well, you’re wrong. Against her own wishes, she’s become the new queen of the Ashland underworld where she must keep the peace between the crime bosses. Yeah, that happened. Poor Gin. Lol.

I’m gonna be honest, I was a little iffy at first about Gin becoming the head of the underworld. I liked when people didn’t know that she was the Spider and she lurked in the shadows, but I actually really liked this new job for Gin! It’s pretty interesting, and Gin is still Gin.

Silvio nudged me with his elbow, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Pay attention. You’re supposed to be listening to the facts so you can be fair and impartial, remember?”
“I could be fair and impartial in stabbing them both.”

Omg I love Gin! Lol. I can’t believe she’s become a mediator, basically. But she’s still her old self, and I am glad for that! Gin does use her newly found resources, so that was pretty cool to see.

And I love Gin and Silvio’s relationship! Gin would rather kill the thugs than mediate them, and Silvio is there to basically keep her in line. It’s so funny!

“You’re not my mother, Silvio,” I muttered. “I’m fine. I’ve been through worse than this.”
He straightened back up and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I certainly feel like it sometimes. If my hair wasn’t already gray, it would have turned that color working for you these past few weeks.”
“Well, look on the bright side.”
“What’s that?”
I grinned. “There’s never a dull moment in the employ of Gin Blanco.”
Phillip snickered, but Silvio just sighed.

She is so funny and I love her! Another thing I love about her is that she is smart. In this book Gin deals with a metal elemental which totally sucks for her because that means she can’t use her favorite weapons: her silverstone knives. But it made for such an interesting story!

My knives were such a big part of who and what I was that I didn’t know quite what to do without them. How to protect, how to attack, how to win. But I’d figure it out. I always did.

I really enjoyed seeing how Gin dealt with this and finding someway to take down this guy without her beloved knives. And let me tell you, that final fight was crazy good! The irony of the end result of the fight was not lost on me, and I loved it! Lol. All the fights in this series are good, but this one was interesting because she didn’t have her knives! I always love the amazing and creative action sequences in these books!

Let’s talk about Owen because I love him! He is the sweetest and I am SO happy he and Gin are back together after the craziness back in book 7. They are just amazing together and I was so happy to see that we got extra Owen in this book! I’m always down to seeing more of Owen... always! Lol.

And as always, I adore Gin. She is amazing and badass but also very caring! For being a cold, ruthless assassin, she is actually a really good, loving person. And I think this in part thanks to Fletcher and his code.

For the first time since I’d known him, I thought that Fletcher had made the wrong decision. But he always taught me that an assassin without limits was just a monster, and he was keeping to his code...

And another duo I like is Gin and Finn! I love their sibling banter! It’s so funny! I also liked Gin’s interactions with Lorelei, one of the crime bosses Gin is dealing with now. I really love these small character moments where they have these heart-to-hearts. It’s so nice and just gives the characters depth.

So, yeah. It’s no surprise that I loved this book. You all know how much I adore this series! The characters are amazing, the stories are great, the action is intense, and the food... always the food! Gin made a hot chocolate milkshake and holy yum, I need to try it! Lol.


The end of this book plants the seed for what will be coming up in the next book and... I am nervous! I have a feeling things are gonna get ugly. Book 7 (aka the one with Salina) levels ugly.

But I am really looking forward to reading it!

Oh! This was also my first audiobook! Back when I had my Kindle Keyboard, I used to use the text-to-speech feature on it while I did other things. But that doesn’t really count cause it was just a robot reading me a book. Lol. So, yeah! This was officially my first audiobook! And it was a lot of fun! My one issue with it, which is really a me problem, is that I’m 13 books into this series, and the voices done in the audiobook just didn’t match up to the voices I gave the characters, you know? But really that’s just a me issue, because it was really well done! I liked it!

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! :)