Review: Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14) by Jennifer Estep

Title: Bitter Bite

Series: Elemental Assassin #14

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) | Spider's Trap (#13)

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: February 2016

Published by: Pocket Books

Source: Purchased ebook

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Synopsis:

Which is stronger: blood ties or a battle-tested friendship?

It’s not easy being queen bee of an underworld abuzz with crooks and killers. Wielding my potent Ice and Stone elemental magic will only get me so far—my real secret is my tight-knit makeshift family, a motley crew of cops and criminals, dwarves and playboys. My foster brother Finnegan Lane is my right-hand man, but when his suddenly not-dead relative comes back into the picture, I’m the one on the outside looking in.

It’s funny how life works: one minute your best friend is rock-steady, and the next he’s doe-eyed and buying into this whole loving-relative routine to the point of ignoring you. I’d like to be happy for Finn, I really would. But all of my instincts are telling me that beneath the syrupy sweet demeanor and old-fashioned charm, this sudden interloper is planning something. The whole shtick leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. This person might have avoided the grave once, but I’ll put anyone who hurts Finn in the ground—for good.

My rating: ★★★★★
Just from reading the synopsis I knew this one was gonna be a tough one to go through. Salina levels tough. Finn’s not-so-dead mother is back in town and her intentions with Finn... well, they’re questionable at best. Gin is cautious around her, but my poor Finn is ecstatic as you can imagine. So yeah, reading this was difficult emotionally. Especially because I love Finn so much! But Gin always has his back—always watching out for her brother.

How do you go about rocking the foundation of his world to its very core? Changing everything he thought he knew about his parents? All that would have been bad enough if this was a stranger. But this was Finn. The guy I’d been raised with. The guy I had been through so much with. The man who was my brother in all the ways that truly mattered.

And Gin is fiercely protective of her friends and family, including Finn, and I love her for it!

“You should know this,” I said in a cold, hard voice. “When you hurt Finn, I will kill you.”

Yeah, you tell her Gin! One of the many things I love about this series is the characters and their relationships. Especially the relationship between Finn and Gin. And Deirdre coming in and just turning things upside down for everyone... Ooof! In the last book we find out that Finn always thought his mother was dead, so yeah, I totally understand why Finn would be so excited to learn that she actually wasn’t. It’s his mother after all. But unlike Owen in Widow’s Web (I’m sorry Owen! I love you but this is true), Finn was actually pretty cautious around her as well. He was suspicions and he wasn’t a complete idiot when it came to Deirdre. In fact, Owen actually tried to help out Finn by talking to him since he went through a similar situation quite recently. He is so sweet and I love him (even though he was a total idiot when it came to Salina!)

Let’s talk about Deirdre because I just...

Let’s get to the point: Deirdre was an awful person. All this... Fletcher and Finn, her coming back to town, all of it was because of money. She played Fletcher and didn’t even want Finn when she was pregnant with him. She only kept him to keep Fletcher wrapped around her finger. She never really cared about either of them. She’s awful! Her parents had basically disinherited her which is why she got with Fletcher in the first place... to piss them off even more. But then she found out that he was an assassin and she tricked him into killing her parents so she could get her trust fund money and the rest of her family fortune! She forced him to kill innocent people! Her own parents! Then she just left. Not without a fight though. She told Fletcher the truth, they fought, then she threatened to freeze Finn to death if he didn’t let her go. What. The. Fuck! I hate her! She’s so ruthless and Finn does not deserve it one bit. Oh and to top it off she tortures Finn at the end of the book with her Ice magic.


My poor Finn was so excited to have his mom back in his life and this is what he gets. 😩 But as I said, Gin’s got his back.

“But none of those is as bad as your third mistake. That's the one that’s really going to come back and bite you in the ass.”
“And what would that be?”
“Thinking you could hurt me and get away with it.” Finn smirked at her. “Gin is going to come here and slit your throat for that. I just hope I’m still alive to see her do it.”

Yeah she is!

“You have far too much faith in your little friend.”
“Not my friend,” Finn said, his voice ringing with conviction. “My sister.”

Anyway, Gin is the best! Not only do I love how protective she is of her brother, but I love that she in general just cares about others. She always says that she’s a cold-hearted killer, but she’s not. Well, only if you’re one of her targets 😉 Gin tries to avoid collateral damage at all times and I love that about her. I also love how snarky and sassy she can be. This whole situation that they went through with Deirdre was awful. But one thing that always puts Gin in a good mood is killing some bad guys! Lol. No, I’m serious. One day late at night after work Gin walking to her car when some idiot tries to mug her. Her mood immediately brightened cause she got to beat up a guy. Lol.

Still smiling, I got back up onto my feet, cracked my neck and swung my arms a few times. Nothing like an attempted mugging to get the blood flowing.

I love her! She’s so funny! And these amazing action scenes are actually one of my favorite things about this series! Gin is so badass and it is always exciting when she kicks ass. This book I feel like was particularly violent, and I absolutely loved it!

One thing I don’t care for are sex scenes. Adult books have them, it’s just a fact. But I’m pretty indifferent when it comes to them. However, the one in this book...


So much yes! I mean I already love Gin and Owen as a couple, so this scene was just the best! Gin and Owen actually had a pillow fight and it was the cutest freaking thing ever! I loved it! And then Owen fell off the bed and it was just the funniest thing ever!

Another thing I love is the relationship between Gin and her fairly new assistant, Silvio!

Silvio blinked. “You’re actually going? Just like that? Without me having to nag you?”
“When do you ever have to nag me about anything?”
“When don’t I have to nag you?” he muttered.

He’s always mothering her and I love it!

So yeah, this book was amazing and heartbreaking and this is just one of my favorite series! It had amazing action, great characters, and also your usual Easter Eggs that are always fun to find. At the end of the book Gin is presented with more trouble. There are some new revelations that hint at some bigger things at play. I’m very interested to find out where this is all going in.

And now I will leave you with a little something fun from one of Gin’s flashbacks:

Finn had his elbow propped up on the mantel and the collar of his black polo shirt propped up, like he was supercool. I rolled my eyes. Superidiot was more like 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! :)