Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin Series Book 14)

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... 😡(spoiler omitted)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."---

Well let me start this one off with a basic observation, I loved the book. Stayed up late to finish it and loved the ending. OK, got that out of the way because many times when I list things about a book that I might not have liked it gives some folks the impression that I did not like the book, not true here in the least.So, what did I not like? I always have problems with plots that seem to take familiar characters and turn them into somebody else which is what this did with Finn. This was not way out in the fringe since it was within the realm of reality for someone to act like this but I just did not feel it.So, something I did like? Plot twists, I kept thinking, this is the end but something would happen and the story keeps moving. I have no problem with "predictable" many times since it kind of goes with my paragraph above but there were several times that things went off in an unseen direction, I loved it.Something I did not like again? A situation that is so obvious but for reasons to move the plot along is ignored and when it happens it is like "SURPRISE" when it really wasn't ...... at all.What I ALWAYS like? Gin, she is the heart of these books and she is the definition of "conflicted" since she manages to be a very believable assassin while having a heart of gold, Jennifer Estep has managed to create a unique character and make her someone that leaves bodies stacked in her wake and you still love her. Nice job since that requires some real creative writing skills. kudos.Bottom Line: This is a Elemental Assassin book, the fact that I still love to read them after 14 books (yes I have read all but 1) says a lot. Most series become money grabs or worse by 8-9 books, this one looks to be creating a new storyline (a series ending storyline?) and I am intrigued. Her love life does not eat up a bunch of pages, her interpersonal relationships do and they make these books as much as the action scenes do (really starting to love the PA). So to end this, if you liked any of the others, you are going to love this one and the thing I really love with any author is being able to close a story, no cliffhangers and still feed you a thread of the future story to make you lust for the next book. 4 Stars (maybe more, your mileage may vary) and a ton of fun for those with a violent streak like me.

I had been powering through the series and realised that rather than enjoy, the books were aggravating me so I switched to Eizabeth Hunter and the elemental series - if you haven't read those do. As I'm coming towards the end of those I thought I would come back and revisit the elemental assassin. Due to the break I enjoyed it. They have become formulaic which is a shame as Gin is a good character. They just get a bit samey so reading them one after the other is probably not wise. It has to be said these were must reads but they have lost their dazzle. Enjoyable but not brilliant.

Excellent, this is much better than the last book. It was interesting to learn more about Finn's past and there was plenty of action.

Will read anything Jennifer Estep writes.

jennifer does not disappoint. Brilliant xx already pre#ordered the next 2 xx

Great book! Love this series and author