Review - Widow’s Web (Elemental Assassin, Book 7) by Jennifer Estep (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 400 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books
Release Date: August 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1451651775
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in the Elemental Assassin series
Source: Bought
Rating: 5/5 stars

This is the 7th book in the Elemental Assassin series; the 8th book (Deadly Sting) is scheduled for an April 2013 release. This was an excellent continuation of the series and starts up a new story thread featuring a wonderful new elemental baddie.

Owen’s old flame, Salina, shows up in town to cause problems and people in the underworld are mysteriously turning up missing. Could the two be linked? Gin has to find out because her own life is at risk. But will taking on Owen’s old girlfriend and forcing him to confront her cruelty tear Gin and Owen apart?

Excellent addition to this series. Gin has matured so much as a character. She deals with things in a much more emotionally mature way than in earlier books in the series and you can see she’s really grown a lot as a character. Gin is getting to the point where her and Bria are coming to an understanding as well and it is so great to see Gin getting some stability in her life.

Owen does some things in this book that are frustrating, but at the same time I can understand how tough the situation is for him as well. There are points in this book where you will want to smack Owen for his stubbornness. Gin handles things nicely and it’s great to see that she has so much support from her sister Bria as well. We do get to learn a lot more about Owen’s past and that was excellent.

Salina makes for a wonderfully evil baddie. She is a bit too close to being a copy of Mab for me, but she differs in enough ways that it kept the story interesting. I loved that she used Elemental water magic; it is something different than we’ve seen in previous books.

The action scenes were spectacular, like normal. The book had just the right amount of recapping (previous books have been too heavy on recapping) and also had great pacing. The book was a fun read and the writing style was easy to read.

The storyline for this book was pretty contained. There are hints of a bigger storyline coming in future books. I am curious to see if Estep starts another big over-arcing story (like the Mab one) or sticks with more contained mysteries like this one.

Overall a really great addition to this series. I love where Gin is going as a character and how much she has matured. The action scenes are spectacular and the pacing is great; the story is incredibly engaging. There are times where I wanted to smack Owen for being so dense, but it was wonderful to get to learn more about his past. This whole series is highly recommended to those who love action-packed urban fantasy.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge