Bitter Bite, book 14 in the Elemental Assassin series, sees dual magic wielding, underworld queen, and all around badass assassin Gin Blanco dealing with some good, old-fashioned family drama – of course, it’s slightly more menacing and potentially deadly family drama than most people have to deal with (understatement). At the end of book 13, Spider’s Trap, Gin got a lead on her foster brother Finn’s long-lost and thought-to-be-dead relative. In Bitter Bite, the not-quite-so-dead-as-reported relative is no longer just an idea anymore and more of a real-life, real pain in Gin’s side. Naturally, Finn feels different about the whole thing, putting the once tight-knit foster siblings at odds with one another.

I’ve only read the past three books in the series and I’ve never really given any serious attention to Finn before Bitter Bite. Sure he’s Gin’s foster brother, and Gin’s sister’s boyfriend, and he’s been Gin’s slightly deus ex machina savior out of many a hard situation – but he was never really a layered, nuanced character for me. Bitter Bite changed all that. We really get to see a vulnerable side to Finn beyond the handsome, polished, investment banker/talented sniper – he became more real. I’m going to admit, I was not his biggest fan for most of this book, but he was dealing with some stuff and, let’s be honest, nobody can mess with your head and emotions like family. There’s an e-novella set after this book, Unwanted, written from Finn’s perspective that shows him dealing with the extremely personal aftermath of Bitter Bite, and I completely recommend reading it if you want to get to know more of what’s going on in Finn’s head.

Beyond (and sometimes within) the unfolding family drama, Bitter Bite also has plenty of uppity bad guys, well-written and well-choreographed fight sequences, and strong women getting things done – all typical staples of this series and what make the Elemental Assassin books such entertaining reads.

As Estep keeps raising stakes and cranking out more books, the Elemental Assassin series continues to be action packed, full of strong, badass women, and after 14 books, still going strong with page-turning plotlines. I can honestly say I love this series and I'm itching to get my hands on more of it.

*I received an ARC of this book to review. You can find this review and others like it at BookAndCoffeeAddict.com, along with recommendations for a fantastic cup of coffee.

Really loving how the plot thickens with this series. Hopefully, more plot heavy books come out in it instead of fluff. Looking forward to the next book.

I enjoyed this one! I love the ones that focus on Finn and Gin's relationship. Kind of bummed that Owen has slipped so far into the background and their relationship has stopped evolving. The last book had Owen super out-paced by another metal elemental, which was kind of a bummer. What happened to the Owen bashing heads in with his hammer?

Anyway, I'm kind of hoping we get see some more evolution with them before the end of the series, which is fast approaching!

I finished in less than 12 hours. Enough said

I started the book around 9pm and finished it around 1:30am. It drew me in and kept me in its clutches until I finished the book. There are more secrets and surprises in this series than any other series I've read.
Can't wait request the next book from the library.

WOW….I made it to #14 thanks completely to the crew at BB&B I totally wouldn’t have made it here without you guys to buddy read with.

Things I’m Happy About:

✫ - The bad guys have been pretty good recently. Instead of the main driving force being threat of rape which is how the first books started out this one the bad guy is a woman capable of some major emotion manipulation of Finn. And like Gin it was hard to tell what was heartfelt with her and what was just fake.

✫- It was interesting to see Gin’s crew torn a little as Finn struggles with his mommy issues and try to decide where to fall. It was also interesting that I didn’t figure out the final plan until we were well into it. I’ve guess most of the final plots up to this point.

✫ - Silvio is the best assistant ever and I really like how well he assists an assassin that doesn’t really think she needs an assistant

✫ - The setup of the new big bad in the series. Yes….yes it is all very formulaic but it is good that now Gin will in the future have something bigger to go after than the random bad guy who strolls into Ashland.

Things that bug:

☠ - Okay so the repetition is so much better than it used to be but it is still there. Is it just me that has this pet peeve that Gin and Owen are still using condoms and so we get that line in every book about white pills and condoms? They have been together for like 11 books now. Get a test and move on.

☠ - Fletcher has left all of these clues for Gin along the way. This wouldn’t bug except he didn’t have any kind of power and so I get a bit bugged the solution usually comes from fletcher or his notes he hid around his office for Gin. I get it if he had some air elemental power of precognition so that he knew to leave them but he didn’t so now that he has been dead quite a while it just seems like an easy writing cop out.

☠ - The new bad guys. Yes I like there is a new overlaying plot arc. She needed one if she was going to continue this series on. BUT….there seemed to be some glaring discrepancies between this new ‘understanding’ of the past and some of the early books. Maybe since it if 9 books after Mabs death we aren’t supposed to care but I just thought it could have been handled a little better.

Overall

The writing in the series is definitely getting better but this isn’t a series that I’m going to read and reread time and time again. Once is enough since I don’t think on a reread I’ll find anything extra I missed the first time through. Still it is an engaging series once you get through some of the earlier books.

This book wow, ok I love that we get more of Finn and Gin and how they grew up. To see how much she cares and how she is willing to do and put aside for Finn its heart warming.

I didn’t see his mother coming back because we all thought her dead. I hate what she does to Gin and to Finn and how she tried to tear their relationship apart.
The twist in the hierarchy was new looking forward to see what is going to happen.
Again I am enjoying the narration.

Really enjoyed this latest installment. My heart broke for Finn but I loved seeing his relationship with Gin strengthen even more.

I love that this many books in, I'm still left feeling excited to see what's next. Especially with this mysterious Circle......