Heart of Venom

Sophia, the goth dwarf who is the head cook at the Pork Pit, has been a bit of a puzzle throughout the Elemental Assassin series. How did she come to have the body disposal skills she uses to help Gin? Has she always been so diametrically opposed to her oh-so-feminine sister, JoJo? And what is the full story behind the trauma that ruined her voice? This book answers those questions.

We also get a little movement in the will-they-or-won't-they-reunite story of Gin and Owen, as well as a tiny bit of movement in the bigger story arc concerning Mab Monroe's heir. Thankfully, Finn is largely absent this time around. I find his whining about his clothes, cars, hair, etc. to be insufferable and cannot imagine what Bria sees in him, but there you go.

I feel like I should mention that this book gets brutal. I mean, if you've followed Gin Blanco this far, you aren't expecting flowers and rainbows, but I had to out this one down a couple of times. The details got to me. The descriptions were just too much, and the depravity of the villains was just too far out there. There haven't exactly been any shades of gray with previous bad guys, but I fully expected these to be roasting babies for dinner or some such.

It just occurred to me that I don't recall encountering any queer characters in this series. Or in any of Estep's other work. I've read several Bigtime novels, one or two of the Mythos Academy books, and everything she's published in this series, and everybody seems to be straight. Am I forgetting Something? How can an entire universe be heterosexual? Anybody?

Heart of Venom is the ninth book in Jennifer Estep???s very popular ELEMENTAL ASSASSIN series. I skipped it a while back because I???m not crazy about this series and I didn???t want to purchase it. I had the later volumes and went on. (I???ve only continued to read ELEMENTAL ASSASIN because I already owned most of the books and I wanted to report on it for FanLit.) However, a copy of Heart of Venom fell in my lap recently, so I read it. I feel the same way about it as I do about all the other books in this series, so I???ll be brief here.

Gin???s friend Sophia (the goth dwarf) is kidnapped by the man who tortured her many years ago. Gin must get her back because she has a hero complex ??? she sees it as her job to protect everyone she loves. So instead of asking her sister Bria, a top cop in the Ashland police force... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/heart-of-venom/