Widow's Web Review

Title: Widow's Web
Author: Jennifer Estep
Series: Elemental Assassin #7
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Elemental Magic, Assasins, Vampires, Giants, Dwarves

Overview:

Once an assassin, always an assassin. So much for being plain old Gin Blanco. With every lowlife in Ashland gunning for me, I don’t need another problem, but a new one has come to town anyway. Salina might seem like a sweet Southern belle, but she’s really a dangerous enemy whose water elemental magic can go head-to-head with my own Ice and Stone power. Salina also has an intimate history with my lover, Owen Grayson, and now that she’s back, she thinks he’s hers for the taking. Salina’s playing a mysterious game that involves a shady local casino owner with a surprising connection to Owen. But they call me the Spider for a reason. I’m going to untangle her deadly scheme, even if it leaves my love affair hanging by a thread.

Review:

I am very fortunate to received the advance E-ARC of this book (in pdf format) from miss Jennifer Estep herself and was able to finish reading before the official release which is today. Widow's Web basically revolves around the Owen and Eva past lives (which is a good "change" in the series since the previous books are mostly focused on Gin and her personal struggles). This story also introduces a very cold-blooded antagonist which virtually mirrors Mab Monroe's and to make matters worse: She was Owen's former lover (Talk about a battle for this dudes love). 

As with the all the previous books the "signature Jennifer Estep story structure" is still intact (Meet the Antagonist ->Help The Victim -> Gin Got beaten by the main antagonist -> Healed back by Jo-jo Devereaux ->Kills the antagonist in the finale) to which I am getting used to and still loving it. Even the the catch phrases are still there (The count downs, "Crack, Crack, Crack") although I personally missed my favorite phrase "Sloppy, Sloppy Sloppy". 

Overall, I love the direction that the author takes in the series as we are able to transition from the post Mab Monroe era. I would hope that the author brings in another "bad ass" series antagonist that would span several books rather got killed in one book (I would assume Jonah MacAllister is that very person to which I would hope so).

Boneshaker Review

Title: Boneshaker
Author: Cherie Priest
Series: Clockwork Century #1
Audiobook Narrator: Karen Redding and Wil Wheaton
Genre: Steampunk, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Alternate History

Summary (From Amazon.com):
In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Review:
Boneshaker is my fourth steampunk book that I finished reading (while listening to the audiobook version also for better experience. The story center around Briar Wilkes(narrated by Karen Redding)attempts to rescue her son, Ezekiel (or Zeke on which geek extraordinaire, Wil Wheaton was the narrator) who has his own personal quest on recovering his (in)famous father's science equipment inside the blight "zone" which is infested by "rotters" (aka zombies).

The overall story is very unique as it projects a semi-dystopian/post-apocalyptic feel once the the main character enters the "blight" area of the city. As with any steampunk books that I have read, the setting is held around the 1800's (around the American Civil War period). Boneshaker is a great beginning to a great steampunk series and I can't wait to read the next book "Celementine".