Buddy read at Buddies Books and Baubles 
 My name is Gin, and I kill people 
 Without long introductions, Spider's Bite throws us right into action as we witness Gin, the protagonist, on an assignment to eliminate Evelyn, a shrink in Ashland Asylum with dark secrets and we get a glance at Gin's working methods. 
 Then Gin is double-crossed on her next suspiciously lucrative and easy assignment and her handler is brutally tortured and killed. 
 Now she is out for revenge. 
 The story is set in Ashland, a city divided in Northtown, home to the monetary, magical and social elite, and Southtown, the rough part of town belonging to vampire hookers and junkies. 
 There are fantasy creatures like dwarfs, giants, elementals and vampires. 
 Gin, the heroine, is strong, just doesn't take shit from anyone and she seems brutal and cold on the outside, but she carries her package and Estep manages to make her quite likeable anyways. It just feels so good when she doesn't let the bullies bully her. 
 Besides being a preferrably knife wielding assassin, Gin is also a stone and ice elemental, able to crumble bricks, crack concrete, make her skin as hard as marble and create ice cubes or other little objects like knifes. 
 Then there is Finn. He is the son of Gin's handler, investment banker and computer expert. 
 If that doesn't make him shady enough for you yet, he also happens to excel at females and fashion, so he is mainly in charge of calling in favors and doing all the intelligence work. 
 While Gin and Finn were absolutely refreshing together 
 Been there. Done you, 
 I had my issues to warm up to Donovan Caine, morally superior detective and potential love interest for Gin. He was a bit too stick in the sphincter and self-righteous for my liking, and Gin referring to him as "Mmm" 13 times in the book didn't help. 
 In general, there were too many repetitions, for instance when Gin tells us 22 times about her gray eyes. Ok, I get it, your eyes are neither khaki green nor sheet brown, now please move on. 
 Apart from the repetitions, I had a great time reading Spider's Bite though, and I will definitely read the next installments in the series. 
 If you love stories featuring powerful assassins with a tragic past like I do, you should definitely check this out.