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"Unwanted"
by
Jennifer Estep
It is part of the Elemental Assassin #14.5 series and is a dark fantasy, paranormal fantasy in a Kindle, eBook edition that was published by Pocket Star on July 18, 2016 and has 71 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Jennifer Estep, Venom, Karma Girl, Tangled Threads, Touch of Frost, Spider's Revenge, Kiss of Frost, Hot Mama, By a Thread, Dark Frost, Widow's Web, Crimson Frost, Deadly Sting, Midnight Frost, Heart of Venom, The Spider, Killer Frost, Tangled Dreams, Tangled Schemes, Spider's Bargain, "Poison", Spider’s Nemesis, "Wasted", "Web of Death", "Web of Deceit", Black Widow, Poison Promise, Cold Burn of Magic, The Spider's Trap, Dark Heart of Magic, Bitter Bite, Unraveled, "Nice Guys Bite", Bright Blaze of Magic, Snared, Kill the Queen, "Winter's Web", Last Strand, Sharpest Sting, Dirty Deeds 2, "Heart Stings"
It’s a short story, 14.5 in the Elemental Assassin dark paranormal fantasy series set in Ashland, Tennessee, that revolves around an elemental assassin, Gin Blanco, although this time her foster brother, Finn, is in the limelight. It’s been a couple weeks since Bitter Bite, 14.
My Take
It’s a tale told from first person point-of-view from Finn’s perspective…and an unreliable narrator if I ever saw one. Well, okay, part of that unreliability is from that deep well of guilt he’s fallen into. I can’t blame him for feeling that way, except that…it really wasn’t his fault.
Estep sure got my tears welling, as she describes the loss of so many. It’s a sad tale for the first half…and then we get to the second half.
Oh. Boy. Talk about action! Action that solves some very nasty threats.
The Story
Hated by everyone in the bank, Finn is absolutely miserable and wallowing in guilt for his actions that got so many killed.
It doesn’t help that his boss insists he attend every funeral…
The Characters
The sharp-dressing Finnegan “Finn” Lane is an investment banker at the First Trust of Ashland. Detective Bria Coolidge, Gin’s younger sister, is Finn’s ladylove.
Gin Blanco, with an Ice and Stone elemental gift, is his foster sister, carrying on his father’s, Fletcher‘s, legacy as an assassin known as the Spider. She also runs the Pork Pit, a fabulous restaurant that specializes in barbecue.
Finn’s and Gin’s friends include Jo-Jo Deveraux, a dwarf with an Air gift, who runs a highly successful beauty salon. Jo-Jo’s sister, Sophia, is the head cook at the Pork Pit and the go-to body disposer.
The First Trust of Ashland was…
…founded by the very clever and astute Stuart Mosley, a dwarf. Jimmy is a giant bullying security guard. Big Bertha is the bank’s most secure vault. Isabelle Vargas is the widow of Peter Vargas, one of the giant guards killed in Bitter Bite.
The three-year-old Leo is Peter’s son; Paul is Peter’s jerk of a brother.
Bartholomew Wilcox is a bookie, who used to be Bart the Butcher when he’d been a professional boxer.
Dierdre Shaw, with her Ice gift, had been Finn’s long-lost mother (Bitter Bite). Rodrigo Santos had been her partner. Hugh Tucker, a vampire, had been Dierdre’s boss, and secretly works for the Circle. Eira Snow, Gin and Bria’s mother, had also been involved with the Circle.
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark in blacks and purples with a haunted looking Blue Ridge Cemetery in the background and the gorgeous Finn in his black funeral suit, gray shirt, and loosened black tie standing on the left, visible from the hips up, looking cocky, an electric blue halo along his right side. At the very top is an info blurb in a pale gray. The author’s name is below that in a shadowed white just touching Finn’s hair. The title is in a spooky pale gray-to-white gradient. Beneath that is the series info in pale gray.
The title is all about poor Finn, for he is so “Unwanted”.
