Guest Blog & Giveaway: Spiders Revenge by Jennifer Estep

UFI welcomes Jennifer Estep Author of The Elemental Assassin's series. Thanks for Joining us!!

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to Stacy for having me on the blog again today. Thanks so much, Stacy!

So today I thought I would talk a little bit about why I like urban fantasy since Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, was released on Sept. 27. Here goes:

1) The strong heroines: I love reading and writing about strong heroines, and urban fantasy is full of strong heroines. These women kick butt and save the world on a regular basis. What could be cooler than that?

2) The fight scenes: I love a good fight scene, and there is usually a lot of action in urban fantasy, whether the heroine is chasing someone through a dark alley or facing down the bad guy in the big battle at the end.

3) The creatures: If you can dream it up, you can write about it in urban fantasy. Vampires, werewolves, witches, wizards, elementals, fairies, giants, dwarves, ogres, goblins – you can find all those creatures and more in urban fantasy.

4) The magic and world building: Along with the creatures, you can write about any kind of magic you want to in urban fantasy, from elemental powers to mythology to fairy tale- type magic. Plus, the stories can take place in any kind of setting, from a fictional city to the countryside to another dimension.

5) The variety: All the different creatures, magic, and world building make for a lot of variety. So whether you like vampire stories or ones about witches or something else, you’re sure to find some urban fantasy books that will appeal to you.

6) The cool covers and titles: There are a lot of great book covers in the urban fantasy genre, and I especially like Kim Harrison’s Clint Eastwood movie-themed titles. I just like the dark, gritty, spooky feel that so many of the urban fantasy covers and titles have.

7) The secondary characters: Whether they are the heroine’s sidekicks, the villains, or more mysterious figures, there are some great secondary characters in urban fantasy, like Bob the skull in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher.

8) The love interests: A girl needs a great guy to come home to at night (or vice versa), and urban fantasy usually features a love interest or two. Sometimes, a love match is made in one book, or sometimes, it plays out over several books, but the romance is another entertaining layer in many urban fantasy books.

9) Action, magic, and more all in one: I like reading and writing books with a little bit of everything in them – magic, action, danger, and romance – and urban fantasy features all those elements and more.

10) The community: From authors to bloggers to reviewers to readers, there are so many nice folks in the urban fantasy community (and the book world in general). It’s always fun to interact with folks who love books, reading, and writing.

So there you have it – some things I like about urban fantasy. What about you guys? What do you like about urban fantasy? What are some of your favorite urban fantasy books and authors?

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USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Estep writes the Elemental Assassin series for Pocket Books. The series focuses on Gin Blanco, an assassin codenamed the Spider who can control the elements of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing people and righting wrongs, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit in the fictional Southern metropolis of Ashland. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vampires, and elementals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone. Books in the series are Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, and Tangled Threads.

Jennifer also writes the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series for Kensington. Touch of Frost, the first book in the series, was released in August. First Frost, a prequel e-story to the series, is available as a 99-cent download. Kiss of Frost, the second book, will be released Nov. 29.

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Find Jennifer and her books

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Spider's Revenge
Elemental Assassin #5
September 27, 2011

Old habits die hard. And I plan on mur­der­ing some­one before the night is through.

Killing used to be my reg­u­lar gig, after all. Gin Blanco, aka the Spi­der, assassin-for-hire. And I was very good at it. Now, I’m ready to make the one hit that truly mat­ters: Mab Mon­roe, the dan­ger­ous Fire ele­men­tal who mur­dered my fam­ily when I was thir­teen.

Oh, I don’t think the mis­sion will be easy, but turns out it’s a bit more prob­lem­atic than expected. The bitch knows I’m com­ing for her. So now I’m up against the army of lethal bounty hunters she hired to track me down. She also put a price on my baby sister’s head. Keep­ing Bria safe is my first pri­or­ity. Tak­ing Mab out is a close sec­ond.

Good thing I’ve got my pow­er­ful Stone and Ice magic — and my irre­sistible lover Owen Grayson — to watch my back. This bat­tle has been years in the mak­ing, and there’s a chance I won’t sur­vive. But if I’m going down, then Mab’s com­ing with me...no mat­ter what I have to do to make that happen.

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 Giveaway Provided by Jennifer