Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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





25 comments:

  1. Well frist i would like to say thank you for the great giveaway:)
    No i love your books,There on my all time fav. list.The way you put the story's together,its perfect:)And Gen,I just love her and her storys and sometime when the get really tough im setting on the edge of my set!
    elliott2668(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  2. Hi -- I love your elemental assassin series Gin is awesome - I love that all of the women in these stories are their own person and that they can fight their own battles.-- It is my birthday today please pick me
    audie@wickerness.com

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  3. I love the different worlds in UF books and some of my favorite UF authors and books are definitely Jennifer Estep, Ilona Andrews' Magic series, Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. They are my favorite authors and have some of the best series out there.
    jesselee20(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  4. Temperance -- Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the series.

    Audra -- Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the books.

    Jesse -- Thanks! That's a great group of authors to be included with.

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  5. I enjoy Ilona Andrews in the UF gene. I love when an author can throw some humor in the mix. Thanks for the giveaway! I like going on adventures with Gin it's a butt kickin good time :)

    Jnmt3@hotmail.com

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  6. Jennifer, I love urban Fantasy, hard or soft. Yours is a very favorite series of mine and I just recently read a debut by Mark Lawrence called Prince of Thorns it's not urban fantasy but straight fantasy and it was amazing.
    thanks for the contest

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  7. Rain Maiden -- Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the series.

    Debbie -- Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the series.

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  8. A couple of my favorites are Caitlin Kittridge and Seanan Maguire. The worlds created can be just fantastic.

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  9. Vivien
    deadtossedwaves at gmail dot com

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  10. I like the strong heroines and sidekicks in urban fantasy too. I'm a huge fan of action movies, so I like the action in urban fantasy novels too. It's like a movie, but in written form!

    angeldream3[AT]gmail[DOT]com

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  11. I love the unlimited possibilities in Urban fantasy..real world mix with a touch of magic.

    Littopandaxpress(At)yahoo(dot)com

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  12. I love urban fantasy because of the action, the magic, the great characters, and the interesting settings and themes of the books. Sometimes the label of urban fantasy is not clear cut, but as long as it has those elements I don't care what it's labeled.

    I would list Jennifer Estep and the Elemental Assassin series as one of my top ten favorites, way at the top. Some others are Keven Hearne-Iron Druid, Kelly Meding-Dreg City, Kelly Gay-Charlie Madigan, Faith Hunter-Jane Yellowrock, Jaye Wells-Sabina Kane, Ann Aguirre-Corrine Solomon.

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  13. I love urban fantasy. I enjoy the action and the character interaction, as well as the different worlds my imagination gets to explore. I have so many favorites to name a few Kat Richardson's Walker series, C.E. Murphy's Urban Shaman series, and Anthony Francis' Skin Dancer series. Of course I have recently been following Ms. Estep's series and it is definitely on the wishlist. Thank you for the fun and awesome giveaway opportunity today.

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  14. Vivien -- I've heard a lot of good things about their books.

    Amy -- I like the action in urban fantasy too.

    Van -- I like that about urban fantasy too.

    Barbara -- Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the series, and that's a great list of authors to be included with.

    Denise -- Thanks! Hope you get a chance to check out the books.

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  15. I love the strong heroines and the supernatural elements. I also like how the romance is a secondary theme and often builds over several books.

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  16. Carol -- I like the strong heroines in urban fantasy too.

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  17. Urban fantasy is a great escape; so full of original worlds, stories and characters.

    b(dot)cardone(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  18. I love alot of Authors Richelle Meads books, Ilona Andrews, Jennifer Estep The Elemental Assassin's series is very good I look forward to reading the next book! Thanks for the great giveaway!
    tishajean@ charter.net

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  19. Bethany -- I agree.

    Latishajean -- Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the books.

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  20. love that bit of darkness and edgey storylines that I find in urban fantasy. Just got through reading J.A. Saare''s The Renfeld Syndrome, which I really enjoyed.

    Cathy m
    caity_mack AT yahoo dot com

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  21. I love how urban fantasy mixes with the real world. I like to think that there are strange magical creatures everywhere. :)

    Some of my favorite urban fantasy authors are Sherrilyn Kenyon, Cassandra Clare and Kelley Armstrong. I am still pretty new to the genre so I am reading everyone else's suggestions with great interest. :)

    Great post and thank you so much for the giveaway!

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  22. I always like me a kick-ass heroine and a sexy love interest. But I think my favourite part of Urban Fantasy is that it takes a world very similar to ours and answers the question "What if so and so existed?" Usually the answer is very interesting and a new world is made.

    Thanks for the giveaway!

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  23. I love that they take place in an alternate world but one that is still recognizable often by the city landmarks. The heroine makes all the difference. You never have a namby pamby girly girl.

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  24. Cathy -- I like that bit of darkness in urban fantasy as well.

    Lieder -- I like all the different creatures in urban fantasy too.

    Whitewolf -- I like those things in urban fantasy too.

    Lisa -- I like all the different worlds in urban fantasy too.

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  25. Solid addition to an awesome series. The characters continue to evolve and Gin is growing into her power as an Ice & Stone Elemental. While the book can be read as a standalone, the experience is better when reading the entire series.

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Thanks for stopping by =)