[Book Review] Snared By Jennifer Estep & CoffeeAM Mochadoodle Flavored Coffee

Title: Snared
Series/Universe: Elemental Assassin #16
Author: Jennifer Estep
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publication date: April 25th 2017
Page Count: 384 pages
Age Rating: Adult (language, explicit sexual scene, violence, blood, gore)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received an ARC to review
Publisher’s page: Snared

The sixteenth book in the New York Times bestselling Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series that RT Book Reviews calls, “An extraordinary series… [containing] one of the most intriguing heroines in the genre.”

If you don’t know Gin “the Spider” Blanco, you don’t know dangerous female heroines.

Irony 101—The Spider herself snared in someone else’s web…

Another week, another few clues trickling in about the Circle, the mysterious group that supposedly runs the city’s underworld. Gathering intel on my hidden enemies is a painstaking process, but a more immediate mystery has popped up on my radar: a missing girl.

My search for the girl begins on the mean streets of Ashland, but with all the killers and crooks in this city, I’m not holding out much hope that she’s still alive.

A series of clues leads me down an increasingly dark, dangerous path, and I realize that the missing girl is really just the first thread in this web of evil. As an assassin, I’m used to facing down the worst of the worst, but nothing prepares me for this new, terrifying enemy—one who strikes from the shadows and is determined to make me the next victim.

My Review

In Snared, book sixteen of the Elemental Assassin series, fearsome elemental assassin and Ashland’s underworld queen Gin Blanco’s hunt for information on the the shadowy group of criminal elites responsible for the death of her mother gets derailed by a sister’s desperate plea to find her missing sibling. Never one to do anything halfway, Gin throws all her resources, including her mixed group of talented and connected friends and family members, into searching for any trace of the missing young woman. Each piece of uncovered evidence brings them closer and closer to a sinister and disturbing realization – real evil exists in Ashland and there’s a body count to prove it.

Similar to other books in the series, Gin once again seems to have forgotten a lot of things from her past, including important people and events, only for the memories to surface at opportune times in the plot when she sleeps (or slips into unconsciousness) in the midst of stressful situations. This happens on three separate occasions in this book alone – although, to be fair, it’s the same event being remembered, just a little bit more being recalled each time. At this point I think maybe Gin could benefit from a brain scan – or maybe a visit to a hypnotherapist. She’s just missing too many chunks of time here; this can’t be normal?

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I loved the Criminal Minds vibe with the pursuit of a vicious serial killer, desperately piecing together clues, and racing against the clock to save the latest victim. On the other hand, the plot felt a little predictable and the clues were a little too heavy handed and obvious. But then again, even though I pretty much had it figured out from early on, Estep is such a talented writer that I enjoyed the investigation, takedown, and detailed descriptions of Gin “nobody’s-victim” Blanco being a BAMF.

Overall, Snared wasn’t my favorite book of the Elemental Assassin series so far, but I still really liked it. From the tone of this book, the author seems to be heading in a darker direction and Gin’s focus, always intense, is starting to border on obsession. I’m curious to see where Estep is going with this new Circle storyline and continue to have faith in her ability to spin an intricate web of new villains and interesting plotlines.

The books in the Elemental Assassin series always feature amazing food imagery I can practically taste through the page. Snared was particularly hunger-inducing with mouthwatering descriptions of raspberry-topped chocolate cheesecake, the requisite barbecue sauce, rich chili, gooey grilled cheese sandwiches, and dark chocolate brownies, to name a few. What really got me saying “oh my gosh, that sounds so good!” was when Gin makes her assistant Silvio the most incredible hot chocolate in existence: dark cocoa, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, vanilla whipped cream, mini marshmallows, and drizzles of homemade chocolate sauce. To satisfy the craving provoked by this dreamy hot chocolate creation, I recommend CoffeeAM Mochadoodle Flavored Coffee – a medium blend coffee flavored with the perfect blend of smooth hot chocolate, cinnamon spice, and just a barely-there hint of hazelnut to give it a creamy finish.