I actually skipped ahead because I read a spoiler. So I skipped books 4,5, &6 and caught up with 7 and up. The writing does improve, however this book does do the eye color thing. Just think of it as a drinking game.
I was looking at Spider's Bite yesterday and wondering if I should go for it. I've heard good things about the series but I'm sort of burned out on all the Urban stuff I used to like. I'm tempted though....
She has a really good story to tell. The urban fantasy aspect is quite unique and Gin is a badass heroine. The earlier books suffer from repetition - there's a lot about eye colors. The author also tends to describe everything - especially when Gin cooks - you can practically pull recipes out of this book. If those things don't bother you, then you should enjoy the series. I found that the later books do have a tighter edit and I enjoyed them more.
It's not that UF-heavy in terms of a lot of vampire/werewolf stuff (so far none of the "pack" crap like alpha male rule). But the urban setting and kickass heroine roaming about aspects are there. I liked the first book well enough because not same old same old UF with a different magic system and heroine doesn't live in a vacuum of nothing but cardboard supporting cast members. The descriptiveness and odd morality (agonizes over some stuff but takes even worse things in stride) made me decide to read the books spaced far, far apart if at all. If burnt out on UF, maybe after a break from UF this might be one to get you back into the genre.
The author doesn't rely on the usual vampires/werewolves. Instead, people have elemental magic - fire, air, stone, ice, etc. and they control their element. The city of Ashland is also extremely corrupt which adds in another layer of interest. Gin is also surrounded by her "family" - a group of people that serve as her backup, healers, and surrogate family. She is an assassin with a conscience and she spends her downtime cooking.
Yeah, I've put it on my list to get to when I'm over the burn. It does sound good but I got to the stage when all the UF were starting to blend into each other and I needed a break. I just spoke about this on another topic (spookily enough) and mentioned that I've reached saturation with YA and UF and don't want to ever try New Adult. I was saying how I read a book this week that didn't have any typos or errors and it was such a blast. Made me realise why I rarely try self pubbed any more. Life's just too short to read crappy books. I remember the days when all books were properly formatted with no errors. Happy days.
I thought I'd probably have to go down the Trad pubbed and known author's pnly route because frankly a lot of what's out there just now is just plain crap. I'll probably miss a lot of good books that way but all my friends on BL keep me posted about good v's bad so I should be ok when the time comes to dip back into the shallow end of the pool. :)
I thought I'd probably have to go down the Trad pubbed and known author's pnly route because frankly a lot of what's out there just now is just plain crap. I'll probably miss a lot of good books that way but all my friends on BL keep me posted about good v's bad so I should be ok when the time comes to dip back into the shallow end of the pool. :)