Blog Archives

The Gorgon Agenda by Lisa Shearin

A planet-killing weapon, sinister sisters, and immortal monsters. All in a day’s work for the agents of SPI.

Title: The Gorgon Agenda
Author: Lisa Shearin
Series: SPI Files #8
Release date: January 24, 2023
Source: purchased by reviewer
Description: I’m Makenna Fraser, seer for SPI (Supernatural Protection & Investigations). I knew SPI protected some of the world’s most dangerous relics, but I didn’t know our draconic founder, Vivienne Sagadraco, kept them in a vault deep below Manhattan.

Until the most lethal relic of all was stolen.

The Aegis is the shield once wielded by Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. The center of the Aegis contains the head of Medusa, making it the ultimate weapon. All who look on it or its reflection are instantly turned to stone.

Old enemies and new adversaries have descended on New York—and one of them now has the Aegis:
Tiamat—Babylonian goddess of chaos, and Vivienne Sagadraco’s sister
Stheno and Euryale—Eight-foot-tall, snake-haired gorgons, granddaughters of the Titans, and Medusa’s sisters
The Sisterhood of Medusa—An ancient gorgon military order
The Cabal—A supernatural terrorist organization

Those behind the theft have declared war on humanity, with a hatred that was millennia in the making, and a heist that was centuries in the planning.

Our mission is simple yet impossible: Retrieve the Aegis and save the world. But we can’t do it alone. We’ll need our friends, family, and some unexpected new allies if we’re to stop this ancient evil once and for all.

Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel. In other words …SPOILERS. *BEWARE*

Nervous Nellie says…

This is a really GREAT story. It’s well thought out and in the case of me being confused easily – not confusing at all. The author tells the reader what they need to know and moves on with the story.

MaKenna and Rafe aren’t center stage in this book. It’s Vivienne Sagadraco’s story continuing where her sister Tiamat leaves off in the first two books. She still wants her revenge and is still the manipulative crank of the two sisters. Robbery starts off this story and the dragons are back at it again. Don’t touch their hoard!

This time, Tiamat has found a very devious way to get what she wants. Like I said, this is a very well thought out story and while I learned things I did not know about Medusa and her sisters, I was very riveted to the pages. This one was a one sitter and I enjoyed it.

Our reviews in this series…

Follow One Book Two on Social Media via:

Posted in All Reviews, Nell's Reviews

The Solstice Countdown by Lisa Shearin

Mar 17

Posted by Nervous Nell Justice

Title: The Solstice Countdown
Author: Lisa Shearin
Series: SPI Files #7
Release date: March 9, 2021
Description: As an agent of Supernatural Protection & Investigations (SPI), I know that evil doesn’t take a vacation, but this time it made an exception and followed me on mine.

I’m Makenna Fraser, seer for SPI, and I’m taking my boyfriend, goblin dark mage Rake Danescu, home for the holidays to meet my family.

Weird Sisters is a small town in the North Carolina mountains that was built on a network of ley lines that magnify psychic and paranormal energies. It doesn’t show up on Google Maps, was named after the three witches in Macbeth, and the first word of the town name perfectly describes most of its human and supernatural citizens.

A stranger has come to town, bringing with him a dormant source of primordial evil. Soon, magically gifted locals start vanishing, and the power of the ley lines is turned against us, cutting us off from the outside world and any source of help.

For a town and its people steeped in magic, and my family sworn to protect both, it’s a race against time to use a local winter solstice phenomenon to free the town from its prison. But first, I must trust a father I’ve never known to fight and defeat an awakening evil that’s existed since the beginning of time. If we fail, and it is unleashed, the world will not survive.

Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel. In other words …SPOILERS. *BEWARE*

Nervous Nellie says…

The Solstice Countdown was another hit by Lisa Shearin. I LOVE the SPI files. With the conclusion of this book, I really feel the need to go back and start at the beginning. Mak (Makenna Frasier) made mention of the cases that she’s handled since she’s worked for SPI and I have to admit, my interest piqued all over again. There were the Dragons, the gem mage, the Grendels, the hell pit under Baccanalia, the pocket dimension in Rafe’s hotel. There was the buildings popping from one world to another, portals to here and yonder, there were the ghouls and all sorts of things I could go on and on about. Bad nasties that Mak helped the team take care of in only the way they can.

In this book, there is no sex, though implied (only a couple times), there are only gory deaths of ghouls and no good guys were harmed in making of this movie…in your head. An ancient Celtic god that makes a VERY interesting appearance and Mak’s family who basically run Weird Sisters, NC.

I could guess a lot of the story line which I do not have a problem with. It makes me less nervous in the “OMG! What’s gonna happen next” anxiety. Rafe was his normal glorious kick ass self and MaKenna was too even though Rafe outshone her with his dark magey thing. But then there was MaKenna’s revelation of parentage. That was a big deal too. And then there was her and the Wild Hunt…that was pretty cool.

This wasn’t a normal SPI case. Actually, it had no case number and involved no agents except MaKenna. She was on vacation and was on her own as representative of SPI. Push come to shove, I would say it really wasn’t a case at all since she wasn’t “on the clock” per se. I’m trying to be as vague as I can in order to not give away spoilers. Mac’s granny was awesome, as well as the rest of the fam. It was nice to see Rafe a bit uncomfortable in the girlfriend/boyfriend interrogation that families give. It appears he passed with flying colors and Mac got a lot of respect for her part in protecting the townspeople from certain death.

Ok, fine. Here’s the skinny. Mac & Rafe come to town. They are “attacked” by a Celtic god. They get away. The find that a nasty shouldn’t-be-but-is-anyway-mage is trying to manipulate the First Hunter of the Wild Hunt to basically give him all the souls he’s ever collected in order to give the shyster more power to take over the world. Mac’s family and Rafe join in and do whatever they can in order to stop the bad guy from doing what he wants. Throw in some family history (which is VERY interesting) and some massive characters in myth and legend, and you have a mystery that leads a reader by the nose until conclusion. Like I said before, the book made me want to go back and enjoy the prior books all over again.

Our reviews in this series…

Follow One Book Two on Social Media via:

Posted in All Reviews, Nell's Reviews

1 Comment

Tags: Lisa Shearin, Nervous Nell, review, SPI Files, The Solstice Countdown

NEW RELEASE TODAY!! The Solstice Countdown by Lisa Shearin

Mar 9

Posted by Nervous Nell Justice

Join One Book Two as we celebrate some great book news! A new book drops today from a favorite author!

I’m Makenna Fraser, seer for SPI, and I’m taking my boyfriend, goblin dark mage Rake Danescu, home for the holidays to meet my family.

Posted in Blog Memes, Book Chat, Book Promotions

The Solstice Countdown by Lisa Shearin release date announced!

Feb 27

Posted by Nervous Nell Justice

One Book Two has some news! Everybody – check it out!

It’s been a tough year for Lisa Shearin – like all of us. She’s had a book release, Covid restrictions to adhere to, surgery, recovery and getting another book written. If you haven’t read her last release The Entity Game, Aurora Donati #1, it’s really good and I enjoyed it. The series that I really enjoy is the SPI Files, starring Makenna Fraser. It’s hard to wait for the next book in a series for us readers, but just consider the author who runs the whole man show. She is the author and runs the publishing company that publishes her stories. It’s a big job, but totally worth it from my end of things (as a reader). The news that I have is exciting to me because it’s a new release of the SPI Files series called The Solstice Countdown. I have it on good authority (the author) that it will be available on March 9, 2021. It’ll be awesome!

Title: The Solstice Countdown
Author: Lisa Shearin
Series: SPI Files #7
Description: As an agent of Supernatural Protection & Investigations (SPI), I know that evil doesn’t take a vacation, but this time it made an exception and followed me on mine.

I’m Makenna Fraser, seer for SPI, and I’m taking my boyfriend, goblin dark mage Rake Danescu, home for the holidays to meet my family.

(Disclaimer: One Book Two nor does their reviewer receive any credits or reimbursements from Amazon, Audible or the author for this announcement.)

Posted in Blog Memes, Book Chat, Book Promotions

The Phoenix Illusion by Lisa Shearin

Dec 19

Posted by Nervous Nell Justice

Another adventure with cast and crew of SPI. It’s Mac’s birthday and what an unexpected surprise!

Title: Phoenix Illusion
Author: Lisa Shearin
Series: SPI Files #6
Publish Date: November 6, 2018
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Narrator: Johanna Parker
Source: purchased audio and print by reviewer

Publisher’s Description: The agents of Supernatural Protection & Investigation (SPI) are used to dealing with the weird and the wacky, but even they are stunned when a building from another world suddenly appears on an empty lot in New York. . .

I’m Makenna Fraser, seer for SPI, and it’s just my luck that my birthday party is literally crashed by a building from another planet. And it’s not just any building—it’s my goblin boyfriend’s house from his home world. SPI’s mission, to keep the public clueless about the supernatural, has us scrambling to find who did this and why, not to mention how.

The deeper we dig, the more we realize this incident is the opening gambit to a much larger event. Old enemies have combined forces with an even older nemesis to develop the means to kidnap an entire building and everyone in it. But who, or what, is their ultimate target? Finding out and getting to the mark before they do will require all hands on deck, including some extraterrestrial help from the goblin home world. We’re running out of time, and if we can’t get our act together, we’ll have front-row seats for the end of the world as we know it.

Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel. In other words …SPOILERS. *BEWARE*

Nervous Nellie says…

Humans had an unfortunate tendency to go all torchy and pitchforky when they discovered inhumans anywhere in their immediate vicinity.

Lisa Shearin does it again. Am I surprised? No. Not at all. She makes it look easy to sit down and put story to paper or computer or whatever. SPI files is one of my all time favorite series and once a book is released I do my best to get a copy tracked down and in my library as soon as possible.

This story is a puzzle of who and why are buildings disappearing all over the world. Oh, not many buildings, just 8 – 10 or maybe 15. Isn’t a big deal, right? Well, kind of is when one of them is Rake’s house from Regor, the capitol on the goblin home plane, and it’s on fire. And there is a dead guy inside. Duh Duh Daaaahhhh! (That’s all we can afford here at One Book Two for special effects.)

That dead guy and Rake’s burning house transported from the goblin capitol is enough to get SPI’s attention. The story evolves from there to include goblin nazis and crystals that have a lot of power. The case isn’t difficult once it’s boiled down, but to get to the boiled down version it took a lot of luck and less investigation. Rake didn’t hide anything like the super spy he is and Mac and Rake’s relationship grew. I gotta say I enjoy that part, a lot. I mean really? What girl wouldn’t like to have her significant other be romantic, thoughtful and protective (on occasion)? I felt like Mac felt like the third wheel during this investigation. It felt like Ian and Rake were partners instead of Ian and Mac. That part I was a little sad about. I really like Mac and she shined toward the end, but it felt like she was somewhat dissed in regard to her experience and knowledge. I mean she doesn’t know it all, but she should get a little more credit. She was frustrated about Ian and Rake’s behavior. I feel like she felt all that was missing was Rake patting her on the head and telling her to go make dinner and let the men handle it. But maybe that’s the way goblins roll?

Like other installments of the SPI Files, there is no sex, no foul language and no graphic gore. There is wizards (mages, sorry!), goblins, elves, vampires, werewolves and dragons (Oh, my!) The book didn’t take long from start to finish and it was hard to put down. I’m looking forward to the next one already.

Our reviews in this series…

Other recommendations…