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The Phoenix Illusion by Lisa Shearin

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.

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