The Phoenix Illusion

By: Lisa Shearin

Narrated by: Johanna Parker

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The agents of the 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 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.

©2018 Lisa Shearin (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

More Rake in this book!

I continue to enjoy stories with Mac and the gang of SPI (Supernatural Protection & Investigation). This story starts off at a birthday party which is interrupted by a house appearing in a vacant lot. The house and the vacant lot are both own by Rake Danescu, very rich goblin and boyfriend of our leading lady, Makenna Fraser. Since SPI’s main goal is to keep control of the supernaturals on Earth and keep magic from unknowing humans, you can imagine having an elaborate house appear in a vacant lot isn’t the best of things. Then the house burns down.

In this story, we get a lot of time with Rake, much more than we’ve had in the past. We continue to learn more about his race and his home planet (it seems that goblins come from another planet instead of another realm). We also meet Rake’s cousin, Tam.

This story had a lot of the things I love about this series, action, humor, characters that I love. I wish we had more time with some of the SPI characters, as Rake and Tam take over a lot of the page time, so we didn’t see as much of Mac’s partners, Ian (human) and Yasha (werewolf).

There is a scene towards the end of the story that is really frustrating. I know that the characters had their hearts in the right place, but it was not the right thing to do. I know that is very vague, but I don’t want to give spoilers.

Anyway, overall, I did really enjoy this story. I enjoy my time with these characters. They always make me laugh. I can’t wait to see where we go from here in this series. I’m hoping that we might get to meet Mac’s family and maybe even Rake’s. That should be interesting.

Narration
Johanna Parker continues to do an amazing job with this series. She really brings out the humor of Mac and the gang. I love all the voices she’s chosen for these characters. She does a great job with men and women (which is really good because there are way more men in this series than women). If you haven’t tried Johanna Parker, I highly recommend her. She has several great paranormal series out there that I’ve listened to and enjoyed.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Mac's Countynees can get on my nerves lol..

Still Love the storyline though. Love Rake ❤️, Kitty and Yasha. Need More Dragon Lady

loved the book!

I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Mac's life and how awesome her world is! Goblins, werewolves, vampires, and Vegas, baby!

A great addition to the series

The Phoenix Illusion was full of action and fun. I love listening to Johanna Parker narrate. It makes any book that much better.
#tagsgiving #sweepstakes #fantasyaction

Top notch urban fantasy

The Phoenix Illusion is the sixth book in Lisa Shearin’s SPI Files series, and Ms. Shearin continues to outdo herself. Makenna Fraser, seer extraordinaire for the Supernatural Protection and Investigations team (SPI), was having a fun night out with her coworkers and boyfriend, goblin dark mage Rake Danescu, when the evening is disrupted as Rake’s house (from another dimension) gets dropped onto an empty lot. Things get even crazier from here, with SPI again being responsible for stopping the evil supernaturals in the world from enacting their plans.

Unlike some of the previous books in the series, The Phoenix Illusion puts a lot of the spotlight on Rake and his cousin Tam. There are some side characters from previous books that don’t make as big of an appearance, but I think that's ok because the author does a great job of rotating the characters from her ensemble cast in the series in and out of the books. It was fun getting to see how Tam trained Ben Sadler, SPI’s resident gem mage, in the best way to deal with the magical crystals at the story's center.

As a note, Johanna Parker does an excellent job narrating this book. I’m always cackling whenever I’m listening to any of Makenna’s antics, and this book has no shortage of mischief. This is the last book of the series that she’s narrating, but I’m excited to see (and hear) how the author does narrating the books in the future. The book is best suited for those who are already familiar with the series. Still, the author does drop enough information such that any newcomers should be able to follow the plot with minimal issues (or missing context).

Overall, The Phoenix Illusion is another amazing and entertaining book by Lisa Shearin. SPI Files is still one of my favorite urban fantasy series of all time. If you enjoy laugh-out-loud urban fantasy tales with headstrong heroines, then this book is for you.

the Phoenix illusion

I absolutely love this series!!! ms.shearin has such a fantastic sense of imagination, ms.parker is a fabulous narrator and the overall quality is superb!!!