Cross

Formicary Series, Book 2

By: S.E. Harmon

Narrated by: Kai Rubio

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

I thought getting shot, losing my memory, and being hunted by people I didn't know for reasons I couldn't remember was rock bottom. Turns out I was wrong. I found a shovel, dug a little deeper, and found a whole new sublevel of suck.

Apparently, I took something from the Formicary that doesn't belong to me. The boss, Petar Dobroslav, is willing to do just about anything to get it back. Making an enemy of a super-secret organization of assassins might seem like a bad idea and . . . well, it absolutely is.

To be honest, it was inevitable that Grayson Laurie would get dragged into my mess. In my line of work, love is a luxury, a vulnerability I can't afford. But I couldn't stay away, and now we're both paying the price.

But I can fix this. I will fix this. Everyone knows the Formicary is a formidable adversary. It's time to remind them that so is Christian Cross.

©2021 S. E. Harmon (P)2022 Tantor

enjoyed it - solid 4 stars

Story comment: Good pace, likeable characters, interesting plot
Enjoyed the "sci-fi'ish" element of this story, and thought it was well written. At one point I was really questioning if Chris was or wasn't who he was supposed to be.

Narrator comment: I enjoyed Kai Rubio's performance of Cross. The voices are consistent with Book 1, he suited the characters, has good cadence, inflections and intonations and I had no problem telling the characters apart. I did nudged the speed up to 1.1x just to ramp up the atmosphere slightly, the native 1.0x speed just felt a smidge passive and that slight speed increase just helped add a little more tension which I felt better suited the pace of the story.

This book has quite a few past / present time jump scenes which work well in book form with italicised text, but unfortunately not so much with audio. It took me a while to figure out where I was losing myself and would have found it easier if there was a stronger "tonal change" to make the "past" scenes clearer, there was a slight change, but until I got used to it, I didn't really notice it (this is where italicised text in a book makes things easier!).
Overall though a good follow up to Chrysalis and I will happily listen to these books again.


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📌 Where does it fall on my personal scale? 7
• 1 not my thing • 2 didn't like the narration • 3 didn't keep my attention • 4 was good, but once was enough [3⭐] • 5 enjoyed it [4⭐] • 6 will listen again if i'm in the mood for the narrator [4⭐] • 7 goes on the "re-listen" list [4⭐] • 8 kept me up past bed-time [4.5⭐] • 9 recommended to family/friends [4.75⭐] • 10 own it in all formats [5⭐] • 11 keep a copy with me at all times [5⭐]

Good story. Good narration.

This book had a bit more humor and a great deal of action. Christian and Grayson are getting a bit more comfortable with their dynamic, and Christian's band of cohorts seems to grow with every memory he regains.

I enjoyed this book even more than the first, but I did struggle with reconciling Petar's behavior. Some of his actions just didn't make sense to me based on his personality.

Narration was well performed, and I will be in looking for more books narrated by Kai Rubio.

Sometimes confusing, but worth it in the end...

The story went back and forth in time without making it clear to the reader/listener and also added some not so believable scifi-elements without any explanations, but the characters I found held it all up and the narrator was mostly very good, even if most voices were pretty similar.

Good continuation of story

I like the story. There are strong characters and I hope we get to follow up with some of them. The narration is really good. I enjoyed his performance.