Narrated by Kai Rubio

I liked the sound of the storyline of Chrysalis, book one in The Formicary duo, so as I’ve enjoyed books by S.E. Harmon in the past and even though the narrator is new-to-me, I decided to give the audiobook version a go. Please be aware that Chrysalis ends inconclusively and that the story continues in the second book, Cross, which I believe will be released in audio in late August. (It’s available in print already.)

So, that premise. A man wakes in a hospital bed after almost dying from a gunshot wound to the head, and has absolutely no idea who he is, or who wants him dead. The one thing he can remember is the name of his boyfriend – Grayson Laurie, a doctor at the hospital. When Gray finally comes to see him, he tells the man that his name Christian Cross – but that doesn’t ring any bells or bring anything back. Gray continues to visit him, but Christian is confused by the coolness and distance between them, and he’s stunned when Gray finally, and not without some bitterness, tells him they broke up over four years earlier. Christian barely has time to grasp that when Gray also tells him that Chris is the one who left, and although he never said why, it’s clear Gray believes it’s because Chris was cheating and wanted to be with someone else. After this bombshell, Chris doesn’t expect to see Gray again, which is a bummer as, right now, he’s the only link Chris has with his past – but Gray does return, although it soon becomes clear that he has about as much idea of what Chris has been doing with his life as Chris himself does. Which is, obviously, not a lot. When a man Chris doesn’t recognise enters his hospital room and tells him they’re together – implying he’s the reason Chris left Gray – Chris is even more convinced that something is wrong and decides enough is enough. He’s been in the hospital two weeks and is no closer to finding out anything about what he’s been doing or why someone would try to kill him – it’s time to get out of there and start looking for answers.

The author does a great job with the set up, carefully dropping little hints here and there that indicate there’s more to Chris than meets the eye – one of the doctors points out his lack of fingerprints and that he has certain surgical enhancements (his Achilles tendons have been replaced, for example) – and a picture slowly starts to build up of who and what he might be. But once Christian leaves the hospital (sneaking out rather than just checking himself out) – with no problem whatsoever – and is then very conveniently picked up off the street by Gray just a few pages later, all that intrigue and tension just dissipate, and we get chapters and chapters of Christian and Gray (because, of course, Gray takes Christian to stay with him) settling into a cosy domesticity, complete with cooking disasters and shopping sprees (when Chris, who is supposed to be hiding from the police, moves about freely in public with no attempt to disguise himself). Now, I like a good second chance romance, and actually all those cutesy moments of connection and togetherness are really good – but they’re in the wrong book (or in the wrong place) because after the excellent set-up, I wanted to be alongside Christian as he searches for the truth about himself, finds clues and starts piecing them all together.

And the problems don’t end there, unfortunately. The suspense plot is more full of holes than a pack of the finest Swiss cheese, so much so, that there are way too many to point out. The things that bothered me most – in addition to those I’ve already mentioned:

• Christian stays with Gray even though he knows it will put him in danger, and so does Gray but he doesn’t seem to worry about it at all
• Christian is able to operate a biometric device using his fingerprints – when he doesn’t have any
• All the head/brain scans that were presumably done on a patient with head trauma somehow missed a tracking implant in the neck and the modifications to the eyes
• Christian built a hidden room in Gray’s house without Gray knowing anything about it
• Said room contains a shit-ton of money – but later, Christian has to risk going to an ATM to get cash

I realise a degree of suspension of disbelief is required with a story like this, but there comes a point where I start to wonder if it’s a case of poor editing and continuity rather than my needing to stretch my credulity a bit more.

The chemistry between Chris and Gray is okay although I didn’t feel much heat between them, and to be honest, Gray is a bit bland. But I did like their dynamic and it’s clear they care deeply for each other, despite the fact that Gray is trying hard not to fall for Chris again. The best part of the book is Chris, really, and I liked his dawning awareness of the difference between the Chris he is now and the one he used to be and whose decisions present-Chris is now questioning.

The biggest problem with this one overall, however, is the narration. I’m sure that had someone of the calibre of Greg Boudreaux been at the microphone, all those plot holes would have been far less obtrusive, the story would have sounded tense and exciting and the characters would have had actual personalities. Kai Rubio appears to be fairly new to audiobook narration – he’s certainly new to me and at time of writing has nine titles available at Audible – but I’m afraid he isn’t the right narrator for this book. His voice is pleasant enough, but although he reads with a degree of expression, there’s nothing behind it; it’s a reading rather than a performance, and his habit of leaving very long pauses at the end of every clause and every sentence drove me nuts. His pacing when he speaks is fine – it’s the large gaps that are the problem. His character differentiation is okay, although I suspect he’d run into problems in a book with a larger cast, because he doesn’t seem to have much range in terms of pitch, tone and timbre. Worst of all, the wit and humour I usually expect to find in an S.E. Harmon book are completely absent; it’s present in the text (I read some of it when I was checking some details in order to write this review, and Chris has a wonderfully snarky voice and makes some very funny observations) but none of that is present in the audio.

Chrysalis should really have worked for me despite its inconsistencies – it’s the sort of story I usually love – but the narration killed it pretty much out of the gate and I can’t recommend it. I may pick up the second book to see how everything turns out, but if I do, I’ll read rather than listen.