Audiobook review: Pico’s Crush by Carol Van Natta
Pico’s Crush is the latest in what has pretty much established itself as one of my favorite space opera series. A dad takes his vacation off planet to visit his daughter at university, a pair of consulting detectives are tracking a serial killer, and a black ops government worker heads to a lush tropical island planet for a vacation. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for things to get dangerously exciting for them all.
As the third book in the Central Galactic Concordance futuristic sci-fi series, Pico’s Crush doesn’t make a good place to start. The world-building is not as detailed, and it’s understood that the reader already has the lay of things. Also, most of the characters who show up as main players were introduced in the previous books as were some of the ongoing situations.
The book begins with ex-military sniper and now security specialist, Jerzi Adams taking his vacation to go visit his daughter, Pico, at her university on a distant world. One of her teachers is an old military unit friend, Andra De Luna. They enjoy catching up and Andra sees Jerzi’s presence as a great thing when she needs to consult someone about odd things happening in and around the school’s science and medical labs. There is an attraction between the two, but they both want to keep things at a friendship level because Jerzi isn’t staying so Andra doesn’t want to fall for him and break her heart when he must go. Then, for Jerzi’s part, he is convinced after his wife left and broke his heart that he’s not good at relationships though he knows Andra is nothing like his ex-wife. Meanwhile, a friend of Pico, Jerzi’s daughter, gets attacked and the detail of the attack is all too familiar to Luka Foxe and Mairwen Morganthur who have arrived on the trail of a serial killer. Things escalate and everyone has to work together just to survive the situation that has blown wide open.
This was an interesting segment in the series. There were definitely a lot of players and plot threads that were separate and yet intertwined. I had no trouble following it all. There is situation away from the main action involving a secret Citizen’s Protection Operative and his strange menagerie who are working some shady activities, Jerzi and Andra’s reunion and slow burn romance, Pico’s young love romance, Luka and Mairwen’s investigation, and a plot going on at the university that explodes into something huge. The first half of the book has some exciting blips, but it is mostly setting up for what is coming in the sensational second half. It wrapped up well, but still left some tantalizing ongoing series threads open for the next book.
The world of these stories is drawn so well that I have no trouble feeling that I’m in a futuristic galaxy out among the stars where many of the people have psychic talents of varying degrees and types, the government has its good and corrupt members and agendas, and there are a great group of diverse peoples.
Nicole Poole continues as the series narrator much to my supreme delight. She brings these books a great extra layer that has me riveted to the story of these people with her voices, accents, pacing, and tone.
In summary, this was another strong installment in a series that continues to make me thirst for more and not want to put it down once I start. The blend of sci-fi and romantic suspense should draw a larger group of readers/listeners and the author’s writing is well worth the look-see.
After note: These are not being offered, presently, on audio, but the ebook and print versions are.
My Ratings
Story: A
Narration: A+
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
Trouble comes to paradise when a serial killer chooses a galaxy-famous college campus for his hunting ground.
A galactic security specialist expects a quiet vacation visit to his daughter’s college campus. Instead, he finds himself in battling for the safety of the students, with old friends and an ex-military squad-mate fighting at his side. Can they find a cunning serial killer before he finds his next target?
When ex-military sniper and current personal security specialist Jerzi Adams visits his daughter Pico’s quiet college on the paradise-like planet of Nila Marbela, he doesn’t expect emergency evacuations and rogue robots. Nor does he expect to renew a friendship with former squad-mate.
Explosions, sabotage, and assaults used to be Andra De Luna’s daily routine, but she gave it up for a professorship at a prestigious university. Now she’s flung back into that world, with an entire floating campus of students to protect.
When the hunt for a cunning serial killer leads Jerzi’s old friends Luka and Mairwen (Overload Flux) to town, there’s trouble in paradise as the body count starts to rise. Either the world of academia has gone from merely cutthroat to downright deadly, or more sinister forces are in conflict, with the campus as a battleground. Without an improvised miracle or two, no one’s going to make it out alive.
Author: Carol Van Natta
Narrator: Nicole Poole
Series: Central Galactic Concordance #3
Genre: Sci-Fi, Space Opera
Audiobook Release Date: January 27, 2016
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Source: Purchased
Audio Speed: 1.2x