Chilling Effect - Wyrms.de

448 pages

English language

Published Jan. 9, 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers.

(1 review)

Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.

But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.

To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat …

Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.

But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.

To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.

2 editions

Sally Strange reviewed Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

Unrealized Potential of Psychic Cats on a Spaceship

3 stars

Really, the cats should have gotten much more air time.

I will say the relationships were quite well-written. The plot got a bit ridiculous. I mostly ended up wanting to find out when Eva was going to have it out with her father and sister, but she never quite did that. Perhaps it's coming in the sequel? I do plan on reading it. I feel like the book suffered from a lack of focus. Valdes' book "Where Peace is Lost" all took place on one planet, and it benefited from having a limited scope that nonetheless gave readers a window onto a larger galaxy with interplanetary wars, empires, and so on.

The Spanish was fun. I didn't understand most of it but I really enjoyed reading (listening to) sci-fi that reminded me of hanging around with Puerto Rican friends.

Lists

Cozy Sci-Fi Books