Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Chilling Effect

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Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

7 reviews

just_one_more_paige's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I've had this one on my radar for awhile, but the time was ripe when facing down a set of international flights. Nothing says "distract and entertain me on a long airplane journey" like a space opera with the cover tagline of "Kidnappers. Alien emperors. Psychic cats. And she's out of coffee." It was as solid a choice as it sounds.

To continue from my previous "I'm behind" review...I remain behind. So. Another (mostly) borrowed synopsis from Goodreads: 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 not make it long enough to 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 the loyalty of her crew. To free her sister, Eva may have to risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds...and that's before she finds out that the threat is even greater than she imagined.

This is going to be a short review, because this book is exactly as advertised. Nothing more *and* nothing less. The promised psychic cats, crime syndicate kidnappers, mysterious and shadowy secret missions, found family crew, ridiculously entitled alien emperors, sketchy pasts and a very sweet love story (especially hilarious for a character as prickly - perfectly so - as Eva) were all present and accounted for. Except the coffee, which I realize was promised *not* to be there, but was, in fact, conspicuously not mentioned. (Not a big deal, on the whole, but, you know, transparency, haha.)

But seriously, if one can be serious in a review about such a ridiculous book, this was just plain hilarious and entertaining weird space drama. It was adventure after adventure at a nonstop pace and honestly such a fun reading experience, exactly the attention-keeping-without-requiring-too-much-effort book I needed for travel. There was some commentary on the military industrial complex and imperialistic power (as most scifi tends to have), btu done in a way that remained light and humorous, outrageous even...because this is space opera at its highest humor-level, and therefore not believable at all, but in the best way. I was able to ignore some of the world-building details that verged on the "too much/not quite explained well enough" because the details weren't really that important in the scheme of the bigger picture escapades. Sometimes, with more "serious" space operas like A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, those details are central and necessary and I want them. Here I didn't need it and that was ok with me. But if you get bogged down by that, do beware.

Another small, but superfun, detail I liked included the chapter titles with twists on Star Wars names/quotes/situations. Fan service is a win for me in reading experiences like this, where the focus is on entertainment value. And I loved all the Spanish, so much, as per usual for me; the colloquialisms and sayings used really added a lot to Eva's (prickly) vibe and I was here for it.

There's definitely a setup for a sequel/series and, while idk if I want/need more right now, I would not be opposed to picking up when the next need for this specific reading experience hits again. It hooked me more than enough to keep me interested for the next time I'm looking/ready.

“The universe was full of that kind of stuff: beautiful, strange, and mostly forgotten.”

“That was war for you, like a game of musical chairs where seats kept disappearing until only one was left, and people rarely stopped to ask who the hell was in charge of the music.”

“She was only one person, but one person doing something was better than a whole lot of people doing nothing.”

“This is barbaric. […] On the contrary, [...] It's civilized as fuck. Civilization is just bullshit." (what a commentary on “civilization” - phew)

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amvs1111's review

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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dexkit10's review

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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thebowandthebook's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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ariel790's review

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This one was difficult for me to finish reading. The main reason was because of poor pacing. There were times it flowed, but others that it was too busy. I understood where the author was going, but felt so much was going on that the story often lacked the attention to detail it deserved. Then it would slow down and have a more intimate, character building moment. Making more sense, and drawing me back in. Eva and her crew are definitely interesting. Care was given to them, but elsewhere not so much. Particularly in world building. So many alien species and different worlds brought up that were never described. Fast paced action that often got lost in itself. If I hadn't read other Sci-fi that had similar concepts, I probably would have totally been lost.

I do like the characters and the author's sense of humor so I may try the second one sometime in the future, but when I have more time.

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thoughtsontomes's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There’s a blurb that if Firefly and Mass Effect had a baby, it would be this book and that’s very accurate. If Shepard was less competent and had way more mishaps on her missions, she would be a lot like our main character Eva. We also have the world building of the Wayfarers series with way more action. There are more mentions of farts here than I’ve probably read in other books which did annoy me but it seemed to subside as the story went on and I could look past it. Also if you’re looking for alien romance, you do get it here (fade to black fyi for my monster loving girlies out there - don’t get your hopes up). But for someone who lived romancing they aliens in mass effect, I dug it.

Content Warnings

sarah_d's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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