Reviews with content warning for Violence - Chilling Effect

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

11 reviews

turrean's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.0

Delightful characters, snarky banter, and an action-packed narrative. The story meanders a bit, with motivations and alliances swinging wildly about. A few minor plot lines conclude, but for most of the main story, readers will have to move on to the next books for answers.

The audiobook narrator was great! Characters are quite distinct, and I learned how to pronounce LOTS of new Spanish swear words.

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just_one_more_paige's review

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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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ptaradactyl's review

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adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

Every book should have psychic cats putting at you.

It was fun, it was action packed, and the punchable characters got punched, mostly. And they are sending characters to therapy

and the main romance seems to be working ok </spoiler?

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ladythana's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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amandadevoursbooks's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-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? Yes

4.0

Captain Ava Innocente has crew she loves, a ship she adores, and enough freight work to keep everyone a float. After her sister is kidnapped by a galactic criminal organization, she's on the hook to complete jobs to keep her sister as safe as possible. Also, there are psychic cats.

What follows is a break neck, amusing series of events that never go exactly the way anyone wants. It's laugh out loud (like actually) funny. It's filled with references to other sci-fi books. The plot is interesting enough to keep it moving.

It was a fun, diverting read filled with real friendships, family drama, and redemption.

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