Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

While this was a delightful adventure, encompassing all sorts of tried and true tropes and sci-fi worlds, in the end it just felt overly long and sloggish to me.

I don't what exactly it was about this book that just made it feel like that. Perhaps I just didn't realize how long it was (it comes in at about 450 pages, and I was somehow thinking it would have been half that), but I think it had something to do with the way it was paced a well as the lack of switching POVs. While this wasn't in first person, it was third person limited POV, which I find to be TOO limiting for an expansive world like this. Even if there were only a few chapters, or even portions of chapters, that switched to someone else's mind for a while, it would round out the other characters more and give more background behind their motivations.

It also struck me how all the chapters (okay, maybe not the last one, that was short) strove to be the same length. I don't know if things will be edited out in the final version, but to me, having chapters all be the same length is the same as all sentences in a paragraph having the same length--things are needlessly drawn out or shortened to fit the average word count.

Eva and her crew are a great (if tropey) bunch and while the chapter pacing isn't great, the ups and downs of action vs reflection time is quite good. And honestly, aside from the pacing and POV issues that made it sloggy, I have nothing bad to say about this book in general! Which is always a sign of a book that is a good one--it just needs a bit more editing I think, and it would be a perfect slightly fluffy space opera read.

Kidnappers.
Alien emperors.
Psychic cats.
And she's out of coffee.

A fun space-opera adventure featuring a motley crew of misfits, questionably evil kittens, and slug mercenaries.

While I wasn't a fan of the plot, I really liked the characters. Eva Innocente, the wisecracking leader of the Sirena Negra, was such a complex character and I liked that she was morally grey. There was a lot of Spanish here so Google translate became my bestie when reading Eva's dialogue. Pink was a fun addition- I loved her sarcasm and unsolicited opinions. Vakar, I could honestly care less for though... so bland and kind of awkward smut scenes tbh.

The plot felt rather disjointed. While it was certainly a rollercoaster adventure, I didn't like that the actions felt as if they happened at random. It seems as if the characters bounced from one place to another leaving very little room for a solid plotline. I also didn't like the conflict and thought it was underdeveloped- there seemed to be very little substance/rationale behind the villain's motive and wished it to be a bit more fleshed out as well as the vague worldbuilding.

Not a bad debut- I'd certainly be open to reading the sequel.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins publishers for providing a free ARC

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.- Goodreads

Let us take a moment to enjoy this beautiful cover. I love everything about it and give mess a fantasy mess that I didn't know I needed.

However, the book itself was just okay. I loved reading Captain Eva. The fact that she is Hispanic, Spanish is very part of her world i.e. the language, the name of her ship and even references to foods, I loved reading how causal she was. What I mean is it didn't feel forced. Eva wasn't trying to prove her heritage, didn't have someone question her, she was being herself as natural as that is. This book is #ownvoices and that is clear and I am all for it.

I loved the space setting of this book. The author did a great job building this world. Although there could be more backstory, she did really well panting a very clear picture of where the world is now.;

The idea that she has to go into a world she really doesn't want part of to save her sister is a good hook. But there was nothing really good on. Yes, the jobs were odd and dangerous and just getting more stressful by the moment but they didn't provide the excitement that you would think would come from doing a dangerous job. There was a lot of do the job go back to the ship and about half way through the book, I was over it. It left me wanting more/wanting something better and scratching my head to what was going to happen next.

The other thing that I scratched my head about was the romance. It felt more like two people wanting to get laid than a actual romance. It didn't develop as it should and it was a second part to whole saving the sister thing, which is what it should have been but it didn't feel real.

Overall, the book was slow. It has a lot of potential within the characters and within the setting. I felt that with more development it could be perfect. 

2 Pickles

I expected a story about a ragtag group of loveable and adorable misfits, led by a fearless but flawed leader, having adventures together, with some psychic cats causing mayhem. That sounds like so much fun! However, what I got was a boring group of bland and forgettable random aliens, led by a fearless (obnoxiously so) and flawed (in all the worst possible ways) leader, but the leader just goes and does stuff by herself, and in which some psychic cats don’t matter at all. Let’s break it down!

Our main character, Captain Eva Innocente, is awful. She’s selfish and careless and always seems to get away with everything. Sometimes her crew actually has to trick her into being a good person! Who expects me to actually root for this lady? She’s constantly in these obnoxious fights and battles that she wins so easily, sarcastic all the while and making little quips like she’s a bad counterfeit robotic Tony Stark who won’t turn off. Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!

So Eva is a one-note “badass,” and none of the side characters have any personality. I felt nothing for them. And honestly, it seemed like none of them cared about each other, either. Eva’s concern for their safety and happiness was very perfunctory. (Because, again, she sucks.)

And, I’m so sorry, but the romance is laughably bad. If you ever pass by me and I’m having a random giggle fit, there is a 100% chance that I’m thinking about the romance between Eve and Vakar. The dude communicates via scent and sometimes smells like licorice or farts or whatever, depending on his feelings. (Mmm, yeah.) His genitals are on his stomach and he’s covered in scales. I think he’s supposed to look like an insect? (Hot.) Eva has an allergic reaction to his skin so she has to take a shot whenever they have sex. (What, needles don’t get you in the mood?) He talks like Siri. They communicate horribly and I do not understand why they like each other.

The plot in Chilling Effect moves at light speed. Not a compliment! It’s like a bunch of short stories crammed into a novel with very little plot linking the action scenes together. I just wanted to cradle the book in my hands and whisper, “Slow down, please, and let me get to know your characters and worlds without all these inane stunts that aren’t clearly described anyway,” but I couldn’t whisper because it would just come out as a rage scream.

And then the book ends. Just like that. Which I was glad for, but it just felt like an extra slap of thoughtlessness to go with the bad writing face punch. I can’t judge the quality of the dialogue that’s in Spanish, even though there is a lot of it, because translations are never provided and I’m unwilling to try to translate entire conversations by myself. I’m not super heartbroken, though, because the English dialogue was terrible so I’m assuming the Spanish wasn’t an improvement.

But beyond anything else, the thing that just outrages me the absolute most? Those psychic cats on the cover and in the book summary do nothing but purr every once in awhile. This was a scam. You can’t treat me like this! I’m calling my lawyer. My lawyer is a cat and she is furious on my behalf.

This kind of episodic book only works well if it is character driven and the character development was non-existent and everyone felt underdeveloped except Eva who was fairly unlikable and not in a complex way. Motivation of other characters seemed inconsistent and plot points were underdeveloped. Also, the anatomy of some of these aliens was a bit challenged. Descriptions of aliens and the locations were lacking and it seemed liked the author took every trope and tried to include it. There are better books of this type but in the end, it was a quick read and fun in a somewhat annoying way.

Captain Eva Innocente and her crew run freight and odd jobs in their spaceship at the edge of the galaxy. But when a mysterious and sinister organization informs Eva that they've kidnapped her sister, Eva must complete increasingly dangerous missions if she ever wants to see her sister alive again.

I've decided to grade Chilling Effect on a curve, because I think this book was written for a specific audience that I'm not really a member of. See, I like my sci fi Ray Bradbury style. I like impossible science and gigantic metaphors for the human existence. I like canals on Mars and existential questions. Chilling Effect is not that kind of sci fi, so I can't say I really enjoyed reading it.

But I do think Chilling Effect will find an appreciative audience with the kind of people who love Firefly and Becky Chambers' A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (which is honestly just Firefly fanfic).

Because it's very clear that author Valerie Valdes worships at the holy shrine of Firefly, blessed be its memory. I mean, come on: There's the classic setup of the ragtag crew of misfits running odd jobs on the fringe of the settled space civilization, sometimes not always legal jobs but the government sucks anyways. Eva et al even specialize in freight.

So if you miss Firefly and want to read near-identical stories ad nauseum forever (and I'm not judging, I've spent most of my life reveling in Lord of the Rings wannabes), I think you'll really enjoy Chilling Effect.

I admit, there were some moments I really enjoyed. Eva is Hispanic, and beyond the sheer niceness of having a POC protagonist, I really liked how her culture informed and contributed to her character and story. Some of the adventures are really fun, especially the dinosaur one that reminded me a lot of Jo Walton's draconic story of manners Tooth and Claw. And sometimes, against my will, I was genuinely touched and charmed by this book. Yes, really. Cold little me with my small, shriveled heart.

But because I'm not the target audience, and because, while I enjoyed Firefly very much, I don't feel the need to read rehashes and fanfics until the end of time, there were quite a lot of structural issues I couldn't overlook.

The whole Firefly structure is character-dependent. The found family trope only works if the family feels properly real and familial. But most of Eva's crew never gets fleshed out beyond a cute descriptor (Min thinks she's a ship! Leroy has anger management issues but a heart of gold!), and consequently the whole found family bond never feels real or earned.

I appreciate that the author included a lot of aliens, but I couldn't keep track of any of them beyond the dinosaur aliens. And I kept picturing the romantic love interest, Vakar, as resembling Zoidberg from Futurama, which is not what I'd call a sexy or attractive image to keep in my head (sorry, Zoidberg).

Plot-wise, Chilling Effect is incredibly episodic, and each episode feels like it gets resolved so much more quickly than it actually should. A character suggests a complex hacking maneuver, and lo and beyond, a page later the hack was successful, they found the location, and even now this moment they have arrived at said location. The crew needs to obtain a valuable item from a dangerous location? By the end of the chapter, they have the item and are merrily speeding away from the dangerous location, never to return again. Everything happens so fast. As a result, the plot progression feels unearned as well.

Despite the speedy episode resolution, the book really drags, especially in the second half. Many times I found myself wondering where this was going, and how I could possibly have this many pages to go to get there.

Additionally, the Portal references were genuinely dumb (and I say this as a massive Portal fan who once had an inflatable turret living in my college dorm room, who sewed a felt Companion Cube plushie as a birthday present for a friend, who still has all the lyrics to Still Alive memorized). Steam should probably sue.

Ultimately, I think that sci fi fans will really enjoy Chilling Effect, but I personally felt the book had too many structural issues - not to mention not my preferred genre - to really get into things. I probably would not have finished if I hadn't gotten this one as an ARC, but I don't entirely regret finishing it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC, which was provided in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Review for publication elsewhere.
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67 points, 3 ½ stars
Blurb:
A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure.

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.

Available from Amazon and other major outlets September 17th, 2019. Preorder Now!

Review:
Chilling Effect is a weird book for me. In the beginning I was determined to love it, and then the honeymoon period wore off fast. By the midway point, I was certain I hated the book.  In the end, I loved the ending. And as much as I loved that ending and that it made me want to continue on with the series, I just don't know if I will yet.

I also had to spend an unreal amount of time on Google Translate, and Urban Dictionary, and just plain googling around to figure out what, exactly, people were saying. There is so much Spanish sprinkled in throughout the book, at times I didn't even understand what was going on without looking things up. Hell, half the chapter titles are in Spanish! And it wasn't just words. No, it was phrases like "live by the sword, die by the sword." It was actually pretty frustrating because I had to stick to my computer to read this. (I'm still completely and totally lost at "Me Sube la Bilirrubina"...)

Once Chilling Effect started it didn't really stop. It opens with a bunch of psychic kitties causing the main character, Captain Eva Innocente, and her crew a lot of trouble. Then drops into a kidnapping exploitation plot before swinging wildly into an attempted sexual slavery that is somehow not being vilified by everyone. The entire book, the characters are swinging from one task that goes wrong to the next task that goes wrong. Not exactly my favourite type of story.

Then, within all those tasks that go wrong, there are a bunch of plotlines that are just there to make the readers go "hey I recognise that!". A LOT of pop culture, and some not, as well. There is an entire chapter of Pride and Prejudice in here, in the chapter titled "El Orgullo y el Prejuicio" (guess what that translates as?). Chilling Effect just liked to pull from popular things for inspiration and then recreate them in space for fun. I'm sure there were more in here that I missed than I got.

Captain Eva Innocente, our main character, gets into a lot of trouble. She isn't the most competent person. She seems to be chronically incapable of controlling herself, her emotions, and most spectacularly her anger. Which gets her into more trouble than any other outside force. She also isn't really able to control her crew, either, which is a bad trait in a Captain, in my opinion. Eva is also in a really weird romance that I actually found really cute. And the romance was kind of the saving grace of the book in the end.

As I already complained, I really didn't like the start of the book. It just wasn't for me. Once Chilling Effect got down to the point, in about the last 20% of the book, I actually really, really enjoyed it. And that is the worst thing about it. Because it was really good when it stopped playing around. I loved it in the end. And now I want to read the next book in the series, even though I wasn't going to bother before I got to the end.

What a fun book! For fans of Firefly (but with a more inclusive cast) this is definitely a book to try. Captain Eva Innocente and her ragtag crew fumble and fight their way across the universe. She's trying to rescue her sister, kidnapped by the intergalactic mob, and meanwhile complications continue to ensue. The action scenes in this are great, really interesting and different. I loved the romance too, which was also not what I was expecting, but Valerie Valdes made it work. If you like quirky screw ups, humor, action and romance definitely pick this book up. I strongly recommend it.

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes is a perfect read for those looking for an entertaining and humorous Sci-Fi read. It's not a deep book, but it just fun from start to finish. Eva was great as the protagonist. She reminded me of other pilots who love what they do, always expect the glory, but always has things go sideways before they get there.

The story is filled with deceptions, chases, and botched jobs. You can't forget the hypnotic cats either! I spent most of this book laughing consistently. The conversations between Eva and other characters are always well paced, and feel natural in the way she nails her quips and jokes. Hitting that perfect conversational pacing is tough, and Valdes does it super well.

There are some small issues with the book that keep it from the perfect rating. One is the fact that descriptions of some characters, specifically alien races, just aren't enough to paint a good mental image of what I should be seeing as a reader. The other will be an issue for readers who don't know Spanish. There are a lot of phrases and slang in Spanish in this book. I grew up hearing and understanding much of the slang due to visiting my dad's family at times, but for those who may be in the dark, I hope the final book includes a section at the end explaining some of these phrases to the readers.

I recommend this book for anyone looking for a humorous, and fun Sci-Fi read. It's a book with a protagonist over 30 years old, that felt like I was reading a YA novel. I'm not complaining as a YA fan, and by the end of the book, I definitely want to read more adventures of Captain Eva in the future.

Captain Eva Innocente is living her best life working with a crew of friends that have become family on her spaceship as they pick up odd delivery jobs that take them all over space. Just when she thinks that a job requiring her to drop off a litter of psychic cats falls through is the worst part of her week, she finds out her sister has been abducted by a deep space criminal group that manipulates people by threatening the lives of their abductees. Unable to tell a single soul that she’s now working for this criminal group, she takes her crew on a new dangerous ride so that she can save her sister.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed this book, but then I’d be lying. While a hilarious space opera with strong family ties and psychic cats sounds fun, I spent a good portion of the book asking questions instead of enjoying the story. I think it would’ve been far more enjoyable if it had a good amount of world building early on. Instead, I was confused about the world Eva and company lived in and spent some time confusing the cast of characters for one another. It was hard to visualize this world when the scenery was constantly changing before there was enough time spent to explain where they even were. I wish that some basics were explained early on and that there was time spent on world building before the story kicked off.

I also didn’t care for majority of the characters once I got a hold on them. Much of Eva’s crew was one dimensional and I wish that more time was spent on getting to know the core cast of characters. The only one we really get to know is Eva, who also narrates the story. Eva is extremely selfish, short tempered, and hypocritical. I didn’t really care for her, but I do love that she is willing to jump through hoops for her family even if they aren’t on talking terms.

There are some good and funny moments, but sadly, this was a miss for me. While it’s fast paced, there isn’t enough world building to stabilize the story. I think there is some potential here, but it needs more world building, more character growth, and a slower pace.

Pros Great premise, lots of action, likeable characters.

Cons The use of Spanish in dialog, chapter headings etc. No explanation what was said for us non spanish speaking people. I HATED it. Took me right out of the story. I like to be able to know what I'm reading.

The horrible t-rex part of the story. I almost stopped right there, seriously, so so bad.

The cats. Not really integral to the story. 18 cats and after a year on the ship, there would have been a couple hundred more after a year.

Not much scientific for a space novel.

Wishy washy ending. Her father just caves. What happened to her finding her other crew?

This was not the book described in the synopsis. Not at all fun and adventurous, video games, pop culture references. Vague at best, just like the fun cats. Not recommended. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book for Netgalley.

Hard to describe this book. I found myself skipping parts as I really couldn't relate to these characters. With little background to their world or to the characters, I found myself not really caring about what happened. The titles of the chapters in Spanish is great if you speak Spanish, but as I don't having an English translation underneath would have helped. Overall, not a book I would recommend. I received an e-book Uncorrected Digital Copy from in in return for an unbiased review.

Chilling Effect was a fun read. Some bits seemed a bit laggy, but overall it was fun. I think people who like Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines may like this one as well.

This is actually 3.5 stars, but I rounded up because I loved the premise and I REALLY loved the heroine.

Captain Eva Innocente of the spaceship La Sirena Negra has fallen on hard times. She walked away from doing business with her father because she hated how shady it was, and she hated the person she was when she was with him. But that's had financial repercussions for her and her beloved crew. They transport cargo from place to place (their latest: a batch of twenty psychic cats) and basically live hand-to-mouth.

Here's a rundown of everyone on board La Sirena Negra:

➽ Eva, who is BRILLIANT. She's a foulmouthed Latina who's streetwise, aggressive, and incredibly loyal. She also has a definite streak of 'grey morality.' While she doesn't actively try to hurt innocents - especially after some of the mistakes she's made in her past - she's definitely a pragmatic woman, not a naïve do-gooder.

➽ Pink (aka Dr Rebecca Jones) is the closest thing Eva has to a best friend. Snarky and clear-sighted, Pink is 100% loyal to her captain - but that doesn't translate to being blindly loyal. I appreciated that she called Eva out on her bullshit when she felt it was needed, and I wish we'd gotten to see more of her character, plus more of the backstory she has with Eva.

➽ Min is their pilot. Although she does also have a human body, she prefers to spend most of her time with her consciousness tethered to the ship. I'd have liked more of an explanation of how this works - like, does her human body still need sleep? - and she didn't say an awful lot, but I could feel how much Eva cared for her.

➽ Leroy handles their cargo. He used to be an expendable soldier in the corporate space wars, so he has bad PTSD which makes him avoid his two mums, out of a fear he'll hurt them. But he's also loyal, friendly, and dedicated to online gaming.

➽ Vakar is their engineer. He's a quennian, a type of alien described as having a face like a pangolin, facial palps, and emitting scents depending on which emotion he's experiencing. His personality was definitely sweet and slightly submissive.

So this book is a space opera in the truest sense of the word: we hop with Eva from planet to planet as she carries out assignments for The Fridge, an intergalactic crime syndicate who are holding her sister Mari hostage. Unfortunately, Eva isn't great at completing the assignments properly. Time is running out - she needs to find a way to free Mari, get money to pay her crew, and somehow smash The Fridge while she's at it. To make matters worse, an emperor known as the Glorious Apotheosis has taken offence at her refusal to join his harem, and has placed a bounty (dead or alive) on her head.

What I liked:

✔️ This was diverse AS F*CK. Eva is Hispanic, Pink is black, and obviously there are a ton of aliens like Vakar thrown into the mix. There are also loads of nonbinary characters (and not just aliens).

✔️ Zero sexism. Males, females, and nonbinary people were all captains or mercenaries or planet rulers or hunters.

✔️ Funny in unexpected places. It wasn't laugh-out-loud, but there was a gentle Douglas-Adams-style humour underlying the whole book.

✔️ It was well-written and engaging. The quick pace got me hooked straightaway.

A Note on Classification

It is EXTRAORDINARILY hard to classify this book, age-wise. I wouldn't call it YA: Eva is over thirty, and it doesn't have that vaguely coming-of-age sense YA novels tend to exude. But I'm also struggling to label it as 'adult' for one key reason: there is absolutely nothing sexual in this book. Even kisses are disposed of with brutal speed, and the love scenes are fade-to-black. I won't lie, I was disappointed . Not even out of prurience or anything, just because the book kept dropping intriguing hints about Vakar's anatomy. He seems to have genitals which are retracted inside his body? And near his abdomen? Plus he's covered in scales? Even a little bit more elaboration would have helped.

I get that this book isn't really a romance, and that's why there are no sex scenes, but if you're going to have alien-human sex at least tell us how it's physically going to happen! Which leads me on to:

What I didn't like:

❌ Vakar was described very poorly. Beyond him having blue eyes and facial palps (which I'm struggling to picture) NOTHING WAS DESCRIBED. Like, does he have hair? What colour? What colour is his skin? What colour are his scales?

❌ The nonstop action got a bit exhausting after a while. It's a long book, and in the first half I appreciated the rapid pace, because it eliminated any drag or boredom. But it felt like there wasn't a single moment where we could take a breath and pause. Partially that's Eva's character: she's totally non-introspective, which is alright, but that also meant we didn't really see any character growth in her. All her character growth seems to have happened in the backstory.

❌ Beyond a few ominous hints, this backstory is never explained. There's no time to: like I said, the constant fighting wasn't conducive to long chats. But I wanted to know stuff like how Eva met Pink and the others. Hopefully that'll be explained in the sequel...

❌ For a science fiction book, there was astoundingly little science. No technology is explained; we just accept that it's there, and that humans and aliens have somehow learned how to use it. I needed to know more history. Is this a world in which humans have always known that aliens existed? When did humans discover them, if not? Infodumps are obviously bad things, but the issue here was the opposite - an info-lack, if you will.

Overall

It was a good debut and I liked many of its elements, but I'm hopeful that the sequel (which I will be keeping an eye out for) will expand on some of the issues I mentioned.