Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

Released September 2019

This book scratches all of my sci-fi itches. It has a cool spaceship (the La Sirena Negra) that the crew has made into a home; strange aliens; real-world (and sci-fi situational) problems that I, as a reader, can relate to; and an ancient alien civilization that no one knows anything about. There are also things that I didn’t know I needed that are included. Examples: Spanish (rarely do I, as a reader, encounter sci-fi that isn’t all English or English with Russian); forgiving friendships between women (this might seem odd to not expect, but, a lot of sci-fi with women main characters usually make them loners or ostracized or they’ve had a break in a friendship due to them acting in the manner that I as a reader expect them to act, IDK might just be one of my hang-ups); psychic cats (they don’t really do much in this book but cat, and I didn’t realize I needed that); and more weird-ass aliens living their best (?) lives (normally the MCs interact with two maybe three aliens, but Valdes has POPULATED this galaxy and I LOVE IT).

This all boils down to Valdes’ great characterization of Eva and her crew (and even the minor characters) and a boatload of worldbuilding. She even writes so well that there really aren’t many info dumps. The world-building is just worked into the story.

This book was a fun romp through the galaxy, but Valdes wasn’t afraid of including moments of self-doubt, reflection, resilience, and love. The complex emotions that Eva deals with are some of the most relatable I’ve read in sci-fi. Valdes did a wonderful job of writing each character with dignity.

This will be one of those books that I come back to when I need a pick-me-up or just a good read. I highly recommend it.

Where to buy:

Kindle

Audiobook

**These are Amazon affiliate links, FYI.**