I gave this one a shot and opted to DNF it - I liked the first book well enough but decided to not continue with the series. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review!

The cover is great. It was what made me request the ARC and then order the paperback even before I was approved for it.

Unfortunately, the story didn't really grip me and the characters started to grate rather than propel the story forward.

i loved Chilling Effects and I loved this follow up as I found it highly entertaining and compelling.
It made me laugh and kept hooked,
There's a lot of character development and world building and I loved the humour and the plot.
I'm fascinated by the psychic cats as in the first book.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity
A fun and hilarious space opera that everyone needs right now. The characters are spunky with plenty of attitude and there is plenty of action to keep the reader interested. The writing is good and fast paced.
However, at times the language was infantile and simply didn't make sense or didn't add much to the book. This let the storyline down a bit.
On the whole, an interesting story.

Carrying on not long after the ending of Chilling Effect, we return to Captain Eva Innocente, the crew of La Sirena Negra (apologies if I've misspelt any of these!) and their clowder of psychic cats, having a good time getting paid to screw over galactic crime syndicate The Fridge for Eva's sister Mari's shadowy employers, The Forge. They're dragged further into their crusade against The Fridge when they're tasked with what should be the comparatively simple mission of tracking down a misising scientist - Engineer Sue's long lost brother Josh. Of course nothing ever remains simple for long with this crew, and they find that the Forge may just be about to open a Pandora's box.
This second book in Valerie Valdes's brilliantly bonkers series (at least I'm hoping that there will be more books - there is a big thread left dangling enticingly for us to paw at and I would like to see if the crew ever meet up with Leeroy again, as he just kind of disappeared from the story in the second half of Chilling Effect) is another entertaining romp with a well drawn and loveable bunch of misfits (and what may be the unluckiest crew since Red Dwarf, though far more competent), but also deepens things - we get an exploration of the relationships between siblings, how family ties can continually be broken, remade, and broken again, and we get more of larger the overarching plot involving the Forge's machinations - for the good of all sentient life, they insist, but sometimes those who believe so all-consumingly in their cause can be just as dangerous as the bad guys - with the search for/investigation into the technology of a lost civilisation that may not be as lost as everyone assumes.
And while we await the third installment, I shall leave you with the mental image of a bridge full of robots giving a thumbs up.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for review.

I was unaware that this was the second book in the series when requesting it as I was new to netgalley. I love the sound of it and what I have read was great but I don’t feel able to give a fair review.

This book will take you on a wild ride and I was here for it! I actually liked that this was set over a shorter period of time and about one mission as it gave us more time to spend with Eva and the crew and see more of their relationships with each other. I love this crew so much! We also delve more into Eva’s past so we can see just how much she has changed and grown and learn more about things mentioned in Chilling Effect.

Eva is snarky and sarcastic as ever but we also see a more vulnerable side to her when she has to face the consequences of things she did in her past, things which she is not proud of and would rather forget. It made her more complex and I really liked how she navigated all the conflicting feelings she had about it. She knew what she did was wrong, she knew that there would be people who would hate her for it and not be able to forgive her for it. She doesn’t wallow in self pity though, she tries to find a way to help the people she has wronged and not make the same mistakes again. She tries to better while also accepting that she cannot change the past. It was really great to see this discussion in the book. And I really liked how it was handled.

One of the themes throughout the story was the relationship between the crew. I loved seeing the friendship between Eva and Pink and how they looked out for each other and knew each so well but also calling each other out when they did something wrong. I loved how Eva looked out for Min and Sue and also knew how capable they were and didn’t hold them back from achieving their potential. It was also interesting seeing their dynamic compared to the strained relationship Eva has with her sister and Mum.

I loved seeing more of Eva and Vakar and honestly they are adorable! Vakar is the sweetest and an absolute cinnamon roll who will always be ther for Eva but also won’t make decisions for her even when he might not agree. Also I love that his scent changes depending on how he’s feeling and the number of times he feels bashful is adorable! Look I know he is a highly trained soldier, an elite called a wraith but he is a cinnamon roll, maybe just a deadly one. The scene where he ‘surprises’ Eva is one of my absolute favourite scenes! I loved their dynamics so much.

Of course I could not write this review and not mention Mala! My favourite psychic space cat who is an absolute diva and I am here for it! We get to see a lot more of her and her interactions with Eva were some of my favourite things ever! Her sassing Eva and Eva threatening her and Mala calling her bluff. Eva may be captain but Mala is absolutely in charge. I would read a whole book from Mala’s perspective!

I loved the ending so much, just when we think Eva and her crew finally have some time to rest, out came that plot twist which left shook! We get hints about the alien technology that no one really knows much about but we finally get a glimpse of what they are capable of in that ending and it left me needing the next book immediately.

Everyone needs to read these books they are incredible and will have you on the edge of your seat, reading late into the night. These books are full of sassy and sarcastic characters and of course a diva space cat. I loved the found family and how well they work with each other and have built such great relationships with each other.

This is the second book in this series by the Author and initially I was a little reluctant to read this book as I had found the first book a little disappointing - but I am glad I persevered .

Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra, a former smuggling vessel, are now working to bring down the criminal enterprise ,The Fridge .
Eva's sister , who works for the Forge , a mysterious benevolent? enterprise , asks her to find a missing scientist , Josh - who just so happens to be the brother of ship's engineer Sue. His knowledge of the powerful, banned, ancient Proarkhe tech is wanted by various parties - who will find him first ?
The Captain and her crew find the search for the scientist takes them from planet to planet - meeting diverse aliens , and re-encountering one of their most disliked humans 'Miles fucking Erck' .
The action takes them back to Garilia , the one place the Captain does not want to go ....... for in her past she was seen as either the Hero of Garilia or The Butcher of Garilia - can she keep the past just where it should be - in the past ?
This is a lighter ( with the odd dark moment) , more fun read , even whilst they try to keep the cats under control - with enough speculation about just what is really going on keeping you on your toes .!.

This book sets you up well for the next one to come - which I will certainly read

I was given an arc of the book by NetGalley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review- all comments and opinions are my own

It's so good and even better than the first installment in many ways and yet I found myself skipping passages in the last few chapters ! It felt a little bit anti-climactic but definitely better than the first book. The characters are more fleshed out, the worldbuilding is great and the prose flows really well.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Once again we join Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra, a former smuggling vessel, now working to bring down The Fridge. The Fridge is a dangerous criminal organisation which featured heavily in the first book in this series, the very enjoyable Chilling Effect.

Eva reluctantly takes a job from her sister who is working for the mysterious Forge, which claims to be a benevolent organisation which is trying to protect the universe from The Fridge. This time Eva is charged with finding a missing scientist who just so happens to be the brother of ship's engineer Sue.

The captain and her crew spend much of the book careering from planet to planet in search of the missing scientist. We meet more non-humanoid aliens, and explore their homeworld. It's a fun ride, fast paced, with lots of action and snarky humour.

Overall I thought this was a stronger book than Chilling Effect, aside from some choppy segments towards the end of the book. It felt like some sections of story didn't make it through the edits, and the crew managed to track down & collect two additional characters without any explanation of how they did this.

Mala, the psychic ships cat had a much bigger role in this novel I'm pleased to say. If you introduce a psychic cat you must make good use of them!

With themes of found family, redemption, LGBT+ relationships and navigating difficult relationships with biological family this instalment has more emotional depth than the first novel. We learn more about Eva's murky past, and get to meet her mom too.

I'm really excited to see where the next instalment takes Eva and her crew, leaving them as we do at the end of this novel surrounded by the wreckage of a space battle.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an e-arc to review.
I'm not going to be reviewing this book on my blog because although I'm a sci fi fan, I struggled to get into this because I haven't read the first book and I didn't realise that this was a sequel. Plus a reading slump is coming on which didn't help.
However
HOWEVER
I did really like the characters and the world building. I did struggle but I finished the book but I feel id have to read it again to get the whole experience.
I'd be happy to reread this and do another review at a later time, to give this book another chance

In this sequel to Chilling Effect, we're given another chance to sign up with Captain Eva Innocente and her crew aboard the space freighter/ smuggler/ gunrunner La Sirena Negra ('a small ship whose business was composed entirely of side hustles') for another series of madcap adventures. This time, having spent several months prodding the dangerous beast that is The Fridge criminal collective, Eva accepts a commission to track down Josh, scientist brother to her engineer (and retired bank robber) Sue ('I really like your arm cannon. Is that modular?') Having worked for The Fridge, Josh's knowledge of the powerful, banned, ancient Proarkhe tech is considered useful and needed for a Very Secret project.

And at one level that's all you need to know. Eva, co-captain Pink, Min, Vakar and the rest - not to forget the pack of psychic cats who have taken up residence on La Sirena Negra - set about their quest with gusto, beginning with a visit to a perpetual fan con and proceeding to a bot-fighting arena where Eva reencounters one of her least favourite humans, 'Miles fucking Erck', the man who begins every sentence with 'Well, actually...' It's all rather fun, rather genial mayhem, punctuated by speculation about what's really going on, passion between crewmembers and attempts (largely unsuccessful) to keep the cats in line.

But then things get... a bit darker.

You'll recall from Chilling Effect (and you really should read it first) the impact of Eva keeping secrets. Well, she still has one zinger of a secret - and it's to do with the most shameful episode of her life, something she did while working as a mercenary.

Something that won her the title Hero of Garilia...

...or, depending who you're talking to, Butcher of Garilia.

Now, she's going back to Garilia - the one place in the universe Eva really, really wanted never to see again.

Changing the tone of the book to several moods darker, Valdes takes Eva to places and events in her memory she'd hoped to leave buried ('Action meant control, and control was something Eva needed, even if it was an illusion.') And it's not just all in the past: what she did has consequences now both for the inhabitants of Garilia and possibly for the wider universe. Eva has to come to terms with her memories quickly.

Oh, and her mother's turned up as well, also on some super-secret mission.

I loved the family dynamics between Regina and Eva (and also between Eva and her sister Mari). It's genuinely - and generously - portrayed: it would be easy to have Regina come over as a clichéd scary mother and to a degree she is. But this is a complex and deep relationship which also takes in the secrets (again) that Eva kept from her mum when working for her father, and the history between the two sister. There is genuine emotional force here, well realised and at times, rather touching.

It would be easy, I think, to take some of this darkness and family stuff as just slowing the pace down and putting off the fights. Don't fall into that mistake! There is much, much more here than just a breadcrumb trail between hectic combat sequences, and everything has its place and its time in a story that takes in PTSD, moral dilemmas, and guilt as well as silly banter between friends, trust, and, yes, a great sense of wonder and fun (messing up a target's navigation stems by convincing them that they're installing a false software update? A straight faced remark that 'The fourth wall had apparently been broken recently').

This is an unmissable followup to Chilling Effect and, due to some Galaxy-shaking events, sets the next volume up as being pretty epic too, I think.

full disclosure: i did not realise this book was a sequel and read this without having read the previous book, however i did not struggle to get into it at all and was able to follow everything easily and now will defiently go back and read the first one!!

I first heard about this because I heard it had psychic cats so obviously I had to read it and while the cats were fun the strongest part of this book for me was the found family feeling of the ships crew. I always love this trope in sci-fi especially (this book reminded me a lot of on a sunbeam or becky chambers books).

We are following Eva and her crew as they are looking for one of the crews brother (Sue) who has gone missing and possibly kidnapped by a nefarious corparation. Overall this was just such a fun book and following the crew of La Sirena Negra on all their shennanigans around the galaxy!! The writing is super easy to follow and get into and has such a light and comforting tone to it that amkes you feel so happy and safe!

I really loved Eva as a protagonist, and I loved her relationship with Vakar and how sweet and supportive it was (and i'm guessing they met in the first book haha) which I feel like is not always that common in SFF! I also really liked all the shady corparation plotlines in this, and watching the crew decide who to trust was intriguing and very interesting!!

This is SO much fun. Right from this start this is jam packed with action, it doubles down on the silly, the sass and the the psychic cat content compared to the first book in the series. We still get the awesome characters, and the vast universe building. I think i enjoyed this one more as while we still got the taste of all the different worlds in this universe there was more of a focused plot. We got a lot more information into Eva’s past which had been heavily hinted at in the previous book.

I really liked the dynamics between the characters. We have the juxtaposition of Eva’s blood family and her found family and how they respond to the revelations of her past, all while trying to reunite another family. I think we got a lot more insight into Eva and Pink and there shared past, with subtle trans rep from Pink. I really adored their banter back and forth, but also the heavy influence on how past and current events effected the characters mental health. There is a really strong message of taking care of your mental health which I think is fantastic. There was always a pause, to check in, to debrief and to deal which didn’t effect the pace of the plot. I also liked Eva’s personal growth in this, it was clear she learnt from events of the first book and didn’t slip back into old ways in this one but continued to develop.

The world building in both books is just fantastic. While in the initial chapters, like the first book we jumped between a few worlds only getting glimpses and snippets of the world building while being left with the impression there was so much more we didn't get to see or experience. This book settles us on the main world of Garillia fairly quickly and does a vast amount of world building, from their various species, history, social structure and cultural practices and there place within the galactic commerce structure. It was just great to learn about. I loved that we got to play tourist for a bit.

To me this plot excelled where Chilling Effect was a little lacking and was a far better adventure. I was far more invested in all the characters and how they individually fared from the antics. Its still filled with all the playful loving jibes at Sci-fi. We get cosplay conventions on a moon of Pluto, Robot Wars, heists, hi-jinks and have I mentioned the rather stubborn psychic cat? So many aliens all with detailed descriptions, cultures and worlds, some very Pokemon-esq overtones and that Mass Effect like feeling that I loved from the first book. This is fast paced and most importantly fun read that i was really needing. I am really interested in where the series will go next.

Captain Eva Innocente is a smuggler. Her current mission: Find a missing scientist; a job is a job. But this one is made more interesting by the fact that the missing person happens to be her engineer's brother.

This is part two of a series and I have not read part one. In the beginning, I had some moments where I felt that the author was assuming more knowledge about her world on part of the reader, but I was able to get in nonetheless and immediately put book one of my want to read list.

It was fun - and queer. One person of the crew is a trans woman, there is a budding lesbian relationship and while Eva is a woman and her partner uses he/his pronouns, I am not sure if the term hetero is applicable when it's a relationship across species.

I was able to figure out that I have no problem with space operas or space adventures, my problem is white hetero cis guys writing about and for other white hetero cis guys. See also gangster, mafia or spy stories.

So, the missing person's name is Josh. They have a bit of data where he went before he went missing, and the crew travels to said places to give them a poke and see what happens. One of their destinations is evercon, a con that never ceases and has political relations between fandoms. I enjoyed that portion a lot.
A big role play robopets that are not called Pokémon but pocket pals, and yeah, I want one. I saw their role in the plot coming from their first mention, but I still want one. I'm sorry. They're cute and I've always wanted a real pokémon - or to adopt a dog.

The writing includes quite a bit of spanglish, not all of which I was able to understand, but know what? It's fine. I can learn and I have the knowledge that this will make a lot of people very happy and feel seen.
And I know a curse when I see one.

Another detail I liked a lot is the casual mention that oh by the way, this character is disabled and it doesn't matter. Eva Innocente herself deals with trauma and anxiety, which leads to random panick attacks when she's stressed. But she does not see herself as broken and tries to calm herself to get on with stuff. It's a condition, she has it, it sucks, but it won't go away.
This is something I can relate to.

All in all, full recommendations, five stars, I will go and get my hands on book one as soon as my tbr is not so ridiculously high as it is right now and I will at least try everything else this author will write. That's how much I liked it.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

review will be posted upon publication

Really good fun. Excellent cast of characters. Well realised other worlds and species, fast paced and entertaining. If you miss Firefly then this is for you. Thank you to Orbit for this free ARC and introducing me to Eva who I will definitely look out for in the future.