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Chocoverse #1
Free Chocolate
In the far future, chocolate is Earth's only unique commodity one that everyone else in the galaxy is willing to kill to get their hands, paws and tentacles on
Latina culinary arts student, Bo Benitez, becomes a fugitive when she's caught stealing a cacao pod from one of the heavily-defended plantations that keep chocolate, Earth's sole valuable export, safe from a hungry galaxy.
Forces array against her including her alien boyfriend and a reptilian cop. But when she escapes onto an unmarked starship things go from bad to worse: it belongs to the race famed throughout the galaxy for eating stowaways! Surrounded by dangerous yet hunky aliens, Bo starts to uncover clues that the threat to Earth may be bigger than she first thought.
File Under: Science Fiction
Latina culinary arts student, Bo Benitez, becomes a fugitive when she's caught stealing a cacao pod from one of the heavily-defended plantations that keep chocolate, Earth's sole valuable export, safe from a hungry galaxy.
Forces array against her including her alien boyfriend and a reptilian cop. But when she escapes onto an unmarked starship things go from bad to worse: it belongs to the race famed throughout the galaxy for eating stowaways! Surrounded by dangerous yet hunky aliens, Bo starts to uncover clues that the threat to Earth may be bigger than she first thought.
File Under: Science Fiction
448 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2018
18 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
About the author
Amber Royer
27 books348 followersAmber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing technique and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. Much of this knowledge has come from teaching creative writing for both UT Arlington Continuing Education and Writing Workshops Dallas. She has been teaching and serving as an author coach for going on a decade and a half, and before that she was a youth librarian. Amber lives in Texas, with her husband who is sometimes her co-author – but always her alpha reader and cheerleader. Much of what she writes is to amuse him, or has been inspired by one of her friends. (Check the last names of her protags – they’re often homages.) She grew up in a half Cajun, half German household, which gave her early ideas about fusion cooking, which are still present in her cooking style and recipe offerings today. She loves to travel, and has drunk coffee in seven different countries. Her cookbook, THERE ARE HERBS IN MY CHOCOLATE started as a project for her local herb society, where she and her husband were at the time active members and presenters. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, obviously.
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dnf
January 5, 2019DNF
Sadly, I'm going to have to DNF this at 10% because it makes for such a painful reading experience that I can't continue with it. I immediately requested this when I saw it on Netgalley last year on the premise alone - a Latina chef, anti-capitalism, aliens and chocolate - it sounded like everything I would love in a book which sounded incredibly fun.
Unfortunately, the writing in Free Chocolate was so distracting that I could barely concentrate on the story itself. The main one being the Spanglish. Before continuing with the rest of the review, I would just like to state that I am a native English speaker who can't speak any other languages nor do I know many Spanish speakers - this is my own opinion and I would be happy to revisit it if I'm incorrect!
The MC, Bo Benitiz, is bi-lingual which should have been great but Royer's execution of it was so poor that it only served to be incredibly distracting, disjointing and (I think) tropey? I have no idea if Royer is a Spanish speaker so I'm happy to retract this, but it came across as though she had no idea how bi-lingual speaking works? Random words are said in Spanish in a way which doesn't seem to make much sense, here are some examples that I highlighted whilst I was reading:
- "We weren't even supposed to know about it, let alone let it destroy us. Pero, it's not like it's mi vida's fault."
- "I put a hand on Mamá's arm, halting her. I desesperdamente want to hear this."
- "His face has gone chalky in a way that's muy alarmante."
She also throws in made-up words that were equally distracting like 'sleazarazzi', 'flufferific' and 'poofbangs'. I noticed quite a lot of inconsistencies as well which bothered me. In the first chapter, she is served by a waiter who she recognized is from school but can't remember his name and it bugs her for the whole chapter. Yet, in the next chapter, she suddenly seems to remember his name but this is never dealt with? Lastly, (and this is something I might be wrong about) I thought that Bo mentions in the first chapter that she is Brazilian and yet she speaks Spanish? It's touched upon when she states that her mother and her prefer speaking in Spanish, but there's no explanation of why this is during the parts of the story I read and didn't make much sense to me in terms of the story and character.
Free Chocolate seemed like a promising read from a debut fiction writer but unfortunately didn't meet the mark for me. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of Free Chocolate in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my review.
Sadly, I'm going to have to DNF this at 10% because it makes for such a painful reading experience that I can't continue with it. I immediately requested this when I saw it on Netgalley last year on the premise alone - a Latina chef, anti-capitalism, aliens and chocolate - it sounded like everything I would love in a book which sounded incredibly fun.
Unfortunately, the writing in Free Chocolate was so distracting that I could barely concentrate on the story itself. The main one being the Spanglish. Before continuing with the rest of the review, I would just like to state that I am a native English speaker who can't speak any other languages nor do I know many Spanish speakers - this is my own opinion and I would be happy to revisit it if I'm incorrect!
The MC, Bo Benitiz, is bi-lingual which should have been great but Royer's execution of it was so poor that it only served to be incredibly distracting, disjointing and (I think) tropey? I have no idea if Royer is a Spanish speaker so I'm happy to retract this, but it came across as though she had no idea how bi-lingual speaking works? Random words are said in Spanish in a way which doesn't seem to make much sense, here are some examples that I highlighted whilst I was reading:
- "We weren't even supposed to know about it, let alone let it destroy us. Pero, it's not like it's mi vida's fault."
- "I put a hand on Mamá's arm, halting her. I desesperdamente want to hear this."
- "His face has gone chalky in a way that's muy alarmante."
She also throws in made-up words that were equally distracting like 'sleazarazzi', 'flufferific' and 'poofbangs'. I noticed quite a lot of inconsistencies as well which bothered me. In the first chapter, she is served by a waiter who she recognized is from school but can't remember his name and it bugs her for the whole chapter. Yet, in the next chapter, she suddenly seems to remember his name but this is never dealt with? Lastly, (and this is something I might be wrong about) I thought that Bo mentions in the first chapter that she is Brazilian and yet she speaks Spanish? It's touched upon when she states that her mother and her prefer speaking in Spanish, but there's no explanation of why this is during the parts of the story I read and didn't make much sense to me in terms of the story and character.
Free Chocolate seemed like a promising read from a debut fiction writer but unfortunately didn't meet the mark for me. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of Free Chocolate in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my review.
March 12, 2019
Bo(dacious) Benitez is a budding culinary star on a planet far, far away from Earth, where she was raised by a widowed Brazilian Julia Child-type celebrity. Chocolate is the reason for her mother's, and the Earth's, success--it was the only product that Earth managed to keep a lock on when the rest of its goods were being replicated across the universe by the aliens who won the First Contact battle. As a result, chocolate is priceless as a trading and wealth-building commodity.
But now, rebellious Bo, firmly under the spell of her hunky alien boyfriend, has become involved in a plot to steal some precious cacao pods from Earth and get them into the hands of Creatures Who Want Chocolate to Be Free. I am not making this up. Wacky hijinks ensue. It's a telenovela set in spaaaaaace.
This debut novel has an intriguing premise, no argument. I would love to read about a monoculture xenophobic Earth trying to deal with the rest of the galaxy, and what happens when that system is threatened. I bet there are some really good points to be made about exploitation and corporate malfeasance and the cult of celebrity and class revolts and freedom and and and... Neil Gaiman or Catherynne Valente or Chuck Wendig or Scalzi could have had a ball with this.
This isn't that book, however. Here are some, only a few, of the umpteen minuses:
--This book has the worst dual case of just-in-timism and Deus Ex Machina I've ever seen.
--Add ham-handed plotting to that.
--Some of the secondary characters were way more interesting than the protag, which is never a good sign.
--The author doesn't know how to end a chapter. Hint: it's not three paragraphs after something exciting has just happened.
Pero, perhaps the most annoying thing about this book is the TERRIBLE, inconsistently applied, and muy distracting alternating between English, Spanish, Portugese, alien, and outright gibberish, as in:
--I get tis feeling tat you are eggshell clean-hands powder fun, when you’re clearly not.
--Jeska’s eyes blend back and forth between lilac and gray, finally settling on the color of curiosity.
--Tears of frustrangeration fill my eyes.
--This bumpclip virafizzed faster than the FeedCast of the official speech they gave after.
--I’m still trying to comprender what that means, to me and to him.
--I’ve never gotten alcafuzzed enough to ask why.
--“They’re emotirated, but give them time. They’ll understand eventually.”
--I used to angerzent how we never seemed to have any privacy, how every minor mistake could wind up virafizzed, but now, these brief glimpses of normality are keeping me sane.
--I catch a terrolting glimpse of the gun that shot me.
--He gives Mertex a sharp look, like the guy might get carried away and chompcrush my fingers.
--“Time to stop frenetic feartype bounce bounds, Bo."
--I am tonta de remate, stupid with overkill, which literally means that if stupid was a soccer ball, mine wouldn’t just trickle over the goal line – it’d slam hard into the back of the goal.
Then there are the typos, incorrect punctuation, and misspellings. She thanks an alpha reader in the dedication, but she should have fired her copyeditor. And a good editor might have taken care of some of the 448 pages, too. Stephen King, she ain't.
I just figured out who the protag reminded me of: Friday, from the book of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein. This is not a compliment. And people thought that Twilight's Bella was gag-worthy. Jesus.
(I hated this book.)
But now, rebellious Bo, firmly under the spell of her hunky alien boyfriend, has become involved in a plot to steal some precious cacao pods from Earth and get them into the hands of Creatures Who Want Chocolate to Be Free. I am not making this up. Wacky hijinks ensue. It's a telenovela set in spaaaaaace.
This debut novel has an intriguing premise, no argument. I would love to read about a monoculture xenophobic Earth trying to deal with the rest of the galaxy, and what happens when that system is threatened. I bet there are some really good points to be made about exploitation and corporate malfeasance and the cult of celebrity and class revolts and freedom and and and... Neil Gaiman or Catherynne Valente or Chuck Wendig or Scalzi could have had a ball with this.
This isn't that book, however. Here are some, only a few, of the umpteen minuses:
--This book has the worst dual case of just-in-timism and Deus Ex Machina I've ever seen.
--Add ham-handed plotting to that.
--Some of the secondary characters were way more interesting than the protag, which is never a good sign.
--The author doesn't know how to end a chapter. Hint: it's not three paragraphs after something exciting has just happened.
Pero, perhaps the most annoying thing about this book is the TERRIBLE, inconsistently applied, and muy distracting alternating between English, Spanish, Portugese, alien, and outright gibberish, as in:
--I get tis feeling tat you are eggshell clean-hands powder fun, when you’re clearly not.
--Jeska’s eyes blend back and forth between lilac and gray, finally settling on the color of curiosity.
--Tears of frustrangeration fill my eyes.
--This bumpclip virafizzed faster than the FeedCast of the official speech they gave after.
--I’m still trying to comprender what that means, to me and to him.
--I’ve never gotten alcafuzzed enough to ask why.
--“They’re emotirated, but give them time. They’ll understand eventually.”
--I used to angerzent how we never seemed to have any privacy, how every minor mistake could wind up virafizzed, but now, these brief glimpses of normality are keeping me sane.
--I catch a terrolting glimpse of the gun that shot me.
--He gives Mertex a sharp look, like the guy might get carried away and chompcrush my fingers.
--“Time to stop frenetic feartype bounce bounds, Bo."
--I am tonta de remate, stupid with overkill, which literally means that if stupid was a soccer ball, mine wouldn’t just trickle over the goal line – it’d slam hard into the back of the goal.
Then there are the typos, incorrect punctuation, and misspellings. She thanks an alpha reader in the dedication, but she should have fired her copyeditor. And a good editor might have taken care of some of the 448 pages, too. Stephen King, she ain't.
I just figured out who the protag reminded me of: Friday, from the book of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein. This is not a compliment. And people thought that Twilight's Bella was gag-worthy. Jesus.
(I hated this book.)
anti-library
December 7, 2017'Basically, imagine Jane the Virgin, but with aliens.' - Source
UMM HERE FOR IT
UMM HERE FOR IT
December 19, 2018
The bad:
As many reviewers have pointed out, the Spanglish is not handled as well as could be desired. Not only does the author insert a lot of unnecessary translations, but as a person from a bilingual background, the word choice itself was a little odd. I got used to it as the book went on, but most of the time I don't use my other language for very easy words, just for things that don't translate well.
There were WAY too many characters for the length and pacing of this book. The Krom extras and all the Zantites who worked on the Zantite ship often were not very distinct from each other but their differences were necessary for the plot. Characters' intersection with Bo's life was way too coincidental. Why is Bo even in the same compound as a guy on trial for murder? Meredith pops up in weird places. What was the deal with the random pirates at the end? Most notably, the total lack of order on the Zantite ship was confusing. Regardless of cultural decisions it doesn't really make sense for stowaways or foreign resuppliers to be put to work in the kitchen. I could sum it up as a common problem - choosing what plot points you want your characters to experience without laying all the right ground work to do so.
Finally, time compression. How on earth does the entire second half of the book happen in like one day between diplomats arriving and dinnertime?
The good:
It's really pretty wildly imaginative. Probably if this book had been broken into two or three books, Amber Royer could have explored the world-building more and the plot could have had more time to develop. The different alien species and their cultures are distinct and complex. The fact that bad and good exist simultaneously in each race shows maturity as a world-builder; it is very common to box aliens in these stories into evil race vs. benign race vs. not-evil-exception-to-the-rule individual.
It has some of the good qualities of a telenovela. The fast pacing, the high emotions, and the various twists and turns and coincidences were fun.
Bo has her flaws but is pretty relatable. I could hang out in her head and at least get why she was doing things. The root of good drama is when two people have reasonable but opposed positions, and Royer was good at establishing that. The characters are going to hang out in my head for a while, despite my other complaints, and that is always an accomplishment.
Verdict: Fun; concept and characters had more potential than this relatively short foray had time and space for. Royer has potential.
As many reviewers have pointed out, the Spanglish is not handled as well as could be desired. Not only does the author insert a lot of unnecessary translations, but as a person from a bilingual background, the word choice itself was a little odd. I got used to it as the book went on, but most of the time I don't use my other language for very easy words, just for things that don't translate well.
There were WAY too many characters for the length and pacing of this book. The Krom extras and all the Zantites who worked on the Zantite ship often were not very distinct from each other but their differences were necessary for the plot. Characters' intersection with Bo's life was way too coincidental. Why is Bo even in the same compound as a guy on trial for murder? Meredith pops up in weird places. What was the deal with the random pirates at the end? Most notably, the total lack of order on the Zantite ship was confusing. Regardless of cultural decisions it doesn't really make sense for stowaways or foreign resuppliers to be put to work in the kitchen. I could sum it up as a common problem - choosing what plot points you want your characters to experience without laying all the right ground work to do so.
Finally, time compression. How on earth does the entire second half of the book happen in like one day between diplomats arriving and dinnertime?
The good:
It's really pretty wildly imaginative. Probably if this book had been broken into two or three books, Amber Royer could have explored the world-building more and the plot could have had more time to develop. The different alien species and their cultures are distinct and complex. The fact that bad and good exist simultaneously in each race shows maturity as a world-builder; it is very common to box aliens in these stories into evil race vs. benign race vs. not-evil-exception-to-the-rule individual.
It has some of the good qualities of a telenovela. The fast pacing, the high emotions, and the various twists and turns and coincidences were fun.
Bo has her flaws but is pretty relatable. I could hang out in her head and at least get why she was doing things. The root of good drama is when two people have reasonable but opposed positions, and Royer was good at establishing that. The characters are going to hang out in my head for a while, despite my other complaints, and that is always an accomplishment.
Verdict: Fun; concept and characters had more potential than this relatively short foray had time and space for. Royer has potential.
May 2, 2018
¡Muy deliciosa! Amber Royer’s Free Chocolate is nonstop fun on every page! From strangely delicious sounding cosmic treats to Spanglish-speaking intergalactic diplomats to the relentlessly breathtaking feartastic adventure, this is a unique read and a total page-turner! Not only does Royer introduce the first university-student Mexican sci-fi heroine, with a host of wildly eclectic friends, but she builds a believable universe around them that is a true delight to visit. Can’t wait for the next adventure!
dnf
June 14, 2018DNF
The writing is incredibly obnoxious. Bo and her mom both speak half in English, half in Spanish, but the Spanish words are always translated, either for the purposes of non-spanish speakers around them, or just in Bo’s inner monologue. This leads to a novel that literally stutters if you understand even minimal Spanish or even just understand the way humans speak. I was excited by the idea of a latina heroine, and wouldn’t have minded the Spanish words - coming from a bilingual family myself, I hear myself doing it all the time - but in writing it keeps tripping me up and making impossible to concentrate on anything but linguistics. Perdón. Sorry.
The writing is incredibly obnoxious. Bo and her mom both speak half in English, half in Spanish, but the Spanish words are always translated, either for the purposes of non-spanish speakers around them, or just in Bo’s inner monologue. This leads to a novel that literally stutters if you understand even minimal Spanish or even just understand the way humans speak. I was excited by the idea of a latina heroine, and wouldn’t have minded the Spanish words - coming from a bilingual family myself, I hear myself doing it all the time - but in writing it keeps tripping me up and making impossible to concentrate on anything but linguistics. Perdón. Sorry.
dnf
August 26, 2018dnf, which sucks because the premise is AMAZING.
i absolutely could not stand the author's way of writing a bilingual character. every instance of 'but' was 'pero.' when a spanish phrase was used, the english translation was the next sentence, in italics. i know what claro está means, and if i didn't, it's p obvious from context.
instead of reading like a bilingual character, it reads like english with spanish words chucked in so you don't forget she's bilingual/not speaking english.
i absolutely could not stand the author's way of writing a bilingual character. every instance of 'but' was 'pero.' when a spanish phrase was used, the english translation was the next sentence, in italics. i know what claro está means, and if i didn't, it's p obvious from context.
instead of reading like a bilingual character, it reads like english with spanish words chucked in so you don't forget she's bilingual/not speaking english.
Read
March 5, 2020DNF @ page 260, March 2020
From the blurb, I thought this would be a cute little space opera, and as a chocoholic I can totally get behind the idea of cocoa being Earth's most precious export. But the writing is TERRIBLE.
The author uses her own mix of Spanglish and nearly every second sentence is laced with "pero", meaning "but". Many sentences are started with it. It's surprising how much you can (over)use the conjunction. It's the most consistent replacement, as the others happen without much rhyme or reason and some have translations and some do not (so frustrating!).
Along with the made up words (like "confusticated"), these quirks - which I think are meant to be charming and whimsical - kept throwing me out of the story! I'd have to stop and try to figure out what a phrase meant before continuing and it made my head hurt.
I made it about halfway through the book before I just couldn't take it anymore. A lot of endless description (some severed tentacles are described in excruciating detail) and the garbled narrative makes the story seem s-l-oooooo-w.
Bo is a culinary student about to graduate with a super popular celebrity chef Mom, but she doesn't (okay, maybe she does, she's not really clear about it) want the life of fame and fortune awaiting her as her Mother's daughter and foodie superstar in the making.
She's got a weird starship pirate pilot alien boyfriend who supposedly can't lie to her because his eyes change colour to reflect his moods (but he totally can, and is obviously a manipulative jackass) who wants her to risk her life to steal some viable cocoa beans to export elsewhere in the Universe and break the monopoly the huge HGB corporation has on chocolate on Earth. She knows it will destroy both her life and her mother's, and yet, is willing to risk it for a very naïve idea of "balancing the universal scales" and "freeing chocolate" from The Man. Whatever. Or, really, because her boyfriend tells her to, which is NOT A GOOD REASON.
To get to the cocoa beans, Bo lies, enters a contract to star for HGB, and then does some very stupid breaking and entering in their high-security factory where she's a known guest. The place is saturated with cameras and super high (lethal) tech but Bo enters the Top Secret cocoa sorting factory through the air vents (!!!) wearing no disguise whatsoever, and talking to a fellow thief who breaks in at the same time and knows her. But she's not busted (despite them presumably having perfect video of her naked face, and audio of her heist plans). But she bungled the grab and only has one useable bean! She needs two to propagate them. So instead of getting out, she tries to steal AGAIN, in the Super Duper Top Secret orchard this time.
WHERE IS THE SECURITY?!!! The lethal killer robots are like: "Hey, strange lady, you're not supposed to be here, but any chance you might be from Maintenance?" (Bo wears no uniform or attempt at disguise). "I guess you are! My buddy killer robot here needs a new battery. So come on in!". It makes no sense whatsoever. Especially when it turns out that her part predatory cat dorm RA has already snuck in past the killer robots (no idea if they thought she was Maintenance too) in an attempt to save Bo from doing something stupid, i.e. what she's doing right now.
That's when I bailed.
Also, the monkey robots were terribly disappointing. They just pick cocoa fruit and chase intruders. Blah!
From the blurb, I thought this would be a cute little space opera, and as a chocoholic I can totally get behind the idea of cocoa being Earth's most precious export. But the writing is TERRIBLE.
The author uses her own mix of Spanglish and nearly every second sentence is laced with "pero", meaning "but". Many sentences are started with it. It's surprising how much you can (over)use the conjunction. It's the most consistent replacement, as the others happen without much rhyme or reason and some have translations and some do not (so frustrating!).
Along with the made up words (like "confusticated"), these quirks - which I think are meant to be charming and whimsical - kept throwing me out of the story! I'd have to stop and try to figure out what a phrase meant before continuing and it made my head hurt.
I made it about halfway through the book before I just couldn't take it anymore. A lot of endless description (some severed tentacles are described in excruciating detail) and the garbled narrative makes the story seem s-l-oooooo-w.
Bo is a culinary student about to graduate with a super popular celebrity chef Mom, but she doesn't (okay, maybe she does, she's not really clear about it) want the life of fame and fortune awaiting her as her Mother's daughter and foodie superstar in the making.
She's got a weird starship pirate pilot alien boyfriend who supposedly can't lie to her because his eyes change colour to reflect his moods (but he totally can, and is obviously a manipulative jackass) who wants her to risk her life to steal some viable cocoa beans to export elsewhere in the Universe and break the monopoly the huge HGB corporation has on chocolate on Earth. She knows it will destroy both her life and her mother's, and yet, is willing to risk it for a very naïve idea of "balancing the universal scales" and "freeing chocolate" from The Man. Whatever. Or, really, because her boyfriend tells her to, which is NOT A GOOD REASON.
To get to the cocoa beans, Bo lies, enters a contract to star for HGB, and then does some very stupid breaking and entering in their high-security factory where she's a known guest. The place is saturated with cameras and super high (lethal) tech but Bo enters the Top Secret cocoa sorting factory through the air vents (!!!) wearing no disguise whatsoever, and talking to a fellow thief who breaks in at the same time and knows her. But she's not busted (despite them presumably having perfect video of her naked face, and audio of her heist plans). But she bungled the grab and only has one useable bean! She needs two to propagate them. So instead of getting out, she tries to steal AGAIN, in the Super Duper Top Secret orchard this time.
WHERE IS THE SECURITY?!!! The lethal killer robots are like: "Hey, strange lady, you're not supposed to be here, but any chance you might be from Maintenance?" (Bo wears no uniform or attempt at disguise). "I guess you are! My buddy killer robot here needs a new battery. So come on in!". It makes no sense whatsoever. Especially when it turns out that her part predatory cat dorm RA has already snuck in past the killer robots (no idea if they thought she was Maintenance too) in an attempt to save Bo from doing something stupid, i.e. what she's doing right now.
That's when I bailed.
Also, the monkey robots were terribly disappointing. They just pick cocoa fruit and chase intruders. Blah!
April 18, 2023
i have permanent brain damage from this book.
July 3, 2018
Saw this as a recommended book at Powell’s. It’s a NON STOP ACTION ROMP.
There are assasinations, attempted assassinations, space pirates, two types of beheadings, thievery, explosions in space, the threat of civil war, street parties in Rio, murders, running away from murderers, poison, venom, a plethora of scary aliens and also a great deal of chocolate. Plus cooking with chocolate and eating chocolate cake. Oh, and there’s loyal friendship, love of family and boyfriend troubles all mixed in, not to mention the paparazzi.
In short, a lot going on, and all of it at high speed as well as often concurrently. I loved how the heroine would be answering the phone via a jack embedded in her head while in the midst of an unrelated adventures. So, chatting reassuringly with Mom about the party next week while you dodge a venomous assassin.
I also loved how the heroine slipped Spanish into her thoughts and conversation continually, mixing it with English (it’s easy to read though even if you don’t know Spanish.) It suprised me to learn the author isn’t hispanic or Latinx herself.
Plus, the plot includes a romantic side story in which the heroine is truly tough on the guy she loves. He has to measure up to her ideals and she’s absolutely willing to walk away if he messes up too badly. That’s a lesson a lot of young women have a hard time learning, so I was happy to see it here. Oh and he’s an alien so we have the whole cultural misunderstandings thing which is always fun.
I liked it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action, adventure with a thick side helping of madcap. And a kickass heroine who is not the only kickass woman in the book - in fact she’s one of several. (Frankly a heroine who is ‘the only’ is kinda sexist cuz it implies regular women can’t be heroines)
However, I probably will not read the next one because for me it was a little too much adventure. But that’s solely personal preference.
There are assasinations, attempted assassinations, space pirates, two types of beheadings, thievery, explosions in space, the threat of civil war, street parties in Rio, murders, running away from murderers, poison, venom, a plethora of scary aliens and also a great deal of chocolate. Plus cooking with chocolate and eating chocolate cake. Oh, and there’s loyal friendship, love of family and boyfriend troubles all mixed in, not to mention the paparazzi.
In short, a lot going on, and all of it at high speed as well as often concurrently. I loved how the heroine would be answering the phone via a jack embedded in her head while in the midst of an unrelated adventures. So, chatting reassuringly with Mom about the party next week while you dodge a venomous assassin.
I also loved how the heroine slipped Spanish into her thoughts and conversation continually, mixing it with English (it’s easy to read though even if you don’t know Spanish.) It suprised me to learn the author isn’t hispanic or Latinx herself.
Plus, the plot includes a romantic side story in which the heroine is truly tough on the guy she loves. He has to measure up to her ideals and she’s absolutely willing to walk away if he messes up too badly. That’s a lesson a lot of young women have a hard time learning, so I was happy to see it here. Oh and he’s an alien so we have the whole cultural misunderstandings thing which is always fun.
I liked it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action, adventure with a thick side helping of madcap. And a kickass heroine who is not the only kickass woman in the book - in fact she’s one of several. (Frankly a heroine who is ‘the only’ is kinda sexist cuz it implies regular women can’t be heroines)
However, I probably will not read the next one because for me it was a little too much adventure. But that’s solely personal preference.
May 13, 2019
An interesting beginning to what may become a good series. I only "Habla un poquito" Esapanol, so the author translating of words and phrases was fine with me. Since I personally have been in conversations where we constantly mixed in words from FOUR languages into the mix, I disagree with the reviewer who thought that nonsensical.
As far as the story, I found it interesting without being derivative of other works other than in the general way of basic SciFi. Other than a bit of "if it can go wrong, it does" our protagonist isn't made too unrealistic. I'm going to look for a second book!
As far as the story, I found it interesting without being derivative of other works other than in the general way of basic SciFi. Other than a bit of "if it can go wrong, it does" our protagonist isn't made too unrealistic. I'm going to look for a second book!
August 25, 2018
Free Chocolate is everything I could have wanted and more, complete with intricate and dramatic characters, dozens of twisting plot lines that lead to a slam-bang finish, and an absurd resource at the center of all the drama: chocolate. Say the words “Space Opera” and I’m there with the popcorn, ready for the ride. This is an outstanding debut novel in a universe I can't wait to dive deeper into.
Full review at: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2018/06/...
Full review at: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2018/06/...
May 20, 2021
Terrible. Awful. Not really worthy of even one star.
I read the blurb for the book and thought to myself that this sounds like it might be a humorous romp in space. Royer also seems to be the author of "How to Write"-books which to me would be an indicator of her knowing a thing or two about storytelling.
However, I should have read reviews before purchase, because nothing makes sense, the language(s) are a mess, there are too many characters and very few of them act logically.
Not humorous.
I read the blurb for the book and thought to myself that this sounds like it might be a humorous romp in space. Royer also seems to be the author of "How to Write"-books which to me would be an indicator of her knowing a thing or two about storytelling.
However, I should have read reviews before purchase, because nothing makes sense, the language(s) are a mess, there are too many characters and very few of them act logically.
Not humorous.
May 21, 2023
Dnf on page 12. I didn’t like the random Spanish every other word. 😕
March 10, 2020
I loved it! I think it was more of a thriller set in space, with a dash of humor and a splash of romance, than Mexican-American literature, though. Somehow this gem got mis-labeled in the marketing.
If you enjoy light-hearted crime fiction, sci-fi, and cozy romance, this interstellar, corporate-espionage thriller is for you. I was intrigued by the various species described, the universality of the relationships, and the various codes of honor among law enforcement, pirates, military, and diplomatic personnel.
Although some reviewers have bashed the author's choice of sprinkling Spanglish, Mexican-Spanish, Portuguese, and made-up alien languages throughout her prose, I found it to be part of the charm of the book. Not only did it lead to some needed confusion and conflict, but it also illustrated the challenges of living among those whose languages and cultures are different than yours, and how vital it is to be a polyglot now as our world gets smaller.
All in all, this book was a fun read. While it did take me a few chapters to relax into the prose due to the above-mentioned linguistic choices, once I got comfortable with it, I really enjoyed the character development and twists and turns of the story.
(And, it may be the power of suggestion, but I craved and ate much chocolate while reading this book!)
If you enjoy light-hearted crime fiction, sci-fi, and cozy romance, this interstellar, corporate-espionage thriller is for you. I was intrigued by the various species described, the universality of the relationships, and the various codes of honor among law enforcement, pirates, military, and diplomatic personnel.
Although some reviewers have bashed the author's choice of sprinkling Spanglish, Mexican-Spanish, Portuguese, and made-up alien languages throughout her prose, I found it to be part of the charm of the book. Not only did it lead to some needed confusion and conflict, but it also illustrated the challenges of living among those whose languages and cultures are different than yours, and how vital it is to be a polyglot now as our world gets smaller.
All in all, this book was a fun read. While it did take me a few chapters to relax into the prose due to the above-mentioned linguistic choices, once I got comfortable with it, I really enjoyed the character development and twists and turns of the story.
(And, it may be the power of suggestion, but I craved and ate much chocolate while reading this book!)
February 24, 2021
Had no idea this existed. The “blended words” that pass for futuristic slang threw me out of the story plenty of times, but I got used to the Spanish slang.
It was a lot more fun, and funnier, than I thought it would be, although it could probably have been shorter.
If you’re looking for a sort of soapy space opera based on an unusual premise, check it out.
Earth has recently joined the Other races in the galaxy the hard way, after a bunch of Earth resources were stolen and cloned - all except chocolate. Earth got its act together before chocolate was cloned, and now it has a monopoly on the stuff. Cooking celebrity Bodacious Babe Benitez gets wrapped up in adventure, danger, and conspiracy when she idealistically steals some to save Earth’s future.
It was a lot more fun, and funnier, than I thought it would be, although it could probably have been shorter.
If you’re looking for a sort of soapy space opera based on an unusual premise, check it out.
Earth has recently joined the Other races in the galaxy the hard way, after a bunch of Earth resources were stolen and cloned - all except chocolate. Earth got its act together before chocolate was cloned, and now it has a monopoly on the stuff. Cooking celebrity Bodacious Babe Benitez gets wrapped up in adventure, danger, and conspiracy when she idealistically steals some to save Earth’s future.
September 16, 2018
Ah, chocolate. It must be one of Earth’s finest natural creations, right? That’s the premise underlying this charming YA novel in which First Contact with all those alien worlds out there is not for the purpose of cultural exchange, mathematical enlightenment, military domination, or any of the hundreds of rationales. It’s to raid Earth of its chocolate! Well, and a few other things, too, like coffee and vanilla beans.
Within a short time, humans and alien races are mixing freely, some combinations with more success than others, and chocolate production is rigidly controlled by a huge corporation, HGB – Hershey, Godiva, and Bissinger -- which “sprouted in the wake of the First contact War. They quietly made proprietary trade agreements with other planets…making it the most powerful organization ofn the planet.” Bodacious Benitez is living her life as a student, dating a gorgeous guy from Krom (whose irises change color depending on his emotions), when she’s catapulted into an interplanetary scheme to liberate chocolate. Her mother hosts an immensely popular cooking show, bolstering the HGB image.
The most charming aspect of the book, however, is its use of language. It’s told in first person, as is much YA today. Bo is fluent in several languages, notably English, Spanish (her birth language), and Portuguese. This makes sense when you think about it because most cacao-growing regions are Spanish or Portuguese speaking. Bo liberally strews her English with words in Spanish and teen-speak:
I need a hot shower and un poco alone time with Love Hurts, my favorite flufferiffic soap opera – a guilty pleasure Brill knows nada about.
Icy certainty settles in my stomach. I am muerto. Pero, I keep fighting the womborg [a wombat cyborg] anyway.
“Mamá, I only tell the celebarazzi things like how unfair it is that the chocolatiers have to work and extra hour…”
On the down side, the deliciousness of the language forced me to read more slowly than usual. Although most of the meanings can be deduced from context, I kept consulting my Kindle dictionary to get an added bit of certainty. This, combined with the length of the book, had the effect of flattening the dramatic intensity. There’s plenty of action in the story, but it takes place over such a stretched-out length that the overall shape of rising tension and climax, etc., is diminished. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the hours spent with Bodacious, Brill, and their friends.
Within a short time, humans and alien races are mixing freely, some combinations with more success than others, and chocolate production is rigidly controlled by a huge corporation, HGB – Hershey, Godiva, and Bissinger -- which “sprouted in the wake of the First contact War. They quietly made proprietary trade agreements with other planets…making it the most powerful organization ofn the planet.” Bodacious Benitez is living her life as a student, dating a gorgeous guy from Krom (whose irises change color depending on his emotions), when she’s catapulted into an interplanetary scheme to liberate chocolate. Her mother hosts an immensely popular cooking show, bolstering the HGB image.
The most charming aspect of the book, however, is its use of language. It’s told in first person, as is much YA today. Bo is fluent in several languages, notably English, Spanish (her birth language), and Portuguese. This makes sense when you think about it because most cacao-growing regions are Spanish or Portuguese speaking. Bo liberally strews her English with words in Spanish and teen-speak:
I need a hot shower and un poco alone time with Love Hurts, my favorite flufferiffic soap opera – a guilty pleasure Brill knows nada about.
Icy certainty settles in my stomach. I am muerto. Pero, I keep fighting the womborg [a wombat cyborg] anyway.
“Mamá, I only tell the celebarazzi things like how unfair it is that the chocolatiers have to work and extra hour…”
On the down side, the deliciousness of the language forced me to read more slowly than usual. Although most of the meanings can be deduced from context, I kept consulting my Kindle dictionary to get an added bit of certainty. This, combined with the length of the book, had the effect of flattening the dramatic intensity. There’s plenty of action in the story, but it takes place over such a stretched-out length that the overall shape of rising tension and climax, etc., is diminished. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the hours spent with Bodacious, Brill, and their friends.
January 31, 2019
Space Opera meets Soap Opera.
In my quest to fulfill a sudden craving for science fiction I found Free Chocolate, the story of Bodacious Babe, a.k.a. Bo. Bo is a culinary arts student on a distant planet, daughter of a celebrity chef and girlfriend of uber hot alien hunk. Oh, and the chocolate industry, or HGB, has become Earth's numero uno dictator. So, of course, when Bo's boyfriend suggests toppling the dystopian government like any proper dystopian protagonist, Bo agrees.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Bo is sappy, sways between very dumb and actually smart (YMMV), quite a bit shallow, naive, but is deeply loyal which is kind of where she gets into trouble. Brill, her boyfriend, goes from being sickly sweet perfect . The other characters (Jeska, Tyson, Kayla, Kaliel, Crosskiss, Frank) are all pretty memorable (which can easily be a problem for 1st person narratives). My favorite character, however, is Chestla. Chestla, the manic pixie monster girl, Bo's bodyguard for like 2 seconds and probably the only person in this book who isn't using Bo for nefarious purposes! I like her so much!
Though it did take me what feels like forever to finish this book, mostly because of the five billion languages that Bo speaks. She not only spreads Spanish into her inner dialogue, but also Portuguese, future speak, lots of futuristic compound words, and not 1 but 2 fake alien languages!
In my quest to fulfill a sudden craving for science fiction I found Free Chocolate, the story of Bodacious Babe, a.k.a. Bo. Bo is a culinary arts student on a distant planet, daughter of a celebrity chef and girlfriend of uber hot alien hunk. Oh, and the chocolate industry, or HGB, has become Earth's numero uno dictator. So, of course, when Bo's boyfriend suggests toppling the dystopian government like any proper dystopian protagonist, Bo agrees.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Bo is sappy, sways between very dumb and actually smart (YMMV), quite a bit shallow, naive, but is deeply loyal which is kind of where she gets into trouble. Brill, her boyfriend, goes from being sickly sweet perfect . The other characters (Jeska, Tyson, Kayla, Kaliel, Crosskiss, Frank) are all pretty memorable (which can easily be a problem for 1st person narratives). My favorite character, however, is Chestla. Chestla, the manic pixie monster girl, Bo's bodyguard for like 2 seconds and probably the only person in this book who isn't using Bo for nefarious purposes! I like her so much!
Though it did take me what feels like forever to finish this book, mostly because of the five billion languages that Bo speaks. She not only spreads Spanish into her inner dialogue, but also Portuguese, future speak, lots of futuristic compound words, and not 1 but 2 fake alien languages!
October 18, 2018
What a mess of a beginning. But just how you start to watch a soap and getting into the faulty plot and questionable choices people make you get invested in it so at a certain point I couldn't get off the ride anymore. I've gotten hooked on soaps when I've been in hospital or summer vacations where the time-frame of watching tv is pretty much set on when things like this air. The thing with this book is that... you don't have to get hooked, you're not strapped in a hospital bed (or if you are and can concentrate on reading, pick something else). I know a lot of people had problems with Spanish being included and translated so it made them read the same thing twice but I don't know Spanish so it didn't bother me. I didn't mind it, like I said, in the end I was hooked but I don't know if all those pages were worth my time.
Basically it is exactly like what it's advertised as - a soap opera in space.
Basically it is exactly like what it's advertised as - a soap opera in space.
February 10, 2024
After the alien Krom made first contact Earth was left with one unique commodity, chocolate. Everyone in the galaxy adores the stuff and will do whatever it takes to get their hand equivalents on it. To protect itself Earth has closed its doors to the greater universe, no aliens allowed. In light of that and recent pirate attacks resulting in the accidental destruction of a civilian ship by and HGB pilot, culinary student Bodacious Benitez is summoned back to Earth to serve as the face of HGB, the Princess of Chocolate. Face of the company or not Bo has long disagreed with HGB’s methods and, with her Krom boyfriend’s help, is going to do everything she can to break HGB’s monopoly and bring chocolate to the universe.
I have a lot of thoughts on Amber Royer’s Free Chocolate. There was a lot of stuff that I feel like could have been fun and some stuff that I feel like needed more focus to work at all. More than anything, I feel like the book lacks focus. There are a number of places in Free Chocolate where it feels like Royer had three or four ideas for a book but not enough for any single one of them, so she kind of stitched them together. Things happen and don’t seem to have any consequences. There’s some stuff that gets talked about not at all, but then both Bo and the reader are expected to just roll with it. It feels disjointed.
A lot of this is down to how the book deals with its timeline. It takes ages for Bo to actually get into space and on the run from Tyson, the space cop, and then it seems like the action is constantly interrupted. There’s the corporate assassin who calls Bo repeatedly to remind her that there’s only so long until he has to hurt her family. There’s cooking for aliens while on the run and being terrified of said aliens. It slows things to a crawl and makes the book super easy to put down
There is also a linguistic thing that I feel slows Free Chocolate down as well, it also contributed to it being pretty easy to put down. There’s a number of alien languages mentioned as being spoken and a handful of words used when Bo doesn’t know them. It’s just sort of tagged and let go. But then Bo is a native Spanish speaker so, while I would expect some Spanish to be used, it’s done largely in a way that feels like the author is reminding the reader of that rather than as a natural part of how she talks. It’s this sort of immersion breaking thing that Bo never says but or head, it’s always pero or cabeza, or she’ll use a phrase and then immediately provide the translation. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of this happens in Bo’s internal monologue, so she winds up translating for an audience she shouldn’t be aware of. I feel like leaving the phrases without the extra translation could have worked well. Bo referring to Brill using various terms of endearment worked really well, I thought. It just sort of feels strange that we get more translating for the existent Earth language than the handful of alien languages.
All of that boils down to it being kind of hard to care about the characters and what’s happening to them. Bo is on the run from a massive corporation with an assassin threatening her family and a venomous space cop on her tail. She’s stuck surrounded by aliens that could easily eat her if she messes up while her boyfriend may have been playing her this whole time. All of that, with all the interruptions and characters dropping in and out in an attempt to keep the drama level high, and I really just could have cared less. Like, the pilot who’s accident kicked off the plot, he’s given this level of importance within Bo’s story that is usually saved for major side characters, love interests or best friends. But after she leaves Earth, he takes a background spot for the vast majority of the story. This is the guy she’s essentially willing to trade her life for, they knew each other for two or three days, tops. Brill, the alien boyfriend, swaps between being super loving and sketchy to no end. It’s like the story couldn’t make up its mind about if he was one of the antagonists, just using Bo to get a hold of the cacao beans, or if he legitimately cares about her and is doing something at least sort of heroic. That leaves the reader to decide about him right up until the end, but then there’s this attempt at explaining his behavior in context of Krom society, but he had not wanted to talk to Bo about Krom society so neither she nor the reader knows anything about it until then. It just doesn’t work for me. I’d have liked to have seen more of the space cop, especially the post Bo stowing away version of him, and Chestla, the cat girl TA, though. They were pretty entertaining.
The galley crew on the Zantite ship were also interesting and I found myself enjoying the cooking segments. Talking about cooking and food were the parts where Royer’s writing shines best. If this had been more of a science fiction cozy mystery thing and focused more on the food and cooking I think it could have worked better, those scenes are just that enjoyable.
That’s where I land on Free Chocolate I think. There are a lot of first novel issues here, largely in the character work and how scattered the overall plot can feel. There are the bones of something good here, but it exists in the small moments where Bo is allowed to be a chef and interact with other characters on that level. I could see Royer handling the grander scale, galactic conflict stuff after she’s written more fiction. That said, this is a book that I found incredibly easy to put down in favor of doing any number of other things. So, I’m giving Free Chocolate a two out of five with the note that, while I’m not likely to read the inevitable sequel, I might check out another one of Royer’s books later on in her writing career.
This book was provided to me by netGalley for honest review. Review has previously been posted at https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/20...
I have a lot of thoughts on Amber Royer’s Free Chocolate. There was a lot of stuff that I feel like could have been fun and some stuff that I feel like needed more focus to work at all. More than anything, I feel like the book lacks focus. There are a number of places in Free Chocolate where it feels like Royer had three or four ideas for a book but not enough for any single one of them, so she kind of stitched them together. Things happen and don’t seem to have any consequences. There’s some stuff that gets talked about not at all, but then both Bo and the reader are expected to just roll with it. It feels disjointed.
A lot of this is down to how the book deals with its timeline. It takes ages for Bo to actually get into space and on the run from Tyson, the space cop, and then it seems like the action is constantly interrupted. There’s the corporate assassin who calls Bo repeatedly to remind her that there’s only so long until he has to hurt her family. There’s cooking for aliens while on the run and being terrified of said aliens. It slows things to a crawl and makes the book super easy to put down
There is also a linguistic thing that I feel slows Free Chocolate down as well, it also contributed to it being pretty easy to put down. There’s a number of alien languages mentioned as being spoken and a handful of words used when Bo doesn’t know them. It’s just sort of tagged and let go. But then Bo is a native Spanish speaker so, while I would expect some Spanish to be used, it’s done largely in a way that feels like the author is reminding the reader of that rather than as a natural part of how she talks. It’s this sort of immersion breaking thing that Bo never says but or head, it’s always pero or cabeza, or she’ll use a phrase and then immediately provide the translation. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of this happens in Bo’s internal monologue, so she winds up translating for an audience she shouldn’t be aware of. I feel like leaving the phrases without the extra translation could have worked well. Bo referring to Brill using various terms of endearment worked really well, I thought. It just sort of feels strange that we get more translating for the existent Earth language than the handful of alien languages.
All of that boils down to it being kind of hard to care about the characters and what’s happening to them. Bo is on the run from a massive corporation with an assassin threatening her family and a venomous space cop on her tail. She’s stuck surrounded by aliens that could easily eat her if she messes up while her boyfriend may have been playing her this whole time. All of that, with all the interruptions and characters dropping in and out in an attempt to keep the drama level high, and I really just could have cared less. Like, the pilot who’s accident kicked off the plot, he’s given this level of importance within Bo’s story that is usually saved for major side characters, love interests or best friends. But after she leaves Earth, he takes a background spot for the vast majority of the story. This is the guy she’s essentially willing to trade her life for, they knew each other for two or three days, tops. Brill, the alien boyfriend, swaps between being super loving and sketchy to no end. It’s like the story couldn’t make up its mind about if he was one of the antagonists, just using Bo to get a hold of the cacao beans, or if he legitimately cares about her and is doing something at least sort of heroic. That leaves the reader to decide about him right up until the end, but then there’s this attempt at explaining his behavior in context of Krom society, but he had not wanted to talk to Bo about Krom society so neither she nor the reader knows anything about it until then. It just doesn’t work for me. I’d have liked to have seen more of the space cop, especially the post Bo stowing away version of him, and Chestla, the cat girl TA, though. They were pretty entertaining.
The galley crew on the Zantite ship were also interesting and I found myself enjoying the cooking segments. Talking about cooking and food were the parts where Royer’s writing shines best. If this had been more of a science fiction cozy mystery thing and focused more on the food and cooking I think it could have worked better, those scenes are just that enjoyable.
That’s where I land on Free Chocolate I think. There are a lot of first novel issues here, largely in the character work and how scattered the overall plot can feel. There are the bones of something good here, but it exists in the small moments where Bo is allowed to be a chef and interact with other characters on that level. I could see Royer handling the grander scale, galactic conflict stuff after she’s written more fiction. That said, this is a book that I found incredibly easy to put down in favor of doing any number of other things. So, I’m giving Free Chocolate a two out of five with the note that, while I’m not likely to read the inevitable sequel, I might check out another one of Royer’s books later on in her writing career.
This book was provided to me by netGalley for honest review. Review has previously been posted at https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/20...
September 9, 2018
A fun romp through an alien-filled world that puts a Spanish chef with a Brazilian background on the other side of the colonial lens. Bo Benetiz lives in a period where Earth has made first contact and the planet is on the losing end of the culture wars. Earth has chocolate, none of the other civilizations do, everyone else wants it, Earth is using to keep its borders secure against superior military and cultural forces.
Bo finds herself engaged in a conspiracy that, once it starts, doesn't let up. This is a roller coaster of murder, backroom wheeling and dealing, chases, executions, jungle night raids and gentlemen assassins, all rolled up into an adventure to see whether chocolate should or should not remain the exclusive property of a "backwater planet" that the other cultures of the galaxy look down on.
Bo finds herself engaged in a conspiracy that, once it starts, doesn't let up. This is a roller coaster of murder, backroom wheeling and dealing, chases, executions, jungle night raids and gentlemen assassins, all rolled up into an adventure to see whether chocolate should or should not remain the exclusive property of a "backwater planet" that the other cultures of the galaxy look down on.
June 13, 2019
After the alien Krom made first contact Earth was left with one unique commodity, chocolate. Everyone in the galaxy adores the stuff and will do whatever it takes to get their hand equivalents on it. To protect itself Earth has closed its doors to the greater universe, no aliens allowed. In light of that and recent pirate attacks resulting in the accidental destruction of a civilian ship by and HGB pilot, culinary student Bodacious Benitez is summoned back to Earth to serve as the face of HGB, the Princess of Chocolate. Face of the company or not Bo has long disagreed with HGB’s methods and, with her Krom boyfriend’s help, is going to do everything she can to break HGB’s monopoly and bring chocolate to the universe.
I have a lot of thoughts on Amber Royer’s Free Chocolate. There was a lot of stuff that I feel like could have been fun and some stuff that I feel like needed more focus to work at all. More than anything, I feel like the book lacks focus. There are a number of places in Free Chocolate where it feels like Royer had three or four ideas for a book but not enough for any single one of them, so she kind of stitched them together. Things happen and don’t seem to have any consequences. There’s some stuff that gets talked about not at all, but then both Bo and the reader are expected to just roll with it. It feels disjointed.
A lot of this is down to how the book deals with its timeline. It takes ages for Bo to actually get into space and on the run from Tyson, the space cop, and then it seems like the action is constantly interrupted. There’s the corporate assassin who calls Bo repeatedly to remind her that there’s only so long until he has to hurt her family. There’s cooking for aliens while on the run and being terrified of said aliens. It slows things to a crawl and makes the book super easy to put down
There is also a linguistic thing that I feel slows Free Chocolate down as well, it also contributed to it being pretty easy to put down. There’s a number of alien languages mentioned as being spoken and a handful of words used when Bo doesn’t know them. It’s just sort of tagged and let go. But then Bo is a native Spanish speaker so, while I would expect some Spanish to be used, it’s done largely in a way that feels like the author is reminding the reader of that rather than as a natural part of how she talks. It’s this sort of immersion breaking thing that Bo never says but or head, it’s always pero or cabeza, or she’ll use a phrase and then immediately provide the translation. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of this happens in Bo’s internal monologue, so she winds up translating for an audience she shouldn’t be aware of. I feel like leaving the phrases without the extra translation could have worked well. Bo referring to Brill using various terms of endearment worked really well, I thought. It just sort of feels strange that we get more translating for the existent Earth language than the handful of alien languages.
All of that boils down to it being kind of hard to care about the characters and what’s happening to them. Bo is on the run from a massive corporation with an assassin threatening her family and a venomous space cop on her tail. She’s stuck surrounded by aliens that could easily eat her if she messes up while her boyfriend may have been playing her this whole time. All of that, with all the interruptions and characters dropping in and out in an attempt to keep the drama level high, and I really just could have cared less. Like, the pilot who’s accident kicked off the plot, he’s given this level of importance within Bo’s story that is usually saved for major side characters, love interests or best friends. But after she leaves Earth, he takes a background spot for the vast majority of the story. This is the guy she’s essentially willing to trade her life for, they knew each other for two or three days, tops. Brill, the alien boyfriend, swaps between being super loving and sketchy to no end. It’s like the story couldn’t make up its mind about if he was one of the antagonists, just using Bo to get a hold of the cacao beans, or if he legitimately cares about her and is doing something at least sort of heroic. That leaves the reader to decide about him right up until the end, but then there’s this attempt at explaining his behavior in context of Krom society, but he had not wanted to talk to Bo about Krom society so neither she nor the reader knows anything about it until then. It just doesn’t work for me. I’d have liked to have seen more of the space cop, especially the post Bo stowing away version of him, and Chestla, the cat girl TA, though. They were pretty entertaining.
The galley crew on the Zantite ship were also interesting and I found myself enjoying the cooking segments. Talking about cooking and food were the parts where Royer’s writing shines best. If this had been more of a science fiction cozy mystery thing and focused more on the food and cooking I think it could have worked better, those scenes are just that enjoyable.
That’s where I land on Free Chocolate I think. There are a lot of first novel issues here, largely in the character work and how scattered the overall plot can feel. There are the bones of something good here, but it exists in the small moments where Bo is allowed to be a chef and interact with other characters on that level. I could see Royer handling the grander scale, galactic conflict stuff after she’s written more fiction. That said, this is a book that I found incredibly easy to put down in favor of doing any number of other things. So, I’m giving Free Chocolate a two out of five with the note that, while I’m not likely to read the inevitable sequel, I might check out another one of Royer’s books later on in her writing career.
A review copy was provided through net Galley.
I have a lot of thoughts on Amber Royer’s Free Chocolate. There was a lot of stuff that I feel like could have been fun and some stuff that I feel like needed more focus to work at all. More than anything, I feel like the book lacks focus. There are a number of places in Free Chocolate where it feels like Royer had three or four ideas for a book but not enough for any single one of them, so she kind of stitched them together. Things happen and don’t seem to have any consequences. There’s some stuff that gets talked about not at all, but then both Bo and the reader are expected to just roll with it. It feels disjointed.
A lot of this is down to how the book deals with its timeline. It takes ages for Bo to actually get into space and on the run from Tyson, the space cop, and then it seems like the action is constantly interrupted. There’s the corporate assassin who calls Bo repeatedly to remind her that there’s only so long until he has to hurt her family. There’s cooking for aliens while on the run and being terrified of said aliens. It slows things to a crawl and makes the book super easy to put down
There is also a linguistic thing that I feel slows Free Chocolate down as well, it also contributed to it being pretty easy to put down. There’s a number of alien languages mentioned as being spoken and a handful of words used when Bo doesn’t know them. It’s just sort of tagged and let go. But then Bo is a native Spanish speaker so, while I would expect some Spanish to be used, it’s done largely in a way that feels like the author is reminding the reader of that rather than as a natural part of how she talks. It’s this sort of immersion breaking thing that Bo never says but or head, it’s always pero or cabeza, or she’ll use a phrase and then immediately provide the translation. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that a lot of this happens in Bo’s internal monologue, so she winds up translating for an audience she shouldn’t be aware of. I feel like leaving the phrases without the extra translation could have worked well. Bo referring to Brill using various terms of endearment worked really well, I thought. It just sort of feels strange that we get more translating for the existent Earth language than the handful of alien languages.
All of that boils down to it being kind of hard to care about the characters and what’s happening to them. Bo is on the run from a massive corporation with an assassin threatening her family and a venomous space cop on her tail. She’s stuck surrounded by aliens that could easily eat her if she messes up while her boyfriend may have been playing her this whole time. All of that, with all the interruptions and characters dropping in and out in an attempt to keep the drama level high, and I really just could have cared less. Like, the pilot who’s accident kicked off the plot, he’s given this level of importance within Bo’s story that is usually saved for major side characters, love interests or best friends. But after she leaves Earth, he takes a background spot for the vast majority of the story. This is the guy she’s essentially willing to trade her life for, they knew each other for two or three days, tops. Brill, the alien boyfriend, swaps between being super loving and sketchy to no end. It’s like the story couldn’t make up its mind about if he was one of the antagonists, just using Bo to get a hold of the cacao beans, or if he legitimately cares about her and is doing something at least sort of heroic. That leaves the reader to decide about him right up until the end, but then there’s this attempt at explaining his behavior in context of Krom society, but he had not wanted to talk to Bo about Krom society so neither she nor the reader knows anything about it until then. It just doesn’t work for me. I’d have liked to have seen more of the space cop, especially the post Bo stowing away version of him, and Chestla, the cat girl TA, though. They were pretty entertaining.
The galley crew on the Zantite ship were also interesting and I found myself enjoying the cooking segments. Talking about cooking and food were the parts where Royer’s writing shines best. If this had been more of a science fiction cozy mystery thing and focused more on the food and cooking I think it could have worked better, those scenes are just that enjoyable.
That’s where I land on Free Chocolate I think. There are a lot of first novel issues here, largely in the character work and how scattered the overall plot can feel. There are the bones of something good here, but it exists in the small moments where Bo is allowed to be a chef and interact with other characters on that level. I could see Royer handling the grander scale, galactic conflict stuff after she’s written more fiction. That said, this is a book that I found incredibly easy to put down in favor of doing any number of other things. So, I’m giving Free Chocolate a two out of five with the note that, while I’m not likely to read the inevitable sequel, I might check out another one of Royer’s books later on in her writing career.
A review copy was provided through net Galley.
April 23, 2018
3.5 stars. The world building is unique, the pace frenetic and the story fantastically inventive. Bo is a really engaging MC, funny and capable, whilst also continually learning who she is. Although, there is just so much going on in the story and Bo meets so many people that I got really confused towards the end about who was doing/had done what. However, I would definitely read more of this interesting world.
*i received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
*i received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
March 16, 2019
I give this book a second star for having a pretty compelling premise, but the follow-through of that premise, the plotting, the prose, the unconvincing multi-lingualism, the characterization, all are pretty bad.
One interesting note on the copy of the book I was reading: pages 33-64 are from an entirely different book from the same publisher. The book was so bad that I don't think I really missed anything.
One interesting note on the copy of the book I was reading: pages 33-64 are from an entirely different book from the same publisher. The book was so bad that I don't think I really missed anything.
September 30, 2018
In the end, I enjoyed this book. I think I was trying to take it too seriously. It's more hitchhiker and less ender's game. I guess. I don't know. I don't generally like scifi. But I'm glad I read it. The plot was interesting and the characters wild.
August 13, 2018
Read my in depth review that I wrote on this book for Twin Cities Geek here: http://twincitiesgeek.com/2018/07/fre...
July 18, 2018
RTC.
- Cool space opera
- Mexican MC who also lived in Brazil
- Chocolate!!
- Lots of adventure and politics
- But could have bern shorter
- Not always easy to follow (so many calls!)
- Cool space opera
- Mexican MC who also lived in Brazil
- Chocolate!!
- Lots of adventure and politics
- But could have bern shorter
- Not always easy to follow (so many calls!)
July 19, 2018
Fast-paced but soap-opera-slow space telenovela that's fun, light, and takes some getting used to, but which I didn’t want to end.
November 21, 2018
It took me a while to really get into this, but I wound up enjoying it immensely. Interstellar drama, passion, intrigue, murder, theft, chocolate...what DOESN'T it have?
April 8, 2019
This book kept me up until 2:30 in the blessed a.m.
What more do you need to know?
What more do you need to know?
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