“Free Chocolate is quirky, fun, and loaded with sci-fi chocolaty goodness! This book is a calorie-free treat.”
– Beth Cato, author of Breath of Earth
In the far future, chocolate is Earth’s sole unique product – and it’s one that everyone else in the galaxy would kill to get their hands, paws, and tentacles on
File Under: Science Fiction [ Heiress Apparent | Sticky Fingers | Pod People | The Milky Way ]
Description
Latina culinary arts student, Bo Benitez, becomes a fugitive when she’s caught stealing a cacao pod from the heavily-defended plantations that keep chocolate, Earth’s sole valuable export, safe from a hungry galaxy. Forces arraying 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.
Amber Royer teaches enrichment and continuing education creative writing classes for teens and adults. She spent five years as a youth librarian, where she organized teen writers’ groups and teen writing contests. In addition to two cookbooks co-authored with her husband, Amber has published a number of articles on gardening, crafting and cooking for print and on-line publications.
“Free Chocolate is quirky, fun, and loaded with sci-fi chocolaty goodness! This book is a calorie-free treat.”
– Beth Cato, author of Breath of Earth
“Exhilarating fun in a galaxy muy loca for Earth’s most sublime delicacy! Bodacious lives up to her name, and not even certain death can slow her down. Free Chocolate proves that romance, intrigue, space opera, mortal peril, and culinary ambition can be served with a sweet side dish of humor.”
– Sue Burke, author of Semiosis
“You had me at laser monkey robots.”
– Arianne “Tex” Thompson, author of the Children of the Drought trilogy
“[A] clever debut… darkly comic and sometimes deadly serious.”
– Publishers Weekly
“This space opera-meets-soap opera debut is, ultimately, a rollicking adventure; a heist story in which chocolate is the greatest prize of all. Yum.”
– Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“Soap opera drama mixed with sci-fi high stakes, Free Chocolate is a muy thrilling ride!”
– Laura Maisano, author of Cosplayed and Schism
“Earth has a monopoly on chocolate. The aliens will do anything to get a cacao sample, and the planetary government will do anything to stop them. What a premise!” – Daniel M Benson, author of Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen
“¡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!” – Eden Unger Bowdich, author of the Young Inventors Guild Series
“Free Chocolate is an absolutely bodacious debut for author Amber Royer, and a uniquely entertaining treat for readers! Part sci-fi space romp, part political thriller, and part sweet romance, this book fulfils every literary craving.” – Diane Kelley, author of the Tara Holloway series and the Paw Enforcement series
“Hunky aliens, a universe that prizes chocolate above all else, and a smart heroine on the run are the key ingredients in this sweet sci-fi adventure, equal parts space opera and soap opera.”
– Tor.com
“The world building is unique, the pace frenetic and the story fantastically inventive.”
– Worthless Chat Monkeys
“Free Chocolate is a fun, mile-a-minute read that goes by quickly and easily, mixing action and romance in equal and entertaining measure.”
– Occasionally Random Book Reviews
“Amber Royer is a class act at inducing through some rather canny writing which balances raucous humour with downright nastiness.”
– Strange Alliances
“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. This is an outstanding debut novel in a universe I can’t wait to dive deeper into. 5 out of 5 robots.”
– Reviews & Robots
“This sci-fi adventure is not afraid to be out there. The premise – that chocolate is Earth’s only valuable export to a universe that craves it so badly they’re willing to kill for it – is so interesting and yet astoundingly plausible that you can’t help but read it. But the prose is excellent – even with the English/Spanish language mix – and the characters charming. This is an excellent book!”
– Litcast of Doom
“Soap opera meets space opera is a good description for this book. It shouldn’t always be taken too seriously, but it was fun, full of adventure and romance, and likeable characters.”
– A Thousand Worlds
