Hoboken Library Staff Picks

Floating Hotel
by Grace Curtis
The Grand Abeona Hotel isn’t your average hotel. This is a hotel on a spaceship traveling across the galaxy. At one point only the richest of the rich could board, though it isn’t quite as exclusive as it once was and things especially below deck aren’t as pristine, it is still a magical place of relaxation and discovery. The Floating Hotel is made of interlocking stories focusing on different quirky, diverse crew members or passengers on the ship. This gives enjoyable insights into different aspects of the Abeona and the varied connections the staff has made within their found family in the stars. The hotel with its combination of travel and destinations reminds me in a lot of ways of being on a cruise ship. There is a definite cozy vibe, but there is also suspense of an underlying story about a corrupt emperor and a secret journalist that may be traveling with the ship, and who is giving away the emperor’s secrets. With a master thief and trained spies on board not everything is a relaxing day at the spa. The ending took me a bit by surprise, but felt overall satisfying. Fans of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and Tao Wong’s The Nameless Restaurant should enjoy this story.

Prime Deceptions
Valerie Valdes
I had greatly enjoyed, Chilling Effect, the first in Valerie Valdes, charming, humorous, space opera series about the Crew of La Sirena Negra (the Black Mermaid) so was interested to sample the sequel, Prime Deceptions. Despite her sister’s deception, in the previous novel, Eva again agrees to help her, this time to try and find a missing scientist related to a member of Eva’s crew. It will require her to reconnect with her estranged mother and go to the site of one of the most disastrous moments of Eva’s past. The found family and well as blood family drama and a sweet romance all combine to make an enjoyable story. As with the previous novel there are some fun pop culture in jokes such as when the crew visit a Sci-Fi Convention that spans a space station and much of the drama in the novels second half revolves around “ball buddies,” possible nefarious robotic replicas (Digimon, perhaps?) of actual psychic companion creatures (very clearly Pokémon inspired since the book’s dedication is a reference to Team Rocket). The trilogy is wrapped up in Fault Tolerance, which I’m hoping to also checkout soon since Prime Deceptions ends by setting up an epic alien battle the series has been building towards.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

Tags: Cozy, Grace Curtis, science fiction, valerie valdes