*Book Reviews, Blog Tours, Author Q and As, Monthly Genre Goal and host of Goodreads Monday, Time Travel Thursday and Places My Books Have Taken Me! * #budgettalesbookblog
Welcome to Top 5 Wednesday! Hosted by Goodreads T5W group this week’s prompt is Time Travel. I have only read a couple of books that involve Time Travel and one of those I didn’t particularly enjoy, so for this prompt I will highlight the book that I did enjoy, plus two books set in the past and two books set in the future:
Welcome to Top 5 Wednesday! Hosted by Goodreads T5W group this week’s prompt is Books With Robots or Futuristic Reads. I had to go back quite a long way to find 5 books as this isn’t the sort of book that I generally go for. Having said that I did enjoy all 5 of these books so maybe I should read more! Click on the titles to be taken to my review.
“In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.”
Welcome to my Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. This week it has been fairly quiet for actually posting, however behind the scenes I have done a lot of preparation for today’s posts and of course I have made a start on my many end of the month posts (how is it the end of March already?!)!
This week has also been a week of panic reading and reviewing Easter Themed books, reading and reviewing a Netgalley book and reading and drafting a review for a Blog Tour book. I still need to read a couple of library books, but these will have to be done next week. Next week however is the school holidays so we will be out and about. Hopefully I will still have some time to read! It’s all good fun though!
Someone is luring men from the streets to play a mysterious, high stakes game in the English countryside. Former Special Forces officer David Shelley will go undercover to take them down–but this might be a game he can’t win.”
This is my current library book. I hope to make a start on it at some point next week!
What are your 3Ws for the week?
To keep up to date with my Book Reviews, Book Memes, Author Q and As and my Monthly Genre Goal Follow My Blog!
Genre: Sci Fi/Fantasy/Romance – Of Specific Gay Interest
Number of Pages: 480
Date of Publication: 14 March 2024
Publisher: Tor/PanMacmillan
My review summary: An emotional, thought provoking read
📖PLOT SUMMARY FROM GOODREADS📖
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.
💭 THOUGHTS 💭
I was so excited to be accepted onto this Blog Tour. I have been meaning to read another book by TJ Klune since loving The House In The Cerulean Sea. Whilst a story about machines isn’t my usual choice, I thought that I would be safe with TJ Klune. I was correct in this assumption and really enjoyed this book. It was so emotional, so full of love and loyalty and still had room for a bit of humour.
The writing pulled me in and kept my interest from the beginning right through to the end. Whilst I did take little breaks, I looked forward to each reading session and got the book finished much sooner than I was expecting!
The book was split into a Prologue and 4 Parts. Each Part was labelled and Parts 1,2 and 3 had accompanying Pinocchio quotes. Part 4 just had a title. Each Part had long, detailed chapters. I loved the detail and being immersed in the story. Whilst the chapters were long they didn’t feel it. I enjoyed getting a good chunk of the story before moving on. There was also a good flow to the book which made it easy to read through.
The story itself was an emotional rollercoaster and really made you think. I loved reading about the emotional differences between man and machine and how the main characters were the bridges between the two. There was always something emotional or thought provoking happening.
I loved all the characters. Their spirit, love and loyalty to one another was lovely to read about. I couldn’t pick a favourite character, but Nurse Ratched and Rambo made me laugh out loud which is rare for me! Their relationship and the relationship that they each had with Victor was so heartwarming. The messages of love and loyalty were strong throughout the book.
Lastly the settings. There were some lovely details, and I got a good sense of the characters’ surroundings, but the story stayed mainly focused on the main characters and their journey to complete their family once more. It was a good balance and worked well with the essence of the story.
Facebook – I have also posted in the following Book Groups – Random Things Tours Bloggers Group, my personal Facebook page, Women Reading Great Books and Good Housekeeping Book Room.
Biography: TJ Klune is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award winning author of Under the Whispering Door, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Extraordinaries, Wolfsong and more. Being queer himself, TJ believes it’s important – now more than ever – to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories. Author Living In: USA
To keep up to date with my Book Reviews, Book Memes, Author Q and As and my Monthly Genre Goal Follow My Blog!
Solve the murder to save what’s left of the world.
Outside the island there is the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.
Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.
If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.
But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it…
💭THOUGHTS💭
I kept seeing this book around and thought that it sounded interesting. I was pleased when I was approved by Netgalley to read it. I have enjoyed Stuart Turton’s books before so I had high hopes for this one.
The writing kept me engaged right from beginning through to the end. I looked forward to picking it back up again for each reading session. It was quite an involved story with lots of little details to keep track of. It did require a fair amount of concentration, but it was interesting enough that I didn’t mind putting the effort in! There were lots of twists and turns, right up until the end of the book, which kept me on my toes. The story was cleverly woven together and tied up well at the end.
The story was split into a Prologue, Epilogue and 7 parts. Each part was then split into chapters.
The parts were titled with a timescale relating to humanity’s survival which added to the suspense as well as grounding the story. The Epilogue finished the story off well.
The chapters were a mix of long and short which gave an interesting pace to the book. Some bits of the story you needed to linger on as there were key bits of information that needed to be given. The mix of long and short chapters also gave the story a well controlled flow, which in turn added to the suspense.
The characters were great. There were so many secrets and experiences that gradually came to light throughout the story which made me change how I felt about the individual characters regularly. There were lots of different personalities that clashed and mixed well in equal measures. I loved how the main character was an outsider, but throughout this story her differences to everyone else were what made the story what it was.
Lastly the settings. It was interesting to see what living on the last safe place on earth was like. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time and really made you think.
Overall an interesting story with great characters and lots of twists and turns.
I enjoyed this short story. I definitely want to read more from this author!
Reading Next:
The Grand Illusion by Syd Moore
Book Description From Random Things Tours:
“JUNE 1940. As Hitler prepares to invade Britain, a secret office hidden away in Whitehall is catapulted into a frenzy of activity and expansion. Aware of the Nazis’ obsession with the occult, the British Secret Service sets out to exploit this potential weakness in the enemy’s high command.
Twenty-two-year-old Daphne Devine is performing on the London stage as assistant to magician Jonty Trevelyan, aka ‘The Grand Mystique’, when the secret service calls.
Daphne and Jonty find themselves far from the glitz and glamour of the theatre, deep inside the lower levels of Wormwood Scrubs prison. Here they join secret ranks of astrologers, illusionists and other theatre performers co-opted to the war effort.
Soon Daphne realizes she must risk everything if there is any chance of saving her country…”
I plan to start reading this book next week ready for my Blog Tour review on 5 April. I am looking forward to it!
What are your 3Ws for the week?
To keep up to date with my Book Reviews, Book Memes, Author Q and As and my Monthly Genre Goal Follow My Blog!
“In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.”
My review is due on 25 March so keep your eyes peeled for that!
To keep up to date with my Book Reviews, Book Memes, Author Q and As and my Monthly Genre Goal Follow My Blog!
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