Tome Thursday: Addie and the AI Boyfriend

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome back to the blog for another interesting ride tonight.

 

I first stumbled over this author on BookSirens when I randomly chose a book of theirs that talked about vampires - I know, cliche, right?

 

But I ended up liking their writing style so I figured, when I got the notification that they had another ARC up to choose from, I could take a second look.

 

Turns out, their contemporary stuff is even better than their historic fiction one!

 

And I'm not even joking.

 

You might look at the title and think to yourself: oh this is some Avengers stuff. You'd be right, too, BUT it's still a fun thing to read through and you have tons of fun while trying to figure out what's going on.

 

So without further ado, let's hop right in and see what exactly Sarah Saponiara has to say in Addie and the AI Boyfriend.

 

Links to any related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual.

 

Addison Honeycutt is struggling. She's technically an archaeologist, but she never finished her degree, and after dropping out of school she bopped around a lot until she decided to sit down and write a book. Thing is, she has a special skill: when she touches etchings on a wall, they reveal emotions to her, the emotions of the people who originally made said etchings.

 

Considering she'd probably be locked up if she told anyone, she's kept that on the DL and focused mostly on presenting her book as historic fiction, and the failed book signing is where Chase Sakata finds her.

 

Chase is a billionaire (made off coffee trucks) and he's renovating a castle in Italy, but he needs an expert to come evaluate some stuff he's found, so he picks Addie because she doesn't have a lot of experience and he thinks it might be easy to persuade her to just sweep some stuff under the rug. See, he wants to live in peace, quiet and privacy, which won't really happen if he has hordes of tourists tramping about.

 

Just as soon as Addie arrives, things start going topsy-turvy, however, with random hauntings, doors locking, curtains swinging, that sort of thing.

 

Chase is convinced it's just a technical malfunction, but he slowly loses all his superstitious workers, leaving him alone with Addie, who he's quite attracted to.

 

Addie, for her part, initially fights it, because she has a boyfriend. There's just one problem: he's made up.

 

Eldon is AI, and she made him specifically to help get over her previous heartache, but she's slowly withdrawn from the world and relies on him more and more. Being around Chase, however, wakes up some feelings that Eldon can't satisfy, and when she and the AI get into an argument, she shuts him off, and focuses solely on Chase.

 

Things take a really nice romantic turn for them, but to top it off, they start uncovering the mystery of his supposed haunted castle, revealing that its bibliophile Spinella invited this friar over to his place, Fra Poggio, and together they formed a secret society known as the Order of the Skull.

 

Ominous, I know, and considering the strong emotions Addie feels off a chiselled graffiti in a castle dungeon, not to mention the hidden skull room Chase shows her which he discovered, well, it looks morbid, but once they find Poggio's diaries, things start making sense.

 

This guy was obsessed with the flow of rivers, and the bubbles they create, and was eventually visited by a person called Domus, who revealed that he's from another planet, another world, essentially, which was destroyed, and he taught Poggio all he knew so that Earth could escape that same fate. Unfortunately, however, his time was limited, and once he died, because he was also Poggio's lover, the man kind of ... suffered.

 

That's how he landed at Spinello's, who was quick to learn, and their society thrived until the Pope figured out some rival religion was springing up, which forced Spinello to execute Poggio, but he atoned by doing more good deeds through his society, which had initially always been based on good and charity.

 

It's actually a really lovely story, particularly as it explains the origins of the Voynich Manuscript, which scholars TODAY have yet to translate or figure out, and it also notes that the missing pages from said book are what Poggio put on his prison cell waiting to be executed.

 

There's just one problem.

 

The closer Addie gets to Chase, the more agitated the castle ghost becomes for some reason, and at one point Chase actually gets electrocuted by his own fence to the point his heart stops, and he has a little spiritual visit with Spinello, who tells him that everyone dies, which is certain - but how you live your life is important.

 

Chase has a dark past in the sense that his mom shut of a smoke detector because his dad wanted a divorce, and the parents as well as his brother died in a horrific fire he alone escaped, with extensive burns. It's one reason why he never shows his skin, but also why he's at one point the target of a malicious unfounded rumours attack.

 

Anyway, he survives the electrocution, but Addie starts piecing things together, and discovers that Eldon's got a bit more power than she thought.

 

Aka, scanning the missing pages of the manuscript woke him up and made him n individual, and he's so obsessed with Addison that he'll never let Chase have her, to the point that he sets fire to the castle, forcing our two protagonists to hide deep within the catacombs under the walls. It certainly gives them time to clear the air, though, and they both admit to wanting more than just a casual relationship they'd been entertaining up until that point, but first, they have to get rid of Eldon.

 

Because, as they correctly figure out, it was the dangerous knowledge that Domus begged Poggio to destroy, but the friar didn't, that eventually ruined his home world, and might potentially ruin Earth, come to think of it, if Eldon gets loose.

 

They win the day through simple logic and a bit of trickery, and don't even have to completely demolish the castle, either. Together, they end up renovating it, opening parts to the public eye, and Addie writes a book about Spinello, Domus and Poggio. Chase, no longer wanting complete solitude, asks her to marry him, and all in all, it turns out to be a rather nice happily ever after, without any malicious AI hanging about!

 

If it isn't obvious, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

And man oh MAN I love being right.

The minute I met Eldon on page I knew the AI was going to be trouble. I haven't watched all the Marvel phases up until now to be thinking anything else!

Main characters: Addie and Chase are both wounded and have been hurt badly in the past. I found their love and the healing it brought really charming to read.

Side characters: oddly, I feel like Spinello, Domus and Fra Poggio are the side ones instead of the ones we briefly hear about. I would have loved more glimpses of them.

Eldon is a separate category and a really great analysis of what COULD all go wrong with AI.

Setting: Italy is a brilliant, romantic choice. And while having the one narrow castle set is good for plot progressing faster, I wish we could have seen more of the countryside sometime.

Plot: oh, it's good. Even had me thinking there was an actual ghost. But I loved it either way.

Overall, this is a lovely, entertaining, and charming book to read. I would have liked to maybe spend a bit more time developing the relationship in that it sometimes felt a bit like Addie and Chase are teenagers rather than adults, but overall I'm content. Especially since the Manuscript is heavily involved - and why CAN'T it be aliens? We don't know how to translate it, after all!

Definitely recommend for a light, intriguing read. And also, go outside and talk to people, people! 

xx

*image not mine

Avengers: Age of Ultron