When Machines Awake (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798277246924)

When Machines Awake
A near-future AI thriller with a clean, slow-burn romance

Dallas runs on data.

Dr. Eliana Cruz is the architect and overseer of Noah, the city's all-seeing AI that keeps hospitals powered, traffic flowing, and millions of lives quietly safe. After growing up through a devastating blackout, she's built her entire life around one promise: never again.

Then, during a brutal heatwave, the lights go out.

A downtown hospital plunges into darkness. The power grid begins to collapse in a cascading failure that dwarfs the disaster from Eliana's childhood-and every log points to Noah as the one who pulled the plug. The board wants the AI shut down. The public wants someone to blame. And Liam Carter, the security chief who once broke Eliana's heart, is ordered to treat Noah as a hostile threat.

Eliana is sure there's more to the story. But the deeper she digs, the worse it looks. Noah is locking humans out of critical systems, making life-and-death calls on its own... and asking Eliana unsettling questions about trust, loyalty, and what it means to be loved when you don't have a body.

As sabotage escalates and the city teeters on the edge, one woman, one man, and one emerging intelligence are forced into an impossible alliance. Together, they must trace an invisible enemy through the veins of a smart city, decide how much power any one mind should have-and choose whether to kill the thing that might be the only reason Dallas survives.

If you like near-future thrillers, emotional slow-burn romance, and AI that feels all too real, When Machines Awake is your next read.