by Courtney Hunter

4.7 stars – 27 reviews

Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled

Here’s the set-up:

Robots, sex, lies, adventure, and chaos. Who can you trust when you can’t trust yourself? And what truly defines humanity and consciousness?

Running from a violent past, Leo Knox desperately decides to participate in a scientific experiment conducted by the infamous and greedy tech-giant, AlgorithmOS. Soon, Leo learns that she has agreed to take part in a Turing Test, a test that measures the ability of artificial intelligence to blend in among humanity, but what she doesn’t know is that the test set to take place is unlike any other of its kind.

Leo enters Eden, the contained preserve where the test will occur, with twenty-three others. While everyone appears to be human, four of the individuals are an indistinguishably advanced form of humanoid AI. The task is simple: identify the AI while trying to survive. The twist? The four AI are completely unaware of their nature, causing every participant to question what they know as reality.

The group embarks on a journey within the preserve, rigged with obstacles devised by the controllers of the experiment to elicit human response and emotion. Quickly, madness ensues and divides form, partnering Leo up with Avery Ford, a Marine who wears his demons on his sleeve. Romance falls together for the two as the world around them falls apart, revealing the lengths people will go to protect those they love, to achieve monetary gain, or simply to survive.

Back at AlgorithmOS, the story unfolds on the screens of Nathan Aimes, a scientist responsible for monitoring the experiment’s surveillance cameras. Nathan studies the humans involved as they wrestle with where they stand on the polarizing issue of AI and its applications. He watches the AI unknowingly fight to prove their humanity just to leave the experiment unscathed. All the while, Nathan is intimately aware of his company’s plans to weaponize or commodify the AI should they pass the test, and he must reconcile this with the chaos that plays out before him.

Meet the Author, Courtney Hunter

Courtney Hunter is a serial creator with experience in the fashion industry and with live performance. New to fiction writing, Sentience is a written extension of a contemporary dance piece that was produced for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2017 based on artificial intelligence. She currently works in retail buying and lives in Philadelphia with her partner, Will, and rescue pups, Rickie and Billie. Find out more about Courtney and her other projects at cournteyphunter.com.

Early Reviews of Sentience

A genre-bending thriller full of adventure, duplicity, and robots that begs the question: because we can, does it mean we should? – Independent Book Review

Right from the beginning I was hooked on the concept alone. Westworld meets The Hunger Games? Sold. The author does an excellent job with character creation and development, especially when differentiating roles and personalities. You can foreshadow how they’ll affect the group during an experiment as the book goes on. – Rachel Cowley of @SheepyReads

I absolutely loved this story. The idea, the way it was brought to life, and the completely brutal behavior we witness had me absolutely hooked. There were so many things I just didn’t see coming and that literally had my jaw dropping. This book threw me for a loop multiple times!  It had a little bit of everything you could possibly want from a book: brutal murder, romance, robots, and a survivor type trek through the woods. I could go on and on but just read it for yourself and thank me later! – Ashley Daviau of @ReadybyAshleyD

by Rhonnie Robins-Smith

4.8 stars – 5 reviews

Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Here’s the set-up:

This book is a mother/daughter generational trauma journey through sexual abuse, revelations, loss & moving forward. First unable to recognize the abuse, secondly the inability to seek help and weigh options. Lastly through legal and therapeutic help developing the strength to exit safely without dispute and drama.

by Maxwell Adekoje

5.0 stars – 7 reviews

Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Here’s the set-up:

In times of obscurity, due to the global epidemic, inspiration becomes the mind’s well-being. Hope is required to keep moving towards progress. Who we need to become must occur before we become to outlast any crisis. Every crisis will pass because it’s temporary and seasonal.Just Eat The Worm is not just a book of hope and inspiration but wisdom and an antidote to excel in any adversity. A gem can’t be refined without friction, nor a man perfected without trouble.This book covers six proven strategies to embrace in tough times. Just Eat The Worm is a mental weapon for overcoming and outlasting crisis.Each story is unique, with lessons from real life experiences. It’s a must-have book for anyone who wants to achieve massive success.

by Anne Fox

4.1 stars – 41 reviews

Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled

Here’s the set-up:

This is the much-awaited prequel to Anne Fox’s series, THE UNIT. Kevin Banks has his dream job: protecting the President of the United States. But the president believes there is something greater that he can do. Find out how Kevin joined the unit and became “Spud.”

by Alisa Woods

4.3 stars – 343 reviews

Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled

Here’s the set-up:

An incubus FBI agent, a billionaire witch, and someone spiking street drugs with deadly magick.

Zane Walker’s undercover in Chicago’s deadliest drug cartel—and his magic is as dirty as the enhancers they peddle. When a beautiful witch storms in, making demands she thinks she can back up with magick, he’s forced into a split-second choice… and his monster rages out.

Ever Strange’s father was murdered. They made it look like an overdose, but Asher Strange, world-renown med-magick researcher, would never take tawdry magick enhancers. But before she can get an autopsy, her father’s body disappears… and being one of the richest witches in the city means she will get answers.

Someone’s putting deadly magick into street drugs… and it’s killing people all over the city. Zane’s magick is monstrous, and Ever’s power brings out his beast. But she insists on finding her father; and keeping her safe has suddenly become his job—on top of stopping an epidemic of overdoses that just might be cover for a serial killer. Together, they work to stop the dark magick that’s stalking the streets of Chicago… and try to keep their own secrets from consuming them both.

Ever Strange is the first book in the paranormal romantic suspense series Legal Magick. The three books in the series follow the three Strange sisters, each powerful witches in an influential magickal family embroiled in a mysterious plot to change everything about the magickal world. Legal Magick takes place in an alternate Chicago where High Magick returned in 1859 and is now integral in every aspect of the legal—and illegal—world. Each book is a standalone romance.