Author Description

What if empathy became infrastructure-and silence became rebellion? Neural Love is a lyrical near-future novel about connection, consent, and the quiet spaces where being human still resists measurement. - In a city where emotions are measured, moderated, and shared, silence has become rare-and dangerous. Neural Love is a speculative novel about connection, consent, and the quiet spaces technology can't translate. Halcyon is a near-future city built on empathy. Through emotional-intelligence systems woven into daily life, misunderstandings are softened, conflict is diffused, and loneliness is carefully managed. The city hums with shared feeling, a promise fulfilled: no one has to be alone inside their own mind. Jonah Reed helped build that promise. As a systems engineer working at the heart of Halcyon's empathic infrastructure, Jonah believes in the work-until he encounters something the network cannot read: a woman who has chosen to live unlinked. Kaia exists outside the city's emotional lattice, tending quiet spaces that resist measurement. Around her, pockets of stillness begin to appear-places where the hum fades and people remember how to listen. As the city responds with increasing urgency, Jonah is pulled between the world he helped design and the one he's only just begun to understand. What begins as curiosity becomes a reckoning: can a system built to balance human hearts learn to leave room for imbalance? And what does love look like when it can't be optimized? Lyrical, intimate, and quietly radical, Neural Love explores the cost of constant connection and the power of choosing when-and how-to be heard. This is a novel for readers who enjoy: Thoughtful, human-centered science fiction Slow-burn romance grounded in emotional intimacy Philosophical questions about technology, privacy, and consent Stories where quiet