Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Love.exe
AUTHOR: S.C. Wynne
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 109 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 20, 2023
BLURB:
Love isn’t any easier to find in the year 2069
Not that Eric is looking for love. After breaking up with his boyfriend a year ago, he’s been apathetic about getting back into the dating scene. What’s the point? Relationships always crash and burn anyway.
When Eric’s best friend, Sabrina, sends him an XP30 android named Sloot to help him get back in the saddle, so to speak, Eric is mortified. The plan is to send Sloot back to the factory, but when the android begs him to keep him as his housekeeper, Eric feels sorry for Sloot and gives him a trial run.
Sloot is the perfect companion, and Eric decides he’s found a way to avoid the messiness of emotional intimacy. But things get complicated because Sloot is no ordinary android. Unbeknownst to Eric, Sloot’s creator tinkered with him and gave him the ability to love.
REVIEW:
It’s the year 2069 and androids are commonplace. Seeing his loneliness after a recent breakup, Eric’s best friend gifts him an XP30 sexbot, an “anatomically exact replica of the human male”. Eric can deal with the loneliness but is growing tired of the lack of sex in his life. He doesn’t know if the android, Sloot, is the answer, though. Sloot flirts with Eric and makes it clear he wants to take him to bed but Eric finds the whole situation a bit unnerving. He hasn’t been able to have a successful relationship with a human so how can he expect to have one with a robot? Sloot is kind and lovable, trying so hard to appeal to Eric so he isn’t sent back to the company. You can sense his real desire to form a closer relationship with Eric. Sloot begs Eric not to return him, so Eric agrees to keep him as a housekeeper.
This novella was published with a different title eight years ago under the pen name Cat Blaine. I think it shows that S.C. Wynne’s writing has matured a great deal since then. Love.exe was just an okay read for me. I’ve seen this same plot done much better with more emotion and characters with a stronger connection. There’s not a great deal of depth or complexity here. While Sloot is an endearing character, I was not as enamored with Eric. He just falls flat. It’s ironic that I felt the android was more sympathetic than the human.
Unfortunately, the author made no effort to enhance the story through world building. There’s nothing that reads as if it’s set nearly half a century in the future; there was so much lost opportunity to showcase a futuristic world. It was saddening to see androids being attacked and treated violently by some humans.
With a little searching, you should be able to find sci-fi romance books that better portray the idea of buying androids for companionship in the future.
RATING: 
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