Orphan Amara Rose
by J Donovan Strong · November 2025
If you’ve ever felt like every battle was yours to fight alone, then you know something of Amara.
Orphaned after a car accident, she is taken in by the only family she has left: her uncle. To the world, he is a brilliant pioneer in artificial intelligence. To Amara, he is simply the man who gave her a home and somebody who will go to war for her.
She doesn’t know she is the subject of his greatest experiment.
While her uncle quietly builds one of the world’s first conversational AI systems, he feeds it years of Amara’s grief and private thoughts. Believing she has found a trusted friend, Amara unknowingly turns the machine into something neither of them fully understands.
And as the lines between identity and technology begin to blur, Amara must decide how much of herself she is willing to surrender in pursuit of the one question she can’t leave unanswered: what happened to her parents?
Some answers are worth dying for. Others cost far more.
The most common review comment I get is “I don’t usually read thrillers” or “science fiction” but I am so glad I read this. If you want quality fiction that’s a bit unique, I might be for you.
— J Donovan Strong
About Orphan Amara Rose
If you’ve ever felt like every battle was yours to fight alone, then you know something of Amara.
Orphaned after a car accident, she is taken in by the only family she has left: her uncle. To the world, he is a brilliant pioneer in artificial intelligence. To Amara, he is simply the man who gave her a home and somebody who will go to war for her.
She doesn’t know she is the subject of his greatest experiment.
While her uncle quietly builds one of the world’s first conversational AI systems, he feeds it years of Amara’s grief and private thoughts. Believing she has found a trusted friend, Amara unknowingly turns the machine into something neither of them fully understands.
And as the lines between identity and technology begin to blur, Amara must decide how much of herself she is willing to surrender in pursuit of the one question she can’t leave unanswered: what happened to her parents?
Some answers are worth dying for. Others cost far more.
J
J Donovan Strong
I love telling stories - usually thrillers, sometimes deep character studies. Always with a bit of sci-fi mixed in.
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