C.O.L.E.: A Machine’s Journey, by Chas Funderburg

What do you do when you’re a robot with a soul?

Cole was created as a C.O.L.E.: a Computer Optimized Learning Enhanced robot. What her creator didn’t count on was that she had been given a soul, and would fall in love. But being a machine among humans can be very difficult: you may look like, act like, and even feel like a human, but you are a machine: a sentient, second-class citizen.

In C.O.L.E.: A Machine’s Journey by Chas Funderburg, we learn that life is full of surprises for a “Human Machine.” She meets a young man who she really likes, but is unable to tell him the truth about what she really is. Several terrorist groups try to steal her technology, even if it means destroying her to do so. But the biggest surprise is learning that a relationship means you must learn to forgive and move on, no matter what you’re made of.