Book Review - My Brilliant AI Boyfriend by Stella Hayward

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Title: My Brilliant AI Boyfriend

Author: Stella Hayward

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Bedford Square Publishing

Publication Date: 27th August 2026

Rating: 5 Stars

Top scientist in her field Ava Green doesn't spend much time outside of the lab. But when her best friend suggests she present her innovative work in AI at a big competition to win a funding prize, Ava is one of the four finalists chosen.

For the next three weeks, the short-listed contestants will live and work at Castle Beaumont, and Ava will have to do things like attend dinners and actually interact with people. To make matters worse, she's in competition with the surly and aloof poet Forrest Faulkner, who's had a huge chip on his shoulder since the moment they met. What's so great about poems that don't even rhyme, anyway?

But one of the finalists literally looks like he's Ava's fantasy come to life... and maybe that's not so far from the truth. Could it be that Ava's idea of perfection isn't what's perfect for her, after all?

This book is so clever, but it also has a totally en-point message about the uses of AI and how bad generative AI i for humanity. 

But Ava Green our heroine has created Freethought a form of AI that doesn't scrape stuff from other creatives without consent, but rather is able to actually think for itself. 

To the extent that it can do it's own research and come up with ideas even while Ava is away from her lab. 

It's kind of a scary thought but I strongly suspect we may not bet that many years away from something similar in reality.

And the uses that the author has come up with for FT, are so mind boggling brilliant that I  hope that the technology can advance and bring them to fruition as that is a far better use for AI than random internet memes! 

There aren't many authors I would trust to make me believe in this sort of world but thankfully this is one of them. 

Ava is a tech genius but is rather inexperienced with life, so she really doesn't get what we as readers do rather quickly that she may have more than one possible man interested in her currently. 

There are moments in this that literally blew my mind, and it was a delight to be sucked into this wonderful world.  

Thank you to Bedford Square and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.