“A scintillating modern love story that will leave a lasting impression… Pitsirilos has crafted a compelling exploration of what it means to be human, weaving together themes of artificial intelligence, environmental degradation, mother-son relationships, and the difficulty of modern love.”

– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Alita, a whiz at helping AI extract marketable trends from human sex behavior datasets, tries her hand at love.

Alita Melusine is the embodiment of desire. Her appetite for pleasure drives much of her twenties and is deliciously displayed in her roller-disco dancing, a niche retro craze in Manhattan’s 2050s—itself a scene of gentrified cyberpunk. That her heart remains untouched by Eros’s arrow is one of the many attributes that her aged Casanova-like mentor Jean loves about her. So when Alita pairs with the winsome Kaveh and falls in love, she finds herself on uncharted roads—and facing the rabid objections of Kaveh’s mother, Claire. When the latest superstorm hits the city, Alita’s world begins to unravel. Jean’s imprint on her life is more than she realized—as is, unfortunately, Claire’s. On an island where life is lived in a rave of niche fantasy, in the midst of a surrender to environmental collapse, Alita must put together the pieces of her mosaic to confront the woman she really is—and learn what it means to love like the storms of Venus.

To Love Like Venus is a literary glimpse into a near future of tech-fueled human sexuality, environmental decay, and soft cyberpunk.