The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

This is a fun contemporary romance that begins with female friendship, and what makes you faster friends with complete strangers than shared humilation. When Samiah finds out via twitter that the man she had been dating was catfishing her and two other women (while using her resturaunt reservation to boot), they go viral when they publically confront him. It’s a bit embarassing for Samiah who just wants to keep her head low and do the best tech work she can, but as the limelight dies down, she keeps meeting with the women, London and Taylor. After their experience they decide they’re going to focus on themselves, all this time wasted on finding “the one” when they could be hyping up their careers which is just the perspective she needs to start her dream-make her own app.

But this a romance so of course, so Samiah does get swept away with the charm of the new guy, Daniel. He’s attentive, sweet, actually listens and is very supportive of her app plans and that’s all he is. There’s no drama that he’s distracting her on the job or they’re working together, he’s just there to keep her from burning out herself. So yep, it’s a pretty good romance since the attraction and communication was the foundational part of their relationship with some playful joking around that made them feel real.

However, there’s one crucial thing Daniel didn’t communicate. His name is not Daniel, he’s not a tech guy. He actually works in the Finance branch of the FBI and he’s infiltrating her company to find out who’s embezzling funds. If he solves this, he’s preventing money from going into the hands of cartels/mafia/corrupt corporate exec. and may get a promotion. But now, he finds himself torn between his duty and his heart, ultimately he knows where his decision lies but he can’t stand to see Samiah’s reaction when she knows the truth.

This was a lovely well-rounded book. I enjoyed the Squad girls’ friendship, and I’m excited to see where their stories unfold since this ended in a cliffhanger. The romance was lovely to read. Plus I enjoyed the additional conflict in the story of Samiah dealing with an upstart stealing her ideas/taking leadership under the guise of “teamwork” and the extra pressure black women are put under because of their race, and gender and how it affects her mental health/insecurities/decision making in terms of her promotion.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

This was a steamy look into the STEM field, the pressures, the complications and the romance of it all. Adam was a classic case of being a Beast to others, rational, and callous, most grad students hate having him as an advisor. Olive was not one of them but she generally agreed with the wider opinion that he’s a hardass you don’t want to deal with it. Until she kisses him. . .

And fake-dates him so her friend won’t feel bad about dating a guy that asked Olive out (and whom she repeatedly assured that she has no interest in but you know how girl code works). Adam agrees because the university has halted his funding out of fear that he’s thinking of leaving them for Harvard so he needs a girlfriend to show he’s not going anywhere (he totally is though). It seems ideal but the problem with fake-dating is that you start getting to know the other person. .

Olive finds their heart under the cold demenour and Adam learns to crouch his comments less sourly to other grad students and opens a little to someone new. Honestly, while Olive’s POV was good, I do wish we had a few chapters from Adam. While the romance is a bit of a tropy Beauty and the Beast scenario (with one whallop of a nsfw scene, woo), the setting around it is what makes it interesting.

I have no idea how the sciences work. As it was with Olive’s cancer research and Adam’s doctoral experiments, it sounded like nonsense to me. But the way the book dove into abusive mentors, toxic friendships, the sexual harrasment and belittling of women in STEM and the general highly comepetitive vibe of grad school and academia. Plus the drama of how Olive’s fake relationship with Adam affects how others see her, asking her to talk to her boyfriend in lieu of getting better comments or assume she’s getting promotions because of her relationship status.

A well done book sure to engage your cerebral side.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

Unlike the previous two books, and what the title here, implies this involves no STEM fields. Anna is a violinist who went viral for her improvised performance last year. However, she hasn’t been able to recreate the success since. Worse, her boyfriend has dumped in her to try other things. Well technically it’s an open relationship but since they don’t talk, it’s basically a break up. Sure, wasn’t so in love with him, but he was a stable force in her life, he made her feel normal and this breakup makes her feel inadequate. So she decides to take the bull by the horns and date.

And since this is a romance, she does manage to find an ideal guy after a few days of online profiling. Cute enough, Quan and Anna bond over national geographic documentaries. And well, is just swoooon. seems like a typical bad boy with a motorcycle, tattoos and shaved head, but he is really just so sweet. The priority he has for communication and women’s pleasure. But he has his own vulnerabilities too as he struggles with his manhood, literally, after chemotherapy and affects his self-esteem as a “whole” man.

Which is just what Anna needs as she comes to terms with her new diagnosis that she’s autistic, and with encouragement, begins to verbalize her needs and wants in a relationship.

Ah, but it’s not all character development, the running storyline is not around the jerk ex (though he does add his conflict to the mix) but about Anna’s ailing father and the difficulties of caretaking him 24/7. There’s emotional and mental distress for everyone involved when seeing your loved one in so much pain and guilt for feeling tired and resentful, that’s only impounded by Anna’s pushy mother and sister who heartily disapprove of the more lower-class .

There’s a lot of different threads converging in this book and makes a rounded look at neurodivergence, romance, classism, mental health, nursing and artistic creativity.

Kiss and Tell by Adib Khorram

This standalone novel gets into the plight of being a gay boy in a popular Canadian boy band. No, it’s not homophobia, a lot of the fans are quite supportive of Hunter Drake. So so supportive of his recently ended relationship with his bandmate’s twin, Aiden, so supportive it’s basically fetishization. He’s always the one who’s chosen to go on to daytime morning shows for brunch, being touched and cooed over like a handbag. He’s a commodity and his label wants him to stick to a very specific reputation, which he’s able to do for the most part. There’s also the fact that he feels like an imposter for the gay community because even though he does offer stuff like free tickets to LGTBQ centers and matching donations, he feels like he should do more but scared of how the label will take it.

But that all goes to a backseat when Aiden in a fit of drunken bitterness release private texts about their sex life on twitter.

Yes, things just got real. I think this is the first book I’ve read (not that I’ve read many concerning gay culture to be transparent) about sex-shaming, with everyone looking at Hunter differently because he’s a bottom. Suddenly the label wants him to be more twinkish and feminine, fans are disgusted that he’s had sex, other people in the community wish he were more open about sex, there are petitions to kick him out and calling him a slut. It all hits him head on and understandably, Hunter tries his best to distract himself by dating the Kiss and Tell’s opener’s drummer, Kaivan.

Part of it is attraction, part of it is the label trying to play damage control by showing happy gay couple, but it’s not smooth sailing. The slut-shaming has damaged Hunter’s feelings about intimacy, and Kaivan is a bit difficult to like. He’s constantly putting down Hunter’s talent because he’s in a boy band, calling to mind all the criticisms of boy bands being manufactured, heteronomrative pop catering to teenage girls, an often belitted fan segment.

However, the book does not only touch on how the public labels and commodifies Hunter. It also keeps in mind of Hunter’s privilige as he’s not the only one dealing with stereotypes and labels as his bandmates, and his new boyfriend are often subjected to microaggressions and racist attacks. Basically everyone has problems in the story.

It’s entertaining and I enjoy the snippets of texts, and press releases that highlight the music industry and reaction Hunter’s situation. It reminded me of Secrets of My Hollywood Life which dealt with the inner workings of Hollywood.

As for the characters, Hunter had the most growth. Everyone else could stand to be more fleshed out, especially his friends. As for his love interest, I still do not trust him with his history of comments and sort of wish Hunter had stayed single so he can sort himself out. But I heartily enjoyed what it was trying to accomplish in its work, and an ambitious book is better than one that one talking down to readers.