The Boyfriend Project

by Farrah Rochon

[Angie]

The Boyfriend Project is one of those books that promises an excellent and unique premise, and then falls flat. Samiah is getting ready for a date with her current boyfriend when her sister starts reading her a Twitter thread about the date from Hell. Well, it turns out that guy is her current boyfriend and he's out with another woman! Samiah shows up at the restaurant to tell him off and another woman who's dating him also shows up! The three women form a friend group and swear to give up men for six months in order to work on themselves. Sounds great!

I had to majorly suspend belief to get into The Boyfriend Project, because that opening chapter was just not believable. It's not like Twitter is very localized. What are the chances that Samiah's sister saw this thread? Maybe if it had been on Facebook or Instagram, and it was shared by some mutual friend or acquaintance. Fine. Random Twitter user? Not likely. Even more unlikely is that the third woman also just happened to have a friend who stumbled upon it. Basically, Twitter is the not the best platform to catch a catfisher.

As for the actually boyfriend project of The Boyfriend Project, it's abandoned about halfway in when Samiah decides that she wants to date the new hottie in her office, Daniel. She's suppose to be focusing on creating her app not on dating! But whatever. After that, the women's weekly check-ins weren't interesting anymore. They're each suppose to be working on something personal to them, but then it just becomes about Samiah's relationship when we even got those scenes at all.

As for Daniel, I didn't really care for him either way. He's completely smitten with Samiah right from the beginning, but it takes her a bit to catch up with him. However, it was annoying to me how he kept comparing himself to Twitter-Craig for lying to Samiah. Craig was living multiple lives and scamming people. Daniel is undercover to stop a money laundering ring at Samiah's company. That's not even remotely the same thing. At least until near the end when he does something unforgivable, which she forgives him for.

I need to talk about this unforgivable thing a bit more, because it was just awful. Daniel put Samiah's job at risk in order to complete his own job and it's just brushed aside as something that had to be done, but also turned out to be a good thing for Samiah! She doesn't get fired, but she does get into serious trouble, which...gives her more time to develop her app, which is exactly what she wanted all along. What?! No! He wrong her terribly! He could have gotten her in huge trouble! Do not forget that by flipping it to say now she can work on her dream project!

Another thing that annoyed me was how Daniel's ethnicity was handled. Samiah is a black woman and that plays a huge role in her characterization and how she handles work and her app. She knows she has to work much harder and be "perfect" or she won't get a second chance. Or worse, she might hinder other black women's chances of entering the tech field if she sets a bad example. Daniel is half-Black and half-Korean, but I honestly kept forgetting that he was Black, because he only talks about his Korean side. Being biracial has its own set of limitations and privileges; I would know...

So, The Boyfriend Project didn't work for me. I wanted a lot more from the friend group. A lot more. I feel like that was a lost opportunity. The romance was just okay, which is not okay for a Romance Novel. I was simply left annoyed and unsatisfied.