The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

  I like the set up of this book. Samiah Brooks is an intelligent and accomplished African-American woman who works in the tech industry at a company called Trendsetters. The story begins with Samiah finding out that the guy she's been seeing is a liar who's been dating her and multiple other women. She confronts him at a restaurant. The upside of this dating disater is that Samiah gets two new friends out of it - Taylor and London - two other women who had been duped by the same guy. I wouldn't be surprised if there were future books focusing on these two women.

Samiah's work life is going better than her romantic life. She's a star at work and better yet, a hot new guy named Daniel Collins just joined the team. They flirt for awhile before there's a kiss. Then he abruptly pulls back before diving back in. Slowly Samiah and Daniel find themselves in the beginning throes of a relationship. There is just one problem - Daniel isn't exactly who he claims to be.

Be forewarned, there are spoilers going forward...

Turns out Daniel is an undercover federal agent sent to find out who at Trendsetters has been laundering dirty money that could be used to fund terrorist activities. On the whole Daniel is very good at his job. Unfortunately for him Trendsetters is even at better at securing sensitive information. Much of what Trendsetters does is solve computer related problems for other companies and that necessitates keeping private information private. So private that Daniel can't infiltrate the company's security protocols.

Eventually an opportunity presents itself. Remember how Samiah is a star at work. Being star also means having a better security clearance. One night after sleeping with her, Daniel steals Samiah's access card and makes a copy of it. This is where I fell off the Daniel train and had trouble getting back on. Once he had access to the necessary areas of Trendsetters, Daniel is able to find the evidence he needs and bad people are arrested. Sure Daniel had to lie and steal from Samiah, but it was for the greater good, right?

Here's my problem. By stealing Samiah's access card, Daniel not only puts Samiah's job, but her entire career at risk. Several times in the book Samiah talks about the obstacles she faces in her career as a Black women in an industry where there are relatively few women, few people of color, and even fewer women of color. Samiah knows people don't expect her to be smart. They don't assume she knows programming. Colleagues steal her ideas but she can't make a fuss because then she would be the Angry Black Woman who isn't a team player. She has gotten to used to people being slightly disappointed and shocked when they learn that the "S" in sbrooks@trendsetters.com stands for Samiah and not Sarah or something else more White sounding. She has to work twice as hard as anyone else to be taken seriously. She does it because she loves what she does and because she wants to pave the women for other women and people of color in the tech industry.

Daniel knows all of this and steals her access card anyway. Sure at the end of the day some bad guys get caught doing bad things, but the fact that it was Samiah's access card that got stolen will haunt her and her career. And in fact, she is punished for it at work. For reasons, the punishment works in her favor but still it is a punishment.

Because this is a romance, there must be a happily-ever-after, which is to say, everything works out in the end between Samiah and Daniel. But it felt disingenuous. Yes Daniel apologizes, but it was a quick "Sorry I lied. I had no choice, and hey, I really do like you." It wasn't enough of an apology and not enough time had passed between the betrayal and the happily-ever-after moment. In the end, the fact that a Black woman has to get thrown under the proverbial bus for the so-called greater good just didn't sit well with me. For that reason, I cannot entirely recommend this book.