Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Authenticity Project

As a concept I think the story had so much potential but I found it very hard to like a single character. Monica was the only one that grew on me but I felt like her character development was lost at the end.

her relationship with Hazard felt rushed and unnatural, especially because I feel like in the real world, a random postcard from a stranger is threatening, not worthy of being pinned to a wall. It meant that their chemistry was lacking and unbelievable for me.

Julian was also just a manipulative liar and had an ending that felt like a cop out as

he died for no reason and without facing the consequences of his actions to the full extent.

The redeeming qualities for me were the side characters such as Benji, Baz and Betty (Mrs Wu) and I believe the Authenticity Project could’ve been so much better following their authentic selves and the journey of open sexuality in a traditional Chinese family rather than a mommy blogger who’s addicted to her phone.

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ramreadsagain's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

On balance this is just over a three star read as there are a lot of things I liked but also quite a bit I didn’t like.

I thought the characters weren’t very well developed beyond their main “thing” and half the time I didn’t understand why they all because such good friends as they never seemed very compatible.

Julian was just straight up an unpleasant character.

However I did like the message of first impressions often being wrong and the need to be honest and communicate, the “found family” aspects as well as some of the character growth shown.

I didn’t like how Alice’s character was framed as it really just boiled down to “technology and influencers bad”. I understand the point about authenticity and a lot of celebrities and influencers being unauthentic and their online lives being shallow/fake however the book also just seemed to treat her career (because that’s what it was) in quite a derogatory fashion.

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foursythia's review

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

An okay book, maybe meh. Felt rushed by the last 50-60 pages.

It was great, sweet, heartwarming, just the right amount of soft and sugar. And then somewhere before the middle, the author can't stop adding more characters & stories into the spider webs only to have so many of them.... vanished into thin air. Not much significance, hanging. The ending was? Sounds like somebody force the author to just write/come up with anything & wrap it up in 50 pages. How did Julian and Riley really just have that non-closure closure? And I feel like Alice & Bunty, if were only to be written such resolve, could've entirely be blipped out of the story (she does not contribute significantly to the plot anyway) and dedicate those pages to Riley & Julian's resolve. Monica's character was way too rigid the entire book to just suddenly have a magical 'wake up call' & change her mind in what? A night? A week of realization?

But let's talk about what works for me. It's light bites, easy to read & flip through, very light hearted too, the characters was lovely though a little lacking depth and deserve better plot. Give it a try only if you're like, really bored & feeling random. It's a happy hopeful read, though.

Ps., damn the women's overthinking here is kinda crazy me thinks.

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