The Authenticity Clause

by Calla Wells

He faked his way into the perfect job. Now he’s falling for the one man who can expose it all.
Leo Hayes is a walking, talking, charming disaster. He’s also broke. So when a tiny—okay, massive—lie on his resume lands him a position at the sleek, soul-crushingly minimalist Vance & Sterling Creative, he knows he’s in over his head. His plan is keep his head down, google everything, and survive long enough to cash a paycheck.
The plan does not include his new boss, Julian Thorne.
Julian is a brilliant, brutally honest, and meticulously organized grump who seems to be allergic to everything Leo chaos, color, and cheerful incompetence. Julian’s world is a symphony of quiet precision; Leo is a one-man jazz band during a fire alarm. He’s also the most unfairly handsome man Leo has ever seen, which is a problem Leo is absolutely not qualified to handle.
Forced to work together on a high-stakes project, their constant friction ignites into an unexpected and sizzling attraction. Late nights fueled by caffeine and sarcastic banter start to feel less like work and more like… something real. But as the lines between his fake life and his real feelings blur, Leo discovers that the most important rule isn't in any employee handbook. It’s The Authenticity Clause.
In a relationship built on a foundation of lies, can anything authentic truly grow? Or will the truth cost Leo the only real thing he’s ever had?

Genres: M M Romance

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2025

Reviews

[ancientreader]

I have no idea how to rate this. You don't often see a narrative so spectacularly oblivious of its own internal contradictions.

MC1 is a starving artist -- pretty much literally: there seems to be no food in the fridge, and he's about to be evicted for nonpayment of rent. He fake-resumes his way into a job at a marketing firm one of whose principals is the grumpy, rigidly rule-bound MC2, and shock! he turns out to be just what an "important" marketing campaign for fancy camping and hiking equipment needs. He can design a website that leads people to buy the products by making them feel that these little treats are just what they need to cheer themselves up. Also, the work turns out to be artistically fulfilling for him.

I kept thinking, "But -- but -- but -- this is a guy who was about to be homeless? And now he's working to encourage people to spend $$$ to make themselves feel good, which is the whole entire consumerist trap in the first place? Where is the critique of capitalism? WE NEED A CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM HERE! or [small voice] at least some inkling of irony?"

Anyway I was at 38% and there was not the slightest hint that the author or any of the characters found anything, you know, morally or ethically or politically amiss. Maybe someone will tell me I'm wrong and I should have kept reading, but meanwhile I'm slinking off in bewilderment and (here's some irony) returning this to KU.

The most frustrating aspect of the whole book might be that it's funny and snappily written, which is why I hung on as long as I did.

[Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why has no one else reviewed this little gem? Wells has a delightful way with crisp descriptions:

He tentatively sat down in the ergonomic chair, which immediately tried to correct his posture with the judgmental firmness of a disappointed parent.

and

"Hayes," he said. "Welcome." It didn't sound like a welcome. It sounded like a diagnosis.

and

Sarah had wanted a disruption. A chaos variable. She had gotten one, alright. Julian was currently debating the existential purpose of a fictional squirrel with him.

and

The kind of restaurant that had its own font...

The plot mixes Grumpy/Sunshine and The Lie that Will Come Back to Bite You and deals with both perfectly competently (though I do wish that sometimes Grumpy got to convert Sunshine to the Grey Side, particularly when it comes to spreadsheets). The scenes where Leo comes into his own are great fun.

A star or so off for the mildly irritating logistical inconsistencies: timings were off; names were mixed; characters who'd never met somehow knew each other; Leo paints in oils with a "row of vibrant digital paint tubes" and uses a 27" tablet—eh? The break-up + grovelling apology dragged on. On the whole, though, there's nothing that a final line edit wouldn't have sorted out.

Overall this was a highly enjoyable fresh voice, and I will certainly be looking out for Calla Wells in future. Recommended.

[Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, it is a well-written book, but for me, it lacked depth. I think they were truly well-matched. Still, all we knew about them was for the pure purpose of trying to find a compatibility between them, so I felt we could have gotten to know more about the characters as people and seen more of how they actually grew in love with each other, because I found the storytelling of their relationship shallow and rushed. Other than that, I found the artistic view very inspiring and interesting.

[Tris · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

This book was astonishingly good. I enjoyed the first 40% of the book and it made me laugh aloud plenty of times.

I guess the conflict and what happened after the two MCs got together made the upbeat rhythm of the book become too heavy for me.

I forgot to add. And a big lot of editing needs to be done. So many inconsistent change of POV - It bugged me but didn’t affect my rating.