Basic Windows 8 / 8.1 Rest Toolkit

RestToolkit.cs

public class RestToolkit : IDisposable
{
    private readonly string _endPoint;
    private readonly HttpClient _client = new HttpClient();

    public RestToolkit(string endPoint)
    {
        _endPoint = endPoint;
    }

    public async Task<T> Get<T>(string route)
    {
        HttpResponseMessage response;
        try
        {
            response = await _client.GetAsync(_endPoint + route);
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return default(T);
        }

        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
    }

    public async Task<bool> Get(string route)
    {
        HttpResponseMessage response;
        try
        {
            response = await _client.GetAsync(_endPoint + route, HttpCompletionOption.ResponseHeadersRead);
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return false;
        }

        return response.IsSuccessStatusCode;
    }

    public async Task<bool> Post(Object objectToPost, string route)
    {
        HttpResponseMessage response;
        try
        {
            response = await _client.PostAsync(_endPoint + route, CreatePostContent(objectToPost));
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return false;
        }

        return response.IsSuccessStatusCode;
    }

    public async Task<T> Post<T>(Object objectToPost, string route)
    {
        HttpResponseMessage response;
        try
        {
            response = await _client.PostAsync(_endPoint + route, CreatePostContent(objectToPost));
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return default(T);
        }

        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
    }

    public async Task<bool> Authenticate(string userName, string password, string confirmationRoute)
    {
        try
        {
            var authenticationData = String.Format("{0}:{1}", userName, password);
            var authHeader = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(authenticationData)));
            _client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = authHeader;

            var connected = await _client.GetAsync(_endPoint + confirmationRoute, HttpCompletionOption.ResponseHeadersRead);
            if (connected.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
                return true;

            _client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = null;
            return false;
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    public StringContent CreatePostContent(Object content)
    {
        var jsonContent = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(content, new JsonSerializerSettings {TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Objects});
        var postContent = new StringContent(jsonContent, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

        return postContent;
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
    }

    protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        if (!disposing)
            return;

        if (_client != null) _client.Dispose();
    }
}