A Beauty and the Beast retelling with a contemporary twist.

When this story began I was immediately reminded of the sweet (animated) romance I grew up loving (mostly for the library). The author truly made the story unique and modern with a lovable queer normative staff, saucy AI house companion, a misunderstood princeling with a traumatic past, and a strong-willed shelf assured reluctant-toward-love protagonist. Both a mansion and a man needing to be brought back from the shadows of neglect and loneliness.

As a quick and easy-to-read contemporary romance this story is flawless. The characters were believable in sympathy, triumphs, and their struggles. Bellamy’s charm and determination kept me reading as well as rooting for her success. Oliver’s character development was written so well, it a joy to follow his journey.

4.5 stars for this pleasurable tale as old as time. Thank you to NetGalley, author Mae Bennet, and the publisher Alcove Press for the opportunity to read this lovely ARC.

OMG the build up and the tension in this was great! I loved the plus size rep and the found family trope. It was also truly giving grumpy sunshine and I ate it up. Very swoony and romantic. I really enjoyed it

I DNF'd this one. Sadly the banter was weak and I thought the tension build-up was taking so long I lost interest.

With pipes exploding, an AI house robot and Taylor Swift references, you won't want to miss this debut!

When Bellamy arrives at Oliver’s estate as the lead contractor on the restoration, you best believe this grump was not happy. Oliver believes he is cursed due to a previous accident involving his parents, that he doesn't deserve happiness. Unknowingly, he lets Bellamy chip away at his heart along with his house and together overcome their personal problems.

I loved watching Oliver’s character development, as the story goes on you can really see the change from “beast”. This man really was a grouch. Bellamy was a strong, independent character who wanted to exceed in a male dominated career and this was perfectly executed. I liked that she was quirky and wore suspenders, not your typical FMC style.

Mae did a fantastic job to add a modern spin on this beauty & the beast retelling!

Key Points:
1st person
single pov
HEA

Tropes:
beauty & the beast retelling
Plus Size Rep
grumpy x sunshine
slow burn
found family
forced proximity

'barely even friends' is a medium-paced grumpy x sunshine rom com with the perfect amount of spice. the book keeps you engaged with it's tension and sharp and smart dialogue.

all the dynamics within the book were discovered to the fullest whether it was the main love story, side characters, complicated family relations or the quirky ai.

the name of the book was the first thing that caught my attention since it is the phrase "barely even friends" which is a part of the lyrics from the song "beauty and the beast," undoubtedly my favourite classic disney princess movie.

something i'd love to see further from the author? the love story of oliver's sister and the tim/jim.

some tropes included in the book:
✓ beauty and beast retelling
✓ plus size rep
✓ grumpy x sunshine
✓ swiftie references
✓ insecure mmc (we love to see it)
✓ idiots in love
✓ mutual pining
✓ witty banter

this book excels on all fronts, and i've only scratched the surface of its exceptional tropes. the quality of writing is astounding, especially considering it's a debut novel; the structure is impeccably crafted. it's high time everyone includes this gem in their 2024 to-be-read list.

thanks to mae bennet, netgalley and alcove press for the arc.

The cutest beauty and the beast retelling I didn’t know I needed. It’s got it all including one bed trope and enemies to lovers. MMC really is the sweetest, I love when a MMC makes me think “who hurt you?!” Oliver is honestly the greatest. And I love the fact that it is a plus size FMC and she is girl bossing her way to Oliver’s heart. Highly recommend, 5/5 stars!

This book was pretty....unremarkable. It was a fairly entertaining beauty and the beast retelling with some spice, featuring far too much talk of suspenders for my personal taste. It was weirdly drawn out, only for major developments to happen far too quickly to keep up with.
I think I wanted a bit more from this, just to really flesh it out so I could say I loved it.

This book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a HGTV renovation show vibe. I had a good time reading it. This is the first book by this author and I look forward to more to come.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

This was a cute little rom com. Bellamy is a renovator who has been trusted by her dad to take on a big project since he’s been sick. She meets a zany cast of characters in the mansion, including Oliver, a reclusive heir to a company fortune.

Things I really liked:
The banter
The best friends were so funny
The mansion crew, those meddlers
The spice was spicin!
A fat FMC - more please!!
Now I want some suspenders for myself

Also a moment for this cover please? It’s so cute!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

This was such a cute and sweet story.
A bit of enemies to lovers mixed with grumpy-sunshine with a beauty and the Beast inspired story.
I liked Oliver more than Bell - especially by the end - but overall, their romance was beautiful.
The friend group was amazing, so it was the "mansion crew." they were my favorite part of the book.
Overall, it was a fun read .


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved it! I wasn't even done with the book and I was texting all my reader friends that this this a must-read. Do yourself a favor and grab this book!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

this is such an amazing Beauty and the Beast retelling!!! I absolutely loved Bellamy & Oliver’s relationship, the classic grumpy/sunshine, enemies to lovers, forced proximity romance! Oliver is such a love able grouch. I really feel for him as we learn about his past and his family. I love the way Bellamy is a friend to him first, before they become more, because he needs a loving soul to be his friend. And I love all the eccentric side characters, especially the AI butler who’s hilarious. All in all, this is the perfect romcom for a disney lover who also loves home reno, kind souls, love and acceptance in spades, and so much fun and fire between the characters ❤️❤️‍🔥
thank you for the arc!!!!

First of all, Thank You, Netgalley for the ARC granted. And second... Everything that has to do with Beauty and the Beast vibes, use to caught my attention. So just by the titlle of this book, I could sense the aura haha AND i AM BEYOND GLAD TO CONFIRM THAT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I tought it would be! It has a compelling narrative with some spicy scenes and an enjoyable story. The characters were well built and developed some of similarities with the famous tale from the Disney princess story. It was my first reading of the year and I loved a lot! Totally recommended. 5 stars <3

"Barely Even Friends" (are you belting out ala Celine Dion right now?) offers a modern take on the enemies-to-lovers classic tale, "Beauty and the Beast." So, how does a contemporary romance novel that doesn't have elements of fantasy retell a classic built on curses, magic, and talking objects?

Well, this book has an AI for a butler.

Bellamy Price wanted nothing more than to make her father proud. To prove to him that she can take on the reins of handling their restoration business, she sets off to the Killington estate-one, which could be her ticket to uphold her family legacy. With confidence and determination, Bellamy arrives at the estate, only to find the cantankerous but attractive caretaker, who will soon become the CEO, shunning her. Left with no choice, she must either endure Oliver Killington's rude behavior or forfeit the chance to prove herself capable of handling a usually male-dominated business. But would living with someone Bellamy despises affect her drive to restore the estate to its full glory? Or will sparks start flying when she finally gets to know the one person she considers a detriment to her ambition?

Since the book is an enemies-to-lovers, the slow burn scenes fit the bill perfectly. The high-level smut scenes? It's not for everyone, so if you're the type of reader who steers clear of steamy romances, you might need to choose a different book.

The author ensured that the plot exhibited parallelism to the source material. Instead of a castle in the French kingdom, we have a sprawling estate that is up for restoration. The daughter of a sought-after house restorator is our version of Belle, and for a prince, we have a recluse heir to a massive corporation. Another good thing is I find Bellamy's connection with the household staff reminiscent of Belle's relationship with Lumière and the gang, even without its magical core. The narrative exuded a sense of familiarity. With the addition of an eclectic mix of minor characters for diversity, the story felt more up to the times sans the nostalgic charm. There's still a curse, though - albeit nothing as enchanted as a spoiled prince transformed into a hideous beast. You have to read the book to find out.

The book covers timely themes and serves as a social commentary on how women are constantly frowned upon despite their skill, ambition, and hard work to succeed in a male-dominated world. Rightly so, Bellamy still reflects Belle's ambition and tenacity, while Oliver shares Beast's grumpy demeanor - one riddled with grief and guilt. At least there's that.

But the book lacks a clear villain; its conflict swirls around the protagonists' internal turmoils.

Overall, "Barely Even Friends" is a decent retelling of a Disney classic that doesn't fully uphold its backbone. The lack of a proper antagonist diminished the evil force meant to pose an actual threat. A retelling doesn't have to mirror everything from the source material, but it feels off-kilter without a key character like Gaston. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the story lacks a more exciting plot. It just didn't hit the right notes. I'm not saying the book is terrible; it has an appealing setup with likable protagonists. I might have been more forgiving with my thoughts if the storyline gave a more gripping point of conflict. It would have made all the difference had the book been marketed on its own and not as a retelling of a classic tale that people grew up with.

Thank you, #NetGalley and #AlcovePress, for the opportunity to read this book in advance in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

What a fun, yet deep, beauty and the beast retelling, with a side of girl boss power and construction. Somehow the author manages to keep their banter heated and sharp while also superimposing a thoughtful portrayal of grief and learning your own worth. The pacing was right on target, and heated scenes including face sitting were sprinkled well throughout. Highly recommend, and I will absolutely be reading anything Mae Bennett writes in the future!

Every single interaction between Bell and oliver was supercharged with spine-tingling feels and raw sexual tension. I was laughing out loud one moment, swooning the next, fanning myself, hyperventilating, tearing up, falling in love.

This was such a cute Beauty and the Beast retelling. I loved Bellamy & Oliver’s character, it had heart, chemistry, and was told beautifully reminiscent of the tale we all know best while adding in some fun new elements. I highly enjoyed it and look forward to more Mae Bennett books in the future.

It may be time for me to finally throw in the towel and admit that I don't like contemporary romance, at least contemporary romance in its current form. Because the thing is, a lot of contemporary romances - certainly the sub-sub-genre that "Barely Even Friends" slots into - are repackaged fanfiction, not in the "written as fic and then scrubbed for identifying details" sense, but in the "writing a book specifically as fic, with that fic tie-in used as the main selling point" sense. It's too bitter a pill for me to swallow.

And look, I read fanfiction. I write fanfiction. I enjoy fanfiction. But the defining characteristic of fanfiction is that it is comfortingly familiar; the pleasure springs from the fact that the audience already knows and cares about these characters, and are essentially getting their fix of an existing dynamic. There's a creativity to it, but it is a very different type of creativity than what's required for original fiction. In fanfiction - specifically AU fanfiction, where the characters are placed in a different setting to play out the familiar story beats with a few tweaks - the audience feels like they're in on the joke when, for example, Avengers Tower is turned into Avengers Coffee Shop & Bakery. In a book packaged and sold as original, that in-joke feeling isn't there. I don't chuckle knowingly at the revelation that Oliver was known as "Beast" when he played football, because I don't expect the author of an original work to rely on someone else's creativity to bolster their characters. I feel cheated. These books don't fit the technical, legal definition of plagiarism (fortunately for their authors, otherwise they'd be getting some strongly-worded letters from Disney's legal department) but they are fundamentally lazy, and that's equally disappointing.

(I can hear you saying, "but it was pitched as a Beauty and the Beast retelling, what did you expect?" And that's another slippery little trick these publishers are playing: saying "Beauty and the Beast retelling" without specifically mentioning that they mean DISNEY'S Beauty and the Beast can imply any number of things. It's an old fairy tale, after all; lots of people have taken a run at it over the years. Robin McKinley's done it. Emma Donoghue's done it. Loretta Chase has done it. Hell, Sarah J. Maas has done it - and I'm not making any statements about the quality of ACOTAR, but at least she didn't rely on Disney iconography to make it!)

But okay - let's lay aside all the stuff about how this book functions as a retelling (ripoff) of the Disney movie. How does it work as a book? Honestly: not well. I know there's a certain amount of buy-in involved in the romance genre, where the reader accepts the heightened reality of it all and doesn't question people acting in ways that would raise eyebrows in the real world. But there is a limit, and this book exceeds it. Repeatedly. That's another clue about the fanfiction origins, honestly: the tropes of our leads getting shoved into a room together by matchmaking employees, or the heroine knowing, frankly, an unnerving amount about her best friend's sex life with his boyfriend (who exists to cheer on her relationship in a retrograde example of the gay best friend cliché). The implicit assumption is that the reader picked up this book for a regurgitation of existing plot beats and nothing more: no creativity, no originality, nothing. Here's the scene where we find out the hero is good with kids. Here's the scene where the leads get mistaken for boyfriend and girlfriend. A good romance novelist will build something new and interesting on this scaffolding, creating unique, compelling characters who the audience wants to spend time with. But there's none of that here. Oliver and Bellamy are ciphers; the extent of their personalities is that Bellamy wears suspenders and is fat (seriously, the suspenders get mentioned every other page) and Oliver is sad and grumpy. Everything about this book screams paint by numbers, a cynical grab on the publisher's part for an easy audience who will eat up the literary equivalent of a McDonald's Happy Meal. And not a good Happy Meal, either. The kind that's been left sitting in the backseat of your car for several hours, so the fries have gone cold and the burger is soggy.

I don't want to be mean to the author here, because the problems with "Barely Even Friends" go a lot deeper than an individual writer's failings. This book is emblematic of an ongoing trend where authors get picked up by publishers, not because they have a story to tell, but because they can be used as a cog in the assembly line of pre-packaged, disposable content. It's entirely possible that the author of this book has a great story in her, but in picking up this title, her publishers failed her. They shoved her out in front of an audience without any care for the quality of her work or how quickly she would get left behind once this current wave of fan-to-pro fiction dies, and honestly, it's irresponsible on their part. And it makes me feel bad for both the author, and the audience who publishers think so little of that they keep serving up slop in the assumption that it's all their readers deserve. Readers deserve better. Authors deserve better. We all deserve better.

Bennett will make you laugh, cry, and swoon in this highly addictive, swoon worthy and amazing debut romance. Bellamy and Oliver’s love story is brimming with emotion, intensity, and hotness that kept my heart racing.

For some reason I didn't expect the beauty and the beast retelling. I don't know why but that took me by surprise and unfortunately I didn't warm up to the book. I can't exactly point out whether it was the plot that was a bit too predictable or the characters because I didn't feel a connection to them, probably both.