Thank you Netgalley for giving me the privilege of reading and reviewing this book. All opinions are completely my own and in my own words

I always find it hard to review poetry due to the personal nature of the content.

Friends with Benefits make me feel seen and understood. It's like Marisa Kanter is using my thoughts to write. I'm tired and done being here, but I'm not alone it seems.

Marriage of convenience plots generally do NOT work for me because the setups are usually so contrived and unbelievable. Friends With Benefits, however, is based on an entirely believable problem in the 21st-century United States: Evie Bloom has a chronic inflammatory disease and needs good health insurance, so she’s reluctant to quit her secure-but-boring job and pursue an unpaid internship in the industry that really interests her. Theo Cohen, her best friend, is a teacher and can offer Evie the insurance she needs. Voilà, a marriage of convenience that doesn’t require suspension of disbelief.

Although Friends With Benefits has a basic rom-com setup, Marisa Kanter dives deep into the emotional well—there were chapters when I felt tears stinging my eyes. Evie and Theo both have a lot of past trauma to work through, so don’t pick up this book if you’re looking for pure escape. The overall plot is pretty typical for friends-to-lovers/marriage of convenience, but Kanter adds enough nuance and texture to Evie and Theo to make Friends With Benefits stand out from the crowd.

This was such a fun and charming read! I flew through it in a day because I just couldn’t put it down. The plot was super cute and felt fresh, even while playing with some familiar tropes in the best way. It had the perfect mix of sweetness, banter, and emotional depth without ever feeling too heavy.

I loved the dynamic between the two main characters—it was believable, endearing, and had just enough tension to keep me fully invested. Their chemistry was natural, and the friends-to-lovers setup was executed perfectly. There were also some really heartwarming moments that made me smile (and maybe tear up a little), which is always a win for me.

Overall, this was a quick and satisfying story with a great balance of romance and personal growth. I’ll definitely be recommending it and keeping Marisa Kanter on my radar for future releases.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I loved this book! Friends with Benefits follows best friends and long-time dance partners Evelyn and Theo. After an injury ends Evelyn’s dance career, she’s also diagnosed with a chronic illness. When she gets chosen for a dream internship opportunity, Theo offers to marry her so she can use his health insurance - making them friends with literal benefits.

Fans of friends-to-lovers and marriage of convenience will love this one! Great banter and the perfect amount of spice!

4.5 ⭐️ | .5 🌶️

Evie. Theo. Evelyn. Theodore.
They’re friends with benefits. Best friends with literal benefits - their pseudo fake marriage of convenience is for health insurance and meeting rental income thresholds. But they’ve always been interested in one another, shown in weird, messy, convoluted ways.

I loved this one, I think? I was hooked but occasionally had to take a beat because sometimes it mirrored real life a little too closely. Are they tap dancers in a former life?! (Ugh. Literally same). Does her best friend/ partner/ husband deal with health anxiety? (Again…. Same). Was the grief, anxiety, and parent problems a bit stressful? Yes. Was I completely amused and entertained by their careers - a teacher who uses “1985” by Bowling for Soup as punishment and an aspiring Foley artist - yep. Was I also rooting for them to both pull their heads of their asses? Yes.

There was really good mental health and chronic illness representation in this one too.

💃🏻🕺 dancers
📓 teacher
🤝 friends to lovers
👩‍❤️‍👨 marriage of convenience

This one was not for me. I love a good romance. I love friends to lovers and marriage of convenience. They are seriously my fave tropes. However, this one was just too slow paced and didn’t hit for me

Evie and Theo have been friends have been best friends since childhood. But when Evie accepts her dream job as a Foley artist and Theo's roommates move out, they decide to get married. That way Theo can stay in his apartment and Evie will have the health insurance she desperately needs. But will their past feelings for each other blur the lines of their 'fake' marriage?

This was a fun book with a good plot and great characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

We love a marriage of convenience!! Evie and Theo are best friends from childhood who end up in a fake marriage to keep an apartment and get health insurance. Sooo normal! I really enjoyed the health insurance/Crohn's disease plotline, highlighting just how valuable good insurance is and how debilitating invisible illness and disability can be. It really offers a great perspective on living with this and managing it firsthand. One aspect that was a bit too much for me was the focus on Theo's mom's cancer. Normally, this isn't a huge deal for me, but maybe it's triggering me because I finished it so close to Mother's Day. I think it was real and raw and relatable, but more so just heavy-handed at a hard time for me. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, though, and definitely recommend it!

There’s something about the friends to lovers trope that gets me every time. And the fake marriage element made it that much more interesting to me.

I was really looking forward to this story, but it took me a while to hook me in. I’m not sure if it was the present tense narration or how long it took for the action to really get going, but I wasn’t really invested until about 20% into the book.

That didn’t stop me from devouring it from there, though. I loved watching Theo and Evie come to terms with their feelings for each other. The chronic illness, mental health and LGBTQIA+ representation was a welcome addition. And overall I enjoyed this story.

A solid 3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4⭐️.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the free e-ARC of this book.

Friends with Benefits tells a sweet story about the love between friends that grows into something bigger. Evie and Theo meet as children in a dance class. They fiercely protect their friendship as the grow up, each one feeling attractions at different times. The common trope of bad timing and poor communication is ever present. Marisa Kanter weaves in important issues like health insurance, medical care, marriage equality, teacher pay, and housing shortages/pricing. The friends to lovers trope is such a fun plot device and Kanter takes it to a different level.

Evie Bloom is getting the fellowship of her dreams. The only thing is it doesn’t come with health insurance which is not a big deal except for the fact that she deals with Crohn’s and needs the health benefits. Meanwhile, Theo just found out his roommate is moving out and he’s not sure if he can afford living on his own… Evie and Theo have been friends for years and when both of them found a way to mutually fix each other’s problems… can they stay friends or will it progress to something deeper?

I thought this book was pretty good although there were moments where the pacing could be a little bit better. This is a good rom-com while talking about deeper issues as well. I love the representation of chronic illness here too! I gave it 3 stars for the pacing and at times I thought the plot was a little messy but still enjoyed the book!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC ❤️

I’m a huge fan of marriage of convenience and this one is just up my alley. Knowing someone with a lifelong illness this really speaks to me. Even though in Canada we have pretty decent coverage, this still speaks to me.

This is a good beach read book. There is nothing new or deep in the story but the characters are likable if not predictable.

If you are looking for something fun and light to read this will be a good choice.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Celadon for the free e-ARC of this book!

Friends to lovers is a hit-or-miss trope for me, but marriage of convenience—especially when done right—is one of my favorites. The combo of these two tropes is what drew me to Friends with Benefits. Our main characters get married so Theo can keep his rent-controlled apartment in LA, and Evie can be added to Theo’s health insurance (get it? Health benefits??!). I thought that was such a clever and fun twist on the title.

My main issue with the book? I believed in their friendship—I just didn’t believe in their romance. Like, at all. I could see Theo’s feelings for Evie, but I never fully bought that Evie reciprocated those romantic feelings. And the thing is, I like Evie. But if I were her friend, I’d be warning any potential love interest to run. She has some deeply rooted trauma that she actively refuses to deal with. Throughout the book, she lashes out at nearly everyone around her simply for growing up and moving forward with their lives, which makes her a tough romantic lead—but not an uninteresting one.

Evie’s gone through it: she had to give up her love of dance due to an injury, she’s dealing with an autoimmune disease, her mom was never present, and she got seriously screwed over at work by someone she trusted. I get why she is the way she is, but honestly, she feels more like the protagonist of a coming-of-age novel than a romance heroine.

All in all, this was a quick, easy summer read—but I’m not sure I’d enthusiastically recommend it.

Thank you Celadon Books and Net Galley for the advanced reader copy. I started this book slowly, but soon got involved in the lives of the two main characters. I love the portrayal of an inspired teacher working to make a difference, and as I had never heard of "Foley artist", I learned about that career, which was interesting. It is a standard storyline of two friends who ignore their attraction until the end, but it was very modernized and fun. An enjoyable happy tale.

I have had my eye on this book for a minute to read. I finally was able to dedicate time and read the story. Overall, I loved the representation of LGBTQ+ and chronic illnesses. Friend to Lovers and Fake Dating (marriage) are two of my favorite tropes. Overall the story was cute and light hearted. I adored Theo but had a really difficult time connecting with Evie as a MFC. There were aspects about her I really liked, but also felt a little flat in her character development. Overall, her development as a character felt really rushed. The relationship between the two characters felt a little co-dependent for me, which is likely due to their backstory. Overall, I am glad I got to read the book and thank you to NetGallery and Celadon Books for allowing me to read the ARC.

A MC with Crohn's disease and a love of reality TV?!?!? I feel so seen! I love friends to lovers and forced proximity tropes and this fully delivered on both! While I wanted to shake the main couple a few times over their miscommunications, their love story was sweet and very believable.

📚 Book Review 📚
Friends With Benefits | Marisa Kanter
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 | 🌶️🌶️🌶️️
Publication Date: 5/6/2025
Genre: Romance

Themes:
- Friends to Lovers
- Fake Dating/ Marriage
- Roommates
- Chronic Illness

Overall: 3.5/5
An emotional, slow-burning friends-to-lovers romance involving a marriage of convenience.

Plot: 4/5
While the main plot was straightforward, the side plot about the characters' careers, health, and family helped keep the storyline more original and unique.

Characters: 4.5/5
Theo is everything you would want in a best friend or lover, and Evie is an extremely driven and caring person. Although I feel that Evie took Theo for granted in this book, that didn't sit right with me.

Spice: 3/5
MF/ Open door scenes. While they opened a box full of kink toys, they never used them. Bummer.

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#romance #romancereader
#FakeDating #SecondChanceRomance
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I really wanted to love Friends with Benefits, but it was just ok. Although Evie’s career as a Foley artist added a unique element to this book, Evie was not a likable character. I adored Theo though! I also liked the flashbacks, but something was missing from Evie and Theo’s romantic relationship.

I really enjoyed this story. The friends to lovers trope was beautifully done. Evelyn and Theo’s relationship is so special and rare. It was a great read. Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon books for the ARC. (I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)