This was my first book by the author and I did not know what to expect going in. All I knew was it was had a marriage of convenience and that is my favorite trope! This book did not disappoint, in fact I fell in love with it. The FMC, Evie, has Crohn's disease and she must have insurance. Her dream internship doesn't offer benefits. In comes Theo, her best friend since childhood, who has fantastic insurance and offers to marry her so that she can be covered. Friends with Benefits...get it, like health insurance packages. Evie never wants to get married but maybe for her dreams, she can fake it and move in with Theo until she can secure her own benefits? This is a complicated story of best friends who always seem to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and both continually deny their feelings for each other. This was very reminiscent of Abby Jimenez books and that just made my heart so happy. It wasn't overly spicy, it had just the right amount. It touches on grief, on complicated parental figures, mental health, and the struggles of having an autoimmune disease. This may possibly be a top romance read for me in 2025! (it's only January, I need to calm down) 😂

Read if you enjoy:
-marriage of convenience
-friends to lovers
-mental health/chronic health rep
-bi main character
-Jewish main characters (although they do admit to not being the most devout)

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first time reading this author, and definitely won’t be my last!

Read if you enjoy:
*** Friends to lovers
*** Marriage of convenience
*** Low steam
*** Cronic illness rep

I was a little thrown off at first cuz I assumed a completely different route with the title, but still found myself enjoying this read. I felt this book greatly represented someone with a cronic illness and the constant worry over healthcare needs. It was very character driven, which I appreciated.

I will look out for future novels by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

I thought this was going to be light and breezy but OOF the emotions this book pulled out of me. I really enjoyed how the emotional relationship was the forefront of the romance

OH. MY. GOSH.

I LOVED this book so much! The cover, the description, and the title really sounded interesting to me but this is easily one of my favorite books I’ve read so far this year!!

So so so good!!!

This was a cute read that was both a romance, story about grief and living with chronic illness. The fmc has Crohn's Disease and has to deal with the healthcare and insurance system along with having to put a hold on her dreams because of it. The mmc is the fmc's friend who is a school teacher who is still dealing with the grief of losing his mother. They both agree to become roommates and marry for insurance reasons which leads to the friends with the benefits aspect as mentioned in the title.

This was low steam that focused more on the emotional and character development aspect which I quite liked. I loved the Jewish rep and all the threads that were explored in this book. There are some flashbacks and though I did think the third-act breakup was a bit dramatic I liked this book and would recommend it. Thank you, Celadon for this arc.

Read for:
- Friends to lovers
- Roomated to lovers
- Friends with Benefits
- Jewish mcs
- Crohn's disease rep
- Grief

This book just felt like a non military version of the common military romance trope wherein they get married because he needs something like money and she needs insurance....kind of like that movie Purple Hearts.

4 stars
The third pov threw me off a little and it is similar to 'People We Meet On Vacation,' by Emily Henry