This book is everything I want in a friends-to-lovers romance. It’s warm, funny, deeply emotional, and brimming with intimacy. The chronic illness rep is tender and nuanced, the friendship is rich and real, and the slow unraveling of feelings is just so satisfying. The writing captures those quiet, intimate beats, shared glances, inside jokes, the unspoken ache of wanting more so perfectly. It’s cozy, clever, and full of heart. I adored it.

From the moment I saw that this book featured a marriage of convenience for health insurance, I was in.

The friends-to-lovers trope can be hit or miss for me, but Theo and Evie were adorable. Their shared obsession with Survivor and the glimpses into their childhood friendship added a great deal of warmth and authenticity to their relationship. It was clear how deeply they knew and understood each other.

I also appreciated the representation of chronic illness. Both characters' experiences navigating the U.S. healthcare system added depth and realism to the story. Since the book is told in dual POV, I do wish we’d gotten a bit more insight into what Theo was dealing with internally. There were strong hints of health-related anxiety, and while it was subtly woven in, I would have loved to see it explored more directly, especially given how much it shaped his reactions and decisions.

Overall, I adored this book. The balance of heartfelt romance, emotional nuance, and thoughtful exploration of mental health and chronic illness was everything I was looking for. These are the kind of romances I desperately search for on the shelves of bookstores!

I've been WAITING for a books like this to hit the market (marriage of convenience based on our wacky, dum-dum economic system) and I'm SO GLAD Kanter was on this train because I'm such a fan, and she did NOT disappoint. Add in the foley artist angle and some slow-burn love action and I'm SAT.

3⭐️ Marriage of convenience meets friends to lovers. Evie has a dream opportunity when she is selected for a fellowship. But with her medical issues, she needs insurance. She knows the medical bills have piled up and her grandparents don’t complain. However, she’s ready to take on the burden. She just needs to figure out how to have insurance and pay the bills. Theo needs a new roommate but had to meet a certain wage. So, they get married. Theo had the loophole for his apartment and Evie will have insurance. But will this break their long-term friendship in a good way or a bad way.

Thank you @netgalley and Celadon Books for the advanced reader copy.

I received this e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for the copy!

Childhood best friends, Evie & Theo, end up getting married. But it’s not your typical marriage. Theo gets to keep his apartment and Evie gets health insurance, which also means she can accept a fellowship that doesn’t include insurance! This marriage is out of convenience for both parties, but that doesn’t mean feelings aren’t involved. It only gets complicated from here.

This book kind of drug on. I can appreciate the concept and where the author wanted it to go, but it was just too much back and forth between the main characters. The characters also didn’t have a bunch of development until what seemed like the last minute.

Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon books for my advanced readers copy. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this and DNF around the 20% mark. I wasn’t connecting with the characters and found it to be a little slow.

This book was a solid 3.5 stars for me - but sadly goodreads doesn’t offer that as an option. I enjoyed the relationship that Evie and Theo shared, while also getting frustrated by their inability to communicate with each other. This book did a great job of looking at chronic illness and anxiety- and I appreciated how these topics were absorbed into the storyline and normalized. I found the story easy to read and it only took me two days to get through it because I kept wanting to return to it. I struggled with Evie always seeing herself as the victim and her seeming inability for much of the story, despite years of therapy, to see how her actions were affecting others. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this story!

This was a lovely sweet read. based on the description, i thought it would be a lighter fluffier story, but adding the complexities of medical trauma, gave it a really nice twist emotionally. It was a delight from start to finish, and I can't wait to recommend it to my readers.

I thought this was a good marriage of convenience story. Evie is a Foley artist and Theo is a school teacher. They decide to get married so Evie can use Theo’s benefits. They have been best friends for years and as a good romance story goes they eventually realize they love each other and then have to decide if they want to make the marriage permanent. I found Evie’s job as a Foley artist really interesting. I knew some of the aspects about the profession before but this book detailed more information. Theo sounds like a wonderful teacher and I admired his dedication and love of the profession.

This book is for anyone who loves romance with stakes, friendships with real history, and stories that wrap you up so fully, you forget you're reading and not just living it. There are some steamy scenes, but the real heart of the story is their connection, the fear of ruining their friendship, and finally choosing each other for real. I couldn't put it down.

My first book by this author and it won’t be my last.

Friends with Benefits was a well written story of two friends who enter a marriage of convenience and fall in love. You will fall in love with these characters while reading this book.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Celadon Books for letting me read this advanced copy!

The journey that some people have to go on to find themselves and love is always interesting. Evie and Theo are no exception.

⭐️⭐️💫2.5 rounded up. This had a fun premise—a marriage of convenience between longtime friends who (surprise!) have been harboring feelings for each other for years. I appreciated the slow shift from friendship to romance once they finally decided to communicate. That said, it didn’t fully click for me. The pacing dragged a bit, and the emotional payoff wasn’t as strong as I hoped. Cute moments, but overall just okay. It did have good representation of invisible disabilities.

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit Open Door: At least two intimate scenes, explicit language with a variety of sexual acts.

Read if you like:
•Forced Proximity
•Friends to Lovers
•Marriage of Convenience
•Childhood Friends

The story dragged for me and it was a bit boring. I found it really get into it and ended up skipping through it

I was lucky enough to to get both the eARC of this and a physical copy from Celedon. On first glance, its a beautiful book with a great premise. It looked like it was going to be a fun easy read just in time for the summer kickoff. There were some things that I loved about this book and others that I didn’t.

Pros: I absolutely loved the representation and inclusion in this book. I am a mother of a chronically ill child who is battling with the healthcare system myself, and this book had great representation of the state of affairs in America. I loved the characters and the depth of their friendship. I loved the uniqueness in a genre where you can see the same things over and over.

Cons: It was slow and kind of boring. I went into this thinking it was going to be a comedy and a friends to lovers easy story. It wasn’t that. It was much more serious and sad.

Overall, I would recommend this to fans of fiction in addition to fans of romance. This leans heavily into the women’s fiction genre.

This is cute story of two friends who need decide to get married to help each other. One needs to be married to keep his apartment the other needs insurance. One of them is secretly in love with the other. This can only end one way. They just have to convince the other that being more than friends is the best thing for them both.

Thank you to the publisher and author. All thoughts are my own.
I enjoyed this. I found both Evie and Theo to be relatable. Both characters were written with care. I appreciated Evie’s chronic illness battles and Theo’s caring nature.

I feel like there was a lot of research that went into this novel in terms of the chronic illness rep.

This is a 3rd person POV, but I didn’t find the world build or story to be too surface level.

I enjoyed this book!

While I appreciate the chronic illness rep in this novel, I felt that I couldn’t connect to Evie. I am also someone who live with a chronic illness and I consistently try to not let my illness define me. I felt like Evie wasn’t afforded the tools to become a complex character, but rather defined herself according to her illness when she could have been so much more.
What is perplexing to me is that Theo’s character is as handled with much more care in terms of development. He was relatable and endearing, where Evie fell flat.
As their relationship progressed, I noticed how inorganic it felt. The language the used with each other in the intimate scenes really threw me off, as it was a far cry to how they normally speak.

Normally I love a friends-to-lovers romance with a marriage of convenience, which is why I requested this ARC. Unfortunately due to the relationship dynamics, character development and overall pacing of this novel, I can only give this book 1 star.

A beautifully written friends to lovers, marriage of convenience romance that transcends tropes and bring something deep and meaningful to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I initially requested this because I recognized the author’s name as one of my favorite audiobook narrators and was intrigued! I liked learning about the Foley profession, how it raised critiques of the healthcare system and raised awareness about Crohns, and the characters were mostly likeable. I’m also a fan of childhood friends to lovers and marriage of convenience. What I didn’t like as much was the flashback chapters — they slowed down the story and I felt like they didn’t contribute anything. The events could be conferred. I also found some elements of the writing style to be annoying, like the constant repetition, but that’s likely a personal tick! I’ll definitely read Kanter’s next book. 3.5 rounded up