Unfortunately this book was a dnf. I was so excited for this story after reading the blurb but I struggled to have a connection and based on that couldn't continue. I feel like the premise of the story was good and if I would've felt a connection with the characters I would have really enjoyed this.

This was a cute, heartwarming story. I loved the Crohn’s representation and the truth of the American healthcare system.

Cute!

Chronic disability rep.
Best friends to lovers.
Sort of second/third chance-ish.
Absolute simps for each other.

A solid 3.5 star book.

I enjoyed the story, but I did start to get frustrated with the FMC in the last third. I know why she was written the way she was, and I totally get it, but for me, personally, people who act like that frustrate me in real life. So...while it's a very realistic representation of some people, it also irritated ME, personally.

And while I liked the very last chapter, I do think some people will be irritated by it. It felt a little bit like when a character claims they don't want children over and over and then at the very end they change their mind, it's incredibly frustrating for people who genuinely don't want children and often have that choice disregarded, and often you don't see yourself represented because everyone always tells you, "you'll change your mind." When you finally see people with the same beliefs as you being represented and then they....change their minds, it's incredibly invalidating, and I do think there will be some people who feel like this at the end of this book (not about children, just using that as an example as to not spoil anything).

But, all in all...enjoyable. Will definitely recommend it when people want a BFF-to-lovers read.

Unfortunately this book was just not for me. I love a good romance novel when it is well done, but these characters were were just not that likeable. I thought the audiobook narration was really good. Other than that this was just an okay read for me.

Friends with Benefits is the story of Theo and Evie, who have known each other since childhood and end up getting married for practical reasons. The premise of this book, and the character’s lives had a lot of potential interest, but their relationship didn’t work for me. The more I read about Evie, the less I liked her.

Another great story from Marisa Kanter. Evie and Theo are both so clueless about their feelings for one another. I love how Marisa walks these two characters through little situations to help them realize their feelings.

The ending is perfect.

Gail Shalan and GM Hakim did a great job narrating this story and I look forward to listening to more of their work in the future.

I really enjoyed this book! The narrators did such a great job. I was reeled in and hooked from the start. This story had a lot of depth and I really like how the author layered in relatable situations when it comes to heath and finances.
I'll be scheduling a post on Instagram and will add that link once it's posted.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Cute read for the most part, I wasn't completely in love with the MC's and their romance but enjoyed it overall.

This was such a cute and charming read! If you like friends-to-lovers stories with a bit of awkwardness, heart, and pop culture banter, this one delivers. The main characters have great chemistry, and I appreciated how their friendship felt genuine before anything romantic even started happening.

The writing style is easy and conversational—perfect for a weekend escape or a beach read. It has some real moments about vulnerability and figuring out feelings, but it never gets too heavy. Overall, it’s sweet, funny, and just a little messy in the best way.

This was cute, if predictable. Evie and Theo are likable characters that actually grow over the course of the novel. While you can see the ending coming from a mile away it is still a satisfying conclusion. It was a quick read with the perfect amount of spice.

I received an ALC from MacMillan Audio on Net Galley and this is my review.

I really enjoyed this sweet, thoughtful, and quietly emotional friends-to-lovers story. Evie and Theo have been best friends forever, and when life throws them both curveballs—Evie’s dream fellowship doesn’t come with health insurance and Theo’s rent-controlled apartment suddenly requires a spouse—they decide to get married for the benefits. What starts as a very practical solution slowly turns into something way more complicated, tender, and real.

This book really shines when it leans into the emotional intimacy between Evie and Theo. Their shared history, Sunday breakfasts, Survivor marathons, and everyday routines made their bond feel so natural. I loved the slow burn, the mutual care, and how soft their relationship felt as it evolved.

Evie’s journey navigating chronic illness felt honest and tender, and the way the story addressed the realities of healthcare without turning it into a lecture was really well done. I also really appreciated Theo’s backstory and the depth of his grief, it added a quiet weight to the sweetness.

If you love friends-to-lovers, marriage-of-convenience, and slow burns with lots of heart, this one’s worth picking up—especially on audio!

Tropes

💞 Friends to lovers
💍 Marriage of convenience
🏠 Forced proximity
🧡 Chronic illness rep (Evie has Crohn’s)
🎙️ Dual POV on audio with solid narration

I didn’t have any great expectations of Kanter’s first adult romance, maybe because, as a teacher, I’ve tired of the first-person teen narrator, which are Kanter’s previous titles, and thought I’d get more of the same tone. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of her characters and how engaging her narrative. Friends With Benefits could have used a more rigorous editing hand, especially in an excess of explicit love scenes that didn’t advance the relationship, but overall, I was pleased to discover how good Kanter is. Before we get into the deets, here are the publisher’s:

Evie Bloom pays attention to the details. Her very job depends on it—as an aspiring Foley artist, she’s responsible for every crisp footstep, smacking kiss, and distinct sound in film and television. So when she’s selected for a fellowship opportunity that would make all her career dreams come true, she’s quick to spot the catch: there are no health benefits, and for someone with a chronic illness, that’s a non-starter.

Theo Cohen is an elementary school teacher who can’t afford to live on his own in LA, and is facing eviction after his roommates couple up and move out of their rent-controlled apartment. But there is one loophole in his lease: each tenant must meet an income threshold, unless the tenants are married.

For Theo, the answer is obvious. Marry Evie, his best friend since forever. It’s not as if they don’t spend all their free time together anyways. Not only will Theo be able to keep his apartment, but Evie can be added to his insurance plan so she can accept her dream fellowship. It’s such a logical, practical solution. Never mind that Evie doesn’t really want to be married—not to Theo, not to anyone—ever. Or the small, complicating fact that Theo has always been a little bit in love with Evie.

But it doesn’t have to be a big deal. Marriage. It will just give them space to breathe, and much-needed relief from the daily financial stress. It won’t change anything.

It’s . . . going to change everything.

As Kanter’s narrative rather than the blurb suggests, “marriage” per se doesn’t “change” anything, but it does put Evie and Theo in a place where proximity allows them to confront long-buried feelings. Part of the narrative’s fun is seeing those emotions, whether Evie and Theo consciously want them to, bubbling to the surface, helped along by physical attraction. Also at the mercy of proximity. A nod to Kanter because she also does something clever with her narrative: adds depth to Theo and Evie by alternating their present complications with the near-misses of their feelings for each other in the past. And because Evie and Theo were child dance partners, are now in their late twenties, there are plenty of opportunities to show how their relationship transpired over the years, as well as offer compelling family-dynamic backstory and how it formed their attitudes to commitment.

While on a superficial level, one could argue Kanter’s Evie and Theo are “opposites attract”, citing, for example, their opposing views of marriage, one thing linking them is their tendency to “overthink”, makinh them neurotically adorable, but in turn thoughtful people who want to figure things out about themselves, each other, and their new relationship. In the meanwhile, their years-long friendship sees shared memories of happiness, accomplishment, and grief and how easy it is for them to enjoy each other’s company. There are lovely scenes of ice cream cones, conversation, and watching films and shows. But the road, when a friendship is long-standing and “set,” to commitment is fraught with uncertainty and complicated feelings, especially because neither wants to lose the friendship. I liked that Kanter’s characters, though they have emotional obstacles and questions about what their new relationship is, are also honest with themselves about their feelings. As for being honest with each other, that’s a bumpier road, but an interesting to travel with Kanter and her Evie and Theo.

Lastly, a word about the narrators who, as far as narrators go, sounded younger than how I imagined the characters. Nevertheless, their tone and expression wasn’t as overwrought as romance narrators are wont to be…especially in narrating love scenes. Of which, there were too many, not to my taste. On a more successful note, Kanter’s alternating Evie-Theo POVs allow for a double-narration with lovely little ironic twists as revelations come for the characters or emotional obstacles delay their love-declarations.

Marisa Kanter’s Friends With Benefits is produced by Macmillan Audio and features Gail Shalan and GM Hakim. It released on May 6, 2025. I received an audio-file from Macmillan Audio via Netgalley and listened on the Netgalley app. Please note the above is my honest, AI-free opinion.

this books was a lot of fun! loved the narration! I thought the chronic illness representation was excellent! this was a fun friends to lovers book with a bunch of whitty banter! highly recommend!

Friends with Benefits by Marisa Kanter is a fun, low-drama listen that leans into the “modern love is confusing” vibe without getting too heavy. Narrators Gail Shalan and GM Hakim are spot on. Shalan captures Evie’s dry wit perfectly, and Hakim gives Theo just the right mix of charm and emotional deer-in-headlights energy. Together, they make the situations feel so real, I had secondhand awkwardness. In a good way.

Theo and Evie’s relationship is a slow-moving train of bad timing, miscommunication, and chemistry they’re both pretending isn’t a thing. It’s relatable, it’s funny, and it might make you question your own “totally platonic” friendships.

Tropes you’ll enjoy along the way:
📱 Friends-to-lovers
🙈 Awkward misunderstandings
💬 Witty banter
🔥 Slow-burn chemistry
🚫 Avoidant communication as a lifestyle choice

A great pick if you like your romance with realistic stakes, smart writing, and characters who are trying their best (even if their best is… questionable).

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I tried to get into this one but the writing and humor just wasn't for me. It seemed like the author was trying to hard so it was a DNF.

i was really wanting to like this book. I was excited to start it and realize the lead character was Jewish as I am, and there are not enough Jewish books out there. I also in a major way related slightly with the lead as I also live with Crohnes, however I have never been in remission but was glad that the author wrote a character that not only had the disease but didn’t struggle so much with it- gives you hope that one day you might !!!

I guess I shouldn’t say I didn’t like it, there was plenty to like. I am just not sure if it was the narrator or the story that did not catch my attention and made it hard to not wander as I was listening.

Loved the jewish element! I appreciate the careful handling of IBD and cancer. Love the will they/ won't they throughout their childhood into adulthood.

⭐️⭐️💫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

I was so invested in this book as a devoted lover of binge romance reading. I also read the previous works of Marisa Kanter and enjoyed them, which made me extra enthusiastic about this book. But... yes, a big but coming up...

I made the mistake of requesting this one without reading the plot first—rookie move, I know—only to realize it shares a strikingly similar premise with Would You Rather by Allison Ashley, a book I absolutely adored and rated five stars. In both stories, we have lifelong friends entering a marriage of convenience: one needs health insurance, the other needs to keep a roof over their head. When plots echo each other this closely, it’s hard not to compare, and unfortunately, Friends with Benefits didn’t shine as brightly in that comparison.

The biggest hurdle for me was the protagonist, Evie Bloom. I wanted to like her. Her job as a Foley artist (seriously cool!) had the potential to bring something really fresh and quirky to the story, but her personality came off as too chaotic and self-centered for me to emotionally connect. Her inner monologue often felt more exhausting than endearing, and some of her choices made it hard to root for her. It’s not that she had flaws—I like flawed characters—but she didn’t seem to grow in a way that made those flaws feel purposeful or redemptive.

On the flip side, Theo was an absolute sweetheart. As an elementary school teacher facing eviction, he felt grounded, kind, and genuine. His soft-spoken, supportive nature was exactly what Evie needed—but sometimes it felt like he got lost in the whirlwind of her drama. I would have loved to see more of his perspective, more fire from him, and a better balance between their emotional journeys.

I do want to acknowledge one of the book’s strengths: the honest and much-needed representation of chronic illness and the broken healthcare system. Evie’s health struggles gave the story a real-world urgency, and I appreciated how the author didn’t shy away from showing the messy, stressful realities of living with a chronic condition. That layer added substance to the otherwise rom-com-style plot.

The friends-to-lovers dynamic had sweet moments, and some flashbacks were lovely, but overall, the pacing dragged for me, and the chemistry just didn’t feel strong enough to carry the story. I found myself wanting more connection and less over-explaining of every detail (seriously, I didn’t need to know every character’s drink order!).

In the end, this was a solid three-star read. It had potential, and there were moments that hit the right notes, but as a whole, it didn’t sweep me off my feet. Still, I know many romance readers will find charm and warmth in these pages—and I’ll absolutely keep an eye out for what Marisa Kanter writes next.

An excellent friends to lovers showcase with a special case of “bad timing” in the past. Theo is so sweet and pure with both Evie and his students, while showing the struggles he has with his anxiety and his relationship with his father. I love me a not-afraid-to-show-vulnerability MMC. The things I liked best about Evie’s side of things were he family (grandparents and sweet/sassy sister) and the showcasing of how hard this country is on people with any kind of chronic condition, but especially for women. I liked Evie as a character overall but some of her hang ups seemed like they were affecting her a bit too heavily still at this point in her life considering the therapy and medical progress she’s shown to have in the past. I just thought she was a bit behind the eight ball maturity wise.

Specifically to the audio book, overall good narration, one nitpicky piece is that the two narrators for the dual POV seemed like they had never heard the other party speak. So when they were speaking in the other’s “voice” it was a tad jarring since Theo’s narrator wasn’t as raspy as Evie’s made him out to be and Evie’s wasn’t as peppy.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for providing this audiobook for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.