These characters, especially the FMC, were extremely unlikable. While that is not necessarily a requirement, in this case, this certainly affected my overall enjoyment of the book.

I think I may have discovered that I’m not a huge fan of the friends-to-lovers trope. Evie and Theo are best friends, and have a serious attraction to each other that has gone on for over a decade, and yet they don’t seem to realize they’re supposed to be together!? It just seems absolutely ridiculous.
Theo seemed unrealistically patient and Evie was just a little cuckoo. 😝

I listened to the audio of this, and I do think it was relatively well done. I like the dual perspectives, and some of the side characters were very cute, especially the grandparents. I also like the inside look at both Theo and Evie‘s different careers.

Overall, this book was not for me, but I do think some readers will enjoy.

Friends with Benefits by Marisa Kanter surprised me and left me with a slight book hangover. This was my first experience with her writing, and it was absolutely delightful. The narrative was both emotional and uplifting, offering many layers to the friends-to-lovers and marriage-of-convenience romance. Evie and Theo, lifelong friends and former ballroom dance partners, are now adults—Theo as a teacher and Evie as an emerging Foley artist. Together, they have navigated various life challenges. Evie faces a chronic illness and requires better health insurance, while Theo needs a wife for practical reasons (i.e, rent in LA), leading to their unexpected marriage, something Evie never envisioned for herself. As someone living with a chronic illness in America, I resonated deeply with Evie's struggles regarding insurance and the associated medical trauma. I also felt a mix of frustration and affection for her stubbornness (in the most loving "let him love you" way!). Theo was a wonderful and empathetic main male character. I truly enjoyed their long-term story, enriched with glimpses of their past woven throughout the contemporary narrative, and I was rooting for their happy ending. The narrators did an excellent job bringing the story to life, and I wholeheartedly recommend either listening to or reading this book!

Evie has been offered a fellowship but it looks like she’ll have to pass because rent and healthcare isn’t cheap. Then her best friend Theo comes up with an idea. He has great insurance and if they get married they can stay in his apartment together. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. Marriage. But marrying your best friend who you’ve had a crush on for years is anything but simple.

Friends with benefits is a good mix of fun banter, heat and emotional conversations. Theo lost his mother to cancer, Evies parents aren’t the best and on top of that she is battling a chronic illness.

I personally enjoyed the survivor convos, it’s the one reality show I still follow. It adds a fun touch but won’t confuse those who don’t watch it. The ending could’ve been more fleshed out, it felt a bit cut short as is.

The narrators are great, I love that there are two of them to make the dual pov stand out more. All in all I enjoyed it. Can’t go wrong with a sweet and spicy romcom.

Read this if you like
💜Friends to lovers
✨Forced proximity
😭Emotional reads
💍Marriage of convenience

Confirmed: Hot girls have tummy issues. Love the chronic disability rep. Totally related to FMC having to break (literally) before medical community would take her pain seriously and diagnose/treat her autoimmune disease. Doing all the tests and hearing “everything is normal” is unbelievably frustrating, these people have clearly never shit their pants and it shows. With Theo’s mom dealing the similar issue, well it’s no wonder he goes above and beyond to care for Evie. The commentary of our dystopic health care system here in ‘merica was spot on.

Now for the love story…if you like imperfect characters, piss poor timing, and even worse emotional intelligence, this book will fit the mark. These two knuckleheads will make you want to reach in and shake them, but also give them big ole hugs.

Thank you Net Galley and Macmillan audio for the ARC.

This book is hard to rate because the writing was good, the premise fun but the characters and their constant back and forth, their aversion to having even the most simple of conversations, their complete obliviousness, they were just f*cking unbearable. Also, the whole purpose of them getting married was to keep this apartment, then magically he moves and and she just stays there alone. It pissed me off that we were 95% in and they were still being idiots.

The premise of the book was unique and had a lot of potential. I really enjoyed the characters at the beginning and their unique dilemma. I found it difficult to really buy into the story though. While I liked the characters enough, I never found myself loving them or really rooting for them. Their story just fell a little flat for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the opportunity to listen to Friends with Benefits in advance. This was a very cute story. Childhood friends know each other better than anyone and a marriage of convenience. Evie and Theo were very likable characters. Evie and her invisible illness, Chrohn's, and Theo who will do anything for his friend, including marrying her so she can keep her insurance benefits she desperately needs. At first I wasn't sure how this would play out since their relationship was platonic for so long. As you got further into the story you could see little things that indicated that they both felt maybe there was something more but afraid to act on it and ruin the friendship. I really enjoyed the narration of this audiobook as well.

So this is the first time I have ever used this term about a book and in fact, I had to search to find a descriptor. Over-inclusion. I get what the author was trying to do here and I respect characters having underlying health difficulties as a main characteristic, but this book was trying too hard to represent multiple issues and there were so many pop culture references. It was a lot to manage as a reader. Maybe this would appeal to younger readers better.

The main character of Evie is not that likable and she's quite immature for the age she is stated to be at 28. I found her frustrating. I tried to go with the flow and not judge the "romance" which didn't feel all that romantic to me. It felt forced, like maybe these two had enough of trying with others and went for the familiarity out of codependency and convenience. I wasn't feeling it.

I had the audiobook version and I must give kudos to GM Hakim as he was the better narrator. Gail Shalon's narration was just ok. But I did enjoy the multiple cast narration, it helped with the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

Trope it like it hooootttt. Best friends to secret love to fake love to friends to lovers. Trope lovers unite over this wholesome rom com tale. Two best friends take the leap before deciding to REALLY take the leap at the risk of their friendship. A super fun lighthearted listen that I was excited to work through. Rounding up to 4 from 3.5.

First of all, WE LOVE TO SEE CHRONIC ILLNESS REPPED, especially "invisible" ones. Her story has been my story and i appreciated the thoughtful representation here. I also appreciated the author not being afraid for the characters to have a political stance and conversations around those stances, in this case it was around the US healthcare system.

For the romance, I'm never really a fan of second chance or friends to lovers because I feel like they usually just use miscommunication as the main plot device and not much else. Although that was used here a little bit, there was more realism and nuance to how it happened. Everything about this felt real and believable and i fell in love with these characters.

The only thing that I didn't like was the freaking grandparents selling the house out from under their chronically ill financially struggling grandchild when they seemed to have no financial motivation to do so, it honestly just pissed me off and also didnt feel like it made sense for the characters.

Fun, quick and cute! This was a quick read with heaviness through parental death and chronic illness. Weirdly negative ratings on Goodreads. Great narrator and loved the dual narrators!

Friends to lovers tope.. Usually I love a friends to lovers book but this one was super cringy and a little hard to follow at times. All parents of the main characters were referred to by their first names that at one point in the beginning I had no idea that it was a parent being talked about. I get they had a disconnect with them but it was just strange. Some of the character relationships were hard to follow at times because they didn't fit in or it was whiplash with how fast they came and went. Some parts felt like they were added in later and I just couldn't figure out what the point of it was ex. Evie's grandma delivering a box of "fun" to her after her grandma was MIA for most of the story. A lot of details were just very out of place. 2.5 stars for me.

I really enjoyed this audiobook! I appreciate how the narrator changed her voice for the different perspectives to maker it easier to remember who’s perspective you’re in. I also really enjoyed the story. It focused on two best friends who are just navigating their relationship, in between just wanting to be friends, but also wanting more but being scared to reach for it. Definitely recommend!

This was cute. The characters were a mess in a mostly believable way, but I felt the “romance” was pushed a little too hard. I didn’t FEEL it.

There is something about books that have too many pop culture references. This one had so many that I didn’t care for or like at all, so I felt like this wasn’t for me.

The narration is well done by both narrators.

2 ⭐️ I connected with Theo on the basis of dead mom club more than anything, but try as I might, I could not get into Evelyn as a character. Everyone in her life appears to make extreme allowances for her emotional immaturity and the behavior that stems from it, and I couldn’t understand why. Her chronic illness and her mommy issues read as her entire personality, even though I can detect the moments where the author tried to stray from that. She didn’t stick the landing. Basically, I couldn’t understand why Theo was so bonkers over her when there was barely any personality to speak of. The ending was strange to me. She’s so indecisive, up until the very scene, that I just imagined the book ending and her changing her mind again off page. If this book were real life and occurring in our current universe, I wouldn’t be confident in saying that these characters are together and thriving right now.

I haven't listened to an audiobook that I wanted more of in a long time. This title did that for me. It made me want to have these characters along on each trip I take since I listen while in my car! The narrators are talented and give the character's life! I was impressed and highly entertained by the story as well. So many important themes about family, relationships, work, and self-discovery are discussed. I'll be telling everyone to get this!

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator was absolutely perfect, in my opinion. As someone with Lupus and several other AI diseases, I really related to Ev and I will be purchasing a hard copy for myself.
Thank you for the chance to review!

I received Friends with Benefits as an arc from NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Author Marisa Kanter. Narrated by Gail Shazan and GM Hakim. Eve Bloom is an aspiring Foley artist who has been selected for a fellowship opportunity to help launch her dream career. She quickly learns that this opportunity doesn’t come with health benefits which she needs in order to keep up with everything that comes with having an immune disorder. Here enters her lifelong best friend Theo Cohen, an elementary teacher who is facing eviction after his roommates move out. They come up with a plan to help both of their situations, a marriage of convenience. Can these two best friends keep everything as is in their relationship or will everything change?

I enjoyed reading Friends with Benefits. This isn’t your typical Rom Com. If you decide to read this please keep in mind that it’s not light hearted. There are some heavy subjects that are discussed and that the characters are living through. I enjoyed the witty banter between the main characters and I loved all the scenes with Theo’s classroom (those kiddos cracked me up!) If you are looking for a quick read with some emotion then this book will be right up your alley.

This book has a refreshing, heartfelt, and emotionally nuanced take on the classic friends to lovers trope. However, it is more reimagined through the LGBTQ identity, complex family dynamics and evolves self-discovery.

I enjoyed this story, and would definitely read more from the author!

Friends to lovers and marriage of convenience are two of my favorite tropes, so I was super excited for this book, and I really enjoyed this story. I really loved Evie and Theo, and I really liked how we got to see how solid their friendship was before it turned romantic. I enjoyed the flashbacks, as they emphasized how their relationship grew and changed over the years. I did want to shake both of them sometimes, especially when they were being oblivious to what was right in front of them, but it made the end even more satisfying. I also loved Evie's family as side characters, they were hilarious. My absolute favorites were Theo's class, those kids made me laugh every time they were on page. And I unironically love 1985 by Bowling for Soup, IYKYK.

The Jewish representation in the book was also fantastic.

The narration was excellent as well, both narrators did an excellent job making the story engaging and dynamic!