I just loved The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall! Such a unique concept! What do you do when you don't want to hire a wedding planner? Hire Sophie Breeze! She is paid to be a bridesmaid who is said to be a long lost friend or relative so no one knows the truth. She is there to handle ever crisis that can and will come up. Her latest client Cordelia doesn't want to hire Sophie and plans to do everything she can to make her miserable. Their interaction is so much fun! Highly recommend.

The Secret Bridesmaid was such a cute read! The light hearted story and stellar characters made it such a enjoyable book to escape into. Katy Birchall writes fun chick-lit that kept me laughing and swooning throughout! Can everyone say #BEACHREAD!!!

What a unique story. I loved the idea of this book and was excited to receive an arc! The characters were fantastic as well. I look forward to reading more from the author!

The Secret Bridesmaid features Sophie, a girl who’s made it a job to be a secret bridesmaid for everyone but doesn’t focus on her own love life and tends to play things safe.

We receive a beautiful introduction to Sophie, our main character, right from the beginning. We see how kind and caring she is about others—but we also come to realize that she needs to take care of herself more and be willing to adventure and grow.

Sophie is quirky and a well fleshed-out character, along with Cordelia and her other friends!

Sophie’s so fun, and I absolutely adored her personality. She wasn’t just a character who stayed stagnant. Making the choice to be more adventurous and spontaneous, Sophie grows into the person she may have secretly always wanted to be. She just needed a nudge in the right direction.

Cordelia, in my opinion, had the best character development throughout the story. We learn about her regretful past and the reason for her lack of trust. But she slowly comes out of her shell to give Sophie a chance, and it’s they have some lovely moments.

However, the romantic leads in The Secret Bridesmaid were a little off-putting.

Daniel felt like he was only in the story to remind her of being a “boring” person. He didn’t feel like an actual character. I disliked him because he was a jerk, but I also disliked him because he just seemed like he was forced to be there.

Tom also felt like he was just sort of there to be the prince in shining armor. They have a few romantic moments, but there needed to be more for me to really feel like they were meant to be rather than the plot demanding a romantic lead.

Focused on friendship, The Secret Bridesmaid had many cute moments—but for a story that’s seemingly supposed to focus on romance, there was not enough to make this more than a decent read.

This was such a cute book! It was the perfect amount of light read mixed with some wonderful character development. I honestly thought that Cordelia didn't have a nice bone in her body and was so shocked at how well she came around. The author did a wonderful job of making the characters have both complexity and depth. Would most definitely recommend this author and this book!

Who doesn’t love an entertaining, laugh out loud chick lit read where the main character finds herself in a total mess? This was such a fun read! Swan whisperer anyone?

Sophie Breeze has made a career of being a bridesmaid! She plays the role of wedding planner, confidante, and certain contributes to the wedding mishaps. She gets involved in planning all the wedding festivities for the modern bride including being one of the bridesmaids. Sophie is referred to a very high profile bride who doesn’t want her help. She is determined to win Cordelia over! Cordelia puts her to the test by drastically moving up her wedding and wanting a 450 person gala event!

I just found this book to be so much fun. I enjoyed the evolution of Sophie and Cordelia’s friendship and seeing Cordelia change. I especially loved the communications for the bachelorette parties and with the vendors! The possible love story for Sophie was icing on the cake.

Thank you to @Netgalley and @stmartinspress for a gifted copy of this book.

Meh. It was fine. Dialogue felt kind of inauthentic, & the romance wasn’t as present as the blurb would lead you to believe. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.

The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall is a funny romance, and my first book by this author. Sophie Breeze has perfected being a bridesmaid so much, she is now a professional one. Sophie has been hired by the brides mother to pull off a high society wedding for four hundred and fifty guests. Sophie is in for a challenge because the bride wants nothing to do with her, and she is attracted to the brides brother. I really enjoyed this book. If you are looking for the perfect escape, than I highly recommend this book. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

You know that feeling when you can’t put down a book but you really don’t want it to end? That’s how I felt about The Secret Bridesmaid. This book was so adorable! I was disappointed when it ended because I wanted to keep reading. I’m really not ready to say goodbye to these characters and my only small complaint would be that I would have loved an epilogue showing us Sophie’s future. Maybe book 2?

I fell in love with ALL of the characters. I completely adore Sophie and would love to be friends with her. From Sophie’s cousin Cara to Sophie’s parents to Lady Cordelia and her family, the characters are vibrant and multi-dimensional. Birchall’s character development is top notch. They all feel so real and genuine that it’s hard to believe they don’t really exist. It’s not often that I get this attached to fictional characters but I really hate to see them go.

The Secret Bridesmaid is funny and emotional, silly and serious. It’s about romantic love but also about friendship. It’s just a sweet, heartwarming story and I loved every page.

Delightful, heartwarming, sweet. It's wedding season and what a great read to kick it off. This is a sweet, easy beach read that will leave you smiling.

The synopsis sounded fun, and I thought I would enjoy this romantic feel-good chick-lit. However, it quickly failed to hold my attention. The characters and narrative pace didn't do it for me.

The Secret Bridesmaid - Katy Birchall

This book was such a pleasant surprise and I’m so glad I requested it! Thanks to netgalley for the e-arc. This came out earlier in the month so go check it out!

The secret bridesmaid is a contemporary story following Sophie, who has made a career being a professional bridesmaid. She is hired by brides to help out, and pretend to be a friend of the bride. Kind of like a wedding planner but not quite. This book does have a romance in it but it’s not the focus of the book.

Sophie is hired for a big wedding by the bride’s mother, and the bride doesn’t want her there and tries to get her to quit. But Sophie keeps pushing her and trying to soften her up. This was such a sweet story about friendship. There were also inserts at the end of some chapters about some of the crazy/funny parts of Sophie’s job which I really enjoyed.

The end of this book had me grinning, it was such a sweet story and I really recommend checking it out!

My goshh! I'm so annoyed. I started reading it but I was confused that what's the point of hiring a bridesmaid when you can actually hire a wedding planner? And lie about it? it didn't make sense to me. I knew in this book bridesmaid would be considered as a job but if I knew that in that particular profession, the bridesmaid would lie about her entire identity, I would never ever pick this book. It's unbelievable and unforgivable. And that Cordelia character was a b**ch. Also, Sophie constantly defending her ex, was annoying. Ugh! I'm gonna stop reading it.

If you're in the mood for a cute, heartwarming story involving a royal family and a regular girl, and the reluctant friendship that builds between Sophie and Cordelia, this is for you. I was hoping for a little more romance, as a good chunk of the book is Sophie wondering how to date again and convincing herself to do so. The romance seemed more of an afterthought. I think her job as Professional Bridesmaid is great! It's like a Wedding Planner but more intimate and involved. The antics that Cordelia puts her up to are pretty hysterical. I would get frustrated at Sophie at times for not sticking up for herself more, especially in regards to those antics and near the end when it all seems to fall apart. Overall, cute, heartwarming, but needed more romance!

If you're in need of a light and funny rom-com this book is for you. I found myself laughing out loud many times. Sophie Breeze (great name) is a professional bridesmaid. She is just that good at keeping it all together and never letting anyone other than those who must know any the wiser. She takes a major job that could truly make her career. And boy oh boy is she going to earn her money on this one! The society wedding of the year, a rival wedding, an ex, attraction to an absolutely off limits man, viscous women, secrets, more secrets and then some will keep you in your seat. This funny sweet book is just what is needed for some much needed relief to the crazy times we're in. Great characters, great writing and lots of humor. Treat yourself to this now! You can thank the author later!!

A cute romcom with serious 27 Dresses vibes. I enjoyed my time with this book! It was a bit over-the-top and a tad bit predictable for my tastes but I still thought it was an entertaining read! I'll be sure to pick up more of Katy Birchall's books in the future!

***3 Stars***

Overall, this was a fun read. The premise was a bit over the top, but that was what drew to the book, though I will admit that there was apart of me that couldn’t help but think “Why didn’t she just get a wedding planner?” But I got how a “secret bridesmaid” could make things a little easier on the bride and the family. As for Sophie, she’s sweet, attentive and quick on her feet, but there were moments where I wished she’d been more assertive. Yes, she was hired to do a job ~ and boy did she have her work cut out for her ~ but there were times where things went a little beyond for me and I wanted her to stick up for herself.

My main issue with this book, and why it has the rating it does, was the fact that it was touted as a romance/romcom and really is chick lit/woman’s fiction. Now, I have no issue with chick lit or women’s fiction, but since I am a hardcore romance reader of practically all it’s subgenre’s from sweet to dark and deviant, so when I see ‘romance’ I do have expectations and those expectations were not met when it came to Sophie and Tom. There was something there, but as it was never fully explored, it didn’t really have an impact on me.

This was my first read by the author and it was a fun read, a little slow at the start, but in the end an enjoyable read and one I would have more than likely picked up regardless based on the blurb alone.

~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

I devoured this chick-lit in 24 hours! Sophie is endearing and adorable and you fall for her from the moment you meet her on the page. It’s equal parts sweet and hilarious and Birchall did a fantastic job flushing out characters and plot lines. This is a breezy read! Loved it!

Why can’t we have books that are just about female friendships??!

Don’t get me wrong… I love romance. (If I had to choose one genre to read for the rest of my life, it would probably be romance.) But this book is not a romance. This book is more fiction or chick lit with a bit of romance as a subplot. To me, the strongest parts of this book were when we got to see Sophie and Cordelia’s friendship grow. In fact, I read faster during the romantic scenes just to get to the parts about Sophie and Cordelia. I think this book would have been more compelling as a book about female friendship with the romantic scenes cut out and more development of Sophie and Cordelia’s connection.


There were a lot of things I liked though. I really liked seeing Sophie and Cordelia’s friendship grow. I loved how sweet Jonathan was. I loved the family relationships between Sophie and Cara, Sophie and her parents, Cordelia and Tom, etc. I LOVED the random email/text messages that were interspersed at the end of some chapters. (Maybe it’s just my sense of humor, but those moments provided good comic relief and I was always excited when I saw one at the end of a chapter.) And it was great seeing Sophie grow personally.

Overall, I’d recommend the book if you’re looking for a light, fast read, but know that it is pretty predictable, there is not always payoff for all of the details the author discloses, and it's not exactly a romance (though I guess it's a platonic romance so maybe you can think of it like that). Still, I enjoyed the book, and I’m glad I got to read it.


ARC kindly provided by the publisher (St. Martin’s Press) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was exactly the light hearted and fun story I was hoping it would be! Wedding planning mayhem, women making the best of tough situations, positive female friendships formed, and some romance that my romance loving heart happy! This was a fun and fast read that left me smiling with the great conclusion to the story. Many thanks to netgalley for an arc of this book, all thoughts are my own.