If you've looking for a rom-com that's just as much about love as it is about friendship, then The Wedding Ringer is for you. Willa Callister was a super successful blogger who seemed to have it all, until she found her fiancé and best friend in bed together. Since then, she's moved in with her sister and her family and started working for her event company as Princess Sparkleheart. It feels like she's hit rock bottom but she truly does want a fresh start. First, she needs money though. That's where Maisie Mitchell comes in. She needs another bridesmaid for her wedding and after randomly bumping into Willa at a coffee shop, she offers to pay her to be a bridesmaid. It sounds crazy but against her better judgement Willa says yes and that's when her life starts to turn around.

Even though the book is technically a romance, I want to talk about the friendship first because we meet Willa after she's lost two important people: the man she thought she was going to marry and her lifelong best friend. The author shows how it's the latter that hurts the most and why it was so hard for her to open up to Maisie initially. But both women are inherently kind and empathetic and it's not long before their friendship becomes real. That was probably nicest thing to see in the story, although I still can't imagine paying someone to be my friend nor could I totally relate to either woman but you know me, I love seeing a wonderful friendship unfold. It's through Willa's bridesmaid duties that she meets the best man Liam Rafferty and sparks fly immediately, even though she was determined to dislike him. But like I said, as cute as the romance was, it really wasn't at the forefront (at least for me). Willa's journey was about letting go of her past to appreciate what's right in front of her, romantically and friendship-wise, family (born into and found) and getting back on her feet on her own terms.

Do I recommend? Yes, but I'd borrow it from the library. I liked it but didn't quite fall in love with it. As much as I enjoyed the overall themes of the book, I didn't fully connect to the story or the characters. There was just something missing for me.

Buckle up, because this book is definitely a fun read! THE WEDDING RINGER is funny and light, with great characters that you fall in love with! It also manages to tackle a few tough topics, while still being a good romantic comedy.

Willa is grieving the incident that seemingly destroyed her life. I appreciated how well the author wrote Willa's grief and total lack of motivation. It felt real and relatable. But, somehow, the reader still gets plenty of snort-laugh moments as we see Willa struggle to find her way.

Willa meets (and instantly dislikes) Liam and the hatred ensues! So much great hate-banter between these two. Liam is sweet and swoony! You will love these two!

This book also has truly great female friendships, something I love in Romance. It's also got complex family relationships and great representation of therapy. Bonus!

There is so much to like about THE WEDDING RINGER, but I also found it to be very slow. It's both a slow burn romance and just a very slowly-paced story. I did like the characters enough to keep reading, but found myself skimming quite a bit, especially in the first half, because there was a lot of extra fluff I didn't find necessary to the story. The pacing felt very much like Brit-Lit: slow and highly character-driven.

If you're looking for a funny book with strong characters and you don't mind a slower-paced book then you should definitely read THE WEDDING RINGER.

The Wedding Ringer is Kerry Rea’s debut novel.

I know I probably say this constantly in my posts but two of my favorite things are getting pitched fantastic books by publicists, (I love hearing about books that I might not normally have heard about) and then being able to be a part of a blog tour to promote those said books here on my blog.

As soon as I started to read The Wedding Ringer I was instantly hooked and had a hard time putting it down. I may or may not have spent the day reading this yesterday. It was a pretty quick read for me. I will definitely be picking up Kerry’s future books as soon as they come out. I love discovering new authors.

I should let you know the main reason I wanted to read this was that Willa, our main character was a blogger and after “the incident” lost everything and basically did a downward spiral. She didn’t have the desire to write blog posts anymore. Willa had it all, a successful blogger that had a following, a best friend she has had forever, and the perfect fiance. Everything was perfect up until a few weeks before the wedding when Willa discover he was cheating on her. To make matters worse it was with her best friend. She caught them in the act. Willa was heartbroken and was struggling to get over the loss of her relationship with not only her finance but her best friend as well.

Since then Willa lives with her sister and family. She works as a kids entertainer as Princess Sparkleheart and that doesn’t exactly go as planned because her last gig was a disaster. She sees her ex-best friend at this party and some random guy ends up laughing at her as she is trying to make her getaway.

Then one day while sitting in a cafe waiting for her date to show up, in rushes a woman, Maise asking to have a seat at her table. She then proceeds to ask Willa a huge favor because Willa is the only one that can help her. She needs a friend and is willing to pay. At first, Willa is not so sure about this but after Maise shows up at her sister’s house she figures she has nothing to lose. It’s a win-win situation for them both. Then this leads to Willa being asked to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. I was curious about Maise and was always wondering why she needed to pay someone to be her friend. We realize that there is more to Maise’s story than anyone knows and as the book progresses we finally get her story.

I have to admit that I did feel bad for Maise because she was getting married to a prestigious family and looking in you think it’s the perfect family and Maise just wants to fit in and be loved even though she is letting her soon-to-be mother-in-law run the whole show. Maise is not happy with the choices being made. I was practically yelling at the book saying come on Maise it’s your wedding. But I do get where she was coming from as I could relate. I had some people offering their ideas on how my wedding should be.

Another key character is Liam. It turns out that Liam was that random guy laughing at Willa. You can instantly see Willa wants nothing to do with him but it always seems like he is always right there at the right times. Will Willa be able to let bygones be bygones and give Liam the chance he so deserves or will she let her ex have that power over her?

Can Willa pull it off being the pretend friend at this wedding? Or is she realizing that Maise is just what she needs in her life? Will it take Maise’s breakdown for it all to come together?

This book meant so much to me. This book yes there was a romance but it was more Women's. Fiction and the exploration over friendship and friendship loss. I also really loved chatting with Kerry about her writing process and her own book recommendations in my podcast.

I read this fantastic book from start to finish yesterday! The story follows Willa, who thinks she has it all until she finds out her best friend and her fiancé are having an affair. She swears off love and friends, moves into her sister's guest room, and earns her keep as the world's worst children's party princess. When a stranger approaches her in a coffee shop and asks if she can pay her to pretend to be her friend and bridesmaid, Willa accepts, planning to use the money to start over somewhere far away. But when the fake friendship starts feeling real (and she finds herself connecting with a dreamy groomsman!), Willa has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart again.

This book has some much to love:
🙋🏻‍♀️ A fabulously sarcastic heroine
👨‍⚕️A swoon-worthy love interest (he's a tattooed pediatrician, people. A TATTOOED PEDIATRICIAN!)
👰🏻A bride with secrets
👩‍👩‍👧‍👧Terrific side characters
🤣Lots of laugh out loud moments
💕A whole lot of heart

The title and cover may make you think this book is a romcom but it's so much more than that. It's about Willa falling in love with a new version of herself, and her hilarious journey is one you don't want to miss.

4.5 stars rounded up

Thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for a copy to review.

What a fantastic debut! I absolutely adored the Wedding Ringer!

Willa found her best friend and her fiancée in bed together weeks before their wedding. She's been living with her older sister and her family and working as a princess for children's parties when she meets Liam. He sees her at a pretty low moment and laughs and she instantly despises him. Things picked up for Willa when she meets Maisie at a local coffee shop. Maisie has been pretending to meet a friend there and talks Willa into pretending to be that friend. She then offers to pay Willa to be her bridesmaid. Willa doesn't want to accept, but can't turn down the money. Despite starting as a hired bridesmaid, the two quickly develop a real friendship. Willa's thrown into situations with Liam because he happens to be the best man and he realizes he's not the jerk she imagined.

Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes so I really enjoyed Willa and Liam's banter and move from enemies to much more. As much as I enjoyed their relationship, the friendship between Willa and Maisie was the best part of The Wedding Ringer for me. Maisie was such a delightful character and I loved seeing her get her happy ever after and stand up for herself. I also loved seeing Willa find herself again after losing so much of herself to her last relationship. I highly recommend that everyone check The Wedding Ringer out and I can't wait to see what Kerry Rea writes next.

The Wedding Ringer was such a pleasant surprise. I had no idea what to expect when I picked this book, but but enjoyed it so much. While it is a romance, it's themes of friendship, grief and finding yourself after a hard loss are so relatable and honest that I fell in love with Willa and her story. I loved Maisie and her struggles. I loved their friend group. I enjoyed Willa's family so very much and with the addition of the romance, it felt like the Wedding Ringer just had it all. This is a book that I will be recommending with big excitement.

This is a charming debut novel about female friendship and the incomparable value of having friends who’ll be there when you’re at your worst and cheer you on when you’re at your best.

After losing everything, her fiancé, her lifelong best friend, and her social media Influencer career, we meet Willa at her worst, and sometimes her attitude was a little grating but understandable given what she’d just gone through. As she slowly allows herself to be vulnerable once again, the walls start to come down and we see Willa emerge as a much wiser and relatable self.

I also enjoyed the slow burn enemies-to-friends-to lovers romance with book boyfriend candidate worthy Liam. On the NeedleinaBookstack Steam-O-Meter, this would be in the lower 25% but the chemistry was there.

The holidays are almost here, and it can be a stressful time of year—this would be a fantastic book to read when you just need to escape life for a while and remember what it’s like to just hang with a good friend.

Thank you @dg_reads @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks for this fun #berkleybuddyreads & @berkleypub and @authorkerryrea for the gifted eCopy of this book. Opinions are mine.

This book had so much to love, and I was so thrilled to be able to read an advance reader's copy of this title thanks to The Girly Book Club + Berkley Books! From the very beginning, Willa's story had me cracking up, and I related to her downward spiral like you wouldn't believe. The story being set in my own state was the icing on top, definitely added some places to visit, snacks to add to my own must-try list for the future!

This enemies to lovers romance stole my heart, and is one I know will be one I constantly recommend going forward. To see more of my thoughts on the book, head over to https://thegirlybookclub.com/book-reviews/

Willa Callister had the perfect life. Well, perfect as far as she was concerned. Blogging has gone quite well for her and she is soon to be married. However, when Willa finds her fiancé in bed with her best friend she is beyond devasted. Willa no longer wangs to work on her blog, now considering it a thing of the past. Her heart is just too fractured and she simply feels uninspired to write. So, she moves in with her sister Stacey and tries to figure out how she will rebuild her life.

Quite disappointed in her new job with Stacey - as Princess Sparkleheart - so not fun for her, but needs must. She really hates it and it shows. She reluctantly decides to go on a coffee date with someone named Zachary. However, before Zachary arrives, she meets Maisie, a bubbly woman with a strange request - she offers Willa two hundred dollars to pretend to be her friend when her fiancé arrives. Maisie has no friends, just acquaintances as she puts it, and she wants him to think highly of her if she has at least one good friend. That turns into Willa becoming a bridesmaid - for a price - at Maisie's wedding. So, she soon becomes part of the wedding party, which then leads her to meeing Liam Rafferty, the best man at the wedding.

A single woman now. No real job and no future. But now a bridesmaid to a couple she does not know. Factor in that Willa and Liam have an instant attraction and Willa has no idea where her life will go from here.

Things begin to go well between Willa and Liam. More than that, however, Willa becomes quite drawn to Maisie and a bond of friendship starts to form. A sensitive story to be sure, especially watching the friendship between the two woman evolve. However, as in every romance story there is conflict, and that is something we see between Willa and Liam. However, my investment in this story was not with the couple, but moreso with Willa and Maisie. I really enjoyed watching that bloom even though things started out more as a business deal.

This was a delightful debut novel and I think Kerry Rea did a fabulous job connecting all of the characters together, touching on a sensitive subject and giving readers a happily ever after.

Many thanks to Berkley Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

The Wedding Ringer by Kerry Rea had me smiling so dang much! Willa's life was turned upside down when she found her fiance in bed with her best friend. Her wedding was called off and she retreated to her sister's house, where she has been living for awhile. One day, she meets Maisie, who wants to pay Willa to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. Willa, in need of money since quitting her Princess Sparkles gig, takes Maisie up on it. Things are complicated when Willa finds out that Liam is the best man in Maisie's wedding- Liam and Willa met previously and not in the best of terms. There was so much that I enjoyed about this story. The aspect of a professional bridesmaid reminded me of the movie 27 Dresses, and there were a few times I pictured Willa as Kathryn Heigl's character in that movie. Liam could not have been more perfect, and the fact that he was a pediatrician- SWOON! He really was the perfect book boyfriend. I liked that there were traditional and non-traditional families in this story, and I liked that Rea really focuses on that family isn't always about blood. I felt like this was also a story about friendship and second chances. Maisie and Willa really helped each other, and it often left me smiling from ear to ear. I had high expectations of this book because I had quite a few people tell me that it was really good, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. I am already looking forward to Rea's upcoming novel, and I will definitely be picking it up! Thank you Berkley Romance for giving me the chance to read a digital ARC of this book and for my finished copy. I am going to post this review on my bookstagram page @readingmama_reviews in the next couple of days!

The Wedding Ringer by Kerry Rea was a delightful romcom read.

Willa Callister had it all. A successful lifestyle blog, a neat friend and a handsome fiancé… until one day she finds our her fiancé is cheating on her with her best friend and her whole world comes crashing down. So now, Willa is Princess Sparkleheart providing entertainment at children’s birthday parties. When stranger Maisie approaches Willa to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, Willa is reluctant, but needs the cash Maisie is offering for a fresh start. But will a handsome groomsman, Liam, ruin her plans to escape to a new life?

Overall, this was a light-hearted read that I really enjoyed. I really admired how Willa was able to overcome her grief and begin a friendship with Maisie. I also thought her romance with Liam was very sweet.

I really liked this book, in part because a big storyline was the two main characters becoming friends, as opposed to a romance. I did very much enjoy the romance storyline, but I liked that it explores how it is hard to make friends as adults. I really liked the book and would recommend it to anyone.

This book was adorable and I loved it so much. I loved Willa, I wish we could have seen more of her and Liam though. Also, I wanted all the details on how long her fiancé and best friend were doing what they did! Cute, fun, fast read, highly recommend!

First off, huge shoutout for Kerry Rea to debut with such an amazing book! I loved it! Going in, I wasn't sure if it was going to be similar to all the other bridesmaid books I have read. But I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the characters and the secrets revealed throughout the plot. I adored Maisie, Willa, and Liam, and I highly recommend this book!

The Wedding Ringer was a little difficult for me to review. It doesn’t fit into a tidy category. It wants to be contemporary romance, it’s certainly all about the love life of main character Willa Callister, but it’s also about the love life of all the other characters which kind of tips it over into women’s fiction. It’s less about the actual romances and more about how these women all relate to each other. The romance is completely secondary as we swirl around the relationships between Willa and her sister, Willa and Maisie Mitchell, Maisie and her fiancé, Maisie’s fiancé’s sister and her husband, Maisie’s family, Willa and Maisie’s soon to be sister-in-law and mother-in-law, and Willa’s own love interest, the best man. Oh, and of course her ex-fiancé and ex-best friend.

It was also a bit of slow starter for me. Willa has endured a truly devastating loss. Six weeks before her wedding, she walks in on her fiancé and her lifelong best friend in bed with each other. That isn’t something you just get over quickly. I applaud Rea for making us feel how really low and broken Willa feels about it. That’s also a really rough way to start a book. While Willa is at times amusing—or at least amusing things happen to her, you don’t really want to laugh at someone who’s down. We also didn’t get to know Willa when she was up, before the story began, so our opinion of her is colored by her depression. You know it’s going to be a long road when she says things like, “The earnest attempts to advise me on my dumpster fire of a life only serve to piss me off.”

Willa deserves time to get over her loss, but it drags some as she refuses to embrace the good things that begin happening to her when Maisie literally barges into her life and hires her as a bridesmaid and pretend long lost friend. It’s probably more realistic, but it makes for tough reading when Willa refuses to heal. At 50% in, I almost made it a DNF as she dug her heels in, choosing to stay stuck. We’re 65% in before she even considers it as a possibility. This is a small spoiler, but one of the most authentic things Rea does with Willa’s story arc, is not having her make-up with her old BFF. It was a betrayal by both of the people she loved most and to allow them back into her life would not have been a positive part of her healing so soon.

Maisie is also little problematic. She’s a bit of an intentional mystery. Instead of talking to her, Willa deliberately tries to keep her distance. This serves as the author’s vehicle to delay certain details about Maisie that otherwise would come up in a normal conversation. It’s not unlike a television show where someone bursts into the room right at the same moment we were about to learn an important piece of information. I understand it, but I don’t appreciate it. To me an author can do better. As this is Rea debut offering, I hope future books will do better.

I lived in Dublin, Ohio, where the book is set, for a couple of years. Rea, also from that area, does a good job of representing the suburbs of Columbus with maybe the exception of being overly optimistic about commute times as the population has dramatically increased with new construction. She highlights some of my favorite things about the living there.

Overall, I did like the book. It does have a good ending. I would be willing to try another title from this author. I feel she is only going to get stronger.

My Rating: C+ Liked It, but I had issues

The Wedding Ringer is such a funny and relatable book. Friendship and loving yourself are the main theme plus a little love! Willa was a successful blogger in Columbus, Ohio and everything was perfect until she found her fiancée in bed with her best friend... She's living with her sister and family trying to figure out her next steps when she runs into Maisie at a coffee shop and somehow ends up as getting paid to be a bridesmaid at a stranger's wedding. As she helps Maisie with her wedding and starts to form a real friendship will this help Willa get her life back on track.

The writing is funny and I love the female friendship angle of the book. Plus Willa's nieces are adorable! Also Liam seems pretty awesome too, though I feel like this is more about self discovery then romance.

If your looking for a fun book with one of my new favorite tropes - fake bridesmaid I recommend The Wedding Ringer!

I LOVED this book. The first chapter was so entertaining and genuinely funny. I was laughing almost the entire book. When I wasn’t laughing, I was swooning for Liam. One of my first crushes was Dr. Carter from ER so there is just something about a cute, doctor book boyfriend that I cannot resist! The romance wasn’t the primary relationship in the book, but I felt like it worked well in the story. I loved the female friendship themes in this book. It was a great balance and I highly recommend this book!


😍 loved || 💗low steam

🤟friendship, a cute doctor, wedding planning

📚Kerry Winfrey, Libby Hubscher

🎶Real Friends by Camila Cabello

📺27 Dresses

4.5 stars!

I enjoyed this book immensely. It was very well written, had lots of humor and the characters were so fun to read about. Based on the pop culture references, I would guess that the author is around my age (or was close to someone around my age) and these little trips down memory lane made it that much more enjoyable.

This didn’t quite make it to 5 stars for me, but it’s still a highly recommend. One note: there is romance in this book, but I wouldn’t say this is straight romance as the romance is a secondary plot point. Nothing wrong with that, but a warning none the less.

I felt how the author wrote about and handled mental health was huge and very important in elevating normalization of grief, anxiety and dealing with heartbreak. I will recommend this book with joy and I'm looking forward to the author’s next book!

Review Date: 11/14/21
Publication Date: 11/09/21

I so can’t believe this is the author’s first novel! It was witty and charming and had so much depth to the relationships. Absolutely loved it and will be recommending it to my friends. Can’t wait to read what she writes next.
Willa is down in the dumps after The Incident. She is now jobless, friendless and living with her sister and her family after her whole life turned upside down. One day as she as she sits and feels sorry for herself after being stood up for a date, a woman comes in and sits with her and asks her to pretend to be her friend when her fiancée comes in. There’s no time to explain, but Willa goes along with Maisie, and her life would never be the same from that moment on. Not only does Maisie end up asking her to pretend to be her friend, but they get along so well that she hires Willa to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and pretend that they’ve known each other for years. Willa needs the money to move away and start her life over after The Incident, so she reluctantly agrees and hilarity and so much emotion ensue.
While Willa took some time to grow on me because she was so self sabotaging, the other characters were likeable and I loved getting to know them. I hope that the next book will see more of Willa and her new love interest, Liam.
Thanks to Berkley Publishers and Netgalley for this Arc in exchange for my review