First of all, thank you to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Katy Birchall for an ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review!
Admittedly, this isn't my first choice of book, it's just not normally what I look for in a book. HOWEVER, I absolutely loved this book and am so so glad that I read it.
The book follows Freya, a devastated bride who has had her wedding called off the day before it was due to happen. With her wedding being the first of eight weddings in a massive wedding season, she's not sure how she'll make it through her friend's weddings with her broken heart. Freya's journey as she learns what it means to be single again, after more than a decade in a relationship, and finds herself along the way is beautiful. She has her friends and family to back her up along the way and she finds a way to be happy on her own.
The start of the book is a bit slower going, as you get to know each of the characters better, but if you can make it through that, the rest of the book makes it 110% worth it. Freya's journey is beautiful and so very uplifting. She rebuilds and strengthens relationships, finds herself, and gains new friends along the way. The ending of this book left me the happiest that any book has in a very long time. I liked it because it wasn't all wrapped up in a shiny package with a bow, it was realistic. I hate when books end with everything seeming too perfect, but this novel left me 100% satisfied. There aren't many books that I like enough to consider rereading them but this made the list and that alone is saying something. It is the perfect book if you're looking for a lighthearted, uplifting read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4563049229

I was absolutely charmed by Freya. Getting dumped hours before the wedding by her boyfriend of more than a decade was just the start of Freya's journey. Everyone should have best friends like Leo and Ruby. Their plan to navigate the wedding season was fabulous. The book made me laugh out loud so many times. It really was a fun journey and the ending was pretty perfect and so hopeful that Freya gets her happy ending. I pretty much read this in one sitting, not putting the book down unless I had to. This book has absolutely made me a fan of Katy Birchall! I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Freya gets dumped by her fiancé on the eve of her wedding and this book is about her journey to healing. She does this through a series of tasks her friends devise for her to get through the remaining 7 weddings they have to attend that summer.

Overall this was okay. Unfortunately I ended up not finishing it as it just seemed to not be going anywhere and I lost interest as I wasn’t invested in enough in Freya to care what happened.

Freya is getting married in a day but all that takes a back when the groom, Matthew, cancels it. For no reason and that rattles her, but at the same time she feels he'll get his senses back and they can move on as man and wife.

Weeks later, he's still on her mind and she's doing everything she can to erase him - even cooking. Despite all the hobbies she's tried, she's not sure anything will work. The story doesn't necessarily focus on romance, but on Freya finding herself again after being through a lot.

I loved the supporting characters, especially Ruby, because they added more depth to Freya's story which resulted in a well deserved happy ending.

Thank you, St Martins Press, for letting me read this.

I was hoping for a cute romcom and this book is more women's fiction. This book follows the main character, Freya’s journey after getting dumped by her fiance, Matthew the day before her wedding . She is heartbroken and sad and needs to put the pieces of her life back together.

I really enjoyed the characters and the friendship they had. The writing is good. I only wish it had more romance. I would recommend this book if you are looking for a well written women’s fiction book that will leave you smiling at the end.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

Freya Scott was all set to get married.. She would be the first of the wedding season. Her world is turned upside down when the day before, Matthew her fiance breaks up with her. Her best friend Ruby and her fiance Tom are there for her. She was going to skip all the weddings but Ruby and Tom come up with a guide to getting through them all. She is assigned a task to complete. None are easy for Freya as they take her outside her comfort zone. I smiled at some of the tasks. She did complete them all. At the end, she was open to starting a new chapter in her life.

This was such a heartwarming story and I truly enjoyed it. It’s the perfect book to read in between my darker romances.

After twelve years together, Freya is engaged to be married to Matthew, the love of her life. Freya prides herself on being a well-organized person, always put together and all her ducks in a row. Matthew on the other hand, can be clumsy and forgetful. But I guess as the saying goes, opposites do attract!

But on the eve of their wedding day, Matthew unexpectedly calls it off and we follow along Freya’s journey from heartbreak to heart mend. But although she’s hurting, she’s determined to power through the wedding season. Luckily, she has some amazing friends to help her through it!

Although the first third of the book felt a bit repetitive while Freya navigated the mending of her broken heart, I really did enjoy seeing her grow into a stronger version of herself.

I absolutely loved Ruby and Leo’s dynamic and I thought they were hilarious. There were a lot of humorous moments that made me smile and laugh. But I especially loved how Freya’s friends supported her in helping through this rough patch.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Weddings always draw me in, and I really loved the underlying theme of love, family, and friendship. Great read!

After 12 years together, Freya’s fiancé leaves her the day before the wedding. After a devastating turn of events, her best friends Ruby and Leo prepare the Wedding Season Survival Guide. The guide has 6 tasks that Freya will need to complete at each wedding that she will be attending in order to have something to keep her mind on.

I actually liked this book. It wasn’t a romance novel, more of a woman’s fictional novel, with maybe romance as a subplot, but I wouldn’t really bet my money on it.

I think it was great to see Freya navigate through life with the new changes. I mean being in a relationship for 12 years to suddenly being single and losing your other half can be overwhelming.

It was nice to see the different friendships and how her friends had her back during these difficult moments. There are a lot of emotions involved in this. Grief, pain, loss, self-realization and so much more.

Overall, this was a good read, if you’re looking for romance as a subplot, definitely read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins for the ARC.

Nothing like kicking off wedding season by reading a book called The Wedding Season!
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Freya planned her perfect wedding. What she didn’t plan was the wedding being called off hours before she says I Do. She doesn’t want to see another wedding, but unfortunately she has a summer of weddings ahead of her. Her friends plan a set of challenges for her and she unexpectedly finds herself having fun.
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I would love to see this one as movie! This has a great cast of characters and I always love a book that has a solid group of friends. This is a fun one and is out on Tuesday!
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Thank you @smpromance and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

There were some things I liked about the book. I thought that many of the friends were fun and funny, and their affection for Freya was obvious. I thought that the plan that they came up with to get Freya outside of her comfort zone was kind of genius, and the way that the challenges played out was amusing, and not at all cringey. It was played for laughs, sure, but we were all in on the joke, and that’s important for me. I also thought that Freya’s new love interest, Jamie, was charming and delightful. Funny, rakish, self-effacing…heck, I might have been a little in love with him by the end. They had a decent enemies-to-friends vibe, and I thought that they were going to sell me on their chemistry.

And then, it just…fizzled.

Which brings me to what I did not like about the book. It just went…nowhere. Sure, there were a bunch of weddings…but seven weddings is about four too many for me to get invested in in a book. They made the cast sort of unwieldy, and we didn’t get any real time at any one place before we were dashing off to the next one. We also didn’t get a lot of traction with Jamie and Freya. Jamie wasn’t even AT all the weddings, which I get is likely how it might have played out in real life, but was frustrating as a reader because it felt like all the momentum the relationship might have just got derailed.

There is also a needlessly complicated subplot involving Freya, her dad, her brother, his new beau, and her estranged mother and the man she broke up the family over. It, like everything else, just slowed things down. If you cut out the entirety of this subplot, it does nothing but improve the flow of the book.

There is a fair amount of time spent texting throughout the book, and the way the texts are formatted, it is literally impossible to tell who is speaking, which was infuriating. This is a text exchange between Freya and Isabelle. Which lines are Freya’s? Your guess is as good as mine.

“I linger next to Pret, scrolling through my phone so it looks like I’m busy, keeping the meeting point in my sight line in case someone else arrives. I go into WhatsApp and find Isabelle’s name.

Hope you’re having an amazing honeymoon!
Wish you were here this weekend
Isabelle
Freyaaaaaa!! MISS YOU!
Having a great time, although Ryan got
food poisoning last night. It was not sexy.
I’m telling you, he’s lucky he put a ring on it BEFORE I witnessed that scene yesterday.
Oh no, is he ok?
Isabelle
He’s fine now.
Eating like a pig.
Omg wish I could be there this weekend!!
Please take SO MANY PHOTOS And videos Send them all to me please I am there in spirit
Will do!”

The thing that infuriated me most was that this could have been really good in the hands of the right editor. Cut half the weddings, let the momentum between Jamie and Freya build more organically, and tighten up the text formatting…and it’s something special.

As it was, though, it was a miss for me.

Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭒
The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall is a delightful story about forgiveness, personal growth, friendships, and love. I’ll be honest, I enjoyed this much more than I expected. From the blurb, I expected a light and a bit of a silly story, but instead, it was thoughtful, emotional, and charming.

Freya Scott is about to get married, she has planned her wedding to perfection and can’t wait to start of the Wedding Season with a bang. She calls it the wedding season because she had 9 weddings to attend between March and September of this year, including her own wedding which will start the season off.

When Freya’s fiance calls off the wedding just hours before she’s supposed to go down the aisle, Freya is stunned, humiliated, and hurt. The last thing she wants to do is go to 8 other weddings this summer, without her partner. Her best friends decide to give her some outrageous tasks for each wedding in order to distract her from her worries. Never one to say no to a challenge, Freya accepts the challenges of the weddings and finds herself in some interesting predicaments.

I adored the friendships the most. Freya has Leo and Ruby as her closest friends, and they have known each other for several years. Leo and Ruby are adorable, and they know Freya inside and out. They are the ones who suggest the crazy tasks as they know she must come out of her shell a bit and enjoy life. Freya also has other friends, who she meets up with and they are just as wonderful as her closest friends.

The humor in this book was excellent. I thought after reading the blurb it might be over the top and silly, but it wasn’t. It’s just the right amount, and realistic too. The banter between Freya and her friends and Freya and Jamie was wonderful. I feel like it would be easy to be part of this friend group.

I highly recommend The Wedding Season to anyone who loves books about friends. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was such a fun read. It was so easy to fall in love with the characters and I loved the premise of the story.

DNF. The main character is insufferable and I would rather lick sandpaper than read another page of her millennial behaviour.
(free arc review)

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC of The Wedding Season!

Freya was dumped the day before her wedding and has numerous weddings the rest of the summer. To get through them, her friends devise a series of tasks to help distract herself. Each of the tasks become more difficult/silly as the weddings go throughout the summer “wedding season”.

To start, I want to say that if you are looking for a romcom, this is not the book for you. I anticipated that it would be a romance, but it was more of a women’s fiction about self-discovery. Not that that is a bad thing!! I was just hoping for more of a romance.

I enjoyed the cast of characters, aside from the ex-fiancé, everyone was fun and likable. I loved Freya and seeing her come into her own was great. The first half of the book was sad as Freya was dealing with justifiably sad emotions, but it really picked up steam when she began to feel more comfortable on her own.

I didn’t enjoy the storyline between Freya and her mother. Unfortunately, I felt like I hit a brick wall every time they were together.

All in all, it was a cute story about becoming strong on your own and putting one foot in front of the other after something difficult happens.

3 stars.

Freya and Matthew have been together a long time. So when Matthew dumps her a day before their wedding, it hits her hard and humiliates her. Leaves her wondering what went wrong. To make matters worse, it’s wedding season and she has seven other wedding she has to attend in the upcoming months. With her fiends Ruby and Leo by her side, she learns to grow and discover herself.

Off the bat we’re thrown into hilarity and than sadness and than rediscovery. It was a journey to watch Freya grow and become something. The books romance is a slow burn one, which was done tastefully. I love the funny best friends and the support they gave her. Her brother also made me laugh. This story was a sweet romance about life and chances.

Freya and Matthew’s wedding kicks off the Wedding Season for a group of 30-something friends, that is, until Freya gets dumped the night before her wedding. With the love, help, and support of her friends, they give her a list of tasks she must complete at each wedding she must attend to help her survive the Wedding Season.

This book was so good! I laughed out loud at Freya’s inner monologue. The conversations she has with different characters had me smiling. This book is more about her personal growth with a splash of romance thrown in.

Thank you S to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy. This book publishes May 3, 2022.

After 12 years of being together, when Freya's fiancé calls off their wedding the day before it's set to occur, she understandably goes in to a bit of a tailspin. You know what doesn't help matters? Having to attend a summer filled with all of her friends nuptials. In order to make things interesting, her friends make a list of challenges for Freya to complete at each event. By the time Summer is over Freya will have gone on quite the journey and maybe learned a thing or two along the way.

I really enjoyed this book. There was a lot about the book that gave me Bridget Jones's Diary vibes.....which is a good thing! The first part was a bit somber as Freya dealt with her heartbreak. The dry/witter banter had me laughing out loud and I loved the friendships Freya had. Overall a nice heartfelt read with minimum spice (think part rom-com/part women's fiction). I definitely plan on circling back to Birchall's last book: The Secret Bridesmaid. Loved Daphne Kouma's narration, she conveyed all of Freya's feelings well and nailed the comedic timing.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a beautiful story! It was such a perfect snippet of grieving and mourning a relationship; I stayed up all night to finish it. The beginning took a little to get into, but the rest of it was so moving and the end was perfectly satisfying. The romance was definitely a subplot and I wish we could have gotten a little more of it, but overall it was so beautiful.

3.5 stars rounded to 4!
The Wedding Season is a cute, light, feel good story. This story follows Freya through a busy wedding season full of challenges from her friends to help pull her out of her breakup rut after she got dumped the day before her wedding. The storyline is fun and the characters are dynamic and charismatic! I love Freya’s friends, Ruby and Leo, and their fierce loyalty to her. I was very drawn to this book by the cover, it’s very pretty and eye-catching! Overall, it is a good read if you are looking for a heart-warming lighter read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall is a fun rom-com where a jilted bride was supposed to have the first wedding of 8 in a summer of wedding. When her fiancé dumps her the day before their wedding she wonders how she'd going to cope attending 7 weddings and other wedding related activities. Her best friends come up with a challenge for each wedding!

There were a few funny scenes including the opening one with peacocks and overall this was a fun romantic comedy with enjoyable characters and great friends to support Freya. It was a quick book and a perfect one to end April with!

I did like The Secret Bridesmaid better and thought that was funnier overall but if you love romance you'll enjoy this!