I voluntarily read and reviewed and advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall grabbed hold of me and refused to let go. What I thought was going to be a lighthearted weekend read, ended up dragging me through a whirlwind of emotions. Katy Birchall does an excellent job of making the reader feel like they're a part of the story--when Matthew ended things with Freya the day before her wedding, I felt my stomach drop with nausea; when Freya spent weeks pining away praying for Matthew to change his mind, I did too; when Freya started working on herself and improving her life, I wondered how I could better my own life, when I realized Freya brought her mother as her "unexpected wedding guest," I had tears in my eyes; and when she later broke down in her mother' arms on the beach, I let them fall.

The interactions between Freya with her friends and family felt so pure and genuine. There were times when I laughed out loud at the banter. I am surprised at how easily I accepted the lack of romance in the book, but looking back it didn't need it. I went from rooting for Matthew to get his act together and win Freya back, to rooting for Jamie to get a true chance with her, to just rooting for Freya.

Katy Birchall attempted to give us a story about a woman who finds herself in a world that has been thrown upside down and she did that. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Katy Birchall for the ARC! I loved this book and would read it again in a heartbeat!

The day before her wedding, Freya’s fiancé breaks up with her. Her wedding was supposed to kick off the Wedding Season as the first of 8 within her social circle. To help her keep her mind off of her heartbreak, her best friends come up with a plan for Freya to complete one task at each wedding.

I enjoyed reading Freya’s journey of getting over her fiancé and learning to be on her own again after so long. And it was fun to watch her complete her list. I recommend this for lovers of chick-lit with a focus on growth and friendship with several humorous moments.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

The Wedding Season is a fun read that follows Freya after her fiance calls off their wedding (the day before after 12 years of dating!!). What follows is Freya attempting to get through seven weddings over the summer with the help of a list of activities her friends came up with for her.

So many parts of this book had me laughing. I loved Freya and her journey to discover herself, her friend group, especially Ruby and Leo, and the activities she had to do. I didn't mind that the romance was a sub=plot here because Freya's story and how she worked through her heartbreak was compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

On the day before her wedding, Freya’s world is shattered when her 12 year relationship comes to a screeching halt inside of a broom closet.
She’s given very little reason - other than the fact she she’s just “too together”.
Unfortunately, her wedding was meant to kick off the Wedding Season - months filled with 7 upcoming weddings. Some of which, even worse, would be attended by her ex-fiancé.
Between Freya and her best friends Ruby and Leo, they devise a plan to help Freya survive all of the weddings.
This was a romantic comedy heavy on the comedy. You’ll root for Freya as she tries to piece herself back together while still celebrating the love of her friends and family.
Freya is the perfect leading lady - strong, relatable, heartbroken, vulnerable, and hilarious.
Through putting herself out there and following the advice of her friends, Freya finds her happy ending, but most importantly finds herself.
You’ll love this read from Katy Birchall. Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press publishing and Katy Birchall for allowing me this read in exchange for my honest review.
On sale wherever books are sold on May 3rd, 2022.

Freya has 8 weddings to attend in one season. That’s a lot, especially since hers was to be the first. But she gets dumped by the drip, Matthew, the day before their wedding. I really disliked Matthew. He was a complete asshat.
Freya’s friends, Ruby and Leo are lure gold. Everyone should have friends like them. They stick by her and compile a list of tasks she has to complete at the weddings. There are many hilarious scenes but my two favorites are when Freya practices her Karate kick and the wine in the restaurant. They were utterly satisfying to read.
And then there’s Jamie…..
To see who he is and what happens, read the book!

The Wedding Season brings you fierce friendships and a cute comeback story after a big breakup.

Freya gets dumped by her fiance the day before her wedding and now has a summer full of weddings to attend by herself. Her best friends task her with some dares to make the weddings more fun and Freya learns to love her new life post breakup.

Like The Secret Bridesmaid, Katy Birchall has quips that make you laugh out loud and a book focusing more on finding yourself and friendships than romance - in a good way! There were several parts I laughed out loud at and while I think it did take a long time to get to the fun parts (the weddings) with some parts that felt really glossed over (again the weddings she was attending) it was still a fun read.

This feels like the perfect beach, vacay, or summer read if you're looking for something fun and lighthearted but not super ooey gooey romancey.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest reivew.

What’s it about (in a nutshell):
The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall is a sparkling romantic comedy about Freya Scott and how she navigates a breakup with Matthew in a broom closet the day before their wedding. Thanks to Freya’s friends, her tragic event becomes a fun romp to discover who she is and what she wants for her future.

Initial Expectations:
When I first saw the cover, I immediately thought that this looks like a fun story – the cartoony artwork and a young woman having way too many bridal bouquets around her. The blurb on the front (which I love) says, “when life hands you something blue, turn it into something new.” That makes me think of taking on new adventures, which also sound fun and potentially laugh out loud funny. The book description sounds poignant and then entertaining. So, my initial expectations are that this will be a somewhat poignant turn of events turned into a fun romp through many weddings.

Actual Reading Experience:
My initial expectations were spot on. I loved this totally relatable story and the way Freya finds her way past one of the worst things that could have happened to her at that moment. Freya is a well-developed character who is an independent, strong woman that I easily empathized with. She tells this tale with first-person narration, and her voice is sharp, witty, and flows with ease. But the best thing about this story is Freya’s group of friends. They rally around her and come up with challenges for her to come out of her comfort zone and find who she is and what she wants. I laughed aloud more than once as Freya completed each challenge with humbleness and dread. Lastly, there is a slow-burn romance that I just adored. Mathew might be a cad, but there is someone who comes in and out of her life; that is the real deal. Is this a happily ever after? You’ll have to read it to find out!


To Read or Not to Read:
If you are looking for a relatable, witty, and sharp story, The Wedding Season is the perfect book for a laughing-out-loud good time.

Last spring I really enjoyed reading The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall - now, a year after reading, thinking about the scene with the swans still cracks me up! I was excited to receive an ARC of The Wedding Season from St Martin's Press, St Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
While I don’t always enjoy attending weddings in person, I ALWAYS love reading about them, especially when there is good humor. This romcom was just as funny as the previous book - maybe even funnier! It starts with Freya's wedding being called off (the day before!) in a broom closet, where the former-bride-to-be is mostly concerned about the peafowl (proper way to reference both peacocks and peahens, as Freya and I both learned) that her brother surprised her with for the wedding ceremony which have gone missing.🤣🤣 If you're looking for a fun and funny romcom read, check this one out - it comes out on Tuesday 5/3!

I enjoyed this one. It had the perfect balance of love, heartbreak, self-discovery, humor, forgiveness and friendships. In fact I think the friendships were my favorite part. I loved all the characters, and there were a lot. But each one was such an important part of the story. I wish there was an epilogue with Freya’s wedding because that girl deserves one!

Exactly what I needed! Such a sweet, funny, heartfelt story with a touch of romance. 💕

When Freya’s fiancé calls off their wedding the night before, her best friends devise a plan for her to survive the other weddings she’s planning to attend that season. Along the way, Freya learns how to be single again, reconnects with her estranged mum, and maybe even meets someone new. This book is just a delight and I loved it. Will be checking out more by this author. Thanks Amber @lloydreads for the recommendation! This one got me right in the feels.

And thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an early copy in exchange for my honest review!

Imagine this just hours before your wedding, your groom calls it off. Now imagine you have 7 more weddings to attend that year. That is what happened to Freya in The Wedding Season and let me tell you, my heart went out to her!

Thankfully Freya is surrounded by amazing friends and family. While this book is less of a traditional romance, I fell for "the friendship kind of love" that this book really highlights.

Author Katy Birchall delivers an impressive character arc and a heartfelt story of redemption, with some hilarious antics in between. I really enjoyed her earlier wedding-related book, The Secret Bridesmaid, and really think she does a great job creating situations that the reader can't help but chuckle at.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and definitely want to attend a wedding after this! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Wedding Season is a tender but hilarious romance about an early-thirties London girl, Freya, who is about to marry her long-term love, Matthew. Or so she thinks - the day before their nuptials, he breaks things off... in a cobweb-filled cupboard no less. Their wedding was to be the first of eight that they were going to attend that summer. With her best friends Ruby and Leo also getting married at the last wedding of the summer, they've devised a plan of attack to get Freya through "the wedding season" without having a complete breakdown, as she's still mourning the lose of her relationship with Matthew. They come up with a task that she must complete at each wedding - it start with being the last one on the dance floor at the end of the night. Once the first wedding and task go as well as can be expected, things begin to look up. At her second wedding, she meets Jamie, a friend of the groom, who is her complete opposite and they are like oil-and-water, taking cheap shots at each other and are just generally annoyed. Until they end up taking shots (of whiskey) at the hotel bar, and she acquires his cuff links to complete her task. As they run into each other time and again at various events and weddings throughout the summer, they begin to become quite close. But as Matthew angles to get back into Freya's life, she's got to decide what she really wants - a return to the life that she had mapped out, or a new adventure with someone new.

I found myself laughing out loud on a few occasions throughout the book - at scenarios that Freya manages to get herself into, or the banter between herself and her friends and family. But there is also a lot of emotional moments - the initial breakup, her low moments after running into him or his friends/family, or her reconnection with her estranged mother. The tension and chemistry between Freya and Jamie was a little lacking, other than a few mentions of feeling jolts of electricity in his presence - I just kept wishing to see it all dialed up a bit for a little more drama and tension.

Many thanks to Katy Birchall, St. Martin's, and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Thank you NetGalley, Katy Birchall and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of The Wedding Season. This is my personal review.
This was a book with a very unique story line. Freya is getting married – well was supposed to be getting married until just hours before the ceremony her fiancé calls the wedding off.
This is going to be a very hard summer for Freya because she has been invited to several wedding and she isn’t sure how she will handle her emotions as she attends each one.
Going through the journey of attending the wedding with her is a trip that opens up all the possibilities of what her life can and will belike after the heartbreak that started this adventure. It took me along and filled me with a lot of different emotions.

I absolutely adored the story’s main character, Freya who was recently dumped by her fiance the day before their wedding is forced to rejig her life sans Matthew (her ex) but she has several weddings still to attend over the next few months hence the term her friend pens, “the wedding season”. To assist in keeping Freya distracted from her current sadness, her best friends task her with hilariously funny assignments she must complete at each of the upcoming friends’ and family’s weddings. I also loved the supporting characters who were all fantastic and enhanced the story.

The flashbacks of memories Freya has with Matthew really added to bringing the reader into her shoes on why she was having such a hard time letting go. It also allowed us to see how her ex was already moving on and it was a bit heartbreaking to read/listen to but essential to the story.

Katy Birchall’s superb writing brings out all the feels, with laugh-out-loud antics to lump in the throat moments as you’re going through Freya’s growth towards happiness. This is one of the books that I hugged with delight not only for the entertainment but also for the heartwarming laughs.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reading copy and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

THE WEDDING SEASON opens during Freya and Matthew's wedding weekend. They're kicking off the wedding season in their friend group, hosting the first of eight that year. Except they don't walk down the aisle.

Freya had been with Matthew for 12 years before he unceremoniously told her he couldn't go through with the wedding. Author Katy Birchall really captured the aftermath of a breakup -- the pain, the confusion, the glimmer of (perhaps misguided) hope.

Luckily Freya's got two good friends in Ruby and Leo; they devise a series of challenges for Freya to complete at each wedding as a distraction, not to mention a way to get her mojo back. I enjoyed rooting for Freya as she came into her own and getting little peeks at the various weddings. (I do, however, have mixed feelings on the ending.)

After being dumped by her long-term boyfriend on the night before her wedding, Freya has to go forward with a summer full of her friend’s weddings. To get through the weddings, her best friends create challenges for Freya to complete at each wedding. She ends up meeting Jamie at one of the first weddings and despite a rough start, she starts to develop feelings for him. This book was more focused on Freya’s personal growth than her relationships, which I absolutely loved. I also really liked Jamie’s character and the relationship between him and Freya. This was a very fun read and I will definitely be checking out more books by this author!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

4.5 Stars

The Wedding Season, while a wonderfully written book is not one I would necessarily call a romance. The Wedding Season follows Freya as she tries to navigate life after her fiancé breaks up with her (after 12 years together) the day before their wedding. To try and help her through a summer filled with weddings, her best friends come up with a list of tasks for her complete at each wedding. The idea being that she’ll be so focused on the task she must complete, she won’t have time to think about her ex. Along the way she does meet a guy that is intriguing to her and does bring a dash of romance to the story, but it is not the focus of the story.

That being said this was still a great book. Katy Birchall’s writing style is so beautiful and gripping, it just captures me. The Wedding Season was clearly very well developed, both the story and the characters and the character growth for Freya was amazing to see.

This was a story about rediscovering yourself and opening yourself to new possibilities. Every task given to Freya was meant to take her outside of her comfort zone, some in a bigger way than others. To see Freya accomplish each task and have fun doing it was fun to experience, and that has everything to do with the way Katy Birchall writes.

I also loved the relationship between Freya and her friends and her relationship with her brother and father. They were explored so beautifully. And to see Freya work on her relationship with her mother was kind of inspiring. I really enjoyed this one and will be keeping an eye out for more books by Katy.

I’ve been wanting to try Katy Birchall’s novels for a while now and when I saw her latest novel, The Wedding Season, described as Four Weddings and a Funeral meets The Wedding Party, I knew I had to read it.

The story opens with the protagonist, Freya Scott, happily preparing to marry her longtime boyfriend, Matthew. That is, until Matthew pulls her into a broom closet the day before the wedding and breaks up with her. Feeling utterly humiliated, Freya wonders how in the world she will survive the seven weddings she has to attend in the upcoming months, what she and her friends have dubbed “The Wedding Season.” She has no idea how she’ll be able to cope with the awkward pitying looks, the gossip, and even worse, the fact that Matthew will probably also be attending most of them since they have so many mutual friends. Freya’s best friends Ruby and Leo, who as an aside, are very much friendship goals, come to the rescue. They devise a list of outrageous challenges, one per wedding, that will serve to distract Freya and keep her from dwelling on her own misfortune. The tasks range from being the last person standing on the dancefloor, to kissing a stranger, to running naked down a hotel corridor. Armed with this survival guide and endless moral support from Ruby and Leo, Freya sets out to tackle “The Wedding Season.” She has no idea how truly life changing her challenges will turn out to be!

You guys, this book was such a delight! I think what Freya was going through is an experience that many will find either relatable or else one of their own worst nightmares. I loved how even though she was devastated, Freya does start to embrace the idea of moving on without Matthew and that she just goes for it when it comes to completing the tasks on her list. That list provides so many laugh out loud moments and they made for a fantastic balance with the more serious elements of the story, just as they made Freya an even more endearing character than she already was.

Watching Freya find her way forward without Matthew was such a wonderful experience. It’s an awkward journey for her at times as she navigates through some confrontational moments with Matthew, but it’s also very healing and freeing for her as she comes to realize she doesn’t need him in her life and that she may actually be better off without him. She also starts to open her eyes and heart to the possibility of a new romance, but that aspect of the story takes a bit of a backseat to Freya’s personal journey. I would have loved a little more romance, but I was all in for Freya so the story was still fantastic as is.

The Wedding Season is a heartwarming and hilarious story about love and friendship. It left me feeling so hopeful about Freya’s future and also wanting sequels that feature all of Freya’s fabulous friends. Just an all around delightful read! 4.5 STARS

Book: The Wedding Season
Author: Katy Birchall
Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:
Four Weddings and a Funeral meets The Wedding Party in Katy Birchall's The Wedding Season: when a recently jilted bride is forced to attend seven weddings in one summer, her friends devise a series of challenges as distraction.

Freya Scott is getting married. Her wedding to Matthew, her long-term boyfriend, is the first of eight in her calendar this year, and as someone who prides herself on being meticulously organized, Freya is intent on making it the perfect day to remember.

But when Matthew calls things off hours before they walk down the aisle, Freya’s entire life plan goes up in smoke. Humiliated and heartbroken, the last thing she wants is to attend a summer of other peoples’ nuptials on her own.

Fortunately, her friends have an idea: together they devise a series of outrageous challenges for Freya to complete at each event, designed to distract her from Matthew and what might have been. From getting stuck in an old church bathroom and needing to be rescued by the vicar to making out with a barman at a French chateau, Freya realizes that despite herself, she might just be having fun.

By the time the final wedding arrives, she will discover that the road to a happy ending sometimes has unexpected detours, that “I do” is only the beginning––and that perhaps her own love story isn’t over just yet.

Review:
This was an enjoyable, entertaining, and humorous read. Although Freya went through many trials throughout the course of the book, I really liked getting to see her journey and how she matured as a character. Her journey to discovering herself after a devastating heartbreak and learning to love herself for who she is was an empowering story to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute book! I could feel the emotions of Freya throughout— especially the second hand embarrassment I felt for her! This would be a great book for the summer. I listened to the audio version and the narrator truly added something more. Highly recommend!