After twelve years together, Freya's awful fiance dumps her the day before their wedding. If that weren't horrendous enough on its own, she still has seven other weddings she is supposed to attend through the summer. Her best friends from college, Ruby and Leo, devise a plan to help her survive the wedding season. At each wedding, Freya has to complete a challenge to distract her from thinking about her ex.

This is such an ode to friendship, to the ride-or-die folks who will always have your back, whether that means sitting together in silent comfort or joining in crazy antics. It makes me want to reach out to my best friends just to say thank you.

I laughed so hard and loved it so much. Please do read this knowing that it's not a romance. And it is all the better for being exactly the journey that it is.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

4.5 stars rounded up

The Wedding Season
Katy Birchall

Freya is getting married tomorrow to her boyfriend of 12 years. Her wedding is the first of eight weddings that summer. As she prepares for her big day, her fiancé Matt ends the relationship abruptly at her childhood home in a broom closet only telling her that she was more scheduled and he was more free-spirited. Freya navigates the split with the help of her oldest friends. As she prepares for the wedding season, her friends create a list of “challenges” she needs to accomplish at each wedding, hoping that this will take her mind off of her ex and actually have fun at the weddings. After each wedding she starts to gain more confidence in herself and starts to realize that she may be able to fall in love again.

I could relate to Freya’s friends and how they banded together to help a friend get over a devastating break up. The slow burn romance was too slow. I kept turning the pages waiting for Freya and Jamie to get together and was finally rewarded for the long wait in the last two pages. Unfortunately, towards the end there were some plot holes, like why did Jaime magically appear at Ruby’s wedding in the middle of the reception? Also, some of the weddings were limited to a couple of pages and left me wanting more. By and large, I enjoyed the book despite the ending that left me stranded on a desert island with a pitcher of water.

Katy Birchall has done it again! This was truly hilarious and fun from start to finish, major Bridget Jones' Diary vibes. There's not much more that I can say other than I absolutely loved this book!

Woo! I am so excited about this book! I love when a book finds me at just the right time. The Wedding Season is sweet, funny, and I couldn't stop turning the pages once I got started. Freya was dumped by her fiance the day before her wedding. Her wedding was supposed to be the first in a long line of friends' weddings, and now she has to go through it with a broken heart. Her best friends, Ruby and Leo help her come up with a list of tasks to keep her distracted and help her heal during the Wedding Season.

If you are like me and love some well written banter, then this book is definitely for you. It has banter between best friends, love interests, and family members, basically it checked every one of my banter loving boxes. I was laughing out loud to the point where I was getting weird looks from my family. I adored all of Freya’s friends, they reminded me of many of my own friends, so several of the moments felt personal. Coming up with a list of tasks to survive the wedding season is definitely something right up their alley.

This book definitely took its time with Freya and her healing process. Rather than thrust her directly into the arms of another man, she took her time finding out who she was, who she wanted to be, and where she stood with the more difficult aspects of her life. It was wonderful watching her heal in different ways during each of the weddings. With so many weddings, I was very happy to see that only the important events at each wedding were highlighted, it helped keep the pace light.

The only time I struggled with the book was the beginning. It was slow to start, but the further I read, I realized how important that slow pacing was for Freya’s journey. I am so happy that I kept going and got to enjoy all that Freya and her friends had to offer!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinions!

4.5/5 stars rounded up for great side characters!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read and review this new novel before its release!

I read another by Katy Birchall just last week called "The Secret Bridesmaid" and really enjoyed it, and requested this title without immediately making the connection. Wedding season is upon us, and I help one of my photographer friends with some of her jobs and just want to be in the nuptial mood, ya know? And these books did it! I actually enjoyed this one more than the other.

Poor Freya was pretty much left at the altar and her entire life turned upside down. However, the summer wedding season is in full swing and Freya wants to be there for her other friends tying the knot despite her heartbreak and disdain for making vows. Her friends see this and decide to make it worthwhile for her, devising activities and distractions for Freya at each event to help her focus on herself and creating a new life after Matthew.

I loved the banter in this book and her friends are just sweet as can be - they remind me of mine! There's a little bit of everything in this and I found myself giggling quite frequently. So excited for this release just in time to kick off the wedding season in May!

This book is for all the broken hearted girls, who can’t imagine getting the happy ending! This was such a sweet, funny, and charming book! I couldn’t put it down. I loved the relationship between the characters. This is a must read!

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

Firstly, I knew that this wasgoing to be a good book when the first line referenced peacocks. 😂 Freya's fiancé, Michael, calls off their engagement the day before the wedding as the two of them stand inside a broom closet in Freya's father's house. His words pierce her and crush her at the same time. This is the catalyst for everything that follows in The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall.

Here is a list of things you can look forward to reading:
The list of all the things Michael took from the house before Freya returned
Freya's adventures in cooking spoke to my soul and right there I knew I could be Katy's friend in real life.
The Wedding Survival Guide and all the shenanigans it inspires!
Any book containing a scene with a London pigeon is it for me. I have a love affair with London pigeons in particular. 😂
Jamie. He is adorable. The banter between him and Freya are perfection.
Hotel Hallway scene: Hilarious and heartbreaking.
The Restaurant scene: Yes and yes!
Again, I want to be friends with Freya and Katy.
Katy Birchall's writing style is gold. I laughed out loud quite a few times! Freya's acts of bravery and self discovery are inspiring and I found myself wanting to have a Hotel Hallway scene of my own. 😂 Not only did Freya and Jamie find a place in my heart, but the magnificently written best friends are who I want to be to my community of people.

This is beautiful written clean romance about putting the pieces back together and having fun while creating something new!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the Advanced Readers Copy. I will be singing my appreciation of this book for years to come!

2.5/5

This is a slow burn type of romance, not really my type of book right now.

I did love the character development and the "list.."

However, I just could not enjoy the book because it just felt a little dragged out. I wish it was a little better.

I am obsessed. I love a good drama start to a rom com book. Freya is setting up for her wedding that’s taking place the next day when her fiancé informs her he doesn’t feel it anymore and wants to break up. Not only is she single and jilted at the (almost) altar, she has to attend 7 weddings that summer for all of her friends. Her two besties come up with a task at each wedding to keep her mind off of being sad.

I absolutely loved the character growth you see from Freya. The realization that she was in a relationship where she was just going through the motions because it was comfortable, and now venturing out and trying new things - so good!

I seriously devoured this book!! The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall was a wonderful mix of engaging characters, hilarious situations, and growth that I thoroughly enjoyed. After her fiancé canceled the wedding one day before the big event, Freya's world is understandably rocked, but thanks to incredible friends and her own determination, she finds her way forward and this book does an incredible job of telling that story. From worm attacks to kissing a French stranger, Freya faces hard times head on and comes out stronger for it. I loved this book full humor and heart and can't wait to read more by Katy Birchall.

*Thank you to Katy Birchall, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for an e-arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

When her fiancé ends their engagement, Freya spends the next weeks mourning the loss, figuring out how to feel normal again. She dreads the slew of weddings she's scheduled to attend over the summer. Her BFFs come up with a plan: they give her a series of challenges to complete at each event, each one more shocking than the last. Can Freya find the strength to move out of her comfort zone and learn to fall in love again?

Katy Birchall has a strong, humorous voice that make this book fun to read. It's women's fiction, not romance, with the love interest playing a secondary role. The first quarter of the book consists of Freya grieving, with a few outrageous incidents to keep it from becoming maudlin. After that, the pace picks up, and the book develops more of a chick lit feel. Still, the specter of the broken engagement hovers over the book—the closure of Freya's relationship with her ex plays as large a role in the book as the new relationship with the love interest.

Do I wish there had been more romance and less grief in this book? Yes. But that's not the story the author was telling. This is a funny, emotional read with a satisfying ending that should appeal to women's fiction and rom com readers alike.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A big thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the ARC!

As soon as I saw Katy Birchall had a new book on netgalley, I immediately requested it without even looking at the description because I loved The Secret Bridesmaid!

It’s safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed this read as well. Break-up grief, wedding quests, strong friendships, and some peacocks. I loved the balance of serious with funny. I snorted laughed quite a few times.

The characters were very well done, and they grew as the book went along. Freya didn’t shy away from her grief, but she didn’t let it stop her from having a great time completing her tasks.

I loved the tension between Freya and Jaime. I knew where their relationship was going from the very beginning, but it was fun to see how they got there.

Overall, this one was a heartfelt and relatable read that had a bit of humor sprinkled in. I’m still very much a fan of Katy Birchall!

When Freya gets broken up with the day before her wedding, she is left in pieces, not to mention she is one of 7 other weddings she is supposed to attend this wedding season. How can she pull off all seven weddings and get herself back on track.? Her friend's come up with a plan to give her challenges at each wedding to keep her mind off her failed relationship and onto getting herself back out there. We go through each wedding

While I enjoyed the book and felt Freya had a lot of comedic personality, it felt kind of long and winded. How many times did we have to be reminded she got broken up with in a broom closet etc. This book had a lot of characters, 7 couples worth of weddings, families, romantic interests etc. it was a little hard to keep them all straight. her chemistry with Jamie was cute, I wish we would have gotten more of that, and less of the downfall of her wedding and the other peoples weddings she was at.

Overall I'd give it a 3.5. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Rounded to 4.5 stars

I adored Katy Birchall's 2021 fun read The Secret Bridesmaid and requested an ARC of her newest novel, The Wedding Season as soon as I could--I was so thrilled to get a copy and it definitely didn't disappoint this reader! It was just exactly the right book I needed when I picked it up.

✅Witty
✅Charming
✅Fun
✅Romantic
✅Heartbroken
✅Engaging Plot
✅Wonderful Characters
✅ Fantastic Settings
✅Excellent Writing

❌None

Freya is about to marry her boyfriend of 12 years when he puts an end to the wedding and their relationship the day before, without any warning, in a broom closet. She's gobsmacked and brokenhearted. How could this have happened? On top of trying to deal with her feelings and find closure, she has to deal with the Wedding Season--7 more weddings that follow what would have been hers. No longer a bride, fiance, or girlfriend, the last thing she wants to do is attend any weddings, especially since she will eventually run into her ex and since she doesn't want to be the object of other people's pity since they know she was dumped on the (almost) alter. Yet her two besties come up with ways for her to navigate each wedding by giving her a task or a challenge to do at each wedding, something to give her a boost of confidence and a way to keep her thoughts off Matthew, the ex. Will it work?

I didn't expect The Wedding Season to be as much about learning to love yourself and overcoming heartache and loss as it is, but I was totally invested in Freya's journey and loved how that was the bigger part of the story instead of it being about her losing love and immediately rebounding to some hot guy. That's not to say that there isn't some romance in the book. There is but it's not the bigger picture and takes nothing away from Freya needing to find out who she is after 12 years of being with the same man, which was so necessary to her healing from their breakup.

Such a wonderful book that made me smile, laugh, and tear up, and I definitely recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the Arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

-Review posted to Goodreads and Twitter on 4/24/22; will be posted to Amazon/B&N on publication date

When Freya is left by her fiancé the day before her wedding at the beginning of a summer of weddings, she genuinely thinks that the best sides is to have her ex come back. Instead, her best friends set her a number of challenges, one per wedding, and she uses them as a way to regain herself. This was a fun book and I enjoyed reading it. It’s a perfect quick beach read that will bring a smile to your face.

I'm kicking myself for not getting the audio on this one. After listening to The Secret Bridesmaid last month, I had to pick this up- loved it!

The story started out a little slow for me but I blamed my reading slump and constantly being interrupted during reading time. But boy did this pick up.

Friends please go into this book as Women's fiction and not romance. Though you get a little romance in here, it's not the primary focus. By going into this story that way, it made it so much better!

After 12yrs of dating, Freya gets dumped by her fiance right before the wedding day. Tragic! So so tragic. I would be wrecked. This story follows Freya's recovery while also trying to survive wedding season which a bunch of her friends are getting married. Lots of weddings! Luckily her friends Leo and Ruby create a little "to-do" list to get her through.

I loved this. Witty comedy, great one-liners, very fun list for Freya to do. Ruby and Leo are a riot. I cackled often! Oh and this one guy who makes an appearance is just adorable and yummy. Their interactions are my fav.

This author knows how to write charcter arcs and a well rounded story. So Women's fiction lovers who want a good laugh, this is for you!

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC

4.5stars

I really liked this one! I loved that Freya and her friends were in their 30s (so many romances feature a younger cast like love and fun doesn't happen after your 30th year!). I would be mortifed if my fiance dumped me the day before our wedding, and then I had to get through a full "Wedding Season" of 7-8 other weddings where eveyone knows you're the one who got jilted just months before. Totally a downer scenario, but the way her friends challenge her to enjoy each wedding and find herself (and hope for love) again is hilarious and lovely. I cringed, laughed out loud, got angry at her douche-y ex, and all the things!

Laugh out loud read, but not exactly what I was expecting. Freya learns to cope with being a jilted bride when her fiance Matthew calls off the wedding. She spends all summer attending weddings and learning to cope and heal.

Freya Scott is about the start a busy wedding season. The day before her wedding, her fiancé pulls her into a broom closet and calls off their wedding. Freya’s friends hash a plan to help her get through wedding season by making up a challenge for each wedding.

This was such a cute book. I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

The Wedding Season had an interesting plot, but it did not end up working for me at all.

It was a DNF at 30 percent. I kept picking it up a few times but I wasn't engaged in the story line. I ended up skimming through to see if it would spark an interest.

I tried picking it up again last night and tonight but it just felt like a chore to read. This will probably work for others but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read and review. My thoughts are my own.