Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the digital ARC!

I liked this book.

A quick gist: The day before Freya's wedding to her partner of 12 years he decides to break up with her in a broom closet (A jerk move if I do say so myself). Unfortunately, this is also the season that many of her other friends are getting married, so to seem okay she and her best friends make a list of things (out of her comfort zone) for her to do at each wedding to take her mind off of Matthew.

I think Matthew was a huge jerk to her this entire book. The way he treated her and the way that he handled everything made me so angry and upset on Freya’s behalf but because of it we got to see a lot of good character development from her. I really liked how she focused on herself and called out Matthew for his rudeness to her. I enjoy books where the main characters focus on themselves and their own personal growth before anything else because I’m a strong believer in self care and self love. I also enjoyed the moments between her and Jamie and I really liked the dynamic she had with her friend group. I also liked the inclusion of lgbtq+ relationships. At times this story felt a bit rushed and I didn’t love some of the things that happened within the story but I did like this book overall. It was a very quick read (Overall It took maybe 4 hours with breaks to read this), however I probably won’t read it again just because it’s not really something I’m interested in rereading.

I was excited about the premise of The Wedding Season but was left under amused. The characters were relatable but it was quite drawn out and ended up being too slow for me.

I’m a sucker for a pretty cover. I’m an even bigger sucker for sticky sweet romance books. I’m a biggest sucker for heroines whose lives fall apart and they work towards finding themselves in addition to love. Lucky for me, The Wedding Season has all three components.

At the start of the novel, Londoner Freya is dumped by her fiancé the day before their wedding at her childhood home. Embarrassed and in disbelief, she’s unsure how she’s going to face the next seven weddings she is expected to attend over the following three-four months. Her best friends, Ruby and Leo, give her an out-of-character task for each event to help her not think about the ex-fiancé, what should have been their wedding, and their romance in general. As Freya completes each task, she meets people and does stuff that help who help her remember who she is without the the relationship she’d been in for over a decade.

At the start, I felt disconnected from Freya beyond the usual establishing-a-character distance. She was analytical, stuck in her expectations, and displayed a lack of humanity when Matthew dumps her. Slowly, as she experienced the five stages of grief for her relationship, I got to know Freya more and found the initial reading of her to be her armor against hurt. She’s so different from me as a person and yet I found her every thought and action to be more and more relatable as the wedding season continued- be the disbelief the relationship is over, drunken ramblings to strangers, or growing confidence.

While this story is solely Freya’s time to shine, Katy Birchall writes a supporting cast of characters who manage to enhance Freya rather than take the limelight away from her. Ruby and Leo are friends I wish I had; Isabelle and Niamh are the childhood friends turn adults everybody wishes they had; her father and brother are the support system any body would be lucky to have. Even Matthew and her mother, two characters she has continuing tension with, are written to where even if you don’t like them as people, you enjoy how they prompt Freya to action. Above all, the hero to Freya is the my favorite from the story, as Jamie is far from the perfect leading man but shows why he does not need to be. He’s messy and opposite to Freya on the surface, but the underlying connections and similarities they find had me grinning ear to ear.

The tasks Freya are challenged to complete are themselves tame and cliche, yet reading how she plays into or against expectations for each one makes The Wedding Season. Put them against the beautiful setting of a wedding and you have a comedy that balances the pain Freya feels else where.

The Wedding Season has all the makings of a contemporary romance hit. Several events, each alike in purpose but different in execution. A supporting cast of characters who feel like somebody you can call up at any time. A fleshed out world that feels like reality. But, most importantly, it is lead by a flawed heroine and hero who you want to root for wholeheartedly.

I loved this book! It was an easy read and many times I laughed out loud. The main character was a lovable person and I loved her journey through this book. The family and friend dynamic of the book was also something I enjoyed. A cute read!

Ahh i finished it one single sitting it was that good and really cute. I laughed, cried and had so much fun reading it. But, I find the beginning quite slow for me. However, the characters were so relatable and entertaining, that I almost didn’t know that I’m about to done with it. So, it’s a 4 stars read for me.

This book was cute but I don’t know what it was. I felt like the pacing was off which just made it drag on for me as I was reading.

This book was SO. FUN! I genuinely laughed out loud a few times and felt like the main character was one of my best friends. There are so many fun side-characters in this book that you grow to love, and the story is very heart warming. Very British as well, which I loved. It kind of gave me “The Holiday” vibes (but make it “summer wedding” instead of Christmas), which of course, hooked me in from the beginning. I think this would be such a great vacation or summer read!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Publishing for the digital advanced reader copy

This book is a 4.5 star for completely changing my opinion on what a romance could be 🥰.

How does a girl survive when she is unceremoniously dumped the day before her wedding, after she has been with her intended for over a decade? Especially when she have seven more weddings to attend before the summer is over? Create a list of ways to distract yourself at every wedding seems like a very good way to get your mind off of your own heartbreak.

So I just have to say: what an absolute dick move to wait until the day before to break off a wedding. If you don’t want to get married then don’t bother proposing. It seems like a gigantic waste of money, time, and emotions to propose, get engaged, then just about go through with the wedding just to change your mind at the last minute. I could not even fathom how heart wrenching that entire experience would be, especially with someone you’d been with for over a decade.

Okay I’m not gonna lie but I absolutely loved that Freya went through the process of listing all the things he took from their shared flat. The absurdity and audacity of this man to take mutually shared bored games, decorations, and eating utensils and the frigging Tupperware. It’s unfathomable to me that someone went through that many things in order to find the things that was “theirs”. But her reactions to the thievery had me cackling and I loved it so much.

Everyone needs a solid group of friends that will be there for you when times get tough. Freya has Ruby and Leo and they add a lot of charm to this story. Leo loves turtles, and Ruby comes up with the aforementioned list to get Freya’s mind off of her engagement ending. This list is full of things that would personally make me blush and I don’t know if I have the courage to do them all but Freya is up to the challenges ahead.

How To Survive the Wedding Season:

Wedding 1: Be the last one standing
Wedding 2: Bring home a pair of cuff links
Wedding 3: Secure a good night kiss
Wedding 4: Run down hotel corridor naked
Wedding 5: Make a speech
Wedding 6: Bring an unexpected plus one
Wedding 7: TBD

The entire premise of this story had a smile on my face. The easy relationship that buds between Freya and Jamie was always putting a smile on my face. I felt like a ridiculous school girl with a crush when I read this story. This book is more than just; girl gets dumped, girls mopes around, girl meets boy, boy makes girl happy, boy and girl get together, the end. Oh no, it’s about Freya finding happiness and peace with in her self, developing strained relationships with family, and cultivating hobbies and passions. She doesn’t immediately start man hunting, she is out there doing what she needs to do for herself and finds a piece of joy along the way. This book was so sweet and it’s the kind of book I would recommend to someone looking for a story that will warm their hearts.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into with this novel, and I ended up loving it so much! I love London, England, the adventures she had and the mind blowing travel she was able to do. However, I think watching her slowly heal, come to terms with her grief, with her new life, with her mother, and all of the new possibilities ahead, as well as her past, was so fulfilling. This was such a fun read, witty, comedic, full of so much love, but the sense of peace it filled me with as I read it in just incomparable. Incredibly well done! See y'all on another page!

Loved The Wedding Season! Not only is this a love story, but it is also a modern coming of age tale.

There were a couple of slow parts for me - Freya learning to cook and garden didn't really add a whole lot to the story for me. But loved the characters, including Freya's family members and friends, and the whole premise of the Wedding list.

And Jamie - whew! Loved his part in the story and would have been happy for more of him!

I received this book free in exchange for my honest review.

The Wedding Season - @katybirchallauthor
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved this story of Freya. She took such a horrible event and made the absolute best of it! I also enjoyed the side characters, and, of course, Jamie! He may be one of my favorite male characters I’ve read about in awhile.

*all opinions are my own*

Thank you #netgalley and @stmartinspress for this ARC!

Freya was dumped on her wedding day, just mere hours before the wedding. Not only did she have to deal with the fallout of her own relationship but she had to get through a whole wedding season alone. Fortunately, her friends come to the rescue and devise a wedding survival list to get her through the season. With a new task to complete at each wedding Freya realizes it might not be that bad to be on her own. From kissing a french barman to running naked down a hotel corridor, Freya realizes that the breakup might have not been the worst thing. By the end of the wedding season, Freya is having fun again and may have found her happily ever after.

This was such a cute and feel-good story! I feel like we could all learn a little from Freya - be brave, try new things, and live a little. Well, at least I could. Great summer read, highly recommend.

4.5 stars

A delightful British rom-com surrounding the story of a jilted bride, friendship, family and the journey back to rediscovering oneself.

Freya’s life was turned upside down when her fiancé dumped her the day before her wedding. From there, her friends and family help her to get her life back on track, getting over her ex and forming new, healthy relationships; both with herself, her ex and a new love interest. Katy Birchall skillfully weaves details into her story that successfully create characters and situations that are so real and relatable.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I gobbled it right up!
There is no spice in it, however. If that is what you are looking for in this book, you will not find it!

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy, in exchange for an honest review.

The Wedding Season is a heartfelt read and full of dry humor and wit. It did begin quite slow and was difficult to get through the first quarter of the book as Freya struggled with the fall out of a broken engagement and was enveloped in feelings of self-pity and sorrow. But, bolstered by her loyal and hilarious friends, and eventually a meet-not-so-cute with a new love interest (not that this is necessary), she discovers that the only thing that matters is how she sees herself. This may be better categorized as women’s fiction rather than romance, though I did love the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers relationship unfold, and the ending left me smiling all day.

The Wedding Season has an interesting plot structure - our main character is dumped, by her fiance, in a broom closet at the venue for their wedding the next day. It also happens to be during the same period of time most everyone in her friend group is getting married, so she will be attending 7 weddings in the coming months. However interesting the setup is, the pacing just seemed off to me and events occur too late. Her friends never list off all the red flags of her past relationship, the romantic lead isn't introduced until around the 100 page mark, her realization moment comes from her absentee mother, the sit down with her ex is anti-climactic and I wasn't sure that at the point it occurs in the story it was strictly necessary. I have othe quibbles, but I won't belabour the point.
The highlight for me was Freya suggesting a curse where the cursed person would keep falling in wells, and it just struck me as hilarious - I imagine that scene of Sideshow Bob and the rakes, but sub in a surrounding of unexpected wells.
Thank you to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with an arc for review, and I highly recommend Birchall's The Secret Bridesmaid.

“The Wedding Season” by Katy Birchall is a romantic comedy.

We meet Freya who is figuring out which way is up for her wedding the next day when her fiancé Matthew calls things off … in a broom closet. Unlike a thriller, where Freya would be planning revenge (though Freya does have a few fleeting thoughts of this), Freya turns to her friends (bless them!) and over some drinks, they come up with a plan (consider it a to-do challenge list) for Freya to survive her own wedding season (a number of weddings are planned that summer).

I needed a light fluffy book after some of the more heavy ones I’d been reading and this fit the bill perfectly. This book is more about healing - healing after a break-up, healing family, healing to get yourself whole again. It’s also about showing how strong a person can be emotionally and how, even though it hurts, moving forward, self-analyzing, and dealing is important. That Freya had great friends really helped - they love and take care of her and always have her back. So, it wasn’t as light and fluffy as I expected, but it was better. Some might say that there wasn’t a lot of romance, but I found the amount to be perfect for this book.

The Wedding Season was so witty and fun that I found it difficult to put down. The characters are so charming and honestly having it set mainly in London just made me so happy. I found myself rooting for Freya and wanting to cheer on each win she had. Really enjoyed this!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Love love loved this book! Such a unique story line told so beautifully. I felt it was a little slow-moving at first but then quickly picked up speed. You really felt for the main character as she moved through the story and the love story was very cute and inspiring. Would definitely recommend.

Reading about all these weddings made me nostalgic to a time where I could attend weddings. Weddings are beautiful and wonderful and I miss them so much. I loved this book. I loved Freya and her inner monologues, how she’s worried about falling apart in front of people out, she’s trying to hold it together, how she is very loyal to her friends, her sense of humour, and how much she grows in the book. I loved Jamie and Iand how he was a bit all over the place and how he helped Freya through the season. I loved Freya, Ruby and Leo’s friendship and how close they are with with each other and how they support each other. I think the challenge that they gave to Freya to get her through the wedding season was fantastic, hilarious a and a great story. And just like in a previous book by this author, I loved that all the romance is happening slowly and a bit behind the scenes of Freya growing and healing. It is still there and beautiful but the focus of the story is Freya and her healing process, her discovery of what comes after. It is a great story.

So much laughter! This is the fun weekend read you didn't know you needed. There was so much about it that was relatable that made it extra enjoyable. You won't be able to put the book down.