I absolutely adored the story’s main character, Freya who was recently dumped by her fiancé 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.

The narration by Daphne Kouma was amazing and along with Birchall’s writing, had me laughing on my plane ride home from my vacation.

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 Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is how rom-coms are done! Full of angst, inner commentary, awesome best friends and a jilted bride that goes on a journey of self discovery in order to recover from the devastation of losing her boyfriend of 12 years the day before the wedding. Freya is so vulnerable and relatable, and super funny!
When Freya gets dumped by her long time boyfriend in a closet at their wedding venue the day before the wedding, she didn’t even see it coming, and thought it was just a case of cold feet, so she keeps her heart and mind open to reconciliation. Her two best friends, who are now a couple, decide that the best way to move on is to give her challenges to accomplish at each of their other friends weddings that are coming up over the next few months. Freya decides to take on these challenges with a smile on her face and never let them see they’ve got you down mentality and it was admirable. The challenges started mild, like asking for a strangers cufflinks, and got more complicated as the weeks went on. In the process, she meets Jamie, who is a friend of her friend and is her total opposite, which annoyed her to no end, but also gets under her skin. As time goes on, Freya finds her worth and opens her heart to moving on.
I absolutely loved the narrator! She smashed it out of the park and I can’t wait to listen to more work done by her.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

Hours before Freya and Matthew are supposed to get married, he bumps her in the broom closet.

If you read Katy Birchall’s “The Secret Bridesmaid” be warned this book is different. If you are expecting a rom-com, then keep it moving. This is a women's fiction about a woman on a journey of self discovery.

I am not even going to lie, I wanted a laugh out loud story about some more wedding disasters. While this book was not for me; I can see many who will enjoy this one.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and MacmillanAudio for gifting me an eARC and ALC in exchange for my 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!

Out 5/3/22, this story is the perfect read for those who need a good laugh and pick-me-up and love to read about weddings! There is still some emotional depth as it deals with a called off engagement, so if that is triggering for you, know that going in!

After 12 years of dating, Freya is dumped by her fiancé Matthew the day before her wedding. Grieving, embarrassed and heartbroken, Freya does not know how she’ll move on let alone make it through the seven weddings she has before summer is over. To distract herself at each of these events, Freya agrees to complete a challenge at each party that totally pushes herself outside her comfort zone. With help from a great group of friends and a supportive family, Freya begins to heal and put the pieces of her life back together while opening her heart to the possibility of a new chapter.

What I liked: How the weddings transported us all around Europe- from Dublin to the South of France to the English countryside. The supporting cast felt like real friendships. We got to see Freya with her high school, college and work friends which felt so realistic, especially when going through the stages of grief. I liked how on the romance side nothing was rushed. The book was truly a slow burn, and Freya had to go through the stages of grief before she was ready to put Matthew behind. There was also some fun flirting and banter throughout the book that kept me on my feet!

In regards to the audio, I really like Daphne Kouma as a narrator. This is the third book I listened to by her and her narration is always great.

Read if you like:
🇬🇧British romcoms
💍Wedding season
💔Stories about healing after a break-up
👯‍♀️Real, authentic friendships
📝To-do challenge lists

I absolutely adored this book! Freya was dumped the day before her wedding and her friends came up with The Wedding Challenge to get her through the 7 other weddings she has that year. Each wedding has its own challenge, for example, be the last one on the dance floor. Through these challenges, Freya finds herself and her confidence. The emotional growth and character development in this book is great! I loved the ending!

This was more of a 3.5, but I’m feeling generous this morning. The Wedding Season is a surprisingly charming romcom (a little too heavy on the comedy sometimes for me, particularly when it leans into over-the-top silliness) about Ruby, a woman whose fiancé leaves her the day before their wedding. Ruby spends the rest of her summer on a self-improvement plan as she attends 7 other weddings and hopes to win back the fiancé (which I was absolutely not rooting for).

This is cute, fun, and really great on audio. Definitely great for summer reading. ☀️

This book was amazing! I enjoyed every single chapter, and it kept me hooked the entire time, which I loved!

Thank you @macmillanaudio @netgalley for ALC of The Wedding Season. I would categorize this as women's fiction more than a rom com.

Freya is dumped the day before her wedding in a broom closet. The story is about her making it through 8 weddings. I love her friendship between Ruby and Leo and how supportive they were.

The book is lots of fun and the narration was great on this.

Giving this one a 3.5 star rating, rounded up.

Freya and Matthew’s wedding is the first to kick of the wedding season in this rom-com like book. When Matthew calls off the wedding, Freya is left to finish wedding season on her own. With the help of her best friends, Freya attempts to find herself through a series of wedding tasks.

This book is a bit slow to start, but by the end of the book, I understand why the author wrote it this way. I love that the characters grow and start to thrive again. The best friend trio is fun, supportive, and everything you could ever want in a group of friends.

There are definitely moments in the book that are “cringy”, but they achieve the goal that they were written for.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this ARC. Audiobook was fantastic.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4653849297

I didn't particularly like Freya at the beginning of the book because she seemed way too high-strung, but I ended up loving how the story is all about her challenging herself to be more open and finding out that even the best-laid plans don't necessarily guarantee happiness as much as being open to life does.
There are some very fun if predictable moments and I really liked how Birchall handled the harder, sadder moments in such a way that they added to the overall emotion without making the book an emotional downer. It's a tough balance that this book manages expertly.
The narration by Daphne Kouma was really fun, as you could hear the fun and emotions perfectly in her voice. She gave a lot of life to the characters and made scenes hit extra hard.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the early listen!

This one was just fun! Freya is left at the altar, well almost, it was the day before and in the broom closet. Her wedding was the first of the season for her and her friends. When her's is canceled her best friend and her fiance come up with a list of challenges for Freya to do at the upcoming weddings to help her make it through the season. This was a fun romp through Freya's breakup and breakdown and slowly her comeback. It was fun to watch her and her friends come up with all the stunts she had to do and to watch her find her way again. This one could turn out to be a fun beach read this summer.

I've previously read this story but was excited to see it on Audio. LOVE Freya's story! This is such a cute, uplifting story of a woman who is broken up with the day before her wedding. She goes through the summer "Wedding Season" with a list of challenges set by her two best friends. I laughed out loud several times and was pleased with the narration.

The narrator does a great job with the "sounds" of the story-- giggles/ laughs, deep breaths, gasps, yawns, etc. as well as emotion, shouting at the appropriate scenes and speaking softly when the story calls for that.

I found that scenes with back-and-forth conversation could be hard to follow at times. The narrator doesn't really give a TON of different voice/ inflection to the different characters (some of them are different, for example the Irish characters) so when it is one comment backed up by the next by a different character it sounds a bit rushed and hard to keep straight.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the ALC copy of The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall.

Freya Scott got dumped hardcore the day before her wedding. She is left devastated, heartbroken, and humiliated. But she is determined to never let them see her sweat! She is going to power through the wedding season. She is going to put on a happy face and follow her friend's outrageous challenges to survive the weddings she will be attending.

This was a charming and engaging book. I enjoyed Freya's journey from heartbreak to discovering her worth and finding her voice. The cast of characters were fun and entertaining. I enjoyed as Freya healed and found inner strength.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall audio book was simply charming.
What a delight!
The book description describes Freya as smart and ambitious and she was!! This is a main character who doesn't fall apart after her fiance calls off their wedding one day before the event. Yes, she is sad, mad and wanting to know what the heck happened. BUT, she is a strong female lead and is surrounded by great friends who made wonderful side characters. They concoct a plan to help Freya get through the wedding season (she has 7 to attend plus hen nights) and I can honestly say I laughed out loud multiple times at the shenanigans she got into.

I loved all the characters and the narration by Daphne Kouma was was stellar.

A 5 star listen for me!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall (Narrated by Daphne Kouma) is a super cute-laugh out loud-heartfelt story of friendship and finding oneself after loss. As Freya says “Here’s to feet!”

Thank you so much NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Dumped in a broom closet the day before her wedding, Freya is heartbroken. Her wedding was going to be the start of “wedding season” for her and her friends. To help Freya “survive” the upcoming events her friends come together to give her certain tasks to complete during each wedding.
I truly enjoyed listening to this story. It was very funny and I loved watching Freya turn into a stronger woman and discovering herself. This story is suitable for young adults because there is no spice in it. The best part? The narrator had an accent and that always makes a story more interesting and enjoyable for me.

Special thanks to Netgalley and McMillan production for providing this audio arc in return for an honest review.

Freya Scott is completely happy, she’s met the love of her life and her wedding is tomorrow! That is until her fiancé Matthew dumps her… the day before their wedding… in a broom closet. Freya is absolutely devastated! How is she going to make it through 6 more weddings this summer?!! That is where her best friends Ruby and Leo (also to be married this summer) help her come up with a wedding season survival task list. Freya will be able to go to all her friends weddings this summer and keep her mind off Matthew because she will be doing things she never thought possible. Along the way she meets Jamie, an irritatingly late, but incredibly handsome fellow that she just keeps running into. While learning to heal from the trauma of being dumped a day before her wedding Freya also works to heal past family trauma that she has been holding onto for years.

The character depth that the author was able to give Freya was wonderful, I really felt like I could picture her as a real person. I also really liked that Mathew would keep making appearances throughout the book, just because you aren’t together anymore doesn’t mean a person just disappears. It provided the book with some hilarious interactions, hello awkward friends lunch! I felt that Jamie was such a great counterbalance to Freya’s controlling nature. When Freya was early for something he’d walk through the door just in the knick of time. The fact that they just happened to work for competing beverage distributors was perfect! I wish Jamie could have been present a bit more through out the story but I also appreciated that it was about Freya. She needed to work through not only the relationship devastation, but her family issues that she had pushed under a rug hoping that they would just go away.

I was able to read this book via Audiobook and I’m so happy that’s the format I was given. The narrator Daphne Kouma brought an amazing element to this story that I wouldn’t have gotten having read it. Her voice absolutely captured what I imagined Freya would sound like and her timing was impeccable. The one tiny thing that I struggled with was when Freya would be talking in a Frenzy with another character the reader would jump back and forth between dialog and I would get confused for a second. I understand why it was read that way and I would usually work it out pretty quickly.

I really enjoyed the experience of listening to a The Wedding Season in audiobook format and I appreciate #netgalley and #macmillan audio for giving me the chance to listen to this ARC.

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. Also, the narrator added to the story, making it even more enjoyable. 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 advanced audio copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a super cute jilted bride story. I've read a few romances and chick lit with very similar premises but I enjoyed the journey Freya went on after being dumped the day before her wedding by a man she dated for twelve years. The large cast of side characters were lively and added a lot to her growth, I wish she had spent a bit more time with Jaime but greatly enjoyed it. Perfect summer read