oh, ellie palmer. oh. ellie. palmer.

this book is for the pathological people pleasers who feel guilty because they feel like they should be doing or wanting more in life. another book for the people who feel like they're running out of time (for what? we never know).

ali and adam ARE LITERALLY SOULMATES. there is literally an invisible string that ties them together (you'll get it, trust me).

and while i love romance i have to say i always appreciate a positive friendship between women. ali and her friends mara and chelsea are all opposites but bring out the BEST in each other. i absolutely loved every single interaction between the group and how they showed each other tough love and always had each others backs. ugh. platonic love is so rarely celebrated and i love how it's expressed in this book.

in the same vain of them bringing the best out of each other, i think this book does so well in bringing comfort to anyone who feels like who they are isn't enough. a heavy theme throughout this book is that "just" being you is not only enough but the best thing you can do. it's easy to feel like you aren't doin enough; in life, in your career, everywhere. you try to make up for it my convincing yourself that you need to change. and while change is good (in routine, in practice, in your mind) it doesn't necessarily mean that you need a complete overhaul of your life.

being you is okay. it's good. it's great. there is no one else like you, so it's the best thing you can be.

ellie palmer, you have a fan for life. a new automatic buy author. ilysm.

thank you netgalley and penguin random house for the arc in exchange for an honest review. the easiest five stars ever <3

NetGalley ARC -
overall enjoyed the book, I liked that a lot of the focus of the book was really about coming to terms with being a BRCA 1 carrier and the aftermath of her mastectomy. I liked the group of friends and their relationship. Main relationship cute, both overcoming a lot of baggage to be together.

A really great debut read by Ellie Palmer. This book was a breath of fresh air in my long list of never ending romcoms tbr! First, the title is perfect. It sets the tone for the book, which is literally what the title says. Second, the characters were familiar but yet expertly twisted into something new. I reconnected which each character in a different lens than any other romcom, which I feel is essential in standing out within the genre! Finally, this one felt REAL. I could see these exact same events happening to someone I know. It's kinda wild, but in the best possible way. The lessons learned by characters were life changing, but not poetic to the point that those lessons couldn't be learned during four weekends and a funeral. Loved this one! Star this release date on your calendar!

This book was such an unexpected delight! I’m hoping the lack of buzz so far is just due to its publication date not being until August, but rest assured I’ll be yelling about this one for the next 8 months to make sure everyone is aware of it before then. This is one of the books where I was screaming for dual PoVs because I wanted to know everything inside Adam’s head and hear all about his obsessions with Alison firsthand. Alas, we got only Alison’s point of view, but luckily the author did an amazing job showing us Adam’s feelings through his actions and facial expressions so we never really missed out.
Alison was such a relatable character, a born people-pleaser trying to live her life as someone who “cheated cancer” by getting a preventative double mastectomy as her genetic predisposition for cancer was high. She is searching for a new, more meaningful life, trying to make the most of the chance she has been given to live without the increased chances of cancer looming over her. Unfortunately, Alison has yet to discover a love for this new and improved life.
Adam, on the other hand, called the North Shore Grump behind his back, is grappling with demons of his own when he and Alison meet, and I love love LOVED watching his walls come down as he realized he was safe with Alison. As he poured his heart out to her and gradually let her in, it was so satisfying to watch him become a funny and sweet guy as his heart started to melt for her. Their banter was so cute and I laughed out loud more than a few time at their conversations and witty comebacks. I was pining right along with them for much of the book, and while this is fade to black, we were never short on sexual tension.
The topic of grief and loss was handled very well, and while Alison and Adam were in very different places with regards to their grief surrounding Sam’s death, they were both able to process in their own way and start to heal from what was left after he died. I was glad to see that Sam’s death, and his life, never faded from the storyline even as the romance between Al and Adam took center stage.
This is a spectacular debut from Ellie Palmer and I cannot wait to see what she gives us next!

I really loved this story. It was sweet and funny.

Alison is experiencing “survivors guilt” and feels she has to prove something about cheating cancer. Alison’s ex boyfriend has a horrible accident and now she is stuck cleaning out his apartment with his best friend Adam.

This story had me laughing out loud and at time brought tears to my eyes.

I had high hopes for this book and it DID NOT disappoint. I absolutely loved it. Adam and Alison gave me Luke and Lorelai vibes. It had grumpy meets sunshine. And that ending had me tearing up. Such an amazingly sweet debut. Well done! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Five stars from me and I’ll be recommending this one to all of my friends. I can’t wait for this book to release so I can have a physical copy for my shelf.

3.5 stars

This is about Allison, who is a post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier who very much wants to be the risk-taking type. She dates Sam, a hiker, rock-climber, and general thrill-seeker, and tries to use him as a way to be more spontaneous and "live her life," since her guilt from avoiding cancer makes her want to make the "best" of her life. Her and Sam break up after a pretty short amount of time, and soon after Sam dies in a car crash. Sam's sister asks Allison to pretend to still have been with Sam at the time of his death to appease Sam's grieving parents and family.

She and Sam's grumpy best friend, Adam Berg, are enlisted to pack up Sam's apartment during the weekends, and a romance buds between the two over four weekends.

I thought this was a cute book, but the romance was nothing special. Romance is the biggest genre I read and so I have seen these things before, and nothing really stood out to me. I did really like the friends, though, honestly if this book was just about the friendship and their trivia group, I would have loved it. Mara and Chelsea had a lot more personality than Adam, he was kind of just grumpy and then nice and then gave Alison cookies, I can't really think about anything really special about his character. I also enjoyed the conversation about breast cancer, and about how Allison felt guilty for "cheating" cancer, I've never seen something like that addressed in literature. I really liked Aly's growth in that field and think that she grew a lot as a person.

Don't think I would buy this when it came out, but it was an interesting and a pretty entertaining read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Putnam for this e-arc!

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read and rate this book.

I enjoyed this book! While it has the vibes of a romantic comedy, it has some darker themes revolving around loss, grief, survivor’s guilt, and healing. This gave the book more complexity and made it a very unique read.

The two main characters were likable despite their flaws. The grumpy/sunshine trope was well done and I loved their banter and interactions. The side characters were also great and I would definitely be interested in reading future books revolving around them.

I will admit that I felt there were too many references - so many of them went over my head. There were several plot lines that seemed important but would go nowhere or be resolved way quicker than they probably should have. However, overall, I would recommend this book!

Very fun enemies to lovers romcom that’s very well written and that I would very much recommend. Thanks for the arc!

I had a lot of fun with this book! It's sweet and heartfelt and filled with lovable characters and the kind of witty banter you'd find in an Emily Henry or Ali Hazelwood book. I was wondering how the 'fake-dating someone who is dead' plot would work but it's played out perfectly. The themes of guilt and grief and personal growth are handled really well throughout the book, although I will say my one critique is that some of Alison's attempts at personal growth felt a bit redundant.

Alison and Adam fall fast and hard and it's both delightful and emotional to watch them come together and navigate the role Sam (dead ex-boyfriend and best friend, respectively) has in their new relationship. But Adam and Alison are so good together and their relationship is so swoon-worthy, at times it had me giggling and kicking my feet.

I really hope we get books for Alison's two friends, Chelsea and Mara, because I loved them both and would love to see more of Adam and Alison as a couple in the future.

I ADORE this book. Adam was such a delightful grump on the outside - and a gooey lovable character on the inside. 1000/10 just for him. The trains, the side characters, the trivia team names, Alison's internal journey and romantic journey. The scarf scene will live in my mind forever. This whole book. Fabulous.

Awww...this book was cute and sweet and a fun read. Based on the title I thought the book took place in England, but surprise...it takes place in Minnesota.
As a Minnesotan it's a trill to read about your state. I do wish Palmer would have included a bit more about why Duluth is the North Shore and a few more details about our lovely state.
While rom-coms aren't new; this was a refreshing new theme. Pretend to be a dead guy's girlfriend but then fall for his "best" friend.
I like the real themes in the book dealing with the BRCA 1 gene, going to therapy, and trying to be a better version of you. Mara and Chelsea were great additions because having a pack of bestie girlfriends makes life grand.
I give this book 4 stars. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to read it.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
I wasn't sure what to expect with this one as it was the author's debut, but I absolutely loved it (and she is now definitely an auto-read). Both Adam and Alison are fully developed, relatable characters and I rooted for them the whole time. Because of the heavier topics (cancer, death, BRCA1, mental health), it wasn't as lighthearted as some rom-coms but I loved it even more for that. Read if you like slow burn and grumpy/sunshine tropes.

3.75 out of 5. I loved the Christmas obsession and all the hallmark Christmas references, it felt meant for me. A big part of the book was the BRCA that Alison had to deal with and the effects, but at points it felt a bit much. IT would definetly be very triggering for someone going through that process. The indecisiveness of both characters was driving me up the wall. If you are going to summarize this, this is a romance book on why we all need therapy, especially in relationships. In general its a Cute sweet idea and ending.

This book was so unexpected. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it going it, but turns out I loved it! Alison and Adam’s story was so sweet! I thought it would focus a lot more on Alison’s relationship with Sam and be more of a sad story. But I feel like it dealt with that so well. And to see the growth of both Adam and Alison was great. I really loved this book!

This book was good. A little more sad than I was expecting based on the cute cartoon cover, but it was good. Alison and Adam were sweet, and I love how Sam played such a role in their relationship, even after he is gone. I’m usually not super into downer contemporary romances, but I somewhat enjoyed this one. If you like emotional stories, you’ll enjoy!

I loved this book so much, it was so creative in the plot, the author was so eloquent when she touched on the physical and mental health issues, the grief and guilt. I loved how REAL Alison felt through her thoughts, and how she built her confidence up to stand up to her family and what she wanted. I felt like I was watching a holiday rom-com that left me teary eyed - fun fact, there are hockey, F1, hallmark rom-com references, what else could you ask for?!

Post mastectomy and BRCA1 carrier Alison is in a rut. She’s had a a life saving surgery and is contemplating another, but can’t let go of the guilt that she survived, while others haven’t or have had to go through treatment. On top of that, her ex world traveler boyfriend Sam; just passed away tragically - and his whole family thinks that she was his girlfriend, and he was settling down with her.

Guilted into helping the grieving family, Alison agrees to help pack up and fix Sam’s apartment for his parents with Sam’s elusive best friend Adam, who she met at the funeral for the first time.

In grappling with their grief, their own internal demons and feelings of how they left things with Sam, Alison and Adam form a bond - that may or may not be the best for all parties…

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

i am not the target audience because i found some pop culture references too cringy for me as gen z, or i did not understand some references completely, BUT! i can see millennials absolutely loving this.

what i really liked about this book was that heavy topics mentioned, and their impact, throughout the book, i.e. cancer and death, was softened by the humor, making it easier to read and digest. i also really liked all the quirks of the main characters – alison mullally and adam berg – and their family and friends.

but definitely one of my favorite things in the entire book was the banter between alison and adam. they were hot and cold, and overall just cuteness overload.

it was nice and informative seeing representation of carriers and survivors of the BRCA-1 gene and double-mastectomies. not only that, it was refreshing seeing how normalized and expressed talking about, or experiencing intense, extreme emotions (such as survivor's guilt, grief, self-acceptance, etc.) were in this book. no one was ever shamed for feeling what they felt.

what could need some more work was the pacing of the book. some things felt like extremely fast paced but then it all slowed down and i had to push myself forward.

overall, this book felt like watching a romcom. it had all the classic themes seen in romcoms, with the cliché grumpy-sunshine main characters, the "scandal" that separates them, and the public proclamations of love. a promising debut for the author.

I thought Four Weekends and a Funeral was a promising debut. When I read the blurb of this book, I was immediately intrigued! I thought Ellie Palmer did a great job of setting up the plot and moral dilemma of the story. I felt that the main characters were adequately developed. Although I found Alison's "life" philosophy frustrating, I thought Palmer showed the reasoning behind it flawlessly. It was cool to see a book with BRCA representation. I did find Alison and Adam's relationship a little lacking. I felt that Palmer did too much explaining instead of showing. There were multiple scenes where Alison describes the tension between her and Adam. I wanted to feel it instead of being told it. Overall, I enjoyed this book and will be keeping my eye out for Palmer's next book. Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC.

3 1/2 stars- I was excited to read this book after reading the description because I thought it was an original and unique plot! I enjoyed the banter between Allison and Adam. There were some good one liners and comedic moments in this book. I liked reading about the emotional development of Allison post surgery and trying to find herself and what she wants for her future. At times for me the book felt a little slow pacing and I feel like it could've been stronger if the book was a little shorter. I would definitely read another book by Ellie Palmer and I'm wondering if Chelsea/Mara will get books in the future.