The Secret Bridesmaid is a laugh out loud romantic comedy by Katy Birchall. It centers around Sophie, who is so good at being a bridesmaid that she has made it her profession. Brides hire her to assume the role of a bridesmaid and Sophie adopts a new name and fake story of how she knows the bride so that no one (even the groom) knows that Sophie is a professional bridesmaid. When she is hired to work a huge society wedding, she thinks this could be the opportunity she needs to push her career to the next level. However, the bride wants nothing to do with Sophie and is determined to make her quit.

I really enjoyed this book! Sophie is an extremely organized type-A protagonist but it was demonstrative of how much she cared about her brides and doing her work well. The tête-à-tête between her and Cordelia was absolutely hilarious and I legitimately laughed out loud during several passages (there's a scene involving swans that was *chefs kiss*).

The romance was sweet but not the focus of the book. The Secret Bridesmaid had more depth than simply following the meet cute, driven apart by a misunderstanding, then reconciling because they can't live without each other rom-com trope.

I loved Sophie's group of friends/support system. They were very relatable characters and I appreciated how genuine these friendships felt. Sophie's cousin Cara was one of my favorite side characters and her consistent presence throughout the book as someone Sophie leans on was reminiscent of close relationships in my own life.

This is a heartwarming story and I give it four stars! I think fans of sweet romantic comedies will love this book. I will definitely read Birchall's future books and I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin for a copy of The Secret Bridesmaid in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you're looking for an easy read, this book is for you. The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall is a relaxing, low stress read that gives insight to some of the craziness that can occur during the process of planning a wedding, royal or not.
This book has a bit of a slow start, but starts to "rev" up around 35% in. The relationship between Cordelia and Sophie is unlike many. While it was a bit dramatic and out there, you have to believe there are some people that actually act like this when planning a wedding. Watching their relationship develop through the book was heartwarming, but a little predictable. I found many of the relationship dynamics to be a bit predictable once you were introduced to the characters.
I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for a "feel-good" read to breeze through.
Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin's Publishing Group for allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC and provide feedback on this book.

What a delightful read!
I was rooting for the hate to love friendship between Sophie and Cordelia. Even though Cordelia starts off acting like a spoiled brat with very few redeeming qualities, you start to like her little by very little, despite her determination to push Sophie away.

Secret Bridesmaid was not a romcom in my opinion, at least not in the way I expected it to be, but that was ok it was so much more than that. It was a comedy and there was some romance but it was more about the friendship between Sophie and Cordelia and the drama around it.

The romantic buildup between Sophie and Cordelia’s dreamy big bro, Tom was a lovely side note to the main storyline. I’m normally all about the sexy, centerstage romance but I didn’t really miss it in this case.

If you’re looking for a witty, female friendship comedy with a side of romance and man swooning, you will absolutely love this.

This review will be posted to The Romantiquarian book blog and Goodreads

Cute, Cute, Cute book! Loved this heartwarming, sweet and very funny story! The characters are lovable, relatable, and will keep you turning page after page. Highly recommend and perfect for a beach read!
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the romance and the shenanigans, but I really enjoyed that this was deeper than a typical romance book. The characters were well developed and the plot did not just focus on the cute boy and girl, but on all aspects of what was going on in the girl's life. This book was an easy, cute read. A perfect book to take to the beach this summer. The Secret Bridesmaid touches on the love and support of family, the importance of having the right kind of friends in your life and that Titles do not mean much past introduction. Creative and fun, with a perfect ending. I definitely recommend this book.

LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Well this was a heck of a lot of fun! I couldn’t put it down! Between the antics and banter and secrets and royalty angle, I was engulfed completely in this oh-so-fun read! It has the right amount of heart, self-journey, friendship, love, family, and scandal. Gah. I just can’t stop smiling.

What a joy! I highly recommend to everyone that loves weddings and banter! Pick this up! Pre-order now! Do whatever you need to to read this awesome book.

Weeeeeeee! I feel like I’m floating and this story is the reason.

It’s the perfect book.

Thank you netgalley for the advance copy.

This is a light and fun read. Sophie is a professional bridesmaid, a person people hire to help their weddings. Her job is going smoothly until she was hired for Lady Cordelia. Cordelia for sure wasn't like Sophie's other clients. She acted mean and horrible to Sophie to push her away. And that's Sophie's new challenge to overcome this situation.

I think this is more focused on the girls' friendship, Sophie and Cordelia, than the romance between Sophie and Tom but I didn't mind it as I still enjoyed reading Sophie and Cordelia turned from enemies to bestfriends.

I was kinda confused with the emails at the end of the chapters and I found out that it wasn't correlated with the story. However, it's still entertaining and I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you to the publisher for this eARC.

The Secret Bridesmaid was a cute, funny (um, Chewbacca!), easy read, and has great substance. This was my first Katy Birchall book, but I will be sure to check out her others!

The main character, Sophie, loves weddings and loves helping those around her. One day it's suggested that she combine those two things, and she becomes a professional bridesmaid, such a fun and interesting idea! This story makes me want to look into becoming a professional bridesmaid myself (who doesn't want to be someone else and go to lots of weddings!?!)!

I loved the characters, and felt they were well developed. The story focused on one specific wedding, but I loved seeing the shananagans of the other weddings she helped with through text messages and emails throughout the book.

I love that this book didn't just focus on love relationships, but also friendships. I highly recommend this book for those looking for a fun read that's romance, but focuses on relationships in general more than just romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I recently had the extreme pleasure of reading A Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall. I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of weddings (mostly because they remind me that no one wants to marry me. Ha!), but I am a fan of romantic comedies. This book has everything to love about your stereotypical fairy tale – ordinary girl, royal hero, a secret (that usually doesn’t even need to be a secret, right?), and a happily every after. Something else this book has… hilarity! It’s not very often that a book has been literally laughing out loud. I’ve been known to chuckle under my breath, or smile because of what’s happening, but very seldom to do I lay the book on my chest (on this case, my tablet) and let out several belly laughs before returning to reading.

Sophie, the main character, has a hilarious habit of hitting the floor when seeing someone she doesn’t want to confront. Yes, hitting the floor. As in, on her belly, and using the excuse “I wanted to see who the manufacturer of this tree stand is, because I’ve been looking for one just like it.”

Another thing that Sophie does is go out of her way to make sure the bride’s she’s working for have everything they want/need for their big day. This includes (to my incredible delight), wading in the middle of the St. James Lake Park in London to “KAW! KAW!” at Swans so that she would be adept at training them to walk down the aisle.

In summation, this book was hilarious, and I will not hesitate to read more of Katy Birchall’s work.

A Great fun rom.com great characters a unique story about a professional bridesmaid helping brides and finding love.

What a fun laugh out loud romantic comedy! I loved reading Sophie and her adventures as a professional bridesmaid. I was a bit thrown off at first by how much I disliked Cordelia, but as the novel went on she grew on me. I enjoyed Sophie and Tom’s relationship and would have liked to have even more of that in the book, but overall I greatly enjoyed The Secret Bridesmaid!

The Secret Bridesmaid is about Sophie, a professional bridesmaid (aka wedding planner/emotional support), who gets hired to work her magic on Lady Cordelia Swann's wedding, which would be great... if Cordelia didn't resent Sophie's presence. Hijinks ensue, some miscommunications, and lots of character development. While this is a romance, I think the best parts are the platonic love between Cordelia and Sophie as they push each other to become better people.

There were some confusing time jumps, but overall the book was light and really enjoyable to read.

Overall, I'd give it a 3.75/5.

I really enjoyed The Secret Bridesmaid. I love the idea of a bridesmaid for hire and the main character Sophie has taken her skills at planning and talking down bridezillas and turned it into a profession. If you love weddings and wedding planning, you will really love this book. The story follows Sophie as she lands the biggest and meanest bride of her career. She is determined to make it work and does whatever it takes to win her over, including a very funny scene where she tries to learn to be a swan whisperer. The Secret Bridesmaid made me laugh and cry and it is a perfect beach read.rs I love,

A thoroughly enjoyable British rom-com with an engaging premise. It made me laugh out loud a few times. The perfect pandemic read (if you can pretend that it's taking place in an alternate 2020/2021.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a sucker for a good rom-com, weddings, and anything London. This book had all threes! I fell in love with all the characters as the book progressed. I found myself laughing out loud at parts and smiling at others. This is certainly a feel good book if you need it.

The one thing I could do without are the little email and text exchanges regarding Sophie's other business as a hired bridesmaid. I think some people will love that aspect and seeing more into what crazy tasks someone might have to deal with, I just felt that they weren't necessary to the story and so I skipped most of them.

Overall I was a big fan of this book, and loved Sophia, Cordelia, Tom, and Jonathan. Safe to say this is a solid, happy romance if you're looking for one.

Some of the best books are those that you have very little expectations, and they surpass them tenfold. This story of Sophie, a professional bridesmaid, was very relevant to the times and relatable from a character perspective. I loved Sophie and her interesting career - it made for a very fun read! The little bits of client email snippets at the end of chapters were perfectly placed and downright hilarious. I love that the author wove these in because, let’s face it we’ve all known a bridezilla or two with some outlandish requests! The story is one that has been told countless times, but the author manages to breathe a breath of fresh air into it, making it fun but also emotionally-catchy. I really got to love each character and I would 100% watch this story play out in a rom-com Christmas-y movie. Here’s to hoping the author has more to come on Sophie, Cordelia and Tom!

I didn’t expect to enjoy this book, but actually found it easy reading. Wedding planners would be very interested in this portrayal of a classy do. I don’t think there was a need to pepper it with bad language, but that seems to be acceptable in most adult literature. I think this book is aimed at 18-40 age group. A classic Chick Literature offering.

A female main character running her own business, a female friendship as the center focus of the story, plus some amusing wedding premises (Chewbacca bridesmaid anyone?) and it's a recipe for an entertaining read. I loved all of the funny wedding bits for all of the brides Sophie works for and I enjoyed the friendship that developed with her and Cordelia. The Tom storyline felt like a bit of an afterthought, and I got really tired of the Daniel arc.

Overall, really entertaining, and definitely reads like it should be a movie!

Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher through Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

I requested to read and review this book for free from St. Martin's Publishing. The setting for this story is in Europe. It has romance, comedy, mystery. The characters Sophie, Cara, Tom, Cordelia and a few others are great. You can feel the chemistry through the book. So many emotions felt in this book in a good way. This is for any type of reader! Who can trust? What is real and what isn't? What a unique position Sophie has! This is a great book to remember to be true to yourself and what you want in life!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book; I very much appreciate it.

Professional bridesmaid is such an interesting concept === and I was amazed to Google and find out they really do exist! I enjoyed this story, but it really was more of a story about friendship and personal growth rather than the rom-com I expected. The story had a fun premise and was nicely paced, but I didn't feel the romance between the hero and heroine. However, the friendship angle was exceptionally well done and nicely transitioned from almost-enemies (and very unlikeable) to friends and sympathetic characters.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.