This book is a delight. I really enjoyed how the format kept changing — regular prose, emails, dialogue, WhatsApp messages... all these different formats give you a real sense of everything going on. There were several moments when I started laughing out loud while reading with some of the hilarious wedding prep situations. And I just absolutely loved the entire story. Sophie is the perfect professional bridesmaid, and her biggest challenge yet with Lady Cordelia was such a fun read! Highly recommend.

I read this in one sitting, it means that it wasn’t only a fast read, but that I enjoyed it too. Before I begin, I want to say that this is my first time reading something by Katy Birchall, and also I can't remember last time reading a book with the royalty trope.

As for characters, I really did enjoy the cast of characters especially Sophie. I enjoyed hers and Tom’s relationship but it is more build up to a romance. Overall, it is a fast, easy and enjoyable read.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie Breeze makes her living as a professional bridesmaid, one who will help you choose your dress, organise the flowers, placate family, hire portaloos etc. She pretends to be a friend of the bride and just makes sure her special day is perfect from start to finish.

When she gets asked by Lady Meade to be a secret bridesmaid for the society wedding of the year Sophie is thrilled, this could be the boost her business needs. But the bride-to-be is surly, rude and wants to fire Sophie as soon as she meets her. This could be her most challenging wedding yet.

This had a bit of a Katie Fforde vibe, but maybe for a younger demographic (I love Katie Fforde). The aristocratic family, the practical jokes, the fancy dinners.

I absolutely devoured this in less than one day. It was cute, charming, it had lovable characters and zany situations. I also loved the comic element of the interactions between Sophie and her different brides.

If a rom-com featuring a professional bridesmaid who will do anything for her bride-to-be (including asking the Queen for a priceless tiara) then I think you'll adore this charming novel.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Had so much fun reading this one . Laughed so much at all the craziness Sophie gets her self into. She will do anything to be the best bridesmaid and make the brides day the best there is.

Ah, I loved it.

Sophie is a bridesmaid for hire, like a wedding planner, but more about not letting the bride lose her mind and making sure everything goes smoothly. Everything is going great until she's hired by Lady Victoria for her daughter Cordelia's wedding. Cordelia is basically a toddler in a grown woman body, and is determined to make things difficult. It only get's worse when Sophie finds herself falling for the brides older brother.

I enjoyed this so much, such a great light read. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books, so I have a feeling I'll be rereading this one the same way.

While there is a slight romance, the true love story in this book is the beautiful friendship that develops between Sophie and Cordelia. True friends are so hard to find, but so important.

There are a couple things that kind took me out of the story, the random emails or text conversations about other weddings that were inserted. They didn't seem to relate to the story in anyway, like they were just stuck in there to say "yes this is my job I'm doing many weddings". They were jarring and interrupted the flow of the story, no matter how humorous some of them were.

*Thank you to the publisher for this eARC.

Cute, funny, enjoyable, and heart touching, this ticked all the boxes for the perfect romantic comedy! Cant wait to read more from the author!

Sometimes you read a book and just connect with the characters immediately, for me that was the case with The Secret Bridesmaid. Katy Birchall came up with a hugely entertaining hook and follows it through with a very entertaining book.

Sophie is a professional bridesmaid who has just received her most challenging client, obviously, hilarity and heart ensue.

Mark your calendars for early May team because this is a sweet tale of love and friendship that you don't want to miss.

This book blew away my expectations. Sophie's secret is that she is a professional bridesmaid. She is paid to be there for the bride as her confidante and wedding planner. We see her in action through email exchanges (which I loved and thought provided insight into what her career really entails). She just went through a horrible breakup so she is a little vulnerable when she gets the job of being the bridesmaid of a high-profile wedding. The bride is a total bridezilla and Sophie struggles with her need to be like and maintaining her standard; it doesn't help that her bride has an attractive brother ;)

I loved this character and yeah at times she is such a good person she is almost a mythical creature but she has a enough depth that it was real. Her development is amazing and her journey was really rich. I enjoyed the tough conversations she had and how encouraging the people around her were.

THe romance is more of an undercurrent of the book but it fits it and doesn't take away--in fact here less is more.

*arc provided by NetGalley

The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall was unputdownable! This book was such an escape during dreary February. I loved reading about Sophie's adventures as a bridesmaid for hire. Birchall hit just the right amount of fantasy life with a good balance of friendship and love in The Secret Bridesmaid. I was sad when I finished this one and would LOVE to see a sequel!

The Secret Bridesmaid is the perfect mental vacation from 2021.. Sophie is the best friend to all her brides, until she is hired by a socialite’s mother and everything goes wrong.. I stayed up all night finishing it and my only disappointment was that it actually ended.. I could not put it down.. Well written and I really hope there are sequels!

4 1/2 Stars

This was a great read and perfect for the kind of book i was looking for. It had romance, comedy and the usual predictable stuff that you expect in a 'chick lit'. I loved the story line and the characters and stayed up to finish it!

This is such a nice, fun and funny book. It is ideal to read it after a book hangover because it's so light, that helps you to unwind. I read it in one sitting and I trully enjoy it. You might find some of the characters annoying, even the female MC, but it didn't bother me too much and in the end no one is perfect.
The writing is good and the situations are funny!!!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

The Secret Bridesmaid is a quick, entertaining read. The book follows Sophie, a "professional bridesmaid" who pretends to be friends with brides while secretly helping them plan their weddings. Sophie and her cousin Cara and fun and relatable characters, but I didn't really feel like I got to know anyone else. The book is labeled a romance but I would say it's more about friendship and a build up to a romance than an actual romance. Overall, I'd say this is a good book if you're looking for a light, easy, feel-good read.

This was such a cute and fun book! For a future bride, I definitely related to some of the things mentioned throughout the story. Sophie’s personality was also just spot on and perfect for what she is in this book, a great friend. It was fun to read about the connection with the Royal Family and made for a good twist.

I wish there was more love story as that’s what I was expecting. I couldn’t put this down until I find out what happened with Sophie’s own love life though. What a tease!

I laughed. I cried. My heart melted.

Thank you Katy Birchall, Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press, and St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this with me in exchange for my honest review.

If you're getting married, Sophie Breeze is the girl you want by your side. She excels at her job as a professional bridesmaid, even dying her hair last minute and learning Chewbacca's signature roar for two of her clients. She becomes a friend to her brides, and she works hard to make their weddings perfect. But some brides are more difficult than others - and the worst by far is Lady Cordelia Swann. If Sophie survives, the wedding will be the talk of the town. Can she pull it off, and maybe find love for herself?

I love weddings, so this book was right up my alley. Sophie is a wonderful protagonist - loyal, warm, funny, and kind - I can see how she'd be any girl's best friend. Cordelia was a great foil to Sophie, and I loved seeing their sparring. Cordelia's mother is a marchioness, so the book has a British society element to it that I really enjoyed. Many of the chapters have hilarious wedding email chains between Sophie and her vendors - gems like the difference between bagel and donut boards, and a man selling vintage-style (not vintage) suitcases made me crack up and think of my own wedding. If you love weddings (or love to hate them), definitely give this one a try! I would say it's more in the chick lit category than true romance (which I liked!) but there are some romantic elements.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie Breeze is a professional bridesmaid, she loves weddings that much and has managed to make a successful career out of it. She is there to be a friend, a go between in disputes and to ensure your wedding day goes as smoothly as possible. She's so good at her job that a previous client refers her to Lady Victoria Swann who is the Marchioness of Meade and an all round intimidating lady. It is to be the society wedding of the year for Lady Meade's daughter, Cordelia.

The only issue is that Cordelia does not want under any circumstances a professional bridesmaid at her wedding and is doing everything within her power to get Sophie to quit. I mean so what that she told everyone at her engagement party that Sophie is an escort and a mime, or that she sent her on a wild goose chase for the most extravagant items (9 or 10 famous photographers, peacocks to be attached to the ceiling, swans to walk down the isle, a famous tiara in the possession of the queen, 4,000 candles, etc...). She is certainly Sophie's most challenging bride so far, but she is determined to stick it out and prove how amazing she is.

The only happy part of working for Cordelia, is her very handsome brother Tom and he actually has an interest in Sophie. However, he is strictly off limits as he is the clients brother and thinks she is called Emily Taylor (part of the secret bridesmaid contract is a fake identity). It certainly is the biggest challenge of Sophie's career and all she has to do is win over one difficult bride, how hard can it possibly be?!

I think Sophie is one of my all-time favourite book characters. She is a strong independent woman who does not give up, no matter how awful Cordelia treats her. She is determined to see this wedding through no matter what. My heart also breaks for her at how her confidence has been knocked by her ex. Whilst she helps people get their own happy endings, her own love life is a little bit of a mess since her ex-boyfriend of eight years dumped her and she hasn't been interested in dating. I honestly don't blame her, if I had been with someone that long and they dumped me out of the blue, I would struggle to get over it and trust again.

The Meade family turned out to be quite different than how I expected them to be and it was really nice to get to know the characters. Sophie's parents were also incredible and I adored how supportive her mum was. Cara was also a fantastic ally and friend to Sophie.

I honestly loved the book and the storyline was different to any of the romance books I have read before. A professional bridesmaid is a genius idea and Sophie had the patience of a saint. I definitely could not do that as a job, it would drive me absolutely bonkers. The Hen WhatsApp groups made me want to scream at them: " Just read the freaking messages on your mobile phone and communicate!!" What also blew my mind was the emails from companies when Sophie was trying to book vintage suitcases or doughnut walls. I was laughing so much as sadly lots of the communication from companies is actually like that. The Chewbacca running scene had me in stitches and that shows true dedication. Katy Birchall had a fantastic idea for a story and I loved her writing style. I was cracking up at so many different parts of the book and was hooked from the first page.

Well, this is quite entertaining, laugh loud chic lit meets women fiction with romance vibes!

It’s a brilliant introduction to the bridezillas’ world: when the wedding day imminently approaches and the brides are having panic attacks, firing wedding planners, cursing their loved ones, getting totally out of control, who they are gonna call?

Of course:Olivia Pope meets Ray Donovan kind of great wedding fixer/ contract bridesmaid named Sophie Breeze! She’s the solution of the entire wedding crisis! She listens to the brides patiently without commenting about their awkward wedding theme choices or weirdest requests they made: just like a genie in a bottle she does everything she can to make their dreamy day come true!

But unfortunately her magical abilities to make every woman’s special day fulfilled, doesn’t work for herself! She still suffers from heartbreak in her own life. Her love of her life she’s dated for 8 years found someone else shortly after he dumbed her and now this douchebag sends her his wedding invitation. So Sophie has to concentrate her career not to suffer more from heartbreak!

Thankfully she gets an offer she cannot refuse : 70’s it girl of London and today’s Marchioness of Meade - Lady Victoria’s daughter Cordelia is about to tie the knot and she has to prove she’s capable of organizing this one of challenging wedding ceremony of the century!

But Cordelia seems like she’s not happy with her mother’s decision to hire her and she can do anything to sabotage her works, telling Sophie is escort, a con artist to their close circle. But Sophie never runs away from challenges even though she’s met the most irritating bridezilla who is adamant to turn her life into hell with her nonstop emotional tantrums!

And bride’s very charismatic, sexy brother Tom is also flirting with her. She liked his attention but she is also aware this could jeopardize her identity and her job.

But it seems like Cordelia is not daughter of Lilith and Lucifer. As they spend so much time together and open up about their secrets, Sophie realizes they start to bond a real friendship so she doesn’t need to pretend they’re friends but a big secret emerges about the the past, things get more complicated which will test the loyalty of true friendships!

Overall: this book reminded me of Kevin Hart’s Wedding Ringer: at that movie: Hart has a company to offer services for groom who needs best man. So this book is quite better and more sentimental version of the idea. Some parts are brilliantly funny and I love to read blooming friendship of Cordelia and Sophie and I love the brilliant ways how Sophie uses to solve bride’s problems!

I’m giving four elite, wedding ceremony, entertaining, unputdownable stars!
I’m so happy this book put the author on my radar! I’m looking forward to read more works of her.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

The Secret Bridesmaid is hysterical.

The first book I have read from Kathy Birchall and I am hooked. She does an amazing job in making us believe Emily/Sophie has the job of a lifetime. It’s interesting and then she address Cordelia and boy that’s when the fun begins.

The characters are so well-created that you feel as if you actually know them. One of my favorite scenes is the swan whisperer. Can’t say more as to not spoil the story, but let me tell you this was so funny it makes me want to read it all over again.

Well done!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

4++ stars

Adorable, fun and witty romcom that I throughly enjoyed. Several laugh out loud moments. Sophie is a wonderful character, someone you wish was your good friend.

Highly recommend The Secret Bridesmaid.

A fun, seat of your pants, laugh of a great rom- com book.

If you are looking for a great new rom-com book, with many laugh out loud moments that still has depth and meaning, this is a book for you. I loved Sophie, and her joy of running a business that she truly loves. There are many fun parts of this book, but I really enjoyed the little peaks into every wedding. It broke the story up perfectly, and you got a better sense of the character. Sophie's interactions with Cordelia are funny, heartbreaking, and true. None of these characters are plasticly, they all have a good depth to them which makes you even more invested in the story. I really enjoyed this book, and would definitely re read it on a nice vacation, or a day I need a good break from life.