Just a wonderful and lovely story. I enjoyed the characters and the plot so much I recommended it to several friends. I hope to read more soon by this author.

Freya was jilted just before her wedding and now she has a summer of her friends weddings to get through alone. Two of her best friends step in to help and write her a series of challenges to accomplish at the weddings, to distract her as she attends them. Will she be ready to move on by the end of the wedding season?

Thanks to #NetGalley and #St.MartinsPress for an ARC of #TheWeddingSeason.

Honestly, this felt more like women's lit than a romance book. Which, is fine, I just wasn't expecting the first half of the book to be so depressing and not romantic. This was a book largely centered on Freya, who got her heart broken the day before her wedding and then the book follows her through her grief for a really long time before we get any sort of excitement. I really enjoyed the text exchanges between her and her friends and the story of friendship. If you are looking for a book that is about self-discovery and friendships this is the book for you!

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall is a book that definitely took me by surprise, and I say this in the most positive way! This new-to-me author brings Freya, a 32-year-old successful brand manager at one of the largest alcoholic beverage manufacturer in England, into the story as the girl that got dumped by her 12-year boyfriend on the day before the wedding. Freya is left devasted after the event and tries to come to terms with attending the rest of her friends’ weddings while appearing to be okay. This is where Ruby and Leo, her college roommates and best friends that are engaged to be married, come into the picture to devise a guide in which Freya will have one assignment per wedding to focus on and be distracted from other thoughts.

Even though this book is categorized as a romance novel, mind you there will be a splash of romance for the sake of Freya, I want to say that it leans more into the women’s fiction section. That being said, it made me enjoy the book just as much as a romance novel, just because the plot is great and the characters that come into the picture with each wedding as well. The one thing that I enjoyed the most was reading how Freya got through her assignments for each wedding, but I also liked how the author portrayed Ruby, Leo and Freya’s friendship.

Also, the ending made me feel so good for Freya since I was rooting for her since the very beginning!

*ARC kindly provided by St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Last year I loved reading The Secret Bridesmaid and The Wedding Season was just as great. Although one may expect these books to be rom coms, they are actually more of contemporary fiction with some romance included. In this one, Freya is dumped in a broom closet by her fiancé the day before their wedding. Since theirs was meant to be the first of 8 weddings Freya would be attending, her best friends Ruby and Leo come up with fun and silly things for her to do at each wedding in order to distract her. At one she has to be the last one on the dance floor, at one she has to kiss someone goodnight, etc. I found Freya's inner thoughts to be funny and amusing!

This book was such a fun read! Katy Birchall is becoming a favorite author of mine with her or,acne reads. I read The Secret Bridesmaid last summer and now The Wedding Season with both novels having great main characters and storylines. The Wedding Season’s storyline has situations that are lighthearted that made me laugh out loud a few times and were so relatable while also focusing on the main topics of heartbreak and finding oneself. I found Freya to be a likable main character and enjoyed her journey of self-discovery throughout the wedding season shenanigans. Secondary characters were awesome in this one and the supportive family and friend relationships were really heartwarming! I loved the love interest in this one and his fun personality that pushed Freya out of her comfort zone while also appreciating her for exactly who she is. My only complaint was that I wish we would have a had a bit more of a storyline focus with scenes involving the love interest, but can appreciate that this book wanted to focus on Freya’s journey and truly enjoyed reading this one!

Thank you to publisher, author, and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a great story filled with sweet characters. Highly recommend for a light read!

I really enjoyed this book. At first I was a little thrown off with the formatting and when the MC would speak to herself, but as the story progressed I was so invested. Freya grew on me and I found that I was really proud of her personal development by the end of The Wedding Season. There may have been some storylines that were a little under developed, and I wish we had more of the love story included, but all in all, I really enjoyed it.

If you know going into this book that it is first and foremost NOT a romantic comedy, then I think you'll likely enjoy it. But I'm not a fan of a women's fiction book being passed off as a rom-com, which are two distinctly separate genres, and this one definitely falls into the former.

I decided to DNF at about 55% because I am not a fan of women's fiction. I'm sure this is a great read for people who are more on the fence or love the genre, but I'm firmly in the "do not request" camp as I know I never have a good experience reading them. Recategorize this one so that people are aware what they're requesting, or risk ending up with negative reviews on what is likely a lovely book.

I'm going to be honest, the beginning was a bit slow for me. I had friends tell me it picks up once Freya starts her wedding season and they were right. Once Freya began her wedding season challenges orchestrated by her best friends Ruby and Leo, to book really took flight.

Right from the beginning we find out Freya is dumped in the cupboard a la Harry Potter the day before her wedding by the man she's been with since college. She doesn't know what to do with herself, is this just a break and they'll get back together or is this permanent. Worst part was her wedding was the start of the wedding season and she had around eight weddings to now go to solo. Her friends Ruby and Leo (one of the weddings) hatch a plan with Freya whilst drinking that she must do random challenges at each wedding to help take her mind off the demise of her and to help her move on.

Some of these challenges were simple like be the last on the dance floor, but others took some real guts like streaking down the hotel hallway. Through the season Freya finds herself, experiences new things, creates new friendships, and reconnects with family. I loved the London/Dublin/France/England settings for all the different weddings. It was fun traveling with Freya on her journey towards self acceptance. In the end I think Freya learned more about herself and her capabilities. The fact that there was a bit of romance also made this book fun. I do hope we get a continuation of her story or maybe a story for her brother Adrian.

How fun is this concept?!

This was such a witty and charming read. It had a swoon worthy, slow burn romance but it was also so much more.

After being dumped just hours before your own wedding, as you can imagine, this one started off pretty deep and emotional but then turned into a beautiful and inspirational journey of self discovery as Freya learned how to be happy on her own after a 12 year relationship.

By the end, I was so invested and felt so connected to Freya that I was so excitedly cheering her on! I would love to see this one adapted!

This wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a light romcom and I would laugh and fall in love with a couple falling in love. Even though this book didn't start out this way, all those things still happened. Freya gets jilted before they make it to the wedding day and she spends the book trying to find out who is she when she's not part of a couple. Her journey is painful for her at times but sets up some amusing scenes and new potential relationships. I enjoyed getting to know her and watching her grow.

Whoa! What a ride. It was very fast-paced. The writing style kept me hooked and I didn't find myself losing any interest. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and how real the story felt. The author did a great job painting the setting, so it was easy for me to visualize the scene played out before me. I recommend giving this one a chance!

This book wasn’t for me. It wasn’t really a romance novel, it was more Women’s Fiction. The story had a lot of potential, but I personally found it quite boring. Freya was dumped the day before her wedding and had to survive attending a large list of her friends weddings. Her two best friends created a challenge list of things to complete at each wedding to keep her preoccupied and not focused on her ex.

The story contained a LOT of fluff - I found myself skimming through a lot of pages that just had irrelevant and uninteresting contributions to the story. There were few good sections (mostly her interactions with Jamie) - but those were only small sections of the book.

Spice = non existent in this book. There’s one brief make out scene but that’s it.

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

this story was very fun and cute. I loved freya and being inside her mind for this story really made me feel for her. she was trying throughout the whole story to be strong and supportive of those around her after her wedding was called off. but I loved seeing the vulnerability and growth that situation gave her. even though I loved the romance in this story that we saw. I think the display of freya and her support system from her friends and family touched me even more.

Book: The Wedding Season
Author: Katy Birchall

“When you get dumped the day before your wedding in a broom cupboard, suddenly everything seems a bit sh*t.”

That, folks, is where we start with this one. As a search commences for lost peacocks, our heroine, Freya, is maddeningly dumped by her fiancé on the eve of her wedding. (Yes, you read that correctly. No, it wasn’t a typo. I did, in fact, say something about peacocks.)

Anyway, in the following days, Freya handles this development about as well as you’d think: “At one point, Dad was standing on the landing, and he actually had to step aside to let me crawl past him along the carpet to the loo.”

Unfortunately for Freya, it’s the wedding season, and she has seven weddings to attend in the coming months, some of which will force her to come face-to-face with her ex. In an effort to distract Freya from painful reminders of what she’s lost, her friends devise a plan: they will give her one task to complete at each wedding, and some of these tasks are doozies!

What follows is a delightful journey of one woman’s quest to define her life and claim her happy ending, while having a little bit of fun along the way. You’ll laugh. You’ll sigh. You’ll swoon. You’ll have the time of your reading life.

Give it a shot. You won’t be sorry.

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

I enjoyed reading The Wedding Season; I thought it was nice to see Freya progress from being in a long-term relationship to coming to terms that she can be happy after a breakup and live life for herself and do what she wants to do while also discovering more about herself. I thought the conversation with her mother towards the end of the book was really touching too! The only thing is that this was categorized as a romance book when it's really not one at all in my opinion. Yes, there IS a love interest and he and Freya have a great deal of interaction; however, he's not the main focus of the story so because of that, I felt like his character was one-dimensional and only there to further Freya's character development despite him showing up often throughout the second half of the book.

"Here's to Feet"

Wow. I absolutely adored this book! A wonderfully woven string of words that is perfect for fans of rom-coms and those of us who were burdened with heartbreak in the past.

The idea of a task for each wedding to get your mind off the heartbreak is TOTALLY what my friends and I would have done.

The meaningful chats at each wedding leading up to such a satisfying ending.

Freya is awkward and quirky and relatable. I loved her character and her arc.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc!

Thank you Katy Birchall and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book is the book I didn't know I needed in my life. It was so light and uplifting, I really enjoyed getting lost in Freya's world of weddings. After she's dumped in a closet the day before her wedding, her best friends have decided to give her tasks to get her through the wedding season. Some of them range from small little things, to crazy tasks that tear Freya out of her comfort zone.

My absolute favorite thing about this book was the growth that we get to see in Freya. She goes from a woman who doesn't think she'll ever move on and can't comprehend a world without Matthew, to a strong woman who finds her happiness again. I caught myself smiling throughout the book because I had such an airy feeling in my chest over how Freya began finding herself again.

I'm jealous of the wonderful relationship she has with not only Ruby and Leo, her best friends, but also her brother and father. There is a true support system in place that's filled with love, encouragement and laughs. The interactions and commentary between characters had me laughing out loud.

I look forward to more from Katy Birchall in the future and would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting an uplifting, funny read.

4 Intense But Worth it Stars
* * * * Spoiler Free
You say Weddings and I am all in. This particular book though had a very different take on them and it was original, for sure.

It was a mixture of heartache, coming to terms with it, and the undying support of the woman's posse. After being dumped one day before her own wedding, our gal has to be part of all the other weddings planned that year.

Each becomes a way for her to heal.