When Freya's fiance breaks up with her the day before their wedding, she's left heartbroken, gaslit, and feeling as if she's wasted her twenties. With no ideas on how she's going to survive the summer wedding season, she depends on her best friends to get her through. To distract her from her heartbreak at each wedding, they assign a task that she must complete before the night is over. As Freya embarks upon this wild endeavor, she finds love, happiness, and friendship in more places than she'd ever thought possible.

I think this book is brilliant, but I absolutely disagree with it being classified as a romance. The majority of the book is about Freya's self -growth and the lovely people who she meets along the way. I will say that by expecting this to be a romance, I was pleasantly surprised when certain romantic tropes got turned on their heads in an utterly different direction, but I ultimately felt confused for the most part about where the storyline was going if not to give Freya another love interest within the first half of the book.

Overall, I think anyone in their twenties and thirties would benefit from giving this a read. I certainly found value in it!

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

I really wanted to love this book as much as I did Birchall's last, The Secret Bridesmaid, but sometimes a book just isn't for you. Following a woman through a summer of weddings, right after being dumped by her fiancé, The Wedding Season has a great concept and some truly funny scenarios but ultimately failed to engage me. While the heart of the story is her learning to let go and find a new happiness in herself, I found myself wishing for subplot where she was actually trying to achieve something, so I could get invested in concrete stakes beyond "survive talking/not talking to the ex." Not a bad book, by any means, but a little lacklustre any time the heroine's amazing friends, Ruby and Leo, aren't involved.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with the Secret Bridesmaid, and so while The Wedding Season was delightful and entertaining, it wasn’t my favorite. Freya is adorable and Jamie too but the side characters were just OK for me! Still blew through it in a weekend! It’s a great airplane read!

Katy Birchall's The Wedding Season is a thoroughly enjoyable romance novel. It's light-hearted nature and snappy dialogue make it the perfect novel to dig into this summer, especially if you invited to a wedding or two.

Freya has just had her heart broken unexpectedly when her fiancée, Matthew, calls of the wedding the night before the big shin dig. But mending a broken (and revengeful) heart is the least of her issues when Freya realizes she now has to navigate seven future weddings during her upcoming "wedding season". While celebrating the love of friends and family over many, many drinks and plates of chicken; Freya is making the best of a crummy situation. Now the real question is, is she ready to open her heart again to another chance at love?

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this novel.

I think this may be my new favorite rom-com author! This is the second book I've ready by her and it was just as witty and charming as the other one. When I say witty, I mean I chuckled and laughed out loud so much my hubby asked if I was ok. It was so fresh and fun! I loved the character development and the friendships. This was everything you want in a rom-com and I loved every second of it. 4.5 stars

4/5 Stars
The Wedding Season by @katybirchallauthor

Thanks again to @netgalley and @macmillanusa for the advanced copy of this book! I loved the author’s last book and was so excited to see this on my shelf!

I went in thinking I wouldn’t like it as much as I liked the Secret Bridesmaid but it wasn’t long before I was giggling out loud.

I loved it - finished it in one day. It’s out now! Go get it!

In The Wedding Season, we see the book start with Freya getting dumped the day before her big day. But with seven more weddings that year, she's terrified to face them alone, so her friends devise a list of hilarious tasks for her to complete at each wedding and take her mind off her misfortune.

After reading and loving The Secret Bridesmaid last year, I could not have been more excited to read this one! Both novels are more women's fiction, with an undercurrent of romance thrown in, and center on weddings, but they are stand-alone novels and not part of a series. Despite that caveat, it is clear these books are written from the same voice, and the author's trademark humor comes through. Just as in her prior book, we have various humorous exchanges--this time in the form of group chats--and the end of nearly each chapter. And the humor, laugh-out-loud factor is really what elevates this book and puts it in the five-start category. Because everyone loves a good rom-com, particularly with a jilted bride, but make me laugh out loud? Priceless.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 9/10

I can't imagine having 8 weddings to attend in one year, let along one season. At the top of the cake is the main character's own wedding!

When life makes a 180 degree spin, Freya is going to have to refigure her entire summer. Enter the best friend's you'll ever have and a series of challenges wild enough to make anyone laugh. Will it be fun or will everything end in disaster? Then again, hasn't it already become a disaster? What can be worse?

I connected to Freya early on in the book and that attraction only grew strong with each wedding that passed. I think everyone should be able to take a little piece of this book, laugh, and realize it's sentimental importance. Kudos to Katy Birchall for making me laugh ridiculously.

Freya’s story is not so much about romance as it is self love and coming to terms with a massive life change. The characters are well written and well rounded, and the author does a great job of showing the time and effort it can take to come to terms with big events like what Freya went through. Overall a very endearing and heartwarming story about starting over!

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 really enjoyed this book and following Freya through wedding season after Matthew dumps her the day before their wedding. Cute, fun, endearing read.

Greta is in the Eve of her wedding when Matthew her fiancé decides he can’t marry her. This is the story of Freya’s journey after that through the season of many more weddings. Her 2 best friends give her a task at each wedding. Through this process Freya gets back on her feet and learns a lot about herself and might just meet someone new.

This book was brilliant!! Birchall did an amazing job writing the characters for this book. I loved the colorful array of personalities that literally jumped off the page at me. She did that thing that I like where ALL of the characters get some backstory and spotlight time so that you get to know them. I love that because it gives so much more depth to the story.

Freya was so witty that I laughed out loud constantly! Her general chemistry with every other character was amazing. I love her friendship with Leo and Ruby. The three of them were nonstop laughs. I especially loved Freya when she finally stood up to Matthew. She was a bit of a pushover at the beginning but once she found her backbone she owned it! That restaurant-wine throwing scene will live rent free in my mind forever.
I also enjoyed getting to see her in different lights throughout the book. As we all are, Freya was different with different people. You see one side of her with her dad and brother, a different side with Matthew, another side with Leo and Ruby, a totally different side with Jaime. She was extremely well written and exists in my mind as a real person might.

Matthew was a tool!! I know he was written in a way that begs for redemption but I can't. He's a douche 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really like Jaime with Freya. Their chemistry was amazing, even in the beginning when they were fighting. It looked like it was going to be a classic enemies to lovers but he quickly apologized and their chemistry just naturally flowed. I liked their banter and the way he pushed her to complete her challenges once he found out about them. I didn't like the hotel.... Could have gone differently my man.

The story moved at a good pace. Not too much description but enough detail to make you feel present. I'm glad I read this book and I'm sure I will reread again.

Thank you to Katy Birchall for a book that made me fall in love with reading again!

I'd recently DNF'd a book here on NetGalley, one that others had loved. I was starting to get a little jaded. Then, I picked up The Wedding Season. What a breath of fresh air!

I wouldn't necessarily call this a romance. It's more Women's Fiction. After a 12-year relationship, Freya is unceremoniously dumped in a broom closet by her fiance, Matthew, the day before their wedding. Stunned and heartbroken, Matthew insists on a clean break, with minimal contact - refusing to really give Freya any closure. Worst of all, theirs was the first of 8 weddings within their friend group. First of all, how is Freya supposed to bounce back? Second, how the heck is she going to navigate all those other nuptials?

Freya's best friends, Ruby and Leo come up with a plan - a challenge for Freya at each of the weddings she's to attend - from getting a man's cuff links to taking an unexpected plus one to a wedding. No one is more surprised than Freya that it's working - focusing on her task makes each wedding a little more bearable.

Yes, there's a love interest. But, really, that's not the focus of this book. The most important part of the story is Freya's resiliance, her ability to forgive not only Matthew, but others who have wronged her, and her ability to move forward - slowly but surely.

I literally laughed out loud in places. And, I got misty in others.

This was the perfect book to pull me out of my reading slump!

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Super fun light read! I enjoyed it and it made me laugh so many times. I love her friends and their dynamics. Would enjoy reading again definitely recommend

This was such a fun book to read after having planned a wedding. It was fun to see the other side of things.

The Wedding Season is women's fiction almost tipping romance trope . It follows the story of Freya who was dumped by her fiancé on the eve of her wedding . It is the wedding season so she and her best friend Ruby comes up with a plan for her to survive the season.

I absolutely looked the book . It was perfect balance of everything . I normally dont read women's fiction but this must be my new favorite from that trope . We get to see Freya grow as a person and learn to love another person again. The romance element was kinda enemies to lovers . I loved it . the only downside was that I wished I could see more of that.

I WOULD ABSOUTELY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK

So, this story starts out with our MC Freya and her twat of a fiancé, Matthew. After months of secretly having doubts about their relationship, Matthew decides to call it off with Freya the day before their wedding—in a broom closet. Heartbroken—though I don’t understand why because Matthew is one of the dullest characters out there—Freya takes matters into her own foot, taking out Matthew’s balls in the process.

Yes, she seriously kicks him in the crown jewels. It’s GD magical.

Anyway, as it turns out Freya and Matthew’s wedding was the first to kick off the wedding season, and Freya actually has a bajillion more weddings to attend, all while trying to mend her broken heart. To help her out, her friends—honest to God, I need more friends from the UK—devise a series of tasks for Freya to complete at each wedding to keep her mind off Matthew. These tasks range anywhere from loitering on a dance floor to public indecency in a hotel hallway.

During the wedding season, Freya meets and begins to get to know Jamie who works for a rival purveyor of adult beverages. Jamie is kind of a dick at first, but his softer side soon emerges, and he begins to grow on Freya, which is good because they have several mutual friends in common and she’ll be seeing quite a bit of him.

Will Freya and Matthew work it out in the end, or will Freya find herself and her sense of self-worth in the process?

This book was exactly what I needed to pull me out of my slump. It’s hilarious and never felt dull. I loved watching Freya grow as a person once she stepped out of Matthew’s shadow. Her story felt real, the characters were all well-developed, and the absolute bonkers circumstances Freya finds herself in were just enough to lighten what could have been a heavy read. I highly recommend this one for lovers of contemporary women’s fiction with a shot of romance.

The Wedding Season is a light hearted romance that started with sadness. A bride dumped the day before her wedding? But luckily Freya has a great father and brother plus friends that would do anything for her. Together they come up with a plan to distract her mind at all the weddings she has to attend in the up coming months. Freya will perform a task at each wedding. The tasks were sweet and harmless and seemed to do the trick. The real winner in this story is seeing Freya become a stronger woman and figure out what she really wants out of life. A Prince didn’t come save her- she saved herself.

All I can say is this is so very entertaining on audio! I loved everything about it, the accents, the cast of characters, the storyline, the setting, ALL of it!
There were many laugh out loud moments that we can all relate to about friendships and relationships.
Freya Scott is getting married to Matthew, her long-term boyfriend...until she is not. Somehow she has to survive the breakup and eight weddings that follow. This is how the "Wedding Season" is created.
Fortunately, her friends have an idea! Together they devise a series of outrageous challenges for Freya to complete at each wedding, designed to distract her from Matthew and her heartbreak. These are things that she would normally never go along with, but she has to prove to herself and friends that she is fine. Along the way she discovers herself and that she is having fun as a single girl. There is a love/hate relationship with Jaime along the way and the ending is just perfect!
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book!