4.5/5 stars

Freya is finally getting married to her boyfriend of 12 years Matthew. Their wedding marks the first of eight in Freya’s wedding season calendar. Freya has everything planned out, except Matthew dumping her in a broom closet hours before they are to walk down the aisle. Heartbroken and humiliated, Freya is dreading the upcoming weddings following her own disaster. Her friends Ruby and Leo devise a plan: to make a wedding list of tasks Freya is to complete at each of the upcoming weddings to help keep her mind off Matthew. Even with a few hiccups along the way, Freya is surprised to find that she is enjoying completing these tasks and discovering more about herself that she never really knew possible. Most importantly she begins to learn that love can find you in the most unexpected ways.

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This was such a sweet feel-good story with some great character development. I absolutely loved seeing Freya’s growth and development and how she discovers things about herself that she had long forgotten or hid away. I absolutely adored the dynamic of her friendship with Ruby and Leo, who are engaged themselves and are the last wedding Freya is to attend that season. There were many moments where I laughed out loud and grinned ear to ear. There is romance in this book which was sweet but for me the main star was Freya and her growth and her relationship with her friends and her mother. It was really heartbreaking to read of Freya’s sadness as she tries to navigate life without the one person she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with. Freya’s character felt super relatable and all of the lovely people she had surrounding her and giving her endless support made my heart swell. Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This title is available for purchase now!

Oh Freya, I just want to hug her. I read the Secret Bridesmaid last year and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this new story. They are unrelated stand-alone books, connected by the theme of weddings. This is definitely more of a women’s fiction story with an emphasis on Freya’s growth and healing a broken heart, but there is romance as well that’s really sweet. Freya’s friends and family are great characters. The story centers around an ambitious checklist to help Freya heal from a broken heart. Along the way, she also deals with a tense relationship with her mother. All of these issues are dealt with using humor and a sense of adventure. Jamie is a fun character and a good friend that brings a wonderful charm to the story. I did a mix of reading the ebook and listening to the audiobook. I loved the narrator, Daphne Kouma. This would make a great summer read as we head into a popular time for weddings.
Thank you to @smpromance and @netgalley for the free digital ARC.

This book may have been the biggest surprise for me of the year. This book felt like I was hanging out with my best friends and I just wanted to be in this world. This book is so funny, sweet, romantic, and but also realistic.
This is more Womens Fiction with romance sprinkled in but for me the true romance of the book was the friendship soulmate connection of Freya and Ruby.

The Wedding Season follows Freya who is dumped before her wedding and has to find a way to get through the upcoming wedding season. Luckily she has amazing friends who help her come up a list of things she must do at the wedding. The scene where Freya, Ruby, and Leo create this list may be one of my favorite book scenes of the year and I was dying of laughter.

I loved Freya so much and how this book just felt like a huge character study on someone who has to reasses their whole life after their marriage falls apart. To see how different people deal with different types of grief resonated with me so much. I started this book on Kindle but ended up listening to most of it on the audiobook and that helped me get more into Freya’s mindset. Daphne Kouma did an insanely amazing job of narrating Birchalls writing and infusing it with even more humor, indecision, and confidence. I loved how we get to see Freya going back into her past and she tries to figure out her future and reasses and find new appreciation for all her relationships both romantic, familial, and friends.

This book also has Ruby who I need as a best friend and Leo who I need as a husband. They bring so much comedy but also heart and just true love and care about Freya that is just so pure and sweet.

I absolutely adored this book.

Thanks to St Martins and NetGalley for this ARC for my honest review

You might think a book titled The Wedding Season is a romance novel, and you’d be both right and wrong. Primarily, the story is about what happens after Freya’s fiancé breaks up with her the day before their wedding. Freya’s friends rally around her and help pull her through some very hard times indeed - and that includes seven weddings over the course of the next few months. I just loved her friends, especially Ruby and Leo, who think up a sort of challenge for Freya, to help her survive all the upcoming weddings (including theirs!). They give Freya a task to complete at each wedding, something that is out of her comfort zone. This proves to be a very successful ploy at having something to distract Freya from mourning the end of her very long relationship with Matthew. In addition to Ruby and Leo, I loved Freya’s family members, especially her over-the-top mother. She was definitely good for a few laughs.

It was wonderful to follow Freya’s journey from broken-hearted to self-confident. This is my first book by Katy Birchall but I will now be on the lookout for others she has written.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. The audiobook narrator, Daphne Kouma, was terrific, handling numerous voices and accents.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a cute book, though I struggled a lot with liking the Main Character - the novel was just typical chick lit “fluff” which is neither good nor bad, just kind of dragged and nothing special to keep my attention.

Hours before Freya and Matthew are supposed to get married, he bumps her in the broom closet...Freya is such a relatable character and I absolutely adore her and her whole friend group. This was a painful slow burn rom-com a tad bit predictable but a fun read. The wedding challenges had me laughing out loud.

Definitely read if you like Bridget Jones’s Diary and have a million weddings to go to this summer.

Admittedly I almost DNFd this book at like 25/30% because I could not get into the story. But I pushed on and ended up being completely enthralled by Freya’s story and her growth and how she ended up realizing it’s okay to not be okay and to tell people how they hurt you. It’s okay to put the past behind you and more forward. It’s okay to move on and be happy. In the end that was what was so great about this story and I almost didn’t get to know that. Make sure you give The Wedding Season a chance because I almost didn’t.

The Wedding Season was an enjoyable read for me, but for many reasons it wasn’t a quick read. Most of the reasons are because my personal life turned very busy quickly and I had little to no time available to read for a couple of months, but I also had to fight a bit to make myself finish the book as I found some parts a little slow.

The premise of the book is that our heroine Freya has been dumped the day before her wedding by her jerk of a fiancé and she’s supposed to be attending many weddings that summer, now single. Together with her friends they cook up a plan for the summer with wedding ‘goals’ to help getting through the season. Freyas friends and the side characters were probably my favourite part of the story, and as a recently single-person myself, it was fun and relatable to imagine having to go to a bunch of couple-related events alone.

I really really enjoyed the secret bridesmaid (Katy’s first book), and I still do like Katy’s writing and will continue to read her future books! Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with the copy to read and review!

The first kiss in this book had me swooning. What a kiss. I loved Freya and Jamie. What a match they made. I loved how the author helped us connect to Freya with the prologue and the first chapter. I liked most of this book. I loved how the wedding season had tasks to look forward to. Parts of the book felt a little slow.

3.5 stars
This cover was screaming spring and I needed to read it!
I thought this was a super cute read! I loved the support of friends and family and found that quite heartbreaking.
I think this is the perfect friendship/ romcom for this time of year!

THE WEDDING SEASON • Katy Birchall • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Brief Synopsis: Freya Scott prides herself on always having it together, but when Matthew calls it off the day before their walk down the aisle, Freya’s entire life plan goes up in smoke. Humiliated and heartbroken, she is determined to appear in control and fine. Surely, Matthew will soon realize that he’s made a huge mistake! In the meantime, Freya still has a summer of other people's weddings ahead of her. To help her survive the wedding season, her best friends concoct a series of challenging, outrageous tasks that she must complete at each event, each designed to distract her from Matthew and what might have been.

Unsurprisingly, I adored this book. The characters were likable; their antics enjoyable. Birchall again manages to paint a realistic picture of the ups and downs of relationships, highlight the importance of friendship, and all while making her reader laugh.

My takeaway from this book? Guys can really suck sometimes, but you know what? It ends up alright in the end. Surround yourself with people, try new things, love yourself as fiercely as you love others, and be ok with ending a chapter because the beginning of the next one may just be worth it. To feet!

TL;DR: Pick this book up, enjoy it by the pool, then come back to me when you understand how clever/adorable my use of the phrase "To feet!" was in this review.

Such a cute book! Who doesn’t love a wedding? So of course reading about one is so much fun! I love cute feel good books that let you escape the real world and this book does just that! It won’t disappoint!

I adored Birchall’s last book, The Secret Bridesmaid, so I couldn’t wait for this one to come out. The concept was unique and the friendships are so fun and full of British banter. Brits have a way of giving each other crap in a funny and loving way, and the friend group in this book is no exception. Freya has two best friends, Ruby and Leo, who help her come up with a list of tasks to keep her mind off her fiancé dumping her the day before their wedding. She now has to go through an entire wedding season single, and she has to complete tasks like being the last one on the dance floor, making an impromptu speech, and running naked down the hotel hallway. The outcome is hilarious and chaotic, but there is also so much growth in her over the course of the season. If you need a laugh and a mood booster, this book is for you.

I was surprised by how heartwarming this book was!

From the cover, I was expecting a funny rom-com and while it was humorous (I loved her best friends!) it was also a story about her journey after heartbreak.

I could relate to Freya’s heartbreak and her denial that Matthew was really gone. The beginning of this story is sad, but I enjoyed watching Freya’s growth and her acceptance/moving on.

I wouldn’t call this one a rom-com, but definitely worth a read!

I adore Freya! This book started with her having the worst day possible! Thankfully her two best friends, Ruby & Leo, are there to help her turn “the wedding season” into a fun challenge and help her get through what happened. Even though Freya did not want to do all the tasks Ruby and Leo told her to do at the weddings she did them. It turned out to be the perfect way for her to learn more about herself and get comfortable with who she was on her own. In addition, it opened her up to new experiences and people.

This book was great! It was about love, friendship, and growth. Such a fantastic read.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book. This is my honest voluntary review.

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall is a beautifully written first-person POV rom-com that had me smiling, laughing, and cheering the heroine on from the first page to the last. I started it curious to find out what the wedding survival guide challenges would be and completely fell in love with Birchall’s writing and characters, especially her heroine Freya. Birchall’s writing is vibrant, expressive, inspired, richly detailed, and incredibly funny. The Wedding Season is an insightful and thoughtful exploration of dealing with being jilted the day before your wedding after being with this person for over a decade, believing they would be your life partner. Birchall brilliantly captures Freya experiencing those moments when feelings and memories sneak up on you at unexpected moments.

On the eve of Freya Scott’s wedding to her long-term boyfriend Matthew, he calls it off, leaving her heartbroken and humiliated with a summer of seven weddings ahead of her to get through on her own. Freya’s friends come up with a wedding survival guide which includes a series of outrageous challenges for her to complete at each wedding to distract her from thoughts of Matthew, their wedding, and her future that he thoughtlessly ruined at the last minute. A wedding season of challenges draws Freya outside her comfort zone, and she unexpectedly finds herself having fun and learning new things about herself and what she wants from life. The wedding survival guide helps the wedding season fly by for Freya as she discovers that life has more in store for her than saying “I do,” including the possibility of finding love again.

Birchall writes dynamic, natural, hilarious, expressive, and vibrantly colorful and descriptive dialogue and character interaction. Her deftly developed characters are complex, fallible, fascinating, and likable (except Matthew). While they appear well off or affluent, their personalities are down to earth. In addition to being utterly entertaining, the interactions between the characters also further the plot and their development. Freya is sweet, vulnerable, funny, warm, and refreshingly honest. Her mind's inner workings and way of looking at the world create a fantastic mix of hilarious, anxiety-ridden, and full of spirit and courage she doesn’t even seem to be aware she possesses. Her best friend Ruby and fiancé Leo, the friends who come up with the wedding survival guide, are supportive, amazing friends. Their relationship and friendship with Freya are goals. Leo nicely contrasts with Freya’s ex-fiancé—as do other male characters. The wedding survival guide is an excellent idea, and the challenges are brilliant, fun, and perfect for getting Freya out of her head and distracting her from her ex and their break-up. They have the bonus of leading to self-discovery and growth for Freya. Freya’s relationships with her brother and father are sweet, while the past complicates her relationship with her mother.

I love how Freya’s conversations and interactions with Jamie, whom she meets in connection with one of her weddings for the season, sparkle with chemistry, humor, sweetness, intimacy, emotion, and unexpected connection. Jamie’s and Freya’s vibe is so swoony. Their chemistry flows so naturally even when they’re at odds. With just the right combination of sandpaper and chemistry, the friction between them makes things interesting, and the possibility for more sneaks right upon them.

In conclusion, I love everything about the Wedding Season! Most of all, I love how Birchall writes relationships, dialogue, and Freya’s thoughts. I could have kept reading about Freya, Jamie, her family, and friends.

The Wedding Season is a hilarious, sweet, slightly angsty, disarming novel about how taking detours when our lives don’t follow our plans can lead us down exciting paths—with new experiences, time, and space for self-discovery—to where we were meant to be, and we get what we need and wanted all along. And, if we’re lucky, we find someone to share our lives with who values and loves us as we are.

Thanks to Netgalley, St.Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of this. I swapped back and forth between the audio and the ebook while I was reading this.

This was super cute and fun! I've had British romances in the past where I felt the romance played out too slowly for me, but this one was perfectly paced. I loved the side plot with all of the weddings and her friends, who did a great job of being there when she needed them. If you want a sweet rom-com, I totally recommend it.

Hmm...I just couldn't get into this one and I can't really pinpoint why. While I didn't feel a deep and soulful connection to Freya, I liked her well enough and I liked Jamie when he was introduced, but I was just so bored and couldn't stay engaged with this one. I still like Katy Birchall's quintessential British women's lit style, but this one just didn't work for me.

Everyone deserves the kind of friends who will see you at your worst and say, “You can be a perfect little slug for however long you want.” For Freya, the protagonist of The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall, those friends are Leo and Ruby, her best friends from college. Freya’s worst comes in the form of her fiancé, Matthew, who breaks up with her in a broom closet on the weekend of their wedding in the opening chapter of the novel.

Freya’s wedding to Matthew was supposed to be the first wedding of a summer filled with them, culminating in Leo and Ruby’s wedding to one another. After the breakup, Freya is still happy for her friends, but dreads all of the wedding festivities filling her weekends to come. Not only will she have to answer questions about her break up, she will also have to attend each bachelorette, shower, ceremony, and reception as a newly single woman when she thought she’d be going as part of a newly married couple.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on one’s viewpoint) for Freya, her friends decide to provide her with a distraction to keep her from moping about her single state. The distraction? A list of challenges to accomplish at each of the weddings she is attending over the summer. The challenges range in type from the aerobic (be the last one standing on the dance floor) to the flirtatious (secure a good-night kiss) to the truly bonkers (run down the hotel corridor naked). Such is the power of friendship that Freya agrees to try them all.

In addition to the challenges, the narrative is peppered with other lists, too, such as a pro and con list of reasons to call/not call Matthew and a list of “things I have done because Matthew and I aren’t together”—sort of in the style of Bridget Jones’ Diary, although the novel is not written in diary form. These bits don’t necessarily contribute to the story, although they provide a dash of light-heartedness, particularly during the first half, when Freya is really grieving her relationship.

As she attends each hen-do and wedding event—pursuing her list of challenges all the while—Freya’s grief over her relationship begins to dissipate. It helps that she begins to consistently run into another wedding guest, Jamie, whose banter charms her more and more each time they meet.

But as much as her burgeoning romance with Jamie helps her recover from her heartbreak, the ties of friendship are what really help Freya sort out her emotions. Support doesn’t just come in the form of Leo and Ruby; she is also bolstered by the loosely connected group of people whose events she attends throughout the summer, as well as a caring father and brother, and a mother who is trying to make up for past mistakes. Birchall depicts all of the people in Freya’s life with realism; her friends and family have flaws, and not all of them show up in the way that Freya would like, but it is through leaning into those relationships—and learning to be open to new connections—that Freya is able to build her own happy ending.

This wasn’t for me. I understand the main character is dumped at the very beginning but she is still whining about it 1/3 of the way through the book. I’m sure in real life this would be very normal behavior but for me as a reader it was too much.