Thank you for an advance copy of The Wedding Season in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Women's Fiction
Pub Date: May 3, 2022

I enjoyed this book a lot. I love few things more than a rom-com, and The Wedding Season delivered on all fronts. I felt like the characters had charm and wit, and the romance aspect of the story was a nice, slow burn that kept me hanging on until the end. I really thought the story was cleverly written, and it was honestly the writing style that kept me hooked. I just loved the way this story was written!

My only complaint about this book is that it starts a bit slow; the first 30% or so of the book took a concerted effort for me to stick with it (and you should stick with it). If this wasn't an arc I was reading, I might have DNF'd it over the slow start honestly.

Otherwise, this book gave me all the feels and was a fun read once the story really kicked off!

i am really big fan of wedding themed books, and birchall's the secret bridesmaid was easily one of my favourite women's fic/romance books of 2021 so i absolutely needed to get my hands on the wedding season, and it did not disappoint. the first 20% of the book is actually quite sad, as it focuses on freya's reaction to her longtime boyfriend breaking up with her a day before the wedding. the tone of the book starts changing when freya's best friends ruby and leo write a list of challenges that she has to complete so she can survive all the weddings that she has to attend. the book deals with the end of a long relationship, but in my opinion, the highlights are friendships, especially the one between freya, ruby, and leo, but also the bond between freya, her brother and her father, how she works out her strained relationship with her mother, and obviously the slow burn romance between her and jamie (even though i can't help but wish we had seen a little bit more about them together).

Freya’s life gets turned upside down when her husband to be backs out the day of her wedding. In order to help Freya out of her slump and to get through all of the upcoming weddings she is attending, her friends decide to put together a list of challenges to push Freya out of her comfort zone. Freya must complete one challenge per wedding she attends. Through these challenges Freya embarks on a journey of rediscovering her self and realizes maybe her love story has only just begun.

This was a super cute read that had all of the things I love in a rom com! Amazing best friends, quirky family members, and of course a swoon worthy love interest.

My one and only gripe is that I wish we could have learned more about what went down with the traffic cone!

I was sent a free book and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Katy Birchall for a free ARC of this book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam Level: 🔥 (kissing only)
Trigger Warning: divorce, broken engagement

Freya has just been dumped by her fiance, Matthew, the day before the wedding, and now she has seven more weddings to attend while she grieves her own ruined nuptials. In an attempt to help Freya enjoy the festivities and forget about Matthew, her friends come up with a Wedding Season survival checklist- tasks that must be completed at each wedding. Soon Freya finds herself enjoying her new freedom, and she realizes that maybe her previous relationship wasn't as perfect as she once believed. She even starts to believe love might be possible after heartache.

This was such a fun book. I found myself laughing and and smiling throughout the story, and it had the best banter between characters! This book focuses on Freya's grieving and healing process, but it does include a bit of romance too. We get to see her going from devastated to hopeful, and I felt like it gave a really good glimpse at what that kind of breakup would be like for someone. The first half of the book started to drag in a few places, but then it would pick back up and hook me again, and the second half was even better. I really loved Freya's friends and family, but my absolute favorite character was Jamie! He and Freya had great chemistry from the moment they met, and my romance loving heart was secretly wishing we could have had more of him. I soaked up every interaction between those two. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from Katy Birchall in the future after this one.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Freya and Matthew have been together for twelve years. The day before their wedding, Matthew shoves her into a broom closet and tells her they are through. She is devastated, embarrassed, and fearful of the seven weddings she must attend and doesn’t know how she will make it through them. Her friends have devised a set of things she is to accomplish as she attends each wedding. Seven things to do that are out of her comfort zone. They figure this will help her get her thoughts off Matthew.
Freya is hung up on the why’s of them not being together. Matthew has not been specific, so she goes through all sorts of scenarios trying to determine what she did wrong. The tasks she must do at each wedding offer a lot of humor in her sadness. Her friends are so supportive of her feelings and so is Jamie who shows up at some of the weddings. She finds it interesting that Jamie believes she is a fun person and talking with him is so easy.
I really liked this book once we got through all Freya’s sadness. It points out that one can grow from unpleasant happenings. Even her distant relationship with her mother shows progress. The characters are well developed and ones you want to hang around. The wedding destinations offer wonderful settings for the story and the antics of Freya and her friends and family demonstrate community and hope.

I really liked the friendship aspect of this book. There were a few times that I was not understanding the heroine, but I understood her in a way. I liked that romance wasn't the main focus in the book and it was there, but in the background of the heroine discovering herself. I wish we did get a little bit more from the romance, maybe an epilogue, hence the four-star rating. This book had fun characters and dialogue and I enjoyed it. A fun read! ARC on Netgalley.

The Wedding Season
by Katy Birchall
Pub Date 03 May 2022
4/5 Stars

Freya is looking forward to a summer of celebration. So many weddings, beginning with her own. Everything is looking perfect until her fiancé decides he’s out and dumps her the day before their wedding. Freya is forced to face their breakup and the ensuing summer of wedding celebrations. Fortunately for Freya, she has some great friends and a wonderful family to see her through.

This was such a sweet, hilarious, and heartwarming story. I loved that Freya threw herself into the “list” of tasks to do at each wedding. Loved the interaction with her family. This is just an all-around fun read.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was a sweet story that featured wonderful character growth, amazing friendships, and some fun banter. Freya was such an enjoyable MC. I loved her quick wit and the realistic way she felt her heartbreak. I really appreciated the realness of this as the romance genre is so saturated with insta love, sweeping feelings under the rug and so on. I felt really connected to her journey the entire time. The secondary characters were all wonderful and brought so much to her story and world as well. This is a feel good read that will leave you smiling.

Thank you to NetGalley/St. Martin’s Publishing for this ARC.

Freya is planning her dream wedding to Matthew, her partner of 12 years—that is until he cancels it the day before… in a broom cupboard…and she is now facing The Wedding Season, a season of 8 weddings of her friends and family looming ahead of her. But then her best friends Leo and Ruby come up with a list of tasks for her to complete at each wedding to help her get over Matthew, and it begins a season she’ll never forget. Oh this book, I was smiling so hard by the end of it. I truly loved it. It was funny and witty. Katy Birchall just nails friendship, Freya is in such heavy heartbreak and watching her friends rally around her is just wonderful and uplifting. And watching Freya fall in love with herself, it is just a pleasure. Break-ups are hard, and this novel captured this entirely. Freya goes through so many ups and down as she comes to terms with losing Matthew and as hard as those moments are there is a lightness in the writing, and I just adored Freya. I adored her finding herself and finding her passions. I loved her banter with hipster, brewery owner Jamie who she keeps running into at weddings, and I loved the strength in her friendships. The story is beautiful and well written. I loved these characters and this journey. I left this book with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, and I couldn’t recommend this more!

Although it started off very slow in my opinion, (I almost put it down) it ended up being good! When I read the synopsis it reminded me of 27 dresses a bit. It wasn’t anything like that though!

What I enjoyed the most is Freya’s friends who surround her with so much love and support after she gets dumped by her fiancé a day before their wedding. They help her through the wedding season and her to realize she can find happiness again. I also liked that the love interested took a while to show up and wasn’t the main part of the story, especially after just getting dumped before walking down the altar.

It was a great, feel good fiction book!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.
Freya is getting married and kicking off the Wedding Season which consists of eight weddings. On her special day just hours before the ceremony her long time boyfriend Matthew calls off the wedding. Devastated how will Freya make it through a season of weddings watching all of her friends embark on the happiest of days when hers just went down in flames? Heartbroken and humiliated her friends rally around her and devise a brilliant plan consisting of outrageous challenges to take her mind off missing Matthew. Freya's journey brought with it all the emotions. It is a story of amazing relationship, seriously I want to be best friends with Ruby and Leo as well. Family dynamics both challenging and amazing. There were times I had a lump in my throat and many where I was literally cracking up. This is such a fun and feel good story that you will definitely want to reread time and again, a new favorite! If your TBR is outrageous like mine please do yourself a favor and make sure this one is at the top of your list.

This was so fun and cute! I really, really enjoyed it. It's a great romp for anyone looking to really get out of their head for a few hours.

What I liked most about Freya is that she was so normal. She didn't feel like a perfect romcom heroine, she felt like that best friend we all have who's game for a laugh and deserves a little better than what it seems like the world is serving her. The pacing felt a little slow to start but once it picked up it really had me living for every new development. Surprisingly poignant!

Another thing that really delighted me was the supporting characters, who all felt really well constructed. I didn't feel like they were just there to prop up Freya.

I will definitely be re-reading this one and recommending it my friends.

Oh. All. The. Feels!!!

This book was totally chick-lit/rom-com girl bait and I was here for it. Dare I say it even went a smidge deeper than surface level? Yes! There I said it.

I totally loved this story, our cast of characters, the tasks to be completed and the overall growth we saw with our main character.

I think this book will be the ultimate summer beach read - it was light, it had enough depth to feel more than a basic B****h pool read and was overall just a book that will put a smile on your face!

The Wedding Season is being described as Four Weddings and a Funeral meets Seventeen Dresses and rightfully so,

Freya Scott is getting married. Her wedding to her long time love Matthew, is the first of eight in her calendar this wedding season.
But when Matthew calls things off hours before they walk down the aisle, Freya’s entire life plan is shattered.. Humiliated and heartbroken, the last thing she wants is to attend a summer of other peoples weddings.

Luckily, her friends have an idea: together they put together a series of challenges for Freya to complete at each event, in order to distract her from her ex Matthew and what happened. Completing these tasks start as a date but as each wedding passes she finds she is discovering a little piece of herself along the way and that maybe her love story is only beginning.

I adopted this book and it gave me all the feels. Is it your typical chick lit? Maybe a little but it goes deeper into making amends with family, friends being your anchor and finding out who you really are and not others telling you. Birchall does a great job with character development. I loved all of Freya’s friends and you really feel like you are apart of their tight knit bond.

I do wish we got to know her love interest a little more but who knows maybe that means there will be a second book?! I would definitely read it and will also be diving into Birchall’s other reads. Thank you St. martins Press and Netgalley for the arc!

Awww, this book was so cute and I enjoyed it immensely.

I was expecting this to be more of a romance novel, but it’s actually women’s fiction with a romance subplot. It also explains why the story felt slow in the beginning (I expected it to move faster since it was branded as a romance). And while I would’ve liked more romance, I think it’s better that there wasn’t given that Freya had only recently gotten out of a 12 year relationship and was jilted—not that you can’t immediately spring into a new relationship, but I thought that this was handled nicely with Freya focusing on herself first before starting something new.

Let’s talk about Freya. Our FMC was delightfully written. I loved that she didn’t have it all together. I mean, she found out the day before her wedding that the wedding wasn’t going to happen and her fiancé didn’t love her anymore. She’s all over the place, mourning the relationship, getting angry, etc. and rightfully so, especially as she never got the closure she so desperately needed. I loved how Katy Birchall portrayed this, especially where she was fine one moment and then a memory pops up and then she’s spiraling. Grief is different for everyone, but I felt like the portrayal of mourning a long, intimate relationship was done to a tee.

The supporting cast of characters were amazing. I want a Ruby and a Leo in my life. But everyone was fleshed out and it was great to see her family and friends rally around her, and, of course, Ruby and Leo created the list which is the basis of the book and Freya’s character development.

Overall, it was cute, sentimental, and poignant. I’d definitely recommend you pick it up!

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review posted on Goodreads and to be posted to tiktok and instagram during late April, before release date of May 3, 2022.

I’d say the first 25% of this book started a little slow, but then it really picked up and ended up being such a good read. I should also say, I probably wasn’t into the beginning because it starts with a break up, and the emotions were too real for me. She captured the ebb and flow someone goes through post break up really well. And although I really just wanted this to be a happy romance, it was not. It was more about a woman’s personal growth, finding herself, and going through a break up when it feels like everyone else is getting married and moving forward.

I ended up really liking this book because I liked Freya’s journey. Although timing and pacing were a bit slow, I appreciated the way she handled everything and how open she was to trying new things. Her friend group was amazing, her family was so supportive and it all felt really heartwarming.

My only complaint is that we want more Jamie! I felt like I didn’t get enough and would love to read another book about where their story goes next.

Thank you netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What a fun read! I absolutely loved this novel and really enjoyed the characters. They made it seem as if you were there with them! Great writing style.

First time reading this author. I really enjoyed this book and the concept of giving the main character numerous distractions to help her heal. I'd recommend it. Thanks NetGalley for the advanced copy. #NetGalley #TheWeddingSeason

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall is the perfect book for Spring! A fun woman's fiction with real life emotions that so many readers will relate to. On the day before their wedding day, Freya's fiancé, Matthew, calls it off. As heartbreaking as that is, theirs was the first of eight weddings that season, all very close friends. Freya doesn't even consider missing the special day of her closest friends, but she knows it's not going to be easy. Luckily, she has a great support system and they rally around her to not only get her through the Wedding Season, but her own heartbreak as well. This would need more romance to be an actual rom-com, but there are enough hints of romance to give you all the good feels.
Full of interesting characters, and unique settings this is was such a great book! This story has heartbreak, retrospective, laughs and more importantly hope.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my gifted arc.

This is how you write women’s fiction.

I loathe when a women’s fiction book just walks the line too close to a romance novel and then doesn’t really give you enough to be happy.

This book is about Freya. I adored her and her journey to find herself after her heartbreak. She didn’t immediately jump into anything. She learns about herself, what she likes, and what she is like by herself. Do we get some romance subplot yes. But it’s only enjoy to drive Freya’s journey, it doesn’t make the book about her and a boy. It’s about Freya and that’s what she deserves. I love all the pros and cons list, they were hysterical and her two best friends were just amazing. I love that it proves you don’t have to be the third wheel, you can be perfectly included. I loved the addition of her mom, and her deep talk with her was so moving.

The wedding season was such a fun book with sadness, joy, and just so much positivity on what you truly deserve as a person.