Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.
Freya and Matthew’s wedding was to kick off the “wedding season”, but the day before their “I dos “ Matthew calls off the wedding. Freya is left to figure out what happened and how to endure a season of celebrating all of her friends’ upcoming weddings and running into Matthew! Her two engaged best friends, Ruby and Leo devise a plan to get Freya through the wedding season by tackling a series of tasks at each wedding.

As Freya goes from each hen do, party, and wedding she meets and keeps running into Jamie. At first their interactions are cordial at best but they begin to warm up to each other.

Freya gains confidence as she learns to live without Matthew, even though she goes back and forth trying to make sense of their break up. She also begins to look differently at her fraught relationship with her mom.

I thought Freya was a relatable character and I enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the novel. I thought the tension she displayed over her break up with Matthew was realistic and at times complicated like it would be in real life. It times she was a bit over the top but it matched her quirky character. Overall, I thought this was a fun read.

This was my second read from Katy Birchall, and she delivered another fabulously funny rom-com that was perfect to break up my typically dark and heavy reading list. Freya Scott gets left not quite on the altar but almost as close as you can get.. When the day started with missing peacocks, she just should have gone back to bed with a good book. Her friends rally around her and give her a list of "challenges" to get her through the long list of summer weddings and hen parties, and in the process she learns more about herself and most importantly makes peace with those she was wronged by. Full of comedic scenes and lovely British humor, The Wedding Season is the perfect for fans of Birchall's The Secret Bridesmaid and made even this heartless old maid laugh out loud! Read this book and learn why you should always bury the sausage the night before the wedding, LOL. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I was so excited to read this book, I loved Secret Bridesmaid and had really high hopes for this book too. I was NOT disappointed, this book was so fun and the perfect summer read. I love the story, friendships, and lessons learned along the way. Plus a few lol moments. Can't wait to see what else the author comes up with next!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

The Wedding Season is a fun, lighthearted read. I loved the friendships and loyalty that were displayed throughout the book. Great storyline, that shows ‘everything happens for a reason.’

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is my first time reading something by this author and I enjoyed it. The story caught my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through. Freya is about to get married but at the last minute, her fiance Matthew calls it off. They had been together for 12 years, and now Freya is shocked and reeling from the loss. With her own wedding ending in disaster, she now has to make it through the wedding season, with the next few months of weddings that she is supposed to attend. Her best friends come up with a plan to help her through each wedding instead of dwelling on her sadness, and each task they come up with is more outrageous than the next.
This is a sweet heartwarming story about learning to cope after a heartbreak and moving on and I enjoyed every minute of it. The characters were wonderful and felt so relatable, I couldn't help but fall in love with them. Freya had such a great support system, which was lovely to see. The storyline had a nice smooth flow and although there was some romance, the main focus was Freya and her journey of moving forward, which was just as enjoyable to read. There was definitely a good amount of focus on Freya's heartbreak and sadness, but there were also some wonderful moments of humor and fun that left me with a smile on my face. I really enjoyed this book and I will be looking out for more books by this author!

I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

My Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐/ 5

The Wedding Season is slated as a contemporary romance based in London about Freya, a very organized, practical woman who is essentially left at the altar by Matthew, her boyfriend of 12 years. Worst, she was told the news in a broom closet without a real reason other than that she is too “together.” Gutted by the news, she has to toughen up and attend her other close friends/family weddings over the season despite being utterly sad and down in the dumps. Her best friends Ruby and Leo make her a wedding season survival guide challenge that she has to do at each wedding including obtaining cufflinks and running naked through a hotel corridor. These tasks really take her out of her comfort zone and she is actually finally starting to have fun and move on.

I’m not going to lie, the first ⅓ was rough since Freya is extremely unlikeable. She is heartbroken and devastated, but also lacks self awareness and reeks of desperation especially after all those attempts to speak to Matthew. Then I had to remember she is supposed to be because you make terrible mistakes when you feel as if you are losing the person you love. As she meets new people and spends more time in the company of friends, you truly see her slowly come out of her shell and heal. It is mostly about Freya’s healing process over a bad breakup and light on the romance side. By the end, I was rooting for her. Really enjoyed it!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Tropes: forced proximity, frenemies
Spice Level: 0.5/5

📖 The Wedding Season
✍️ Katy Birchall
📚 Fiction
#️⃣ 384 pages

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley + St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Freya is so excited to (finally!) get married to her boyfriend of twelve years… that is, right up until he calls the wedding off the night before the big day. Suddenly directionless and very single, Freya is dreading the summer full of weddings on her calendar. In an effort to keep her mind off her own failed romance, Freya’s friends come up with a list of tasks for her to complete at the weddings. What starts as a series of distractions turns into some of the most fun Freya has ever had. Perhaps there’s another way to happily ever after besides “I Do.”

I was so surprisingly pleased with the depth of this story! I felt that the MC was very relatable and the way she reacted to the circumstances she found herself in was authentic. The premise was fun and the audio was incredible - the narrator had phenomenal timing. I would consider this more of a contemporary fiction than a true romance, and I had absolutely no problem with that. It was a pleasure to experience Freya’s strength and vulnerability throughout the story with a strong cast of side characters. Highly recommend!

💍 Contemporary fiction
💍 Single POV
💍 Single timeline
💍 Takes place of a single summer
💍 Authentic characters
💍 Sweet + clever banter
💍 No spice
💍 Great on audio

#caitsquietplace #caitsquietplacereviews #cqpfiction #theweddingseason #netgalley #stmartinspress

2.5 / 5 stars

This book was a challenge for me to finish.

When Freya is dumped by her long-time partner and fiance the day before her wedding, she's not sure how she will make it through the upcoming wedding season. Her friends create a list of challenges, one for each event, to help distract her and help her rediscover herself. Along the way, she finds love (of course) and finds her own confidence.

Clearly lots of others really liked this book, but it's just not the one for me. I felt like it dragged quite a bit and I didn't like Freya's inner monologue. Not a bad story or plot, but if you're looking for a fun, quick romance read, I wouldn't recommend this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Wedding Season is cute, but fell a bit flat for me. Could simply be that I wasn't in the right mood for this one at this time. Will try again!

This story is beautifully written! The main character's life gets turned upside down and just when she thought she was not going to be able to get out of it her life starts taking another turn for the best. It was a beautiful story and a well written women's fiction book!

Katy Birchall has just instantly become one of my favorite authors after reading The Wedding Season! Her humor that comes through makes this rom-comesque story absolutely delightful to read. Seriously, can this be made into a movie that one could sit back and enjoy while drinking a hoppy beer?!

After being dumped the day before her wedding, Freya is challenged by her best friends , Ruby and Leo, to complete a series of tasks to help her survive the Wedding Season. A summer full of attending weddings that are not her wedding. Through this hilarious adventure of a season, you watch Freya become someone she was truly meant to be, and you find yourself loving every minute of it! Also, enter Jamie, a random stranger she gives a ride to due to a friend's wedding. He makes this story a delicious read!

Wonderful feel-good Brit chick lit! Great pacing and fantastic cast of characters. Thoroughly enjoyed. Great for fans of Jill Mansell, Paige Toon, or Katie Fforde! Will def recommend to friends and read more by this author.

I recieved an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

DNF @ 15%

The writing was solid, characters seemed interesting, but the mood was just too somber for what I am looking for.

This story was so cute! I’ve never read anything like this and really enjoyed it. It made you feel like you were part of the friend group and routing for Freya’s happiness the whole time. One of my favorite spring reads!

Freya Scott is getting married to her long-time boyfriend Matthew. It's the first wedding of eight in her calendar this wedding season. Freya is determined to make her wedding day perfect. But when Matthew calls it off the day before their wedding, Freya's perfectly plan goes up in smoke. Heartbroken and confused, Freya doesn't know how she's going to survive the heartbreak let alone a summer of weddings. Lucky for Freya, her friends come up with a series of challenges for Freya to complete at each wedding. From getting stuck in a bathroom, giving an off the cuff speech and kissing a server in the South of France, while initially designed to serve as a distraction actually might be the best thing that's happened to Freya. By the end of wedding season, Freya learns a lot about herself and that maybe, just maybe her own love story isn't over yet.

I really loved all the characters in this book, especially Freya and her best friends Ruby and Leo. You can't help but root for Freya as she tries to recover from a this devastating breakup. For anyone who has ever been dumped, you'll definitely understand where Freya is coming from.

This book is filled with fun banter, some hilarious situations, friendship and forgiveness. While I classify this more as chick-lit, there is a lite romance in the book.

If you're looking for an adorable, light-hearted, charming book that will make you laugh and smile (and maybe cry), this is the book for you! I'm definitely a Kay Birchall fan and will be reading more of her books in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the arc.

Oh man this book sounded really cute. But this one was just not for me at all. I was super thankful to get an arc of this. But I just felt like I could not relate to the characters. I found myself so bored and I had to force myself to finish this one. I guess not every book you are going to like.

The Wedding Season is a delightful and hilarious romantic comedy that reminded me of a Hallmark movie. Freya is a relatable main character. Freya's meet cute run-ins with Jamie at various weddings was very enjoyable and they made a very satisfying and lovely couple. Overall, would highly recommend this book to other rom-com lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book reminded me of Bride Wars, the movie, in a fantastic way!
The story engaged me and kept me entertained. It was a fun read that wasn't that unexpected, but was enjoyable to escape into as a form of entertainment. I would recommend it to YA readers. I think teens would love the story because it is relatable to them and also a bit unrealistic in a fun way.

When Freya's fiancé Matthew calls off their wedding with less than 24-hours to go, her world is thrown completely off balance. He says that she's too "together" and too "reliable"... since when is that a problem?! Surrounded by love and support from her family and friends, Freya bravely takes on her busiest wedding season yet, for which her wedding was supposed to be the kick-off event. Her best friends Leo and Ruby, whose wedding will wrap up the season, come up with a wild idea- each wedding on Freya's calendar will come with a new task, each getting progressively more difficult. Not only do these tasks give Freya a reason to go to all of these weddings, but they also help to distract her from the heartache and pain and begin to heal. Throughout her season, she gets guidance from Uncle Chido, makes out with a sexy French model/waiter, has an ill-fated encounter with her ex, and spends time getting to know herself again. However, an unexpected acquaintance-turned-friend does a lot to help her move on and open her heart again.

I really appreciated that this novel, while technically a romance and focused on the canceled wedding and finding new love, really focuses on self-growth. Freya and Matthew had been together for 12 years, they began dating in college. Neither of them had lived adult lives without the other. Freya learns to live by herself, begins gardening, spends more time with her friends, and even works to rekindle her relationship with her mother. It would be easy for this novel to have focused on the romance aspects, with Freya constantly searching for a partner, but it was refreshing to read about her finding herself without everything ending happily ever after.

The Wedding Season is the story of Freya who finds her way through “The Wedding Season” after being left the day before her wedding. Freya is easily relatable and you will recognize her heartbreak and her growth. A fun and engaging beach read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.