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While some of the aspects and plot points were a little cliche (as with any romance book), I found this story to be very original and enjoyable to read. The character development that readers see from Allison and Adam is one of the major aspects of this book, and I really enjoyed watching the characters grow. I thought that the side characters were also fleshed out well. My only issue with this book is the constant repetition of Allison's shortcomings. She is dealing with the BRCA 1 surgery and while I understand that it is a major part of this character's life, it was mentioned at least once a chapter and I feel as if the importance of the surgery and it's impact on the character felt cheapened due to the constant repetition. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend to a friend. I am interested to see what Ellie Palmer releases next!

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I was seeing a lot of recent buzz with this one. I am happy to say I enjoyed it as much as everyone else. We follow Alison, a 30 year old BRCA 1 carrier who had a preventative double mastectomy. She shows up at her ex, Sam's funeral & agrees to be a grieving girlfriend who helps clean up his apartment with Sam's best friend. Adam is a grumpy man with no holiday spirit. Together they spend long hours packing up Sam's things & forming a bond with each other. I thought it was a great debut & I loved all the characters including the best friends.

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This is a story that was so fun to read. The love/ hate relationship with bantering. It had me rolling in laughter, and not want to stop reading.

Al finds herself in a compromising position when arriving to her ex’s funeral and everyone thought she was still his girlfriend. To not hurt anyone’s feeling she played along with it, and then offered to clean out her ex’s apartment with the grumpy best friend she always heard about. The story continues as they grow closer, but oh did they not see eye to eye. We watched Al growing from her self expectations and Adam scare of change.

Al and the author both have BRCA1 which was a big part of this book. It is always nice to see what one goes through when they have a second chance.

Amazing book!!! Thank you Net galley and author for letting me read this for an honest review.

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I loved this book from the very beginning. The author jumped right into it, with Alison attending her ex-boyfriend's funeral after a freak accident. Except everyone assumed she was still the current girlfriend. Funny, engaging - I'll be looking g for more by Ellie Palmer.

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Yay for Minnesota authors who get Minnesota geography correct! I really enjoyed this story. It was a little deeper than I was originally prepared for, but also just a great story overall. There were so many times when I was able to laugh out loud and get teary, I really felt emotions with the characters throughout the book. Not only were the main characters phenomenal, but also some of the sub-characters stuck out and made a big impact on me.

I will recommend this book to all who read.

Thank you for the copy, this is my honest opinion

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Four Weekends and a Funeral-a standalone

By Ellie Palmer-debut author

Publication 8-6-24, Read 8-8-24

Format: e-book 368 pgs.

Genre: Rom-Com, Adult/Women's Fic

Tropes: enemies to lovers, fake dating, forced proximity, closed door, family drama, grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract

FMC: Alison Mullally (30)-dated Sam Lewis and he dumped her 6 weeks ago. She had double mastectomy because she's a BRCA 1 carrier.

MMC: Adam Berg-Sam's BFF, disliked Alison. He's a carpenter. Agrees to help Alison pack up Sam's apartment to sell it in 4 weekends.

🤔My Thoughts: The opposites attract trope is one of my favorites and this doesn't disappoint. Alison had to work to become Adam's friend, and later more. Alison's medical condition was told realistically, and as a breast cancer survivor myself I liked that it was handled with care. This reminded me of the movie While You Were Sleeping except Sam died instead of being in a coma. Sam's family & friends believed he and Alison were still together and Alison went along with it. I loved how supportive Alison's BFFs Mara and Chelsea were towards her.

Overall Rating
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🙏🏽Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam |G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

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This is a heartfelt debut that blends humor and emotional depth. Alison Mullally, after a double mastectomy, attends her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral, only to discover his family believes they were still together. She reluctantly agrees to maintain the facade and ends up spending weekends packing Sam’s apartment with his grumpy best friend, Adam. Their interactions are filled with tension and undeniable chemistry, leading to an unexpected connection. The novel beautifully navigates themes of love, loss, and self-discovery, all while incorporating important discussions about breast cancer and survivor's guilt. Palmer's writing is both sharp and tender, making this book a compelling read for fans of emotional yet uplifting romances.

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I had the best time reading Alison and Adam’s story 🥹🩷 their story was touching, sweet, real, unique, and genuinely funny. I rooted for them every single second 🫶🏻 …and this third-act break-up really crushed my heart 😭 thankfully, they healed it too.

The whole cast of characters was so entertaining 👏🏻👏🏻 Alison’s best friends are so much fun and I want to get in on their trivia nights so bad! 😆

The tension and chemistry in this story are off the charts; the steam was so well placed and so well written that it simply just worked beautifully within Alison and Adam’s relationship progression.

This is Ellie’s debut novel and I can tell you that I will absolutely be reading whatever she blesses us with next! I saw another reviewer refer to her writing as electric and I wholeheartedly agree! She absolutely knocked this out of the park 🩷

Highly recommend if you like:
forced proximity
enemies-to-lovers
grumpy sunshine
romcoms

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
🌶️

NOTE: Alison’s story contains a heartfelt breast cancer/BRCA gene mutation storyline. I feel it was handled with so much care and written honestly and beautifully.

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Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam, GP Putnam Sons, for gifting me a digital ARC of the debut romance by Ellie Palmer. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Allison is at her ex-boyfriend, Sam's, funeral when she learns that he didn't tell his family they broke up. Sam's sister begs Allison to keep up the ruse that they were still involved for the sake of her grieving parents. Then she meets Sam's best friend, Adam, when they are tasked to go through Sam's stuff together and clear out his house. Things suddenly become more complicated.

I thought this was a fabulous debut. I'm not always a big romance fan, but certain authors make their works a must read for me. Ellie Palmer is going to be one of those authors. This is a sweet, funny, romance novel with underlying depth. Allison has the BRCA gene (as does the author) and that journey is portrayed so well here; not maudlin, but hopeful and positive. As an aside, I also took turns listening to the audiobook, narrated by the fabulous Karissa Vacker, who is on her breast cancer journey. My hats off to both these strong women for telling their stories. Highly recommended!

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3.5 stars!

This book had a great start for me. I liked the premise of Ali being tied to this man and intruding on his life postmortem. Her own relationship with death - or lack there of - was so interesting to me. It was really insightful to me how she felt about her BRCA diagnosis and her own grief with it.
I also really loved Adam from the get go. His banter with Ali was so good and watching him hold back until he had the full story was so well done.

I think the my main issue with the book was Ali was a bit too people pleasing for me. I know everyone handles grief differently but I definitely just wanted to shake her at some points.

Overall, a great debut and I would love to read whatever this author puts out next.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

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Four Weekends and a Funeral by @elliepalmerwrites
Publication Date: August 6, 2024! Go get a copy now!

Well this was an absolutely delightful read! Thanks to @bookedwiththeemilys @elliepalmerwrites and @putnambooks for the gifted ebook!

I truly enjoyed reading this story and fell in love with characters! If you spent any time on my page, you know I LOVE when romances have extra depth to them. This was no exception! Our main character, Ali, is a thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier. She finds herself in a precarious situation… the book is silly. There are hallmark moments galore. The side characters are FUN. The love story is sweet!

This is a lovely book that I will hopefully add to my physical collection at some point! 🫶

Tropes if you want to know them!
🫶Forced proximity
🫶Grumpy / Sunshine
🫶Banter for days
🫶Forearms
🫶90s nostalgia
🫶 dash of fake dating
🫶Ex-boyfriend’s best friend

Ellie, I look forward to reading more books by you in the future! This was delightful!

Taylor Swift: Invisible String

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This book has it all to be another top favorite of the year for me. The plot is unique: Alison pretends to be the grieving girlfriend at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral, and together with the deceased’s best friend, Adam, agree to clear out Sam’s apartment in the following weekends. The relatable characters and their character development is top tier with so many happy and emotional elements (especially with the main female character being a post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier). The romance takes a gold medal: there is so banter-so much hilariousness and true conversations and dynamic chemistry! The tropes of forced proximity and Grumpy/Sunshine, women in STEM (and others) are among my favorites. My soul needed the exposure to the message of embracing one’s true self oneself: “How am I going to be with you, if you’re so busy trying to be someone else?” And overall, I just felt seen: this book is so real and relatable in so many ways…
Thank you to Booked With the Emily’s, Putnam Books and the author for an eARC

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My words are not worthy of this book. What a stunning exploration of grief and our journey to rediscovering ourselves after life hits us unexpectedly. I appreciated that Allison's grief journey was two fold - with herself and alongside Sam's death.

Glorious. Adam was just...the best. Truly out of the Hallmark movie of my dreams.

Thank you! Gonna go sit with my feelings now.

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This ended up being a really good surprise!

It was giving Emily Henry but Palmer found a way to have her own flare.
The friendships and pop culture references were my favorite aspects.

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Four Weekends and a Funeral was wonderfully surprising. Dealing with serious matters (Double Mastectomy), death, and sticky relationships, Ellie Palmer put a wonderfully hilarious spin on a unique storyline. The main female character was a real and committed as they come. May we all be as lucky to know (and break up with?) someone as loyal as her.

The banter amongst the friend groups was phenomenal. Between the lulls, I found myself looking forward to finding out "what happens next." So many real-life scenarios and discussions put this book on the same shelf with Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez.

Definitely recommend!

Thank you for this ARC!

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⭐️: 5
🌶️: 1

🎀 banter
🚂 grumpy x sunshine
🎀 forced proximity
🚂 unusual fake dating scenario
🎀 BRCA1 mutation representation

I’m actually mad at myself for not reading this sooner. It was everything I look for in a contemporary romance, and it was perfect.

The entire plot of this book revolved around the death of Alison’s ex-boyfriend, and yet, the topics of death and grief were discussed so lightly and gently, that it was easy to read. I truly appreciated how differently the grief was presented in this book.

Now for Alison and Adam - their grumpy, enemies to lovers chemistry was dynamite. I loved their dynamic and how they built each other up. And that ending, that ending was perfection 😭😭😭

🌶️ = closed door

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam and Ellie Palmer for the ARC of Four Weekends and a Funeral.

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4 stars.

"Four Weekends and a Funeral" by Ellie Palmer is a wonderful debut romance that is part forced proximity romance, part rediscovery, part grumpy/sunshine, and equal parts heartbreaking and a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed the premise of this book, for starters. I found myself enthralled with and entertained by the main characters, Alison and Adam. Sam was Alison's most recent ex-boyfriend, and Adam was Sam's best friend. When Sam dies suddenly, Alison finds herself lying to his family at the request of Sam's sister. Alison agrees to pretend to be Sam's *current* girlfriend during the funeral to save the family from any unnecessary heartbreak. This lie spirals slightly out of control, and she finds herself volunteering to pack up Sam's condo so his family can put it on the market. Adam agrees to help Alison pack up Sam's life. On paper, Adam and Alison could not be any more different. Alison never stops talking, and Adam is completely content grunting one-word answers to her. The more they open up to one another on the weekends they are together in Sam's condo, the more attraction they feel. The longer they are in each other's presence, the more they fall head over heels even though they are both figuring out how to cope with the loss of Sam. They have both essentially lied to each other about their relationship with Sam when he died, so when it all finally comes out, will they put their feelings aside and capitalize on their mutual attraction? I found myself laughing out loud at some of the interactions between Adam and Alison! The entire scene at the school play had me rolling at their reactions to it and to each other. I also liked the frank discussions about BRCA and Alison's double mastectomy. I haven't read many romance books that deal with this subject matter before, so it was nice to learn something new and feel like I had a bit more information about something that impacts so many women. I also appreciate the heck out of the conversation about not wanting to waste your "second chance" after a major medical incident It's almost survivor's guilt-adjacent for Alison. Ooooof, this really hit close to home! Alison has to figure out what truly makes her happy instead of doing what Sam thought she *should* do with the rest of her life: become a great adventurer who loves to be outside and do walking things and camping and nature stuff, which she is very much not into. This book is closed-door, PG-13 at most, but I don't think it needs a bunch of spice to make it good. It's good on its own, apart from a few miscommunications and a little bit of jumping all over the place! A wonderful debut for Ellie Palmer, such a sweet, effective story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ellie Palmer, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

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Now I am always up for a fake dating story but the fact that Sam had died, and she was to pretend to be dating him at his funeral so his parents wouldn't be upset is a whole nother level of fake dating. It is a great set up to having her spend all the weekend with Sam's best friend Adam getting the condo set for sale. It is one of the perfect rom coms set ups that was done really well. And although this is a rom com set up the rest of the story is very sweet and very moving story, of a woman finding herself and love. I found the entire story line of Alison very moving. She is a woman that feels she has cheated death, and she needs to make her life worth living. In this era of living your best life I think Alison really felt like she needed to be more than she was.
I found her struggles with body image, relationship with her mom and belief that she had to be more than she was to be happy a really amazing story. I love that her and Adam have a little slow burn, hot attraction and the will they or won't they action. I really loved all the phone banter. I felt the book did an amazing job of slowly getting to know someone even though each has their own problems they are trying to deal with while dealing with the grief of losing their friend Sam.
I loved Allison's friends and Adams family. I really loved the trivia competitions and that whole story line so the ending of the books was just a chef's kiss. I loved the whole ending, and it truly made this a 5 star read for me. I really enjoyed this book a lot. I found it's message and story really well done. I would recommend to anyone that loves a good rom com, a grumpy hero, a coming of age in a way type story with Allison learning what living her best life really is. Very good story, very well written.

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FOUR WEEKENDDS AND A FUNERAL by Ellie Palmer grabbed me with a bight color, wonderful title, and fascinating premise of a woman attending her ex-boyfriend's funeral only to learn that no one knew they had broken up and must play along with their version of a dead man's reality. Just a short way in, I realized I couldn't read it through to the end. It's workable enough if you are committed, offering a view into breast cancer and hard realities that is seldom covered in the lighter side of fiction. The predictability and the plodding narration and cliched responses and relationships dragged me along until I realized it wasn't going to get any better for me and abandoned the enterprise. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

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This book had such an interesting premise. I have never read a book where the main female character has had a double mastectomy after learning she is positive for BRCA1 gene. It was an interesting perspective and I think it should be talked about more. Now onto the story. The initial plot was unique, if a little weird and predictable. But I did enjoy it! The romance was sweet. It is fade to black however so if spice is what you are looking for this may not be the book for you. I liked the friendships between Ali and her friends. And she has a very real and relatable relationship with her mother.

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