Really enjoyed this. The story was a little funny, sad, hopeful and makes you appreciate the people in your life who really see you. Palatable chemistry between Alison and Adam and some lovely banter. Their journey through their loss of larger than life Sam, their individual struggles and guilt alongside their the growing, undeniable connection made for an engaging read. Loved Chelsea and Mara, everyone needs friends like them, especially with the extreme quizzing. 4 ⭐️

Four Weekends and a Funeral by @elliepalmerwrites is a truly poignant and beautiful romantic comedy. ❤️

Blurb: She found the right guy at the dead wrong time . . .

When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral to discover that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family. Little did she know this meant packing up Sam's apartment with his prickly best friend, Adam Berg. After all, it'll only take four weekends . . . 

But Adam doesn’t want Alison anywhere near him. Forced to spend long hours with the grump and his monosyllabic demeanor, Alison decides to put her people-pleasing abilities to the test. She will make him like her. And after awkward family affairs and packing up dilemmas, the two form a tenuous friendship . . . if “friendship” means incredible chemistry and sexual tension. Can Alison come clean and finally embrace the life and love she's always wanted? Or will her little white lie get in the way of her new, unexpected romance?

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This novel was a treat to read! I loved Alison as a character, her inner struggle with loving herself and finding romance was very touching. Adam is honestly such an amazing grumpy MMC and his dedication to Alison is so endearing! Plus the end of book is pure magic, I loved it. If you want a steamy, hallmark-y romance read, this is the one!!! 🚂🥰✨

Thank you to @putnambooks and @netgalley for the opportunity to read/review this ARC! 🤩📚

🏷️: #fourweekendsandafuneral #elliepalmer #review #bookrecommendation #bookstagram

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
What you’ll find:
🖤Forced proximity
🩷Grumpy / Sunshine
🖤Banter for days
🩷90s nostalgia
🖤A dash of fake dating
🩷Ex-boyfriend's best friend

Palmer’s debut read was a charming read. I love the message that Palmer s drove home in this story.

I feel that if you are a fan of Dewitt or Armas than this would be a great one to add to your TBR.

🎧 Narrated by one of my favs - Karissa Vacker. She does no wrong and she always feels like the perfect fit in whatever I read. Very much the case here. Love the seriousness she can bring, the playful moments, and everything in between.

I split this read between my Kindle and audiobook and I loved both formats! 🫶🏼

If I hadn't know that this was the authors debut novel I would have thought this was written by a veteran! I really enjoyed this one. It was emotional at times but that was balanced out well with moments of comedic relief. This novel tackled real life issues with tact and an appropriate level of sensitivity. I felt as though the characters were relatable and the plot kept my attention throughout. Overall, I would recommend this one to my friends.

📚Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
🫑

This stunning debut grabbed my attention from the first line. Four Weekends and a Funeral is a heartwrenching yet humorous and sweet novel. Ellie skillfully balanced humor, beautiful writing, witty banter, and heavy topics. It was interesting to learn about BRCA1 and double mastectomy. And I really loved Ellie Palmer's voice.

If you love the grumpy sunshine with a closed-door romance and want to learn about BRCA1, this book is for you.

I'm looking forward to reading Ellie Palmer's next book.

Thank you, @NetGalley and Putnam, for the eARC.

⚠️ TW: BRCA1
⚠️ TW: loss of loved one

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!