Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
So this was delightful. I am going to warn readers though, if you are expecting a lot of romantic scenes, they are not in this book. But I thought this was a very nice enemies to lovers book. I loved the main character of Freya, her two best friends, Ruby and Leo, and her dad and her brother. The whole book really spoke to me about the power of friendship (shut up, stop laughing). And it honestly made me miss my best friends in PA. I am definitely going to be on the lookout for anymore of Katy Birchall’s books in the future.
“The Wedding Season” follows Freya Scott. Freya is excited that she’s about to marry her longtime boyfriend Matthew. However, the day before the wedding, Matthew tells her he can’t do this because she’s such a responsible and sturdy person and he’s emotional and all over the place and leaves Freya. Freya is left shattered because she has been with Matthew for 12 years, and doesn’t understand how he just stopped loving her. Freya doesn’t know how she’s supposed to go on and is dreading going to 7 upcoming weddings over the summer months. However, Freya’s best friends, Ruby and Leo decide they are going to make a list of challenges that Freya must do at the weddings in order to show herself and also her ex Matthew, she’s not the boring person he alluded to when they broke up.
I loved Freya. I honestly wanted to kick Matthew really hard somewhere not so nice as well. Birchall is able to show us the many sides to Freya in this one and I felt for her trying and searching to figure out why Matthew left her, and feeling for her as she hoped he would come back to her. You get to see why/when she fell in love with him and the moments big and small they had through their 12 years together. But it was also great we got to see how Freya’s friends and family supported her. And also how hard it is to untangle yourself from someone you were with for a very long time.
Ruby and Leo were great together and you can see why they became a couple. I also loved how fiercely they supported Freya.
Freya’s other friends, Simone, Cali, and Niamh, are very supportive, and just felt real to me throughout the book.
Matthew, though he’s the villain in the piece, I had a different perspective towards the end, and mostly because of Freya’s mother.
The love interest was great though and I laughed at all of their scenes together. In fact, I think this is the most I have cracked up while reading a romance in a while. The scene where Freya’s boss talks to her about doing the trapeze had me giggling throughout.
The writing was great and I loved how Birchall incorporated different things such as texts and the list to tell the story. Thank you for making the other text legible by the way. One of my pet peeves is when a book changes the font and makes it so hard for me to switch my brain back and forth. This one didn’t have that issue.
I really enjoyed the ending. I do know some fans/readers won’t be happy that we didn’t get to see more, but it’s definitely a Happily Ever After (HEA).
