By Katy Birchall

When you get dumped the day before your wedding in a broom cupboard, suddenly everything seems a bit shit.

“Look, Freya, this is kind of what I’m talking about. We don’t … mesh well anymore. You’re so pragmatic all the time. So together. Which is great. For you. But I’m, you know—” He searched for the words. “—I’m all over the place. Temperamental. Emotional. We can’t be good for each other. We just can’t. We don’t make sense.”

At last, a straight-up rom-com/chick-lit novel ala Sophie Kinsella that I really liked without reservation. It was effortlessly funny and romantic yet with just the right amount of seriousness and depth. Our heroine, Freya, is delightful and not a victim but with enough flaws, foibles, and insecurities to make her someone you can relate to and give her a path for personal growth.

In the first couple of pages, Freya is dumped by her fiance on the day before their wedding. To make this even more devastating, they have been together for 10 years, their lives are closely intertwined, and her family has spent a lot of money. It was to be a very big wedding. There is one side issue about this that I have to get off my chest. Nowhere is it mentioned that Matthew paid her back for the money spent. He cost her a lot of money by leaving it to the last minute to call off the wedding. And Freya or her family should have asked him to pony up. Anyway, Freya is heartbroken, stunned, and crushed. She really loved him. The objective reader knows that she dodged a bullet, but it takes much of the book for Freya to see Matthew and his actions clearly. It would have been easy for Katy Birchall to make him a real jerk and villain. But she makes it clear that he is essentially a good guy, but weak and immature. But She reveals this subtly and gradually while still giving him enough lovable qualities that we don’t question Freya’s sanity for being with him for 10 years and heartbroken at his loss. I appreciated this. Too often I start to dislike heroines I’m meant to root for because they are so clueless and blind to the vileness of the men they are married to or in love with.

The book is centered around a string of eight weddings that Freya and Matthew were meant to attend together as a married couple. Her best friends, another couple, devise a plan to keep her out of the dumps during this “Wedding Season” that will call up such pain and humiliation for her. They give her a task for her to accomplish at each wedding and it is one that will be a challenge for her being the kind of girl she is and help her to step out of her comfort zone. For example, she has to stand up to give a toast to the bride and groom when she is a terrible public speaker. Or Be the last one standing on the dance floor when she is reserved and not a good dancer. By the end of the book, she is well and truly over Matthew, in love with a great guy that we love too, and improbably reconciled with her estranged mother.

The way the book is plotted kept me always looking forward and engaged in Freya’s journey. There were so many opportunities for humor and drama. The romance was perfect. Her family and all of her friends were entertaining, supportive, and loving. And Matthew gets his comeuppance in a very satisfying fashion. And she didn’t stint on her mother being rightly told off either with the result that she finally takes responsibility for her actions. Lots of Catharsis. My only disappointment was that the author has written only 3 other adult novels, and I had already read one of them which I hadn’t realized! I was disappointed that I had to give that one 4 stars and was so happy that this one was a 5-star read.