The quickest way to earn a 5⭐️ from me is to make me feel connected to your characters. Every single character in this book was so well developed. They all had their little personality quirks and even smaller characters had clear motivations and goals. But, of course,  chemistry between the main characters is always what makes a romance successful. 

The grumpy/sunshine dynamic provides lots of good banter and dialogue. The tension was obvious and palpable from their meet cute. The two were so perfect for each other, as a reader you knew instantly you were going to be in for a nice, slow burn. 

Despite being closed door, the lead up was the perfect amount of emotion driven and lustful steam. 

The core plot line added an awkward comic relief that provided a nice contrast to the heavy topics of death, cancer, infertility, and guilt. The emotional scenes were deep and raw, I felt what they felt. This, for me, was the best part of the book. 

Overall, this book checked all the boxes and perfect for a quick, well developed romance!

I picked up this book because of the blurb from Abby Jimenez  and I am so thankful I did. I loved how cozy this story was, all the while dealing in deep emotions and existential discovery. 

It is so lovely to have a story that celebrates a quiet life. This book is for anyone who dreads having to provide a ‘fun fact’ about themselves or sheepishly (but secretly gleefully) describes their weekends where they didn’t leave their house.

Cute romance, little to no spice (closed door).

Post-mastectomy FMC which was great to see, but aside from that I found her character exhausting. People who don't have the guts to be themselves are energy vampires.

📖 This was a genuinely funny book, it had me laughing at multiple points. I bought the romance/chemistry. The MCs seemed like real people with real flaws.

🎧 Single POV, female narrator. I liked her. 

🌶️ 1.5/5, mostly closed door. This was disappointing for me; FMC spends a lot of mental energy thinking about her breast reconstruction and lack of nipples, and to have most of that fulfillment she finds with MMC just skipped over was a missed opportunity, I think. There is a little bit shown on page but it's like, looking and light touching, not the real passionate stuff.

🏳️‍🌈✊ BRCA survivor FMC, her mom survived cancer, one of FMC's two bffs dates women, and mental health rep kinda more generally.

When Alison Mullally, a post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier, attends her ex-boyfriend's funeral and finds out no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to pose as his grieving girlfriend to help his family and sort out his apartment with his grumpy best friend, Adam Berg. Stuck with Adam for four weekends, Alison is determined to win him over despite his monosyllabic demeanor. As they navigate family tensions and packing dilemmas, a surprising chemistry develops between them. Alison must decide whether to reveal the truth and embrace the love she's always wanted or risk losing her new romance due to her initial deception.
This was a cute & funny contemporary romance debut! If I didn't have a million things going on, I probably could've read this in a few days. I can see this appealing to those who love the Midwestern US setting - lots of details on that. Lots of talk around breast cancer, so if that's a trigger for you, proceed with caution. I don't think I really understood why the 'third act conflict' was even a conflict... Maybe I missed something, but I felt like the situation was kind of exaggerated/blown out of proportion? Took me out of the story a little.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spicy meter: 1/2 a 🌶️ (closed door/fade to black)

Four Weekends and a Funeral was the perfect cozy read to get me ready for autumn. The book does move through the major end of year banking holidays, but it really felt like a fall book to me. I loved Alison’s friendships with Chelsea and Mara. I found Alison to be so frustrating sometimes, but I also saw a lot of myself in her people-pleasing tendencies. I also truly related to her being a 30-year-old woman and learning to figure out what she actually wanted for herself. Adam was a sweet grumpy counterpart to Alison’s quirkiness and I did really like that they pushed each other. He’s definitely molded like a classic Hallmark movie character and I ate it up. This book did read like a sitcom at times (think Friends, New Girl, How I Met Your Mother) so once I accepted that, I was able to get really into it. I do see how some people would definitely not love that, but I was able to lean into it. I loved the outlandishness and “would only happen in fiction” moments. I’m dropping a star because the writing style did take some getting past for me at first and the numerous “topical” references that either felt aged (Harrison Ford?) or I just could not relate to and could not be bothered to Google. Overall, this was a solid feel-good read and perfect for a rainy day.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Fans of Emily Henry will enjoy this book. It swings a little heavier on the contemporary fiction than the romance and tactfully manages themes around grief, cancer, and guilt/anxiety. While I liked Alison and Adam at times it felt like they were two individuals on these journeys who fell in love without always really feeling that unity or connection. I wanted more of that on the page. Tbh I would have rather read a Chelsea x Patrick story because their friendship and connection was begging for its own story. Despite that I did enjoy reading this book.