Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer
Published by GP Putnam's Sons on August 6, 2024
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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A tender, laugh-out-loud debut romance about a woman who ends up in over her head after a little white lie . . .

When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral to find that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family and pack 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 she must 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 tension between them. 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?

One of my favorite things about being a book reviewer is being exposed to books I probably never would have picked up on my own. I never imagined falling in love with a book that had the word “Funeral” in the title, and I didn’t think it was possible to giggle and swoon while reading a book that included such heavy subject matter. But here we are! Ellie Palmer did a beautiful job of balancing out the humor with the emotional aspects of the story, and really made me fall in love with these characters and their individual stories.

Our heroine, Alison, opted for a preventative double mastectomy after she tested positive for the BRCA 1 mutation. She’s grappling with survivor’s guilt and feels she must live a big, meaningful life in order to feel worthy of escaping death. To her, this means she must live a life of adventure even though she’d rather be at home on the couch than out camping and hiking in the mud. She’s essentially trapped in a life she doesn’t feel worthy to have, living it in a way that isn’t true to who she is. Her feelings about her life and her new body are so raw and poignant and they really touched my heart. She’s so strong and has been through so much. She’s still navigating through the changes of losing her breasts, and is facing an uncertain future as she considers other life-altering procedures to further preserve her health. I felt for her so much, and really identified with parts of what she’s going through. As a way to fuel the adventure in her life, she dated an adventurous, adrenaline-seeking guy named Sam for a while. Ultimately, they were too different and broke up shortly before his sudden passing. Instead of telling his family of their break-up, though, Sam let them think that he was getting ready to put down roots and get married. It’s not until she arrives at Sam’s funeral that Alison learns that they all believe her to be his grieving almost-fiancée. At the request of Sam’s sister, she plays along with the charade and ends up volunteering to help his best friend, Adam, pack up his things and prepare his home to go on the market. And that’s how she ends up spending a funeral and four weekends with him.

I loved the set-up for this story. It’s so unique and has so much depth. You’ve got two people grieving in very different ways, going through many different emotions, all while this layer of untruth rests on top of them. As they work together, they develop this special connection that begins as a timid friendship and blossoms into something far deeper than that. Alison is trying so hard to check off all the boxes in the life she thinks she should be living that she isn’t completely sure of what she wants. She’s confused and struggles to be herself. Adam is trying not to think any romantic thoughts about Alison because she’s his best friend’s girlfriend, so he’s grumpy, standoffish, and alternates between hot and cold. But you can tell he cares about her and wants to know everything there is to know about her. As she opens up more about who she is and what she wants in life, he’s so accepting and compassionate. It’s a bit of a rocky road for them at times, but it felt real and they felt it was worth fighting for. I loved seeing them develop and heal separately as well as together. The romance between the two of them is quietly powerful and very, very sweet. It’s sexy and swoony, with no spice. Any heat is behind closed doors.

This book takes place over the holidays, so there’s festive cheer in the form of Christmas carols, a cookie party, and snow sprinkled throughout. I loved those moments so much. There’s lots of humor and light moments juxtaposed with more serious topics and conversations between Alison and Adam as well as Alison and her mom. Trivia nights play a big role in the story, which gives us lots of time with Allie’s friends (she has some really amazing girlfriends), all of whom were really fun. These people take their trivia very seriously! Alison is really funny, too! I laughed out loud at some of the things she said. There’s talk of Pizza Hut’s Book-It personal pan pizza program, gel pens, Christmas music that can never be played too early in the year, a run-in with a difficult parking enforcer, school concert shenanigans, loving someone means never running out of Girl Scout Cookies, and a cat named Colonel Corduroy. So. Much. To love.

The ending was magical and everything I wanted. I absolutely adored Four Weekends and a Funeral, and my love for it kind of snuck up on me as I immersed myself more into the story. It’s emotional and heartwarming and so unbelievably tender and sweet. And funny! It felt like reading a classic rom-com like While You Were Sleeping (which seriously, I swear this book was inspired by that movie because I feel like I found a million Easter eggs for it… Adam builds furniture and there’s even a mention of leaning at one point. If you know you know.). I highly recommend it, and am shelving it with all my other favorite romances!