There are few positive things I can say about this novel. The premise sounded promising, but the execution was disappointing. The pace is excruciatingly slow and the prose verbose and repetitive. I found myself skimming and then skipping whole paragraphs.

The most challenging aspect was my lack of engagement with the primary characters – J and V. Neither were likeable and both seemed self-absorbed for distinct reasons. There was an occasional wedding couple that piqued my interest and an equally occasional insight into the complexities of love and relationships. I enjoyed J’s process of interviewing the prospective bride and groom to develop a unique, personalized song, but even this was dampened by the challenge was finding meaning in the subsequent lyrics.

Overall, this was a tedious read - the author’s style was not a match for me.

I appreciated the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

I love David Levithan’s writing style, but in a departure from his other books I found most of the characters insufferable. I was initially rooting for the protagonist J, a wedding singer with a small international following, but by the middle of the novel he was so self-centered that I kind of wanted bad things to happen to him. The book also provides a few chapters from his girlfriend V’s point of view and she was so singularly focused that it was hard to relate to her until very late in the book.

I’m usually a huge fan of David Levithan and the blurb for this one was really intriguing. I wish it was more of a rom-com. The songs were fun and the overall concept was what intrigued me, it just never really grabbed my attention as much as his other works have.

I've read a lot ofDavid Levithan books as a high school librarian, but I found this one better in concept than execution. The story was slow and sad--the weddings interspersed within the story were fun, but not enough to really to change the vibe. I was especially put off by the way the story began, it was strangely confusing and I couldn't tell what was going on and who was who--it took awhile to get into the flow of the story. I do like the creatively of the songs and the ideas behind it all, but overall it was just fine, not great.

Well, the first thing to know about this book is that it is not a romance novel, and you should not expect it to be one. You will be very sad if that's what you think is happening. But it's charming, and meandering, and I like the conceit of the weddings and how we wander in and out of other people's lives. Parts of it are very melancholy and a real bummer, but in a lovely way. 3.5 rounded up, I think?

I received a free ARC from NetGalley.

I had a tough time getting into this book—it started off pretty slow. But I’m glad I stuck with it until the end.

2.25 stars

It breaks my heart to give a David Levithan book such a low rating, since I’ve loved his books for close to a decade. Maybe that’s why my expectations were so high, and unfortunately they were not met.

I hated J. I didn’t care about V and J’s relationship, and was very much rooting for them to break up and stay broken up. I found J to be whiny and insufferable, and I wished V would just end things and put him out of his misery. I hated being inside his head and having to hear his constant needy thoughts. I also found this book extremely repetitive, both with the constant fighting and circling back and rehashing of J and V’s relationship and the weddings themselves.

Overall I would not recommend this. There are some good moments and profound ideas hidden among all the things I didn’t like, but it is not worth sifting through to get to them.

I was quite excited for this book because of its blurb but this book missed the mark for me. I just couldnt tolerate the characters and the plot started to feel repetitive after a while

(Actual: 3.25⭐) Ahhh.... as someone who's read and enjoyed a lot of Levithan's previous works (both in the YA and Adult genres), I wish I liked this book more than I did. I didn't hate or even dislike it or anything, I just felt like.... for such an interesting premise, the execution could've been a lot better/stronger, especially in light of Levithan's past works (like, I know he is fully capable of it!). I think the parts I enjoyed most about this story and the message I know it was working hard to convey just unfortunately got buried & lost under the minutiae of everything else. Would still recommend out to others because, again, I've enjoyed Levithan's work in the past, still look forward to whatever he comes out with in the future, and know this will still find and enrapture its core audience!

cool premise, nice, well written book. the vibes are genuinely interesting and the feelings are definitely intriguing. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

This book had some really profound ideas and funny lines but it felt like it was buried and you had to search for those nuggets. It was okay overall; the overall idea and songs were great but the slow death of J and V's romance got a bit exhausting.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t. Tried twice to read it. Wasn’t able to finish either time. I think the premise is a good one and it might be a great read for some. Just not me.

Any fan of Jens Lekman will adore this book. It's hard to know how someone unfamiliar with the Swedish singer-songwriter will enjoy it though, as its so specific to his twee, melancholic persona. Some might find it repetitive and grating, others will love it for the same reasons.

“Songs for Other People’s Weddings” is David Levithan’s latest love story, this time in collaboration with Jens Lekman. This book tells the story of J and V, a Swedish couple navigating growth & change within and outside a partnership, with the added pressure of distance. J is a songwriter and wedding singer and he specializes in crafting custom love songs for couples that he sings at their wedding celebration. The novel follows J over the course of a year, composing songs for 10 different weddings and discovering universal truths about love in the process.

Levithan has always been very skilled at distilling the universal through the very specific experiences of human connection. This book is no exception—he highlights a wide variety of love stories, through each of the ten weddings that J is invited to sing and write for. What I most enjoyed about this book was how quickly the authors are able to have the reader rooting for these couples who have chosen to commit to each other for a wide array of reasons and whose stories look very different from one another. Each of these vignettes offers the reader a new insight into why we love, how love works, the complexities of love, and the maddening simplicities of love, all at the same time.

Where this story didn’t land as well with me was with the central love story of J and V, who we follow throughout the book. Their story certainly feels very real and their dynamics are familiar. What is difficult is that we mostly see their relationship from J’s vantage point and when we hear from V’s perspective, it’s hard to understand why V has loved J until now. This is actually what makes it hard to root for them as the central couple in the story, because we are asked to see the heartbreak from J’s perspective so extensively that it’s hard not to judge V harshly.

Not every love story needs to have a happily ever after—something that anyone familiar with Levithan’s work will recognize easily—and I appreciate the honesty and hope this story leaves the reader with, even as it ends the story with unanswered questions.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, albeit sometimes a meandering story that left this reader not always sure where the narrative was going next; my main critique about having a hard time rooting for V and J doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the writing or the reading experience. There were many lines I highlighted and underlined several times for how resonant they were and how powerfully they conveyed big ideas about what it means to be human—this is what makes this book worth reading: those beautiful insights that are unearthed at unexpected moments.

While I wouldn’t rank this as highly as The Lover’s Dictionary (one of my all-time favorite David Levithan books), this was a well-written exploration of the drawn-out moments in relationships where things change and we can’t quite put our finger on what’s changing and why.

This is such a charming and witty story and you will find yourself deeply connected to the characters. This was the first book to read by this author but I cannot wait to read more. Highly recommend!

The two main characters are only referred to as J and V. J is a pop singer who will also write and perform a song at your weddings. V is his girlfriend whose job takes her away to a new independent life. This book was weirdly compelling to read although not a lot happens and I never felt like I got to know J and V. I did enjoy all the weird weddings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Abrams for this DRC.
#SongsforOtherPeoplesWeddings #NetGalley

Songs for Other People’s Weddings follows J, a wedding singer who writes original songs for couples while struggling with his own relationship. As his girlfriend’s life grows busier without him, J faces the challenge of finding the right words for love, both for others and himself. A tender exploration of love, loss, and the power of music.

I've read several David Levithan books over the years and I particularly enjoy his YA work. I thought the premise of Songs for Other People's Weddings was interesting - singer, songwriter J stumbles into a career writing custom songs for the weddings of (near) strangers. His girlfriend, V, works for a start-up that needs all of her attention, leaving their relationship in limbo as they try to navigate his weddings, her travel and the complexities of love.

This is a slow read where not a lot happens. As we join J through 10 different weddings, the chapters, the weddings, and J's & V's relationship tend to blur together. I could practically hear my grandmother saying, "if you've seen one wedding, you've seen them all" because it became hard not just to differentiate the weddings, but to care about any of them. Sure, some of the individual characters at the weddings were interesting, but at the end of the chapter, I didn't bother to remember them because their wedding was over, they've served their plot device purpose. Truly, after reading about a couple of weddings, you know exactly where this book is going.

Levithan has a lot of interesting things to say about love and relationships, but ultimately there is just a lot of naval gazing in this story. I didn't care whether or not J & V were able to salvage their relationship. J, in particular, was insufferably whiny and I found V's patience with him to be unrealistic. Maybe that reflects my own impatience rather than hers, but either way the effect was the same - I often rolled my eyes at their conversations, particularly since it felt like they had the same conversation over and over again.

I'm going to assume this is a one-off for my reading relationship with Levithan. It happens. Sadly though, this book wasn't for me.

Thanks to Abrams Press and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. Songs for Other People's Weddings will be published on August 5, 2025.

This felt like reading an indie dramedy. A bit sad, a bit funny, a lot of angst. I didn’t always like the characters’ personalities but they felt very real and flawed and relatable.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, in exchange for an unbiased review.

I've enjoyed some of Levitan's previous novels ("Take Me With You When You Go," and the astonishingly original "Every Day") but wow, Levitan misses the mark here on an almost impressive scale.

This book is a ponderous, navel-gazing exposition into one man's experience of 1) creating songs for weddings, and 2) getting dumped by his girlfriend. This plot is repeated over and over for all 10 chapters (Weddings 1 through 10). The "plot" is repetitive and boring, and frankly all characters are insufferable. And not in a good, fun way; in a "I have no desire to read about these people" way.