Songs for Other People's Weddings by David Levithan

 Lynnie

contemporary fiction

 

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 ten 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'd 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. 

Solito by Javier Zamora

Amy      

memoir

In his memoir, Javier Zamora describes his 7-week 1999 immigration journey, as a 9-year old, from El Salvador to the United States. His parents had previously immigrated separately, fleeing from civil war and violence, but Zamora had remained behind with his grandparents and aunt who had been raising him for the past four years. He set off alone with a hired “coyote” smuggler on a treacherous journey with a group of five other people who had also paid the man to guide them to the U.S. His group, whom he called “The Six”, included three adult men, a woman, and her daughter who was slightly older than Zamora.

I had read American Dirt, which was a fictional account of a woman and her son attempting to escape drug cartel targeted violence in their native country so I had an idea of what was in store. However, since this was an actual firsthand account, it had a different impact on me. I was in its grips from the first moment. I could not believe his family felt a 9-year old should attempt the difficult, illegal, danger-loaded trek to his parents on his own. Wow.

Solito is written like a daily diary with dated sections. This made me wonder if he had kept a diary. However, from his comments at the end of the memoir, it’s apparent that was not the case. At times, the story dragged a bit during the long stretches when they were traveling through the desert in Mexico and Arizona. But I don’t disagree with Zamora’s choice to include as much detail as he could remember and to make the reader feel the passage of time along with the characters. The detail is what made the story so riveting. 

The first half of the novel described his life in El Salvador and followed his journey up to the US border. As I realized half the book still remained at that point, I became very concerned about what he’d have to face while attempting to cross. Compared to American Dirt, Zamora did not encounter the personal violence or most of the hardships that those characters survived. However, being a child dependent on non-familial, previously unknown adults—so, technically, alone (“solito”)—was an extreme hardship of its own. All the uncertainty, disappointment, sacrifices, discomfort, physical ailments, and mental anguish was so overwhelming. Zamora was truly strong-spirited and smart, although he was very shy, to have survived and I’m so glad he shared his story and that I read it. He rightly credits the two adults who served as his pretend parents during the journey with his survival and he was lucky to have been matched with them.

The author read the audiobook and I thought he did a terrific job and was extremely authentic. I enjoyed searching for images and videos of him online afterwards. I give him an A for his perfect retelling of what he endured.

   

We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders #1) by Richard Osman

Amy   

mystery

Amy is a personal bodyguard who has been hired to protect a long-adored famous author. When Amy realizes that 1) three influencers have recently been murdered in cities where she was located on assignment, 2) this makes her look like a possible suspect, and 3) someone is trying to kill her, she must flee, taking the author she’s protecting along. The only person available and trustworthy enough to help her is her father-in-law, a retired British police investigator. Together, they attempt to solve these murders so that the crimes are not pinned on Amy.

This was my second Richard Osman novel. In both, he created wonderful, lovable characters—especially vivacious, astute, intelligent senior citizens to whom the reader is impelled to care about. 

While I don’t love murder mysteries in general, We Solve Murders spent the first half as a dramedy describing such engaging characters and situations that I had to keep reading to find out what happened, even once it became a murder mystery. I enjoyed it and look forward to the sequel!

The audiobook narrator, Nicola Walker, did a fabulous job. And the cast of characters in her vocal repertoire was great for this novel. She displayed great skill at speaking with multiple accents. I’ll give her an A.

Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell

Amy    

nonfiction

Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language looks at the many ways language is used to perpetuate cis male dominance in society.

I had read another novel by Amanda Montell, Cultish, which I enjoyed very much even though it was educational nonfiction. So when a friend recommended this earlier book of Montell’s to me, I assumed I would like it just as much. While this book covered a very interesting topic, it felt very textbookish at times. Therefore, it wasn’t as enjoyable for me. It was filled with language examples, study and survey findings, and word definitions. I think most people could read the introduction (Chapter 0) and get the gist of the contents of the book. It’s a good summary. If I had been reading the book instead of listening to the audiobook, I probably would’ve skimmed when sections got long-winded.

Some things I learned:

• Word choices influence gender stereotypes. I will be much more conscious of my selection of words in the future.
• Insults and slurs referring to women are much more prevalent than those to men. It has had to do with how society has historically been male dominated and how women were (and still are, by some) viewed as only being here to serve the men. 
• Language changes are usually associated with social change and it is the social change itself that makes some people uncomfortable with the related vocabulary. For example, gender-inclusive language upsets some people not because of their inability to adapt to using new words but because of their disagreement or political difference with the concept that is prompting these words.

The audiobook was narrated by the author. Montell is an engaging speaker and managed to imbibe her fun personality into academic findings which is great. However, the sound of her postnasal congestion grossed me out sometimes. I give her a B+.  

James by Percival Everett

Amy   

historical fiction

James is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) retold from the slave, Jim’s, point of view.

This was a wonderful retelling, not only because of the creativity and genius of Percival Everett in having this idea and succeeding so well in its execution, but because Everett’s contemporary story pacing is much preferred by me than the original 1884 novel. I almost never appreciate old classic novels. They are just slower and less gripping than what I prefer and I get bored with them. In fact, I attempted to re-read Huckleberry Finn before starting this one and got too bored to finish. (I previously read it in the early 1980s as required school reading.) 

I don’t recall whether the reader understood that Jim was “playing dumb” in Huckleberry Finn but I suspect not. I thought it was so spectacular of Everett to depict Jim as not only self-educated, but capable, discerning, and practical. The fact that some slaves were able to become educated, unbeknownst to their owners is enlightening.

The minstrel show was a compelling storyline. I had learned that these troupes of white men in blackface appropriated the slave songs but hadn’t quite made the leap to understand that these same white men, in fact, wrote original songs to pass as slave songs. The minstrel group in James weren’t necessarily approving of slavery yet they were still willing to make a living by exploiting it. I truly appreciated all the song lyrics that Everett included in the novel, as well as the introduction to the real-life leader of the Virginia Minstrels, Daniel Emmett, who is credited with writing “Jimmy Crack Corn”.

While Twain attempted to illustrate slavery via Huck’s young, naive, white point of view, Everett was able to describe the same overarching story from Jim’s point of view which resulted in a richer, more thorough, and experiential description of what it was like to live as a slave in the years leading up to the Civil War.

It was also effective for Everett to use Jim’s dreams as a way to introduce broader, more philosophical perspectives about slavery and the American South in general.

The audibook was narrated by Dominic Hoffman. I’ve heard him narrate several other novels and he always does a terrific job. He has a nice vocal repertoire and a very clear voice despite his rough vocal texture. I enjoy his voice acting as well. I give him an A for James.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

 Lynnie 

contemporary romance

 

The Rom-Commers is a cute love story that I'm sure will make a very cute movie one day.

This is my first Katherine Center novel and I'm sure it won't be my last. It's a quick read with interesting, quirky characters who made me laugh and smile at least as often as they made me roll my eyes.

Emma is a martyr. During a family hiking trip, an accident killed her mother and left her father permanently disabled. Emma has given up her life and dreams to become her father's caretaker and allow her younger sister to live her own dreams. Charlie is a wildly successful screenwriter. So successful, in fact, that for the first chapter I thought he was like 60 years old - at least until Emma clarifies that he was a child prodigy and is only 30-something years old (which was my first eye roll).

There is definitely chemistry between Charlie and Emma, but Charlie is, for lack of a better word, an ass. He is the kind of hero who tries to protect Emma from a situation because he, as the man, knows what's best for her. It's infuriating, and predictable, and I was angry at the way it all unfolded but can't really say more without spoiling things - I may have spoiled too much already.

But, as predictable rom-coms go, this is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. It's silly and generally joyful and flirty. Rom-com boxes are all checked. I read the book and listened to some of the audiobook. Patti Murin narrates and I generally enjoyed her voice. 

Games Untold and The Same Backward as Forward (The Inheritance Games #4.5 and #0) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Amy   

Lynnie   

young adult, short story collection

Games Untold is a collection of novellas based on Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ The Inheritance Games series characters which we both loved.

Amy’s Review

The first novella, That Night in Prague, tells about three nights that Avery and Jameson spent in Prague. I do remember references to this trip in one of the novels and that Jameson had incurred a mysterious injury while there. Well, not only was the solution to this mystery never divulged in this novella but it was a pretty boring story lacking any plot other than gameplay. And not only that, but it was repetitive in its descriptions (was there an editor?) while still nothing really happened! It ended with no closure whatsoever. I gave this novella 1 star.  However, it turned out that we got some questions answered at the very end of this book in the short story titled Pain at the Right Gun. Barnes is, obviously, keeping a spark alive for a future novel. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and give the final short piece of this novel 3 stars. I think it was a mistake to split this story into the two pieces at the beginning and end of the book, personally. By leaving That Night in Prague unfinished, it set the tone of disappointment in this book. I was never quite able to love this compilation after that.

Thankfully, the second novella, The Same Backward as Forward, gave the reader the backstory of how Avery’s mother, Hannah, and Toby Hawthorne met and fell in love. Now this was an intriguing, heartwarming story and it had a plot! And it answered questions and even gave us a mouthwatering tease about another mystery! This story was the beef of this novel—the longest and, definitely, the best part! I give this novella 4-1/2 stars!

The third novella, The Cowboy and the Goth, provided detail behind how Nash and Libby fell in love. It was cute but, like the first novella in this book, was overtly repetitive in descriptions—how many times can Libby describe Nash’s eyes in the exact same way in one short story?…apparently three! I give this one 3 stars.

The fourth novella, Five Times Xander Tackled Someone (and One Time He Didn’t), gives a little backstory for Xander’s relationships with other characters but really didn’t add anything to these characters overall. The best part was the last section (the one time he didn’t) about Xander and Max’s relationship. 3 stars.

The fifth short story, One Hawthorne Night, about how Grayson’s “punishment” for ignoring a Hawthorne 911 Call was cute. 3 stars.

The sixth, $3CR3T $@NT@, was about the Hawthorne Secret Santa game. Sorry, too many rules and no plot other than the game itself which was of no interest to me. I’m sadly getting tired of Hawthorne games. I increased the speed of the audiobook to 1.5 because the story had grown tedious and I wanted to get through it. 1 star.

The seventh, What Happens in the Treehouse, was about Nash’s bachelors party. I kept the audiobook speed at 1.5 with no regrets. It was a sweet look at how much the brothers mean to each other but didn’t really add anything to their world I didn’t already know.

So, overall, I was disappointed. Some of these stories felt like they needed more editing. Some were pointless and boring. A few were well crafted and intriguing. I think I’m going with an average rating of 3 stars, mostly because of The Same Backward as Forward—it’s definitely worth a read for fans of The Inheritance Games series.

The audiobook was narrated by Christie Moreau, Maxwell Hamilton, and Juliette Goglia. Moreau has never been my favorite for these characters. Hamilton and Goglia did good jobs with the material. I’ll give them a B as an ensemble.

 

Lynnie's Review

 

Jennifer Lynn Barnes fills in some gaps for readers of the Inheritance Games series through this short story collection. As with all books of short stories, some work better than others.

"That Night in Prague"

This story opens the series and frankly, almost made me stop reading. Avery and Jameson play games in Prague leading up to the big reveal that we know carries forward into future books. While I always enjoy the puzzles and games, I found these tedious - the games are much more fun when more than these two are involved. It’s not my least favorite of this collection, but it’s close.

"The Same Backward as Forward"
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this story, but I actually enjoyed learning about how Hannah and Toby and how they became friends. Learning a little more about Hannah’s family was also interesting. This might have been my second favorite story in the collection.

"The Cowboy and the Goth"
This was my favorite story in the book. I adore Nash and Libby, and was very glad to get a little more of their story because both of them are generally relegated to supporting roles in the main books. It was fun to read about their adventures & how they got to know and love one another.

"Five Times Xander Tackled Someone (& One Time He Didn’t)"
My least favorite of the stories. I love Xander, but I just thought this story was dumb and didn’t add much value to the Inheritance Games universe or to Xander.

"One Hawthorne Night"
This story amused me. It gives you a glimpse into the connection between the Hawthorne brothers. Grayson and his leather pants have been discussed in the main books - this is the story of Leather Pants Grayson & it was a fun one.

"$3CR3T $@NT@"
Another story that I thoroughly enjoyed. I liked how the Hawthornes could even turn gift giving into a competition - it suited them. It was a silly story that could have fit in well within one of the other main books. I always enjoy a story that has our main cast of characters together.

"What Happens in the Tree House"
The story of Nash’s bachelor party was another fun one. Have I mentioned that I love when the Hawthorne brothers are together? Yes, I know. From the planning to the execution, we see this event unfold; this felt like classic Inheritance Games. The boys have their own rules with each other and are generally willing, if not good, sports through the shenanigans. Loved it!

"Pain at the Right Gun"
This is the finale to The Night in Prague and it answers the mystery of what happened to Jameson and what he discovered that night in Prague. It was interesting, but left more questions than answers. Amy's right, they shouldn't have split these two stories in the book.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection. But I don’t think it’s necessary to enjoy the series, rather, it’s just another opportunity to spend time with these fascinating characters.

 

The Same Backward As Forward

 

Amy      

Lynnie   

young adult 

The Same Backward as Forward is a tangential novel from Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ The Inheritance Games series about how Hannah (Avery’s mother) and Toby Hawthorn met and fell in love. The first part of this book was originally published in Games Untold: An Inheritance Games Collection, which was a series of short stories and novellas around the Inheritance Games universe which we reviewed above.

 

Lynnie's Review 

 

So The Same Backward as Forward was interesting. Jennifer Lynn Barnes, once again, gives us Hannah's story, but also presents us with the same events from Toby's perspective which I found fascinating. Toby has been a mystery throughout the series; a ghost who could have been, but ultimately wasn't, Avery's father, but who was clearly an important figure in her life. His story finally unlocks the reason why Avery was so important to Toby, and perhaps so important to Tobias Hawthorne. It also opens up new mysteries and gives us clues about Alice Hawthorne and the mysterious trio of women that we learned about in the Grandest Game portion of this series, which I'm still eager to learn more about. It was a great way to get me excited about the next book in the Grandest Game series which I believe will be released later in the year.

Having read Hannah's story previously, I didn't read it again here, but I read Toby's half in the Kindle version, and also listened to the audiobook. Toby's section is narrated by Blythe Melin, a voice actor, who is relatively new to audiobook narration, but was WONDERFUL to listen to. He did a great job with the variety of voices and I am very eager to listen to him narrate more books in the future.   

Amy's Review 

I’d suggest that you shouldn’t bother reading this book unless you’ve read at least the first novel in The Inheritance Games series. I think you need to already know and care about the characters to enjoy this one. I had already read the first half of this book, from Hannah’s point of view in Games Untold (see above). This new novel add’s Toby’s viewpoint to Hannah’s and packages them together to be read one after the other.

Since I do love The Inheritance Games series, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Toby’s side of the story. (I did not bother re-reading Hannah’s viewpoint.) Granted, it was a bit slow at the beginning because he was in terrible pain and, therefore, not good at focusing. There is also an innumerable number of mentions of the phrase “Hannah, the same backward as forward” which is the longest nickname in the history of humanity. But it’s still adorable if you know Toby. I’m sure Barnes just had it on her copy/paste and used it freely. But, truly, it was overused.

Toby’s story was fun to read and Barnes is simply a great writer. I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read by her. I enjoyed spending time in Toby’s and Hannah’s (and Avery’s) world again while I wait for Barnes’ next sequel. And there were some new tidbits divulged.

The audiobook of Toby’s portion was narrated by Blythe Melin and he was a lot of fun to listen to. He made Jackson sound a little too sexy, IMO, but I went with it. He wasn’t able to display a huge repertoire of voices due to the limited number of characters in this book but I can tell he has a decent variety of voices. I give him an A!

The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1) by Brent Weeks

Amy  

fantasy

Gavin is The Black Prism, the man who harnesses powers from the entire spectrum of colors and, therefore, has the most power in the land. But he has a fixed amount of time to remain in that position. He just found out he has a son, Kip, who is now getting the awakening of his life as he travels with Gavin beyond the small town he’s from. But Gavin has secrets, personal pressures, and has a tenuous hold on his own destiny just as a new self-proclaimed King is making a power play.

This was a fun fantasy set in a unique world, albeit similar in many ways to lots of other fantasy novels where people are at war, rulers are vying for power, and the average citizens have no idea about what is really going on. As expected, the most unlikely kid in the world ended up being exceptional. The people in charge weren’t what they seemed. A situation which was thought to be under control became destabilized and chaos ensued for the characters. And when mistakes were made and things fell apart, these situations felt too easy to remedy for my taste. Perhaps I’ve read too many fantasy novels and am a bit jaded. I’m sure I’d have enjoyed The Black Prism more if I hadn’t read similar stories so many times.

Despite the feeling of deja vu in the storyline, I did enjoy Brent Weeks’ characters very much and the sense of humor he bestowed upon some of them. The adventures were fun and I couldn’t help but root for Kip. And Gavin was an intriguing character with both dark aspects and light aspects to his personality. This made it difficult to despise him yet also difficult to admire him. He was fallible. 

Unfortunately, the treatment of sex and women’s bodies was awkwardly juvenile. Nudity and sexual innuendo were thrown in at awkward times and felt uncomfortable in some regards. It wasn’t adding anything to the story other than, likely, appealing to teenage boys who are, apparently, the target audience. But it felt like more of an author shortcoming. Just icky. I’m all for sex in novels but the treatment in this one was not to my liking.

Having said all that, I’d be willing to give the sequel a chance, mostly to find out what happens next for Kip.

The audiobook was narrated by Simon Vance. He had a great vocal repertoire for a large number of characters. However, at the beginning he distracted me because he’s too old to be voicing Kip, a 15-year old, for a large hunk of the novel. As the novel progressed, however, he did give Kip a younger-sounding voice which allowed me to enjoy the audiobook. Still I think I would’ve preferred someone less aristocratic-sounding for this novel. I’ll give him an A-, even though I’m tempted to give him a B+ for this one, because he did display vocal diversity with a large cast of characters.