Howdy Bibliofriends!

One of my (few) favourite things about 2020 was the fact that we got not just one, but TWO!! brand new Taylor Swift albums!! Now, before these last two albums I wouldn’t really have considered myself a diehard Swiftie but now… OMG I have fallen well and truly “right down the rabbit hole” (pun intended!). Evermore and Folklore are practically on repeat in their own little playlist (with Miley’s Plastic Hearts album thrown into it as well). These tunes have been my absolute saviour through the final part of last year.

I had so much fun doing the Folklore Book Tag back during the Summer that I just had to tag myself in the Evermore Book Tag when I happened to come across it on the wonderful Riddhi’s Whispering Stories blog!

If you’re looking for a fairly accurate way of sorting your favourite Taylor songs the Jessee Pinkman has made an amazing set on song sorters on Tumblr! Check them out here – they’re amazing!

---

The evermore Book Tag!

Rules:

• Link back to the original creator’s post: the fantabulous Ahaana @Windows to Worlds – seriously go check out her blog!!
• Tag at least 5 people
• Thank the person who tagged you and link back to their post!! – Thanks so much Riddhi (blog linked above)!!

• willow: a book with a character you can’t help but fall in love with
  I love how catchy this song is – and yes, I have downloaded all of the different versions of this song as well! 🙈

Rhysand from A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas – all the damn time, even the I try so hard not to!

• champagne problems: a book with a broken relationship
  This song is probably one of my (many) favourites. I love the way the lyrics just trip out with the melody and the sad story that’s told!

Hamlet by William Shakespeare – poor, poor Ophelia – I can almost imagine Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s characters being reversed in Champagne Problems – it could so easily have been written about them!

• gold rush: a book you love with all your heart
  It’s fair to say that Gold Rush is my second favourite song on the whole album – it’s so catchy and I really like how the chorus is so incredibly different from the verses.

Ok, for this prompt, there are two books on this whole list that could be interchangeable here and they are: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
and
The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas
I love both of them so much.

• ’tis the damn season: a book in which the character reconnects with their family/hometown
  This song has definitely grown on me with it’s melodramatic Christmassy feel. I think of this song being narrated by Betty talking about James and how their relationship would have fared (or not…) into adulthood.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow immediately sprang to mind for this due to the way the Eastwood sisters come together in the storyline. It could also very easily have been a book I finished reading right at the end of 2020 called Fire and Heist by Sarah Beth Durst – the plot is centred around bringing a family back together, with added were-dragons of course!

• tolerate it: a book with a suffering relationship
  Admittedly this song tends to just blend into the background for me when I’m busy doing other things. It has a powerful message though, reading between the lines and all that!

The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black – there’s plenty of suffering relationships to choose from here – I won’t spoil them all but when you really stop to read into them there’s some pretty bad manipulation and control going on in the land of Faerie! 

• no body, no crime: a book about murder
  I love HAIM so much from the first time I ever heard of them when they supported Florence + the Machine on one of their tours. I was a little sad that they weren’t a bit more prominent in this song but I love the classical country crime song elements that this track brings.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith – I’m not normally a crime fan although I absolutely love the Strike series and am patiently awaiting the release of Troubled Blood in paperback (even though I know it’s going to be a hefty brick). The Strike novels just seem to get bigger and better with each new one that’s brought out.

• happiness: a book that’s an old favourite, but you just can’t relate to anymore
  Sometimes this song comes on and I get right into singing along to the tune and everything whereas other times it just seems to blend into the background again – it’s a real mood song for me.

The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer was the ultimate choice for this one. I know if has its army of devout fans out there but dare I say… I think I’m just over Twilight?!

• dorothea: a book featuring an old (or strong) friendships
  I read an article by someone who was convinced this song was all about Swift’s friendship with Selena Gomez. It’s quite often a track I’ll skip to be honest.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman was my pics for this as I love the friendship, banter and rivalry between Aziraphale and Crowley.

• coney island: a book that made you cry // completely destroyed you
  I just can’t listen to this song!!! It makes me so depressed! 😂 At least the prompt kinda fits though!

See the Gold Rush answer for this one – both the endings of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwa and the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas can be interchangeable here. I can’t get through either without reaching for the tissues and the bookish hangover cures!

• ivy: a book that was an unexpected favourite
  Ivy is a song which I’ve grown to love a little more each time I listen to it – it’s definitely not a skippable track anymore.

I’ve chosen Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez for this prompt – not because I didn’t expect that it would be any good, but just because I wasn’t expecting to absolutely adore it as much as I did! The sequel comes out this year and I am so ready for it! Bring back Ximena and the magical woven animals! 😍

• cowboy like me: a book about thieves, or criminals
  Ok, this one is probably my favourite on the whole album – it’s the first one I’ll play from my playlist. The chorus just gets stuck in my head and I keep singing it over and over. I think it’s fabulous!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo was my immediate choice for this – I’m just yelling out HEIST in my head! I think as far as my own reading goes, Bardugo has set the absolute yardstick for the heist novel! I’m a big fan!

• long story short: a book that made up your childhood
  Again, another catchy song that I just can’t help but dance along to! 😂

I can;t pick anything other than the Harry Potter series for this one. I grew up waiting for these books to be released which would sometimes be years! It was always a tradition that my Nan would preorder them for me as she knew how much I adored the series – and yes, confession time: I did shed a few tears at the end of the Warner Brothers Studio Tour seeing that screen that says, “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

• marjorie: a book with a moving message
  Marjorie has a few lyrics in it which were like a massive lightbulb going PING when I really sat and listened to it properly and those words actually helped me to claw my way out a certain hole at the end of last year! They’re probably some of the most poignant lyrics I’ve ever heard to be honest and I could really relate to them in that moment.
  Never be so polite, you forget your power / Never wield such power, you forget to be polite

It wasn’t until I was scrolling through Goodreads that this read came back to me and like my lightbulb moment in marjorie, the lightbulb went off here to match Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman to this prompt. It’s such a moving story with a powerful message.

• closure: a series in which you NEED to read the next book
  Closure is a song that I’m not particularly that fond in fairness – there are so many others I prefer more.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is one of my ALL-TIME favourite novels and I know that the sequel Ready Player Two has been out since November so I could literally order it and read it ASAP but I really do NEED to read it! 🙈🙃

• evermore: the perfect conclusion to an extremely long (but worth it) series
  The tune to this sounds so simplistically beautiful and I love both of Taylor’s duets with Bon Iver – this song was so perfect for winter too.

So when I first read Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien – I read each volume back to back as I have the special anniversary edition where they are all in the one book – me being me, I have to read only one book at a time so when I started the Fellowship I knew I was going to have to read all the way through to the Appendices before I could pick up another book. It was so worth it though. I’d love to reread the whole series again soon. Middle Earth is probably my favourite of all of the fictional worlds and so often I’m whinging that a book ends with a big battle and doesn’t fully explain the aftermath – that’s definitely NOT the case with LOTR! Haha!

---

This was such a fun tag to explore to share my love of books and my love of evermore! Thank you so much Riddhi and Ahaana for bringing this fabulous tag into my bloglife!

Are you constantly playing folklore or evermore on repeat? What are your favourite tracks? I’m not great at tagging people so consider yourself tagged if you fancy like giving the evermore book tag a go!
As always, drop me a comment below to chat! ☺️

T xx