If you’ve been on the internet at any point in the last six or so months, you know that Taylor Swift is currently on her Eras Tour, a massive celebration of both her recent albums and her sizeable back catalog, divided by time period. While I’m definitely a casual fan of Taylor Swift—if Swifties are beachgoers with their full towel/umbrella/sunglasses/snacks combos I’m a little crab walking sideways on the sand and occasionally running into a yummy crumb–I thought it might be a good idea to match books with all the different Taylor Swift eras.
This actually took more research than I anticipated (a ridiculous assumption for someone who almost exclusively listens to Lover, Folklore, and the 10-minute version of “All Too Well”) but I’ve matched some themes and vibes from each Taylor Swift album to one YA and one adult book.
So for all shapes of Taylor Swift fans, here are 20 books you need to check out.
Taylor Swift
Read: Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi and Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez, Danica Brine, Hank Jones, & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Taylor Swift, the self-titled debut album, was released when Swift was just 16, so for our book choices here, we’re going with some younger main characters in sweet and light-filled stories.
In YA, check out the laugh-out-loud funny Perfectly Parvin, where 14-year-old Parvin is putting together a plan of self-improvement (acting like the women in the rom-coms she loves) to get the cute new boy at school to ask her to homecoming. But Parvin’s true personality is one that (blessedly, for the audience) shines through regardless of her plan.
Chef’s Kiss is a New Adult graphic novel that follows recent college grad Ben Cook who ends up applying for a restaurant job after failing to land a job relevant to his English degree. The job does come with a few extra things: a requirement that he passes a series of cooking tests, a dreamy chef named Liam, and a pig named Watson.
Fearless
Read: Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle & Katherine Webber and Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim
Fearless is for the fairy tale lover and the hopeless romantic. So for YA, why not go with Twin Crowns, which has not one but two fantasy romance plots! Rose is a princess, who is preparing for a politically advantageous marriage when she’s taken from the palace and brought to the middle of the desert. Wren is a witch, trained since birth to take a place on the throne–Rose’s place, as they’re identical twins, despite Rose having no knowledge of Wren’s existence. As Rose grows closer to Wren’s best friend Shen, and Wren falls for one of the palace guards, the twins will have to worry about those who would take both of them down.
For our Adult pick, think more Snow White, if Snow was a matchmaker and her companions were 7 70-something single Chinese men hoping she can find them love. That’s Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club, where Sophie is desperate to prove everyone who thinks she is a fraud wrong, and stumbles upon the Old Ducks, who hire her to help them find perfect matches.
Speak Now
Read: How to Succeed in Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy and Good Fortune by C. K. Chau
Since Speak Now is an album about coming into your own and finding your voice, it’s a perfect album to pair with How to Succeed in Witchcraft (made more perfect by the fact the cover is purple). Shay is a witch in her junior year, aiming for a full-ride university scholarship that rides on her winning over the head of the committee: Mr. B, the drama teacher at her school. So when he wants her in the musical, she wearily agrees, despite Ana, her biggest competition for the scholarship, playing the other lead. But when Mr. B’s attention turns inappropriate, Shay must learn to speak up, especially after learning she’s not the only one.
Moving into Adult, Good Fortune is a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in contemporary Chinatown. Elizabeth’s realtor mother has just sold the community center down the block to Brendan Lee and Darcy Wong. And Elizabeth will fight whatever fight is needed against the latter to keep him from erasing a community good for profit.
Red
Read: Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk and Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major
Taylor Swift’s Red chronicles the highs and lows of relationships, so here I am giving you two girls starting a fire and a wife losing her husband over and over again. Nothing Burns as Bright as You is a searing novel-in-verse, telling the story of two girls who traverse an extraordinarily blurry line between friendship and romance, told through the story of their early history together intertwined with the aftermath of the pair starting a fire.
Maybe Next Time, my Adult pick, is about literary agent Emma, who forgets an anniversary with her husband in the midst of a chaotic work day and ends her day finding her husband dead after being hit by a car. But then she wakes up the next day…and it’s the same day once again. Interspersed are letters from her husband, each written to her on their anniversary through the years of their relationship.
1989
Read: Throwback by Maurene Goo and The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur
Bright and colorful pop is what 1989 is all about, so here are two of my favorite books from this year to hand to anyone who asks for book recommendations.
Our YA pick, Throwback, is about Sam, whose complicated relationship with her mother grows even more tangled when, after a big fight, a rideshare app sends her back in time to when her mother was a teen. The Fiancée Farce, a sparkling adult romance, is about Tansy, who has inherited a bookstore and invented a fake girlfriend, based on a book cover model. That model is Gemma, who needs to be married to inherit her family’s publishing company, and when they run into each other, it becomes clear that they could both use each other.
Reputation
Read: Only a Monster by Vanessa Len and Someone Had to Do It by Amber & Danielle Brown
Reputation presents a sort of reconciliation between one’s perception of self and the perception from those around oneself. Joan in Only a Monster discovers that her family are time-traveling monsters and that the cute co-worker she wants to date is a monster slayer. So while she’s learning about her powers, and about her family history, she’s also trying to figure out how to keep those she cares about safe.
Moving from YA to Adult, and from fantasy to thriller, Someone Had to Do It follows fashion intern Brandi, who overhears something she shouldn’t from Taylor, the daughter of the fashion house mogul. Taylor is looking for someone to take the fall, as she’s plotting to take down her father after her inheritance is threatened.
Lover
Read: Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka and You, With a View by Jessica Joyce (and also The Breakup Tour by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka)
As my favorite Taylor Swift album, and since I made up the rules for this post, Lover, the pastel contentedly-in-love swoony album of my dreams, is getting assigned three books. Mostly because two are from the same pair of authors and one feels distinctly Swift-coded, and how could I talk about Lover without including books from Wibbroka (the nickname assigned to IRL married couple Emily & Austin)?
Always Never Yours is a YA spin on Romeo & Juliet, following the Rosaline-ish Megan Harper, whose exes always find their perfect love right after they break up. But she’s falling for her own Romeo now, an aspiring playwright named Owen. The Breakup Tour, a Wibbroka adult novel out next January, follows a rising singer-songwriter on tour with her college boyfriend (and the inspiration of her hit single). Also in adult romance is my new favorite, You, With a View, where Noelle and Theo, high school enemies, reunite after she posts a TikTok to search for her late grandmother’s lost love, and he comments to tell her it’s his grandfather, Paul. Soon Paul, Noelle, and Theo are all taking the road trip Paul and Gram were supposed to take as their honeymoon before their engagement was thwarted.
Folklore
Read: This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron and The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoriada Córdova
Folklore, Taylor Swift’s first pandemic album, feels like a walk through the woods, where the air around you sparkles with magic that you can never quite grasp.
The book picks here have deep roots, through both family trees and…you know, tree trees. Both are present in This Poison Heart, where Bri inherits a dilapidated estate and discovers a magical apothecary and a perfect place to use her power that makes plants grow with a single touch. The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina follows the Montoyas as they make their way to their matriarch’s funeral, where they expect to collect their inheritance and instead see her transform.
Evermore
Read: The Silence That Binds Us by Joanna Ho and Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
Can I fully describe the difference between Folklore and Evermore? Not really. Both may be a walk in the woods, but Evermore feels more melancholy, more like when a light dusting of ice has wrapped itself around leafless branches.
In YA, that feeling translates to The Silence That Binds Us, where Maybelline Chen is dealing with the aftermath of her brother Danny’s recent suicide. As she tries to move past the racist claims that May’s parents put too much pressure on him, and her own struggles with never feeling like she’s enough, she begins to challenge assumptions through writing. Nina LaCour’s adult debut, Yerba Buena, follows bartender Sara, who ran away at 16, and 7th-year undergrad student, Emilie. Both are grappling with dense personal histories, but their collision changes everything for both.
Midnights
Read: This is Our Place by Vitor Martins and The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Taylor Swift’s most recent release, Midnights, is very much a “reflections at nighttime” album, which for me is usually remembering I need to brush my teeth at 3 am, and for Taylor it’s a hugely successful set of songs. B
Both book recommendations here involve a sense of home and the passage of time. For YA and This is Our Place, the house is literally the narrator, moving through three different decades (2000, 2010, and 2020) and telling the stories of the queer teens that live there in those times. The Seven Year Slip in Adult is about a magical apartment that Clementine inherits from her aunt, where a man seems to be living. Except for the fact that he lives there seven years in the past, and she’s now bumped into him in the present.
Rachel Strolle is a teen librarian and the communications director for YALLFest and YALLWEST. Her book roundups have been featured in Buzzfeed, Reader’s Digest, and Bitch Magazine.