10 Books with Swiftie Vibes

Ever wanted a book you can escape into that sort of captures the feeling and vibe of your favorite Taylor Swift songs? Duh? Good, glad to hear it.

To help you accomplish this admirable goal (look at you, reader!), we’ve put together a list of the 10 best books you should read next that feel like they were written for just for Swifties. There’s even a quote from each book recommendation so you can get a sneak peek of what the story’s like 👀

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

This time-traveling love story feels like a long-form Taylor Swift song from start to finish. Set in New York, it follows the path of two main characters (Clementine and Iwan) and their lives as they intersect across a seven-year period.

There’s a magical, fun-loving aunt, an element of wanderlust and travel, dazzling food descriptions, and little Swift-esque tie-ins scattered throughout, like a reference to a mirrorball, dead poets, colors describing feelings; even pasta and chocolate used as metaphors for love.

Most of the chapter titles sound like Taylor Swift track titles (e.g. The Last Goodbye, Letters to the Dead, I Knew You When, And We Stay…there’s even one titled All Too Well.)

Best of all: This story hits all the right notes, much in the way most Swift songs do. You’ll laugh, you’ll get swept up in the romance, you’ll grieve, and you’ll definitely cry.

Snippet: “That was love, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just a quick drop; it was falling, over and over again, for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn’t something you could plan for.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Late in life, Evelyn Hugo has become a Hollywood recluse, but that wasn’t always the case. She decides to finally open up and tell her story to a reporter she’s enlisted to help write her biography. Together, they unwind Hugo’s glamorous life and history of romances (some more surprising than others.)

The storyline feels similar to the song “Ivy”…and Taylor Swift’s real life in that Hugo’s life is highly publicized, and her hunt for real love earns flack from the press. Even so, she presses on, following her heart. Pair that with more Swift song tie-ins (like “All Too Well” and “Death by a Thousand Cuts”), and you’ve got maximum Taylor Swift vibes. 

Snippet: “You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until someone stands behind you and says, “It’s OK, you can fall down now. I’ll catch you.”

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

Solene Marchand is the strong female lead in this Harry Styles fan-fiction romance (now you see the tie-in, yes?) that tells the surprisingly spicy story of how she falls for the band’s lead singer (Hayes Campbell) after a backstage encounter. A newly divorced art curator and gallery owner navigating being back in the single life, she takes her young daughter and friends to one of the band’s concerts…and sparks fly during a backstage meet-and-greet.

This book is an incredibly sexy story of two deeply connected souls that, while they tick all the right boxes for each other, find themselves torn by timing (if this isn’t Taylor Swift subject matter, I don’t know what is.)

Note: The author reads the audiobook in her sultry French-accented English, and it adds a whole lot to the story. Just saying.

Snippet: “Love is this very precious thing, Iz. It’s this precious, magical thing. But it’s not finite. There’s not a limited amount of it out there. You just have to be open to allowing it to find you. Allowing it to happen.”

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

…We can still include this one, right?

A precocious college student (Frances) and her friend become entwined in the lives of a married couple, and Frances finds herself becoming obsessed with the woman’s husband, Nick (played in the TV adaptation by none other than J*e Alwyn. Yes, that one.)

The storyline and internal monologue of the narrator feel like they were spun straight out of Folklore lyrics (ahem, “Illicit Affairs”, perhaps), and make for a coming-of-age story that tackles everything from love, to the limitations of marriage, to navigating the world while identifying as queer, and much more. Full of angst and lust and longing, this story is about finding the right path and getting sucked into the pull of a deep romantic connection.

Snippet: “At times I thought this was the worst misery I had experienced in my life, but it was also a very shallow misery, which at any time could have been relieved completely by a word from him and transformed into idiotic happiness.”

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

An oldie but a goodie; this classic from 1938 is the story of Rebecca (well, her ghost, that is…not a spoiler, the story begins this way!) and her husband’s quest to find new love. The song “Tolerate It” by Taylor Swift feels like an accurate summarization at a high level; in fact, Swift has gone on-record saying this novel inspired the song.

The gist is that this is a story of a romantic coupling that’s unfairly matched and power dynamics come into play. There’s a good reason people are still reading this novel almost 100 years after it was published; it stands up. Fans of It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover will enjoy this one, too. 

Snippet: “If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

In Book Lovers, our protagonist, Nora, is essentially the Anti-Hero Taylor Swift describes in her song by the same name: She’s focused on her career, works hard, and has little time for love on her way to the top. “She’s the problem; it’s her.” Self-described as a cold-hearted city girl, Nora’s perspective gets flipped upside down when she finds love in a small town and meets her match; a man who allows her to drop down the walls she’s built around herself and explore her softer side.

This easy read flies by and is a good reminder that for most women, we’re not the stories we tell ourselves.

Snippet: “That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve, and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them, and you’re a heartless bitch.”

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

In what feels like the novel version of “Long Story Short”, The Hating Game is the story of a guy and a girl who are up for the same job and, as a result, are each other’s arch-nemesis. Both ambitious, talented, and smart, the main characters Lucy and Joshua work against each other as they vie for the promotion at stake (until the innate chemistry between them starts to become unavoidable.)

It doesn’t take long for things to become complicated, and the pair find themselves entangled to the point of a breaking point. Lots of great romantic tension here that will have you speed-reading just to find out what happens.

Snippet: “When you get so little of someone, you take what you can get.”

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This 1970s-infused romance tells the story of singer/songwriter Daisy Jones and her tumultuous relationship with a fellow musician and writing partner (hm…sound Swifty?), both of whom are grappling for power and independence within their professional roles while fighting an incredible amount of sexual tension and attraction (which is all the more complicated by existing romantic entanglements.)

Daisy is a fierce, strong female lead in this story, which feels like the lyrics of “Midnight Rain” transformed into a full-on novel. If you like both Fleetwood Mac and Taylor Swift, this book won’t let you down.

Snippet: “I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.”

How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jana Casale

This is the story of two young women taking back their power after being taken advantage of, and the journey they go through to rise above the overall lackluster treatment from their respective romantic partners. With sentiments like those heard in Swift’s songs “The Man” and “Shake It Off”, this book’s two main characters navigate young adulthood, push against gender expectations, and grapple with issues of misogyny, with regular journal entries from one of the main characters sprinkled throughout.

In these early entries we see the character start from a Lover zone, but very much evolve into a place that reads much more like songs from the Reputation album toward the end.

Snippet: “Now she saw herself mirrored through him and he was an image of her insides; what she would settle for; how little she thought she deserved. I don’t love you, she thought. I never did.”

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl is a great read if you’re wanting to tap into your Vigilante Shit frame of mind, as it’s a story about a woman in love who’s wronged by her partner (and eventually comes for her revenge.)

The main character in this story is a woman with nothing to lose, which lines up nicely with Swift’s lyrics like: ”I don’t start shit, but I can tell you how it ends. Don’t get sad, get even.” Maybe you saw the movie already; that’s fine. But, as you guessed, the book is better. Don’t skip it!

Snippet: “Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.”

Have you read any of these? Let us know what you think!