a very late evermore book tag!

Hello, friends!

So, a few months ago, Lauren and Dezzy tagged me to do the Evermore Book Tag, created by Rhi @ marshmallow harmonies. I am a huge Taylor Swift fan and really enjoyed the Evermore album, so really, I don’t know what took me so long to finally answer it! It’s happening now, though, so better late than ever, I guess!

Wherever you stray, I follow

This will probably come across as a huge unpopular opinion, but I actually really enjoy the romance between David and Stevie in the Truly Devious series. I was reading a recap of the first book and even the writer of the *recap* had not-so-great thoughts on these two. But I find their dynamic so interesting? David is an unique character, who puts up a wall for everyone, and I simply adore how he changes completely next to Stevie and allows himself to be vulnerable. He’s the epitome of “I hate everyone but her” and I think that’s cute.

Left you out there standing, crestfallen on the landing

Laia and Elias are possibily my least favorite thing about this series, lol.

It’s not even that I find that their dynamic to be bad. They make sense together, are very supportive of each other and don’t take too much space in this super intense narrative, which would’ve been annoying. But I just can’t see any chemistry between them and every time they’re in the same space together I eyeroll so intensely I can see the back of my brain. For real.

I don’t like anticipating my face in a red flush

As I’ve been watching the adaptation of this show, I’ve started to reminisce everything I love about When Dimple Met Rishi. This book is far from perfect, but I fell in love with both of the characters so hard and I *adore* their development and how much they bring the best out of each other. It’s about time I re-read it (I read it for the first time in 2018, I think, and even though I’d been in a massive slump for the whole year, I finished it in a couple days).

And the road not taken looks real good now

The Fill-in Boyfriend is a major throwback novel and my first Kasie West. If you enjoy teen-coms from the early 2000s (like Freaky Friday, Read it and Weep, Sleepover or A Cinderela’s Story), then you’ll probably enjoy this one, because it contains every single trope, including the moment when the main character pours their heart out in front of a crowd just for the sake of it. I was surprised that, apart from the fake-dating, the book also developed the family dynamics and friendships very well. 👏🏻

I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it

I do know that books that talk about fandom and internet culture are very popular, and I wish Tash Hearts Tolstoy got the same recognition. This one centers on Tash who has a webseries with her friends inspired by Anna Karienina who goes viral overnight. It discusses very well being a creator who wants to follow their own initial ideas, but also answer to your public, as well as dealing with internet fame. Tash is also asexual and the friendships are A+.

She thinks I did it but she just can’t prove it

When I read The Sound of Stars, I found the beginning to be super strong, but the middle dragged so much I didn’t have many high hopes for the ending. However, it totally blew me away! I found it to be a surprising, but well crafted ending and I loved how the author tied everything together, including some entries I hadn’t found a purpose to yet.

But there was happiness because of you

This had to be the *hardest* question in this tag! (Didn’t help that I was listening to the album while drafting this post and I don’t like happiness at all. This song physically makes me cringe, lol).

After much thought, I had to give it to Eliza, from Eliza and her Monsters. Which is funny because I don’t actually like her character that much.

However, a big part of Eliza’s growth is realizing that just because she’s into things that people in her life are not, it doesn’t make her more “special” and that everyone in her life is going through something as well. I too spent so much time thinking I was so superior for “not being like other girls” and, looking back, just yikes.

You’re a queen, selling dreams

Here I am, hyping up Katie Henry. Again.

Let’s Call it a Doomsday is such a good story about friendship. It’s not only about the friendship between Hannah and Ellis – a girl who’s terrified of the apocalypse and the other one who believes to know when it will happen – but also about the eccentric friend group Ellis finds, of boys who find interesting to sit under a tree, get high and discuss Jane Austen. It’s poetic, really.

Sorry for not making you my centerfold

I know I talked about in my February Wrap-Up giving this book 2 stars and not loving it. But I can’t deny the prose IS beautiful. Jandy Nelson has a fantastic way with words and some of the one-liners about love, grief, relationships, missing someone and also resenting them are absolutely beautiful. Makes me think a lot about how come she never released anything after I’ll Give You The Sun. I feel like if she did, she could single-handedly end the pandemic.

And now I’m covered in you

I finished Felix Ever After in the last day of February, so I didn’t have the chance to talk about it yet.

But this book features a *series* of hard choices, mostly because this is a story about Felix growing and accepting himself, and that’s never easy. I love that Felix not always makes the right choice, between choosing to hurt someone or not, or be honest to himself or not, but that’s what made him an interesting character after all.

Now I know I’m never gonna love again

I realized that while typically I’d hate to live in any fictional world, the one from Lobizona actually seemed so interesting! There are some parts of it that can be daunting, but the world of the Septimus is full of lush forests, witches and werewolves, and if I could be, like Manu, a lobizona as well – a female werewolf – I’d be the happiest.

(Werewolves are my favorite fictional creatures, in case you couldn’t tell. I dream of being one since I first watched New Moon).

Now I’m all about you

I have a recent addition to my list of comfort reads, which has to be Only Mostly Devastated. I’ll probably re-read this book every year, like I do with Where She Went, The Dream Thieves and Ari & Dante. Everything about this just makes me so happy and I could listen to Ollie talk about life for hours and hours on end. The relationship, the family dynamics, the Grease parallels. Just… beautiful.

You’re alive, you’re alive in my head

I already knew that Second Chance Summer was a book about grief and I still found myself dreading it and crying when it happened. I think that it’s even more interesting because Taylor’s dad is a terminally ill patient, so there are also some opportunities for Taylor to get to know him more and get closer throughout the summer. It also makes things a bit more complicated nearing his death, but I love how the author didn’t sugarcoat it and showed the reality of those moments.

Yes I got your letter, yes I’m doing better

I really wish that Robin Roe would release another book! Besides her debut, A List of Cages, I haven’t heard any news on her releasing anything new, and I’d love to read more from her. I think she talked about the topics of adoption and family incredibly well and the platonic relationships developed throughout this book are somethat I think about to this day. If she had more books coming out that also discussed such themes, I’d be the Happiest.

And when I was shipwrecked, I thought of you

It’s been a while since I last concluded a series, friends.

The most recent finale I read was probably Crooked Kingdom, way back in 2019. It definitely broke me, and the release of the Shadow and Bone series next month has made me even more hyperaware of all the things that broke me in that last book.

That’s it, friends! What are your favorite songs from evermore? Are you excited about Taylor’s version of Fearless? Do you prefer evermore or folklore?