Is there nothing better than a carefully curated playlist? As a reader, I almost always create a Spotify playlist for a series I’m obsessed with or a book I’m savoring slowly and can’t stop thinking about. In fact, I listen to the songs so much as I read that I’m convinced some of the songs had to be written with certain books in mind. Its why I jumped at the opportunity to have The Nanny author, Lana Ferguson share the Taylor Swift songs that fit perfectly to her new book. If you’re a Taylor Swift fan and/or romance reader, you need to check out this book! And queue up this playlist while you read to get you into the perfect reading mood. Thanks for the playlist, Lana!
Publishing my first novel will go down as one of the greatest achievements of my entire life—but it is not my greatest love, admittedly. No, my heart belongs to the dulcet tones of one bubbly, talented blonde who has been singing the songs of my heart since I was a teenager. Listing Taylor Songs that fit The Nanny and giving reasons why might possibly be the most fun homework I’ve ever been given, and I think these are perfect! Taylor’s songs always tell a story, and so do these choices.
False God starts off our story, speaking of a love that from the outside looking in—seems doomed to fail. An Only Fans content creator falling for her subscriber whose name she doesn’t even know? Some would write it off before even giving it a chance, but like Taylor’s lyrics: we might just get away with it, the altar is my hips, even if it’s a false god, we’d still worship this love—Cassie and Aiden felt their connection was something worth chasing.
I Think He Knows is practically the theme song to Cassie and Aiden’s growing attraction once they’re forced to share proximity; even from their first meeting, Cassie was trying her best to keep it together in the presence of “hands that make her hindbrain howl”, I mean, are we sure Taylor wasn’t thinking of Aiden when she wrote: I think he knows his hands around a cold glass make me wanna know that body like it’s mine? The jury is out.
Glitch is the perfect anthem of that “oops, I wasn’t supposed to catch feelings”, which is exactly what happened to our idiot lovers. Like our almighty Tay said: I think there’s been a glitch, oh, yeah. Five seconds later, I’m fastening myself to you with a stitch, oh, yeah, and I’m not even sorry—an attraction is a spark, and when fanned with the oxygen that is all the little quirks we discover about that other person that endears them to us, it’s inevitable that it will burst into flame.
Dress, which is one of my top five Taylor songs of all time, just…bleeds pining. From, my hands are shaking from holding back to you to say my name and everything just stops—the queen absolutely nails that feeling of your heart reaching out to someone that feels out of reach. Cassie and Aiden know all about that. And it totally helps that Aiden did, in fact, buy her a dress just so he could take it off.
I love Labyrinth for this list because of the background Cassie comes from. Accepting love for her is not something that comes easy; the people in her life that were supposed to be there for her most failed her at a young age, so in a way, falling in love for Cassie feels like being “lost in the labyrinth of her own mind”. But luckily, Aiden would “break his back to make her break a smile”, and he is the perfect person to force her to get out of her own way and accept that sometimes, people are exactly who they appear to be, and that we deserve all the love that comes our way.
I have a feeling that Taylor will weave her way into all my novels in some small way, if only because she seems to have a direct connection to all the facets of love and romance. Truly, it is a good day to be a Swiftie.
The Nanny was released on April 11, 2023
Lana Ferguson is a sex-positive nerd whose works never shy from spice or sass. A faded Fabio book cover found its way into her hands at fifteen, and she’s never been the same since. When she isn’t writing—you can find her randomly singing show tunes, arguing over which Batman is superior, and subjecting her friends to the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. Lana lives mostly in her own head, but can sometimes be found chasing her corgi through the coppices of the great American outdoors.
Featured Image Courtesy of National Geographic Books, 2023
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