It’s been a long time coming, but I am finally back with another TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT) songs + books post to celebrate their latest comeback! I’ve had their new album, The Name Chapter: FREEFALL, on repeat for the past week; it’s soooo good. Here’s a list of books paired with TXT songs!
Don’t forget to checkout part 1 of this post with more TXT songs paired with books.
You can also check out other posts in my “song saturday” series here. Apparently I haven’t done one of these since…last December…so maybe I’ll branch out to random themes? I’ve had a general K-pop one in my drafts for a while so I’ll try to get around to writing that post (relatively) soon. I do want to write another BTS one, probably for all their solo projects, but that’ll have to wait till Golden comes out.
TRACKLIST:
(in song release order)
LISTEN HERE:
No matter where you are, no matter what season
If we’re together, feel like summer
You Wouldn’t Dare by Samantha Markum
rep: biracial (Filipino, white) love interest, Latino side character, bisexual Black side character, sapphic side character
cw: infidelity, mentions of death of a parent (mother) due to drowning
A rom com about trying to have the summer of your life before everything changes – only to realize change might be exactly what you need…
When Juniper Nash Abreheart kissed Graham Isham for the first time, she had no idea it would nearly be the end of their friendship.
More specifically, she had no idea that the terrible, unforgivable thing she did to keep their summer fling a secret wouldn’t just ruin their friendship, but also Graham’s entire life. Now, months since the fallout, Junie and Graham spend most of their time sidestepping conversational landmines on the journey back to normalcy.
Junie is sure the strangeness between her and Graham is her biggest problem – until her mom hires Tallulah, her boyfriend’s surly teenage daughter, to work at their family café, and then announces they’ll all be moving in together at the end of the summer. The only bright spot ahead is Junie’s dad’s upcoming visit, just in time for her community theater production. And then poor turnout soon threatens that.
But when Junie starts to realize the feelings she swore to take care of last summer have lingered, saving her production and managing her hostile relationship with Tallulah might be the least of her problems. Graham isn’t just off limits – their friendship has been mended to barely withstand a breeze, and the gale force of Junie’s feelings could be just what breaks them.
Samantha Markum’s You Wouldn’t Dare is about the risks and triumphs that come with being brave enough to take a chance at what you really want, including love.
* This is an affiliate link. I will earn a commission if you click through and purchase from Bookshop.
I stretch my hand along the light
Push me in the mirror
In that broken and divided shape
Don’t let me even find the real me
Please find me please, please
Everyone Wants to Know by Kelly Loy Gilbert
rep: biracial (Chinese, white) protagonist and main characters; (Asian-American author)
cw: toxic relationships, gaslighting, side character’s cancer diagnosis
This ripped-from-the-tabloids young adult drama by the critically acclaimed author Kelly Loy Gilbert about a girl’s famous-for-being-famous family fracturing from within as their dirty laundry gets exposed.
The Lo family sticks together. That’s what Honor has been told her whole life while growing up in the glare of the public eye on Lo and Behold , the reality show about her, her four siblings, and their parents.
Their show may be off the air, but the Lo family members still live in the spotlight as influencers churning out podcasts, bestselling books, and brand partnerships. So when Honor’s father announces that he’s moving out of their northern California home to rent an apartment in Brooklyn, Honor’s personal upset becomes the internet’s trending B-list celebrity trainwreck—threatening the aspirational image the Los’ brand (and livelihood) depends on.
After one of her best friends leaks their private conversation to a gossip site, bruised and betrayed Honor pours all her energy into reuniting her family. With her parents 3,000 miles apart, her siblings torn into factions, and all of them under claustrophobic public scrutiny, this is easier said than done. Just when Honor feels at her lowest, a guarded yet vulnerable boy named Caden comes into her life and makes her want something beyond the tight Lo inner circle for the first time. But is it fair to open her heart to someone new when the people she loves are teetering on the edge of ruin?
As increasingly terrible secrets come to light about the people Honor thought she knew best in the world, she’s forced to choose between loyalty to her family and fighting for the life she wants.
* This is an affiliate link. I will earn a commission if you click through and purchase from Bookshop.
I dreamed of it too, a cool dream
Where everyone’s happy
I’m like the good guy cliché
Yeah, I was a fool
It’s making me crazy, crazy
It’s all just an act
I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang
rep: Chinese-Australian protagonist, love interest, and side characters; (Chinese-Australian author)
[ out February 6, 2024 ]
Snarky and romantic, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.
Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a “pleasure to have in class.” It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She’d never send them of course — she’d rather die than hurt anyone’s feelings — but it’s a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie’s work.
All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. “You’re attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you’ve been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft…”
Sadie doesn’t have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them… that is, until they’re accidentally sent out.
Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It’s her worst nightmare — now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they’re not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there’s one person growing to appreciate the “real” Sadie — Julius, the only boy she’s sworn to hate…
* This is an affiliate link. I will earn a commission if you click through and purchase from Bookshop.
High, so high, the crimson sky
It’s way too sweet to turn down
I scream and shout, but no one’s ’round
There’s no way to escape it
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
rep: bisexual Vietnamese-American protagonist, sapphic Vietnamese side character, Vietnamese side characters; (Vietnamese-American author)
cw: gore, blood, body horror, full list here
A house with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.
But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.
Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
* This is an affiliate link. I will earn a commission if you click through and purchase from Bookshop.
I turn my back on heaven and fall from the sky
Maybe I’ll miss it for good, the sweet mirage
Pain on my flesh, I prepared to die
Faster still down to earth like a meteorite
My fate, come and kiss me
I just keep on chasing that feeling
Strike The Zither (Kingdom of Three #1) by Joan He
rep: Chinese inspiration and -coded characters, sapphic side characters; (Chinese-American author)
cw: torture, blood, violence, full list here
The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves.
But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.
Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged—while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one—and not all of them are human.
An epic YA fantasy about found family, rivals, and identity, from New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, inspired by Three Kingdoms, one of the Four Classics of Chinese Literature.
* This is an affiliate link. I will earn a commission if you click through and purchase from Bookshop.
What’s your favorite TXT song(s)? Did my pairings make sense?
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