When Music Is So Much More

Out of all my books, this might be the playlist that requires a box of tissues. Not because it’s depressing but because it’s so beautifully vulnerable. Just like this book.

Never before have I written something so personal, something that cracked me open to such raw emotion and vulnerability. I wrote this book three months after my daughter was born (you’ll see her mentioned in the dedication.) And although this isn’t my story, there are so many parts of my life in it: myself, my daughter, my love story, and my own journey of finding God in the hills and valleys of life.

I hope that you not only enjoy this playlist but feel the same sense of worship and overwhelm that God gave to me while writing Olivia’s story. Because, unlike a lot of other stories you read, this one is your story, too.

Dear Daughter OFFICIAL Book Playlist (SPOILER FREE)

• Song: Somewhere Only We Know
• Artist: Keane
• Why: This is one of my all-time favorite songs. EVER. But I remember listening to it as I was writing Dear Daughter. It not only invokes so much emotion in me (which helps me to write my stories) but also reminds me of Olivia and Grey. They have something together that is once in a lifetime. In a way, he provides that place for her. A place of comfort, healing, and acceptance. Somewhere only they know.

• Song: Turning Page
• Artist: Sleeping at Last
• Why: The very first words of this song are the reason it is a perfect pairing for Dear Daughter: “I’ve waited a hundred years. I’d wait a million more for you. Nothing prepared me for the privilege of being yours.” Some people wait a whole a lifetime to find that kind of love. The kind that rescues you from the darkness and fits all your broken pieces perfectly.

• Song: Rescue
• Artist: Lauren Daigle
• Why: Unlike the other songs so far, this one isn’t your typical love story. It tells of the love that God has for us and what He is willing to do to keep us, to love us, to rescue us. Dear Daughter isn’t just a love story between a girl and a boy. It’s a tapestry of love woven together, showing that God can make beauty out of the broken pieces in our lives. A marvelous mess. A beautiful disaster worthy of His love.

• Song: Saturn
• Artist: Sleeping at Last
• Why: The instrumental at the beginning of this song was as useful as the words at the end. It provided the perfect sound to Olivia’s story, as scenes played out in my mind leading to the end of the book. “How rare and beautiful it is to even exist. I couldn’t help but ask to see it all again.” At the end of our lives, will we ask to see it all again? This song is part of the reason the book ended as it did. IYKYK

• Song: There Was Jesus
• Artist: Zach Williams featuring Dolly Parton
• Why: There is no better song with which to end the playlist than the one that played while I typed the last chapter of this book. It was constantly replayed as I tearfully created the ending my character deserved and that my readers needed. I needed it, too. Writing the end of this book alongside this song is forever etched into my mind as one of the most powerful times of worship I’ve had in my life. The words spilled out of me as quickly as the tears. My only hope is that you feel the same closeness to God that I did, that He reveals His love in every moment of your life like He did to me.

I hope I didn’t make you use too many tissues or send you into a downward spiral filled with ice cream and sad romance movies. This book is so much more than the dark times Olivia endures. It’s about finding God in every moment. In the hills and valleys. In the pain and the joy. Or even in a silly little romance book.

Find the silly little romance book here. 😉

If you’ve read the book, let me know your playlist in the comments below!!