Hozier Songs As Books | Unheard by Hozier Songs as Book (4songs/10books)

Images via Hozier on X and Goodreads

I’ve been meaning to make a “Hozier Songs As Books” rec for a almost a year now. And I think it finally time. For me Hozier songs feel like fall. My fall playlist has literally all of Hozier’s songs. Whenever it’s raining I listen to either roslyn, exile or Would that i. And one of the main reasons why I love fall is that it rains a lot while the countdown of colder days starts. 

So for today’s song as a book recommendation,  I picked Hozier’s brand new EP Unheard. 

It’s Hozier’s fifth EP following his third studio album, Unreal Unearth which came out on August 18, 2023. And the EP was released this March 22, 2024. But I have recently started listening to it and slowly started to add it on my favorite fall playlist and the thing I love most with books. Connecting the lyrics with books. 

Also a little fun fact before we dive into the songs as books recs, the ep was inspired from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. It is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century narrative poem The Divine Comedy. Dante’s Inferno follows the poet’s journey through Hell’s nine circles, guided by Virgil. They witness punishments for various sins, encounter Satan at the center, and escape. This is the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, preceding his travels through Purgatory and Heaven. 

According to ,”Hozier – Unheard (Behind The EP)” the 4 songs explore the themes of someone being too sweet to savory, the pandemic feeling of living alone in the countryside being away from other people  in Wildflower and Barley, living and rising and a goodbye through farewell. 

I absolutely loved the EP, just as much I liked the original album. Especially I loved to find the inspiration behind this EP. Because I love  to find literature references in music and books and literary everything. Maybe I should start a series where I would make lists of literature references used in my favorite works by my favorite artists. 

So for now enjoy the “Unheard by Hozier Song as Book recommendations” : 

(Since it has only 4 songs. I have picked multiple books I felt goes with the songs)

1. “Too Sweet” – Twisted Love, Final Offer, Tarkhanov Duet

Icey Alex Volkov is assigned to babysit his best friend, Josh Chen’s little 22 years old sister Ava Chen while he is away for med school. Ava Chen is the epitome of bright sunshine. Even Alex’s nickname is also sunshine for her. And as bright and free spirited Ava is, Alex is the opposite of everything. The only thing they have in common is a very dark , twisted and tragic childhood. And who would’ve thought the too sweet yet traumatic book will have betrayal and revenge plot in it?

Twisted love it the first book in the Book Tok sensation Twisted series by Ana Hunag. The twisted series by Ana Huang is one of the most popular book series on Booktok. It follows a group of girls who are best friends. The first one is about Alex and Ava, the second one is about Ava’s friend Bridget and her bodyguard, the third one is about Ava’s brother Josh and friend Jules and the 4th and final one is about the remaining friends Stella and Cristian.

Each of their books are complete standalones but are set in slightly different timelines as each book begins right after the last one. So id recommend reading in order especially for the crumbs of the possible couples crumb in each book before their books.

Twisted series by Ana Huang in order :

• Twisted Love (Twisted #1)
• Twisted Games (Twisted #2)
• Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
• Twisted Lies (Twisted #4)

1.2“Too Sweet” – Final Offer by Lauren Asher

“Get drunk on life, not alcohol.”
― Lauren Asher, Final Offer (Dreamland Billionaires, #3)

This book came out on January 23, 2023. And this song literally two months ago. So can I say this song was inspired by this book? Just kidding but I would still like to think like that. Cal and Lana were childhood best friends to lovers to strangers. But the invisible string brought them together or more like the famous grandpa kanes will. Lana and Cals relationship has turned opposite just like coffee and whiskey. As Cal thinks he thinks it better to be drunk on life but this time Lana helps him to be drunk on life.

1 .3 “Too Sweet” – Make It Sweet by Kristen Callihan

Emma Maron is a popular actress in the hit tv series “Dark Castle” but soon her character gets killed off and she no longer has a job. To share this news and get some comfort she arrives home to find her cheating boyfriend. And she definitely needs a break so she escapes to a gorgeous villa only to find she’s not alone with a similar situation.

Her next door neighbor Lucian Osmond, is an ex hockey player who retired right after his injury and is currently living in his grandma’s villa. As they bump into each other they discover more about themselves and they only grow closer—and their broken pieces just might fit together and make them whole.

Also If you like the British bake off you’ll definitely love this book because our broken hero makes the best tarts and cream cakes you can’t resist!

1.4. Too Sweet – Kingpin’s Foxglove by Bree Porter

The Tarkhanov Empire series follows Konstantin Tarkhanov who is hell bent on building an empire of his own after his father and brother failed to do it rightfully. After leaving everything behind in russian he began working his way from scratch in his new territory, new york and along the way he found new people who slowly became his real family.

And he’s ready to do anything for them. In this journey, he also falls in love with the widow of the enemy, Elena Falcone as she catches his attention. The first two books are about them. 

The first book is about Elena Falcone and Konstantin Tarkhanov. Elena has been in an abusive marriage for a year but Konstantin kills her husband for work/mafia things. After becoming a widow she had two options: return to her home back in Chicago or stay with Konstantin’s family for a while. But she’s hell bent on never returning to her home in chicago and soon she finds a way to stay longer by curing a family member of Konstantin’s and later he offers her a better opportunity, if she finds the cure he will assure Elena’s freedom.

As she works her way to find the cure and make an antidote she finds herself getting attached to the family and mostly to Konstantin and all her fear of falling in love rushes back as she thinks there is no cure for that. On the other hand, Konstantin is trying everything to make her stay while making his empire with his found family. As they work on their things they discover ugly truths and how their most trusted and closest people betrayed them.

One thing I have realized just after the first song is, all the books have the themes of this entire song. It still amazes me to this day that whenever I am making a song as a book recs, some songs describe the entire book’s plot without even spoiling anything.

2.1 “Wildflower and Barley” – In the Weeds by B.K. Borison

If someone asks me to recommend a spring themed book I’d say to read this book. Because this book feels like a perfect spring romance in a book. In the Weeds is the 2nd book in the Lovelight farm series and it is set in a specific season. The first one is in winter, Christmas setting, the second in Spring, the third one is in summer and the 4th and final one in fall. Which is also part of my fall tbr. Since the song feels like springtime in a song I paired it with the book I think feels like spring too.

2.2 “Wildflower and Barley” – Hothouse Flower (Calloway Sisters, #2) by Krista Ritchie

One of the main reason I picked this book was because I feel the songs wildflower is daisy and barley is Ryke from hothouse flower and the booktok famous callaway sisters universe. The reading order is a bit complicated but you can find it on the internet and I’ll be making one hopefully very soon.

2.3 “Wildflower and Barley” – The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Based on the bestselling young adult novel by Jenny Han “The Summer I Turned Pretty” season one follows Belly as she visits her favorite beach house at “The Cousins” with her mom and brother Steven just like every summer. But this year is different as she experiences her first love and heartbreak with the fisher boys during the perfect summer.

2.4 “Wildflower and Barley” – You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

This book is about Noelle Shepard who was really close to her grandma and recently lost her. While going through her things,she found a letter and a few photographs which might be her gram’s young love.

In order to find out the truth she posts about that on TikTok anonymously and the next morning her phone was blowing up with notification as the video got viral. At least her video got to the right person who might help her discover more (orrrr maybee too right as the person happened to be her old successful college nemesis “Theodore Spencer” she hates) despite her hateness she meets his grandpa “Paul” the man from gramps letter and discovers he and gram used to date back in college and they wanted to elope and go to their dream honeymoon road trip and be together forever but sadly couldn’t.

So, Noelle decides to fulfill her unfinished dream and go on a road trip by herself and document the whole thing but Paul and Theo also decide to join her.

As they begin their journey Noelle finds more about gram and Paul as he gives her a letter everyday, she starts photographing again which she didn’t have enough courage to resume after her grams death.

3.“Empire Now” – Empress of Poisons

The second book is about the same couple and is set 3 years after the epilogue of the first book. It’s a multiple pov as the first and the last chapter are from two different people. This part will contain spoilers as it begins right after the first book so I highly recommend skipping it. If you don’t have any problem with spoilers or already read the blurb then proceed.

The final chapter of book one follows Elena leaving the man she loved and the family who slowly became everything she wished for her entire life because of Tatiana’s threat and for the sake of her and Konstantin’s unborn child. Fast forward 3 years later Elena is working and juggling studies with her 2 year old son who’s a spitting image of Konstantin’s.

Thinking it was the best decision and safe for her and the people she loves, she soon discovers the threats are all back and she’s in danger. And quickly she grabs everything and starts her journey to survival with her son and cat. After being on the run for several days she decides it’s best if she seeks help from the only person she has contact with and leads her to reunite with her family. As they begin living their new life they give each other a second chance and destroy everything.

4. “Fare Well.” – Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Forget me not follow Ama Torres who’s an ambitious wedding planner and gets an opportunity that might change her career’s success but soon she realizes she has to work with the boy whose heart she broke 2 years ago. And the story goes on with Ama’s pov as present timeline and Elliot’s pov as past timeline and Elliot Bloom is the softest grump everrr, who has to take care of the flower shop his father left for him. No matter how much of a burden he thinks handling the business is, he secretly loves it because… “Flowers are better than people.”