Music and reading: a perfect pairing

Remember the last time you found that song that perfectly matched your mood? The song that let you be happy? Or made you cry when you needed to cry?

Here are some songs I think capture some of the biggest moments in From Hackerville With Love, second in the Navy Trent series. Listen as you read, or ignore the book and find some new favorite songs. :)

Playlists

I've built playlists in Spotify and Youtube. Choose your favorite morally questionable corporation. Or just build your own playlist based on the songs listed below.

• Spotify
• YouTube

Song 1 - Rebel: The Picturebooks ft. Lzzy Hale

Favorite lyrics

I've been talking with angels crying, tryna understand / I've been dealing with devils, lying, just to play my hand / Always some kind of gravity beating tryna keep me down

Excerpt - Ch 5, Navy decides to go undercover in Hackerville

Navy had to go. Not just because she owed Byron and she wanted to protect Clara. She needed another enemy. Another fight. A fight she chose rather than a fight that chose her.

Song 2 - Born Dark: Holy Wars

Favorite lyrics

Baby, I was born dark / Full of holes in my heart / Riding on a high of pain / Mind of a hurricane

Excerpt - Ch 16, Navy selling her cover as a bitter government employee looking for revenge

"What do you sell?" he demanded.

"My job gives me access to information," Navy said. "I sell that information to get what I want."

"And what does Navy Trent want?"

To kill you, she thought. The violence of the thought surprised her. Had she accepted Byron's offer just to have an excuse to take another life? Nicolae's image wavered and for a second she saw an old enemy. A man she'd killed. Obviously not well enough. "I want what everyone wants," she said. "Payback. And a pile of money to buy myself a white-sand beach where I can enjoy my revenge."

Song 3 - Skeleton: Anavae

Favorite lyrics

I'm a half girl, half chameleon / What if I'm angry for the rest of time? / Maybe I'm hanging from the wrong trees? / Maybe I'll never find peace

Excerpt - Ch 16, Navy reflecting on what doing violence to others has cost her

The color was too dull. Real blood was a deep, scarlet red with a shimmer that caught the light. It smelled like rusty nails and when it dried it clung like jam.

The faces of her attackers swam in the glass. The man with the smile of a crocodile who had ordered her rape and execution. The leering eyes of the man with the drooping left eyelid who would carry out the order. And the cropped military hair of the enforcer - the man sent to punish her for telling the story. She couldn't run from them. She understood now. She carried them with her.

Song 4 - The Underground: K. Flay, Meg Meyers

Favorite lyrics

Looking up at the fallen stars / In a black sky you don't know where you are / Give me space, give me no more sound / Give my regards from the underground

Excerpt - Ch 23, Navy feels lost because of the children she couldn't save

"I left them there." It was the thought that had been circling in her mind since she had been pushed out the door by Nicolae. "How could I leave them there?"

"You had too many opponents."

"Still," she whispered.

"The most dangerous thing you can do is rescue someone who doesn't want to be rescued."

Song 5 - Hold The Line: Tom Morello ft. grandson

Favorite lyrics

It ain't a matter of if / Nah, it's just a matter of time / But to get where we're going / Sister, gotta hold the line

Excerpt - Ch 25, Navy returns to Dragomir's office after seeing the worst of his crimes

When Navy handed him the file, Dragomir leaned over eagerly, nearly toppling a pile of papers. She hoped she could witness the moment when Dragomir realized he'd been had. Even pretending to be an ally of this man made her skin crawl. Ash dropped from his cigarette onto a picture of-no, look away, she reminded herself.

Dragomir's heavy breaths punctuated the flip of the pages. Nicolae's stare made the back of Navy's neck tingle. If Dragomir ever gave Nicolae permission, it would be a hard fight.

Song 6 - You'll Get Yours: Tom Morella ft. X Ambassadors

Favorite lyrics

Don't think you're safe 'cause you can be sure / That in time, I'll get mine / And you'll get yours

Excerpt - Ch 29, Andrei finally makes contact with the CIA and is punished for it

One of his Andrei's teeth felt a little loose; if he was careful he might be able to keep it. The blood on his shirt seemed like a lot, but scalp wounds were always like that. None of it mattered. He hid his smile and went back to imagining a cozy house for him and Petru and Afina. A house with a small yard and a swing. Maybe even a little black terrier, like Petru had before. Before everything had gone wrong.

Song 7 - Call Me a Saint: YONAKA

Favorite lyrics

Back up, back up, we're in trouble again / Hitman's out and it's on my head / Back up, back up, I'ma do it my way / Live to see another day

Excerpt - Ch 34, when everything goes wrong and Navy tries to do the right thing anyway

Nicolae threw her to the floor. She landed hard, on her hipbone. Her mouth was as dry as cardboard, her heart was a gong against her ribs, her stomach was tangled in knots. This was the demon she'd come to face. The kind of mind-numbing fear that pushed out everything but her will to survive. She was glad to find it intact.

Song 8 - Something Wild (ft. Andrew McMahon): Lindsey Stirling

Favorite lyrics

If you're lost out where the lights are blinding / Caught in all, the stars are hiding / That's when something wild calls you home, home

Excerpt - Ch 35, Navy and Jackson are finally talking

This is what she had wanted all along, she realized. His protection and her independence. It hadn't occurred to her that she could have both.