Whether you've been a fan since "Tim McGraw" or became a Swiftie during the Eras Tour, this is perfect for every Taylor Swift fan. The book is a reflection of Taylor through the years, and details what makes her the Mastermind we know and love.

If you've been a fan since Debut, the book serves as a walk down memory lane. But if you are a newer Swiftie, the book catches you up on a lot of Taylor Lore that you didn't get to experience in real time.

Love her or hate her, you can't deny that Taylor has had her ups and downs and has worked hard to get where she is today.

Reading challenge category – 2025 Hoffbensen: Allie – Driving (loose interpretation here – She’s a driving force, has drive).

Thanks to #Netgalley for the arc of this work.

Yes, I have gone down a TSwift rabbithole over the last year. This work was so much better than "Heartbreak is the National Anthem." This author tells about Swift's rise to stardom from a business perspective and how she has remained a queen in the market. She is resilient and talented. The haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate.

I’m a card carrying swiftie, so it was a lot of fun to dive deep into the marketing and manufacturing of each era Taylor has released. This book is not biased either, which I enjoyed, it highlighted Taylor’s risks both effective and harmful. A great introduction to anyone thinking about taking on Taylor’s discography

There’s Nothing Like This is an absolute must-read for anyone fascinated by the intersection of art and business—and of course, for any Taylor Swift fan. Kevin Evers delivers a sharp, engaging, and thoroughly researched look at how Taylor Swift has not only remained at the top of her game for two decades, but has redefined what it means to be a modern artist and entrepreneur.

I loved how this book goes beyond the typical celebrity biography. Instead, it unpacks the strategic brilliance behind every era of Swift’s career—her marketing moves, creative pivots, brand reinventions, and business savvy. It reads like a business case study wrapped in an accessible, fast-paced narrative. Whether you’re a Swiftie or just curious about how a single artist can masterfully navigate and disrupt an entire industry, you’ll find plenty to admire here.

My only complaint? I wish this had been even longer—I could’ve kept reading about the behind-the-scenes decisions that shaped her career. Highly recommend!

The market for Taylor Swift biographies feels beyond saturated at this point, so it was great to see something a little different come along here from Kevin Evers.

This isn’t a biography so much as an academic assessment of Taylor Swift’s business decisions over the course of her career, and it’s surprisingly fascinating even if you’re not typically riveted by the nuts and bolts of marketing strategy.

Even a moderately involved Swiftie probably won’t learn anything new about Taylor from a narrative standpoint, but that’s not really what this book is aiming to do. Instead it’s a really interesting discussion of where Taylor fits into the music industry.

Swift makes a good subject for this not just because of how much attention is on her every move, but because she has, at times, been a hero of and innovator for the industry, and at other times, a victim of it. This makes for some really interesting discussion both about her choices and about choices the industry makes that have had profound effects on her life and career.

The book is pretty completist without feeling overlong (note that it was finished before Swift bought back her masters), and reads really quickly and smoothly.

Kevin Evers' There's Nothing Like This is an absolutely brilliant and incisive exploration into the unparalleled phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. Moving far beyond typical celebrity biographies, Evers, a Harvard Business Review editor, meticulously unpacks the strategic brilliance and creative genius that transformed Swift from a teen prodigy into a global cultural icon. This isn't just a book for Swifties; it's a fascinating case study in innovation, branding, and enduring success in a notoriously fickle industry. Evers masterfully blends business analysis with compelling narrative, drawing on diverse research to reveal how Swift has consistently reinvented herself while remaining true to her artistic vision, dominating the music landscape time and again. For anyone curious about the "how" behind Swift's unprecedented reign, or indeed, about the dynamics of modern success, There's Nothing Like This is a revelatory and essential read. It truly lives up to its title – there's nothing quite like it.

This book offers a compelling blend of biography and business analysis, providing readers with a unique perspective on Swift’s illustrious career. This meticulously dissects Swift’s journey, highlighting her strategic decisions and their alignment with core business principles.

The book’s format, intertwining chronological biography with marketing analysis, offers a fresh lens through which to view Swift’s career. Each chapter delves into a specific era, examining pivotal decisions and their broader business implications. Not only is it a biography, but it adeptly connects Swift’s career moves to established marketing concepts. For instance, it discusses the “blue ocean” strategy, differentiators, building a brand, job to be done theory, entering an uncontested market space, the re-recording of master albums as brand reclamation, and much more.

This book is a perfect read for any Swiftie learning more about Taylor. It feels very wholistic walking through each era and was published at a perfect time when we are all conditioned to reviewing the Eras after the Eras Tour.

I personally call myself a “late in life Swiftie,” and it was extremely interesting reading the section specifically about those like me who got into Taylor Swift during the Midnights era and how that was all due to the marketing strategy at that time. The book describes the exploration of Swift’s use of TikTok and other digital platforms elucidates how she expanded her reach and engaged new audiences. This digital strategy, emphasizing fan interaction and content sharing, played a significant role in her continued relevance and growth.

The book ends only briefly touching on the Eras Tour and The Tortured Poets Department. Given the significance of these projects in Swift’s recent career, a more in-depth analysis would have enriched the narrative. I suspect this is due to timing of when this project was being written and published, but I am looking forward to another more in depth analysis of the marketing and brand of the Eras Tour and everything since then to hopefully come!

I will say, going into the book, I was hoping it was just an entire book discussing “clowning,” which it was not. While the book touches upon the phenomenon of fans speculating about Swift’s hidden messages and future projects, it doesn’t delve deeply into this aspect. I would 1,000% read another very deep analysis of solely this topic as well, so if ever published, I will be there to read it.

Overall, this stands out as an insightful exploration of Taylor Swift’s strategic prowess in the music industry. The book’s ability to intertwine her artistic journey with business acumen offers readers an insightful understanding of her sustained success. While certain areas could benefit from deeper exploration, the book remains a valuable read for both Swift enthusiasts and those interested in the intersection of art and business strategy.

As someone who has been around since early MySpace days and who saw Taylor open for George Strait, I went into There’s Nothing Like This expecting a recap. And yes, much of the chronology and pivotal moments were familiar. However, Evers brings a Harvard Business Review-caliber analysis to Taylor’s career by chronicling the creative pivots and business moves that have defined her evolution.

I appreciated his clear callout of the sexism Taylor is ridiculed for while male artists are applauded for having ~emotional nuance~. Also, the articulation of defining the relationship she has with her fans as “communal catharsis” was spot on. She has given us the soundtrack of our lives simply by expressing her thoughts and emotions through music.

However, the book stumbles for me when it leans into the repetitive tactic of name-dropping each of her past relationships. It felt like a disservice to the very premise of the book - that Taylor is a mastermind of her craft - to reduce her story to tabloid shorthand.

Still, I enjoyed listening to this book and deeply appreciated the opportunity to experience it early. Thank you RBmedia!

Best for: Those with a passing interest in Taylor Swift's career without being a "Swiftie".

This book was at its best when it was leaning academic. Using Taylor Swift's career to explain different business concepts was a solid premise, and it was interesting as a series of case studies. I just wish it would have leaned more into this concept instead of being a career retrospective.

As someone who is relatively familiar with Swift's career, I wish it had leaned more into the "strategic" promise it made in its subtitle. Each section focused on a different album, with Folklore and Evermore grouped together, and the Eras Tour at the end, focusing on the trajectory of her career. I liked the aspect of chronology, but I did find the pacing odd. The first third, roughly, was the strongest part of the book, following Swift's rise to fame. Getting to Reputation about two-thirds of the way through the book was an interesting choice, as this is where "strategy" really comes into it, in my opinion. Plenty of people get famous, though admittedly not as big as Swift. What makes her career so interesting to me is how she deals with bouncing back, which is what I was hoping this book would focus on more than it did. Some controversies, like her writing as Nils Sjöberg and the whole Calvin Harris "This is What You Came For" situation, weren't even mentioned. Furthermore, for a business book, I was expecting it to go more beyond the music into Swift's other investments, like her extensive real estate portfolio and philanthropy.

The tone was obviously written from a fan's perspective. That's fine on its own, but it did detract from the analysis at points, such as when the author detailed his daughter's reaction to the Eras Tour and seemingly mocking fans for their adverse reaction to Swift's relationship with Matty Healy after his racist comments.

Overall, I think the best audience for this book is not me. I wouldn't consider myself a "Swiftie," but I clearly knew more about Swift than this book was expecting me to, which did not work in my favour here. However, for those with a curiosity for how Swift became such a large cultural phenomenon from an industry standpoint, I bet this would be a more captivating read.

With thanks and love to RBmedia and Ascent Audio for the ARC of the audiobook for an honest review!

There's Nothing Like This by Kevin Embers explores Taylor Swifts nearly 20 year career in the music business. The book deep dives how Seift has reinvented herself through each of her "eras", first through country, then dominating the pop world.

Even as a teenager, she had a mind for business, and knew the fans were the key to her success and kept them at the forefront. Early in her career, she stayed and met thousands of her fans after having a chance encounter with LeAnn Rimes that left an impression on her.

This book is a must for any Taylor fan.

I've genuinely been looking for something like this and this delivered. Informative, incredible, and super duper enlightening. Honestly, the audio made it so easy to follow and I felt engaged in it. Honestly great stuff!!

There is nothing more annoying as a Swiftie than someone acting as an authority on Taylor Swift without actually knowing their stuff—thankfully, this book isn’t that. For a longtime Swiftie, it’s a nostalgic walk down memory lane with a new lens of the business strategies at play. For a newbie Swiftie, it would be an excellent overview of nearly two decades of lore. While there was nothing really new about TS that I took away from this book, I was very intrigued by all the “good ideas and power moves” along the way that happen behind the scenes. I also think it was a good move for the audiobook to have a female narrator, despite the author being a man; it made the walk down memory lane feel like chatting with a friend and the intermittent critiques more palatable to a die-hard fan.

Swifties everywhere will love this audiobook.

I am not an audiobook girlie. I forget to pay attention and miss half the story. This was not the case with this one. There’s Nothing Like This was an informative, yet interesting account of Taylor Swift’s rise to the Queen of the music industry. The narrator did a great job keeping the pace and tone engaging and animated.

While most die hard Swifties know all of the info included in the book, hearing it all put together in one cohesive story is still very entertaining. It was fun to revisit the eras again, this time with a little bit of behind the scenes!

As a business major in college and a life long swiftie, this book was extremely interesting. The audio narrator was very engaging and easy to listen to. The author was able to take real business examples from other companies and compare them to Taylor and her team. This proves Taylor is more than just a musician, she's a certified CEO not to be messed with.

If you are at all curious how Taylor Swift has taken over the music industry, give this a listen.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.