Top 10 Songs that Inspired Make Me Yours
It’s release day for Make Me Yours *throws confetti* and for the past 10 days, I’ve been doing a Top 10 countdown of the songs that inspired Claire and Ryan’s sweet, sexy, swoony, heartfelt, angsty, emotional, and did I mention sexy rock star second chance romance.
I posted a song a day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Here’s the whole list together!
⭐ TOP 10 SONGS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 10! ⭐
This song has been playing on repeat in my mind ever since I first decided to write a musician hero. If there’s one song that sums up Ryan, and one artist who most inspired his character, it’s this one. I MEAN LOOK AT THE MAN. LISTEN TO HIS VOICE. The lyrics are romantic and heartbreaking and his sound is as gruff, sexy, and delicious as any mountain man.
“Your eyes are full of train smoke
And your mouth tastes like rain,
And I know when I know nothing
I will always know your name.
You’re my one and only one
You’re my only one.”
⭐ TOP 10 SONGS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 9! ⭐
I don’t want to give any spoilers, but before I knew all the details of what was going to happen in the book, I knew what Ryan’s grand gesture was going to be. The idea for it came from a 2003 album by Lori McKenna called Kitchen Tapes.
McKenna recorded the raw, stripped-down album at her kitchen table, with just her voice and an acoustic guitar. She has said, “The recordings are far from perfect, but they were never meant to be. I’d like to think that their imperfections add to their beauty, and I hope you will, too.”
That quote summarizes a lot about Claire and Ryan—and all the characters in the Men of Gold Mountain books. They’re far from perfect, but they aren’t supposed to be! Their imperfections are what make them real.
I picked the song Beautiful Man from the album Kitchen Tapes as number 9 in my countdown because it makes me think about Claire and how she felt when she was young and supporting Ryan in the early days of his music career.
“I want to save you from yourself
I want to save you from everybody else”
“I should have told you you were, you are worthy
I, I should have shown you you are
You are a beautiful man”
Claire tries to save Ryan and do everything she can for him. She feels like she should have done more to show him that he’s worthy and a beautiful man. But ultimately, he has to save himself.
I used to see Lori McKenna play at Club Passim in Harvard Square when I was a teenager with Doc Martens and blue hair. I love that she’s been a soundtrack to my life for years! (She’s since appeared on Oprah and toured with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and she won Best Country Song at the Grammy’s in 2016 and 2017!)
I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do! It’s so fitting for Claire and Ryan’s journey.
⭐ TOP 10 SONGS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 8! ⭐
So, Ryan was definitely a partier when he and Claire were young. He only had eyes for her…but he was also a bad boy rock star who wanted to have a good time.
“I just wanna have fun and get rowdy.”
Yeah, that about sums it up.
But Ryan’s all grown up now and ready to prove to Claire that he can be the man she and their daughter need. I wanted a song that shows the wild side of Ryan’s past and the life of a big time rock star…but also the dedication and commitment he has to the one woman he loves.
“You know, that since the day I met you
Yeah, you swept me off my feet
You know, that I don’t need no money
When your love is beside me
Yeah, you opened up my heart
And then you threw away the key
Girl, now it’s just you and me”
Claire opens Ryan’s heart, and when they’re beside each other, they can tackle anything. This song makes me think about how far they’ve both come, and how happy they are when they get their HEA.
Plus, can talk about how FREAKING HOT Liam Payne is??? TATTOOS, SCRUFF, AND A PUPPY (pic in comments). Ryan’s ink is two bands around his forearm, to remind him of the wedding bands he never got for himself and Claire. Maybe I should have given him a full sleeve instead…
(h/t to my friend Kait for first showing me Liam’s pic as an example of tattooed rock star goodness and making me take notice!!!)
⭐ TOP 10 SONGS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 7! ⭐
Continuing with the stripping theme. ;) … I’ll admit it, I find this song a little cheesy. But what can I say, I like cheesy! Especially when it’s a scruffy man singing sexy lyrics like “Dirty dance me slow in the summertime heat / Feel my belt turn loose from these old blue jeans.”
Sometimes sexy is hard and fast, with no holding back. But sometimes sexy is slow and sensual, savoring every moment. That’s what this song reminds me of, and the closeness that comes from being with someone you know so well. Plus, there’s something about a man in his favorite pair of jeans… Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.
This song is also the perfect pairing for a second chance romance. It’s about rediscovering each other and getting back to what’s important. Ryan could have sung these lyrics to Claire: “They ain’t holdin’ nothin’ these two hands / Until they’re holding you again.” #priorities
I love the reminder in this song, and in Make Me Yours, that love isn’t just the exciting butterflies at the beginning of a relationship. It’s the deeper stuff that just gets better and better over time.
⭐ TOP 10 SONGS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 6! ⭐
This is such a pretty, heartfelt song and it always makes me smile. It’s basically an HEA in music form. Love means that no matter what happens, there’s someone to come home to—someone who has your back through the bad times as well as the good, and who’s there for you when you feel amazing and also when you feel like sh*t. It’s the kind of love Griffin sings about in this song, which is exactly what I wanted to convey between Ryan and Claire as I was writing Make Me Yours.
“Anytime you say it with heart
Anytime you’re falling apart
When you’re washing the sheets
Any stranger you meet
When there’s somebody waving goodbye
You’re coming home to me, just remember
You’re coming home to me”
Griffin has said this song is about “what really goes on inside, deep down.” I think romance is also about “what really goes on inside, deep down.” Or at least the kind of romance I like to write and read! Ryan struggles to share what he’s really thinking and feeling—but he also learns that if he holds it all in and never opens up to Claire, he’ll miss out on the most important connection of his life.
I like to think that after the last page of Make Me Yours, when Claire and Ryan continue with their lives, he’s singing to her: “You’re coming home to me, just remember / You’re coming home to me.”
⭐ TOP 10 SONGS COUNTDOWN – NUMBER 5! ⭐
“I get a little bit Genghis Khan
I don’t want you to get it on
With nobody else but me
With nobody else but me”
Because Claire and Ryan dated in the past, I really wanted to capture how all those feelings hit them again when they reconnect. This song inspired me to make Ryan be juuuust the right kind of possessive. Not that he’s an asshole—sorry, I can’t stand asshole heroes! But he knows how much he wants Claire and there’s NO WAY he’s going to let her get away again.
I love that this song is upbeat and a little bit silly, but it also gets at feelings that I think we can all relate to! (No? just me?)
It’s so crazy stressful to not know where a relationship stands or what’s going on—or at least it’s crazy stressful for Claire! Can you handle a spoiler? She and Ryan totally figure it out.