A review by jordan_janelle
Drive by Kate Stewart

4.0

Spice: 2/5
Plot: 5/5

Rockstar Romance ✔️

I’ve honestly never felt the need to pick up a rockstar romance before, it’s never really appealed to me in anyway. But then @vanessabookedup was the first person to tell me that Kate had written these and after already having read Ravenhood, it was a pretty easy sell to add them to my TBR lol. Then, the absolutely wonderful @anxious_bookaholic gifted me this first one and the number of people in my DM’s telling me to read these right NOW was a little crazy. Turns out, it was with very good reason because this book was phenomenal.

If you’ve read Kate’s work before, you know how amazing she is at storytelling. Whether you love or hate the ending (coughTOBIASISAPIECEOFSHITcough) the journey is always incredible. In this book we follow the story of Stella… PAUSE - so it wasn’t until this very moment of me writing this review that I realized who Stella was actually talking about in the beginning of the book and what had her so upset. And DAMN IT that just makes the whole thing that much more bittersweet! Fuck, I get it now… duh lol. Turns out that I was so obsessed with how it ended that I forgot how it began. And then whenever she hits the “pause button” on a chapter and we get the text exchanges from her husband and now knowing who that husband is… sorry, I’m having a slight epiphany while writing this lmao. And it’s a little funny that it took me writing this review and revisiting this in order to fully appreciate the masterpiece that this book is. Kate Stewart… *begins slow clapping*

Shit. I was totally gunna put minor spoilers in this and now I can’t even do that cuz I don’t want ANYTHING given away. I will say this, it’s a love triangle, it’s got an INCREDIBLE playlist (which it fucking better because the heart of this is about music) and it’s emotionally damaging in all the best ways. I cried, multiple times, my stomach was in knots, I felt physically ill, my heart broke and healed and broke again and healed again and is just now doing all of that one more time.

What else can I say without giving anything away… it is a love triangle, there is a HEA, team Reid for life. When she’s going over her notes on the laptop, I just about DIED. And the way that Kate has written Stella, she might be one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever read. Kate has this crazy ability to reach inside your brain and put into words the thoughts that you didn’t even realize you didn’t know how to voice. It’s incredible.

So, if you’re hesitant to read this because it’s a rockstar romance. Shut the hell up and read it anyway because it’s a masterpiece lol. And I did have a valid reason for rating it 4.5 or at least I thought I did… but as I’m going through my highlights, I’m literally tearing up again and I have zero recollection as to why I didn’t give it a 5/5 - So maybe my reasoning wasn’t as valid as I previously thought lol. So, consider this my official PSA that I’m changing my rating to 5 stars haha. Anyway. Read this damn book!! NOW!

Xo
- J