Drive

Published in 2017, Drive by Kate Stewart is a contemporary rockstar romance novel and the first installment in the Bittersweet Symphony duet. Stewart is a best-selling author known for her emotionally charged novels. The story follows music journalist Stella Emerson, who, after a personal crisis, takes a cross-country road trip guided by a playlist from her past. The music takes her back to a formative period in her life and the passionate love triangle that defined it, involving a brooding musician and a charismatic editor. Set against the backdrop of the 2000s alternative music scene, the novel explores themes that include The Intersection of Music, Memory, and Identity; Shaping One’s Life Through Choices Rather Than Fate; and Navigating Ambition and Personal Sacrifice.

This guide refers to the 2017 e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide contain depictions of substance use, suicidal ideation, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The story is told entirely from the first-person perspective of Stella Emerson, a music journalist. She’s celebrating a landmark interview with the reclusive rap star Titan when she receives a devastating phone call. Her best friend, Lexi, is calling from the wedding of an ex-boyfriend of Stella’s. The news of his marriage sends Stella into an emotional tailspin. At the Chicago airport, a song playing over the speakers triggers painful memories of her ex, and she misses her flight home. Instead, she rents a car and decides to drive more than 20 hours, listening to a playlist from her past to confront her memories associated with the man who just got married.

The narrative flashes back to 2005, when Stella is 19. She moves to Austin to live with her older sister, Paige, and Paige’s boyfriend, Neil. Fresh from a breakup with a musician named Dylan, Stella resolves to swear off musicians and focus on her upcoming journalism studies at the University of Texas. Soon after, she meets Paige’s friend and neighbor, Reid Crowne, a brooding young man who has one arm in a cast. Their initial interactions are tense, and at a party, Stella pointedly dismisses him.

The animosity between Stella and Reid continues. Reid and Paige tease Stella while watching a home movie of her as a child. Later, the sisters argue on the way to Paige’s workplace, a restaurant. Seeking independence, Stella walks into the office of a local paper, Austin Speak, and persuades the editor-in-chief, Nate Butler, to give her a chance. Impressed by her audacity, Nate later offers her a deal: If she improves her writing over six months, he’ll consider publishing her. He asks her out, but she declines, though Paige and Reid see her getting a ride from him, adding to the tension.

During a grocery trip, Paige reveals that Reid doesn’t have a car because of the accident that broke his arm and mentions his volatile relationship with his girlfriend. Sent to deliver dinner to Reid, Stella sees that his apartment is nearly bare and intuits that he’s struggling financially. In a moment of truce, she helps him wash his hair since his cast makes this difficult. She secretly leaves money to help with his rent, but he angrily returns it the next day. On her 20th birthday, Stella goes out with Lexi, and they meet Ben, the charismatic frontman for a band called Dead Sergeants. After the friends drink heavily, Reid helps get them home safely. Stella takes a job as a waitress at the restaurant, and she learns that Reid is the drummer for Dead Sergeants. She persuades the reluctant Reid to take her to a band practice.

Stella brings Reid breakfast at his apartment and meets his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Lia, who was in the car accident with him. Stella overhears Lia confronting him about his feelings for Stella and ending their toxic relationship. Soon after, Stella’s ex, Dylan, texts that he’s in town for a show. She decides to confront him, and Reid accompanies her. During the drive, she learns that Reid sends most of his meager earnings to his mother to pay for his diabetic father’s insulin. At the show, Stella and Reid pretend that they’re a couple to make Dylan jealous and, in a highly charged moment, nearly kiss. Afterward, they bond deeply over music and their personal lives.

After a night out drinking with friends, Stella impulsively asks Reid to kiss her, but he refuses. Paige, witnessing the exchange, warns Reid to stay away from her sister. The sisters later argue, and Paige reveals that Reid was driving drunk during his accident and allowed Lia to take the blame. The next night, Reid discovers Stella’s private writings about him on her laptop and leaves flirtatious comments, which leads to their first passionate kiss. Attending Reid’s first performance with the Dead Sergeants since his injury, Stella is mesmerized by his talent. Later that night, she goes to his apartment, and they have sex. In the morning, Paige catches Stella leaving Reid’s place and furiously kicks her out of her and Neil’s apartment.

Stella moves into Reid’s apartment, and their relationship deepens as they navigate their life together amid tension with Paige and Stella’s parents. Stella eventually secures a new apartment for herself and Lexi. During a band practice, Ben tells Stella a conflicting account of Reid’s car accident, claiming that Lia caused it by grabbing the steering wheel, which makes Reid’s culpability ambiguous. The band begins getting steady, paying gigs, and during a celebration, Reid kisses Stella in front of his bandmates. Later, she secretly reads his lyric notebooks and is disturbed by their dark themes of self-harm and abandonment.

In a stroke of luck, Stella wins a high-end drum kit in a music store raffle. Just as Lexi arrives to help Stella move into their new apartment, Reid receives a devastating phone call about his father. He reveals that he’s leaving Austin and moving home to support his parents, adding that he quit the band and sold his drums. After a painful and emotional goodbye, Stella makes him promise that he’ll continue to play music.

Later, Stella sends the drum kit she won to Reid via Ben. She quits her job at the restaurant and dedicates herself to her studies and writing for Austin Speak. At the Austin City Limits festival, she’s crushed when she sees Reid with another woman. Over time, she and Nate grow closer, eventually starting a romantic relationship.

Three years later, Stella and Nate are engaged and living together. Stella is a successful journalist and has a popular podcast, while the Dead Sergeants band members have become famous rock stars. When the band’s manager offers Stella an exclusive interview, she reluctantly agrees at Nate’s insistence. The interview is tense because of the palpable unresolved feelings between her and the now-matured Reid. He reveals that he’ll be at Paige’s upcoming wedding rehearsal.

At the rehearsal dinner, Stella’s father is openly hostile toward Reid. After drinking, Paige reveals to Reid that Stella had a mild, stress-induced stroke, from which she quickly recovered, after his emotionally distressing New Year’s Eve visit years earlier. Devastated by the news, Reid confesses to Stella that he went to rehab for counseling, not addiction, to become a better man for her. He tells her that he loves her and wants her back, but leaves the party when she can’t immediately reciprocate.

Eight months later, Dead Sergeants play a surprise show at Emo’s in Austin. Reid sings a cover of “Drive” by The Deftones, and the lyrics are a clear message to Stella. Nate is with her and witnesses her emotional reaction. Stella runs backstage and shares a passionate kiss with Reid. When he sees her engagement ring from Nate, however, he feels betrayed and says he’s done waiting for her. At their condo, Nate confronts Stella, realizing her history with Reid. Stella confesses that she loves them both. Heartbroken, Nate ends their engagement and leaves. Five months later, Stella, now single, runs into Nate at a bakery. During their emotional reunion, Reid calls her, for the first time in months, on their shared birthday. He’s on tour with the band in Indonesia. During the call, she reaffirms her feelings for him.

The frame story concludes as Stella’s long drive ends. She arrives home, where her husband, Reid, is waiting for her in the driveway. They embrace, reaffirming their love and the life they’ve built together.

An epilogue fills in the intervening years. Two years before the literary present, after breaking up with Nate, Stella moved to Seattle to focus on her career. Through a twist of fate, she went to view a house for sale and found Reid there with his bandmate. He bought the house, and they rekindled their relationship and began a life together. The story ends by revealing that Stella and Reid are happily married, that Nate is recently married, and that Lexi has a son with Ben.