Thirty years ago, my father became the other half of a broken love story.
A relationship he’s kept hidden for decades.
Upon unearthing his secret through a series of emails in our paper’s archives, I began my search for the truth. Haunted by my father’s love story, and in my quest for answers, I never imagined I would discover a love of my own. Or that my love for Easton Crowne would be key in discovering the reason behind what split our parents up.
Doomed from the start and knowing the havoc our relationship would inevitably wreak on our families, I could never have prepared for the toll it would take or the cost of the truth.
But in order to find our ending, we had to go back to their beginning.
My name is Natalie Butler, and this is my star-crossed love story.
* * * SPOILER FREE REVIEW * * *
REVIEW: Off the charts emotional damage...
"Their story doesn't change the significance of ours."
A few years ago, I picked up a book titled
DRIVE. I had never read Kate Stewart, and I was super leery at the time trying new authors - but this one proved to be a win in more ways than one. Not only did I find a triangle that had me physically feeling the words (my favorite kind), but I found an author that I was willing to follow blindly into any circumstance she doled out. And boy, did I hit the jackpot! She knew how to obliterate my heart - but she did it with grace and poise. She has since written
so many of my favorite books that have topped many of my charts. This one will sit amongst the highest on my favorites shelf.
I. CRIED. Ok? I cried!!! I rarely get to say that, but every now and then I get lucky enough to find a book that pushes my emotional boundaries and gives me something to feel and think about, and this book was just that. It's no secret I love her writing. Stewart is such a heavy writer and one that pushes me every single time I read her. I also love that she makes me work for the answers that I am seeking while reading. With a little "read between the lines" writing and a whole lot of LOVE to sift through, she never lets me down when it comes to the characters, their defining moment, their love, and their meaning. So, needless to say - this one hit me square in the jaw. Took me down.
This book is also the exact reason why I love a rockstar romances. Artists always have a deeper, more meaningful connection when it comes to the very definition of true love. So the roller coaster of emotions is never foreign and always welcome and Easton and Natalie have a romance worthy of the pages of this book...but I want to watch it in on the big screen. This one will be melting hearts for a long while. Someone, anyone - please make this happen.
"Every time I look at him, my insides light fire, and I am every bit a moth to his flame."
I've been asked multiple times if reading
DRIVE is necessary in order to read this book and while I can confidently say
no - I have to pull back and reiterate that it is
INTEGRAL to reading, understanding, and feeling Reverse in the manner in which it was meant to be enjoyed. The baseline for the emotions that are already swirling. The understanding of why this whole situation is forbidden. The reality behind the ending of this book is encased in the beginning of the entire story:
DRIVE. Go read it, and then jump into REVERSE. So while I can easily say that Kate Stewart is an all encompassing writer and she does a great job filling in the blanks, I feel like you would do yourself a huge, massive,
ginormous disservice to go into this one without reading Drive first because it quite honestly begins there. In order to experience this emotional rollercoaster in all its glory, I feel like it's my duty to SUGGEST HEAVILY that you read the first book. Also, as a fellow reading friend - why have you not read it already?? I feel like I may have failed you...
After going through everything they did in this book, I questioned a few things - merely because they affected me in a way that made it more personal. They were plenty of times that I questioned why Natalie was not throwing up or not physically ill seeing what was going on. If I am sitting on the outside looking in while reading her story, and it was affecting me physically? I have no clue how it did not affect her. I’m asking myself this constantly. Stewart's words are masterfully used in a way to elicit the utmost pain imaginable. I am fairly positive she revels in that knowledge, too. But, if there’s one thing I know, it's that she personally lives, eats, breathes her stories because you can feel how emotionally invested she is every time you read one. My heart is always put through the wringer every time – and this one is no exception. This one, I had to crawl on my hands and knees out of a dark, emotional place to accept how it all went down, but for entirely different reasons than you would be used to from me. Pure brilliance.
I know I have mentioned 1001 times how much I loathe with every particle of my being the “miscommunication” between lovers - and for the record, I’m not saying this is what happens, only that I loathe miscommunication in a romance book because it never comes with the right emotions or a valid reason. BUT, when the reasons and the...validity? reality? collide, that’s when the whirlwind of anxiety ramps up and gives me that pang of terror that has me clinging to my kindle while I read. The anger, the vitriol, the pain - I didn’t want to have to understand it but I understood every single minute of it and why it had to happen. Not because the story needed it, but because of the personal growth that needed to happen. I could understand the stubbornness and the truth behind it. I didn’t want to accept it - hell, I refused to accept it, but it was very much so a reality. So yeah, maybe I clenched a bit. Maybe. But, I loved it the entire time I wasn’t breathing right.
With that, I loved how many people had Easton’s back. I also loved how many people had Nat’s back. But what I loved more than anything else was knowing a slice of humble pie will never taste as good as it should. As a reader, I reveled in that....it sure caught me up in a smile or two.
It's official: I’m a glutton for punishment. I continually, willingly, and happily give my heart over to Stewart and she inevitably has her evil, twisted, and oh-so-amazing way with it. My heart is in shambles. The pain is palpable in this book. The hurt is heartbreaking. The anger is soul-crushing. The reality is...truth. There's nothing I love more than a love worth fighting for, a story that embodies the pain and emotion in real life drama - all without the BS. This one has it in spades. It's angering. It's heartbreaking. It's soul-crushing. But it's REAL.
This book is not meant to be safe. It's meant to be emotional, harrowing, heartbreaking....you're supposed to feel it.
The depth. The emotions. The quality storytelling. It's all there...no order, just all there. I was emotionally connected on every level to ALL the characters in this duet and I feel like I left a part of me within the pages of this book. I will forever hold them near and dear to my heart. So, to reiterate:
GO. READ. DRIVE. And then pick up Reverse and continue the love story that will live with you for quite some afterwards. Easily, happily, most definitely a
6 star, "best of the year" read for me. I highly recommend this duet and I cannot wait to have this signed on my favorites shelf.
"We can't apologize for loving each other, or we'll give others the power to condemn us."
Read
Drive, the first book in the series:
From the bestselling author of The Ravenhood Trilogy, comes an angsty, steamy, white-knuckle ride full of love, loss, and self-discovery.
Music . . . the heart’s greatest librarian.
The average song is three and a half minutes long; those three and a half minutes could lead to a slow blink, a glimpse of the past, or catapult the soul into heart-shattering nostalgia.
At the height of my career, I had the life I wanted, the life I’d always envisioned. I’d found my tempo, my rhythm. Then I received a phone call that left me off key. You see, my favorite songs had a way of playing simultaneously. I was in love with one man’s beats and another’s lyrics. But when it came to the soundtrack of a life, how could anyone choose a favorite song? So, to erase any doubt, I ditched my first-class ticket and decided to take a drive, fixed on the rearview.
Two days.
One playlist.
And the long road home to the man who was waiting for me.
~MEET KATE STEWART~
Kate Stewart lives in Charleston, S.C. with her husband, Nick, and her naughty beagle, Sadie. A native of Dallas, Kate moved to Charleston three weeks after her first visit, dropping her career of 8 years, and declaring it her creative muse. Kate pens messy, sexy, angst-filled contemporary romance as well as romantic comedy and erotic suspense because it's what she loves as a reader. A lover of all things '80s and '90s, especially John Hughes films and rap, she dabbles a little in photography, can knit a simple stitch scarf for necessity only and does a horrible job of playing the ukulele. Aside from running a mile without collapsing, traveling is the only other must on her bucket list. On occasion, she does very well at vodka.
~CONNECT WITH KATE~
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