The Ravenhood
romance
Series · contemporary romance
The Bittersweet Symphony Duet
The Bittersweet Symphony Duet series by Kate Stewart has 3 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Drive (2017).
- Books
- 3 books
- First published
- 2017
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: Drive (2017) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
No reading order has been recorded yet.
About The Bittersweet Symphony Duet
Drive follows Stella Emerson, a music journalist whose viral career-making interview coincides with the collapse of her personal life, sending her on an impulsive cross-country road trip set to a playlist that drags up the defining love triangle of her twenties: her fiance and boss, magazine founder Nate, and Reid Crowne, the broody drummer of a band on the verge of stardom who broke her heart once already. Told across two timelines, it's a rock-and-roll-adjacent second-chance romance about a woman forced to finally choose between the safe life she built and the one she walked away from.
Reverse jumps a generation, following Natalie, Nate's daughter, and Easton, Stella and Reid's son, after Natalie stumbles on old messages that reveal her father once loved someone other than her mother. Chasing answers pulls her toward Easton and an unshakable connection neither of them planned for, echoing their parents' story without repeating it. A companion novella, Bittersweet Melody, closes out the duet with a bonus epilogue for both generations of couples.
Published between 2017 and 2023, the duet predates Kate Stewart's Ravenhood series and established the emotionally raw, angst-forward style she'd become known for.
How to read this series
Read in order: Drive, then Reverse, then the epilogue novella Bittersweet Melody. Drive tells Stella, Nate and Reid's story in the 1990s-2000s; Reverse jumps forward a generation to their children, Natalie and Easton. Reverse spoils Drive's ending, so read Drive first even though the two stories can technically stand alone.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in The Bittersweet Symphony Duet?
Two full novels plus a novella epilogue: Drive (2017), Reverse (2022), and Bittersweet Melody (2023, book 2.5).
Is Reverse a direct sequel to Drive?
Not exactly — it jumps forward a generation to follow the children of Drive's central couples rather than continuing Stella, Nate and Reid's story directly, though their history drives the plot.
Do I need to read Bittersweet Melody?
It's a bonus epilogue novella, not required to understand the story, but it gives closure to both generations of couples covered in Drive and Reverse.
Is this series connected to The Ravenhood?
No — it's an earlier, unconnected contemporary romance with its own cast, though both showcase Kate Stewart's angst-heavy style.
If you loved this, shelve these next
Reading order last verified .