The author of New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky returns with a spellbinding story of rock ’n’ roll and star-crossed love—about grunge-era musician Jane Pyre’s journey to find out what really happened to her husband and partner in music, who abruptly disappeared years earlier.

He was the troubled face of rock ’n’ roll…until he suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.

But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah still alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find them right away.

A cross-continent road trip about two misunderstood outsiders brought together by their shared love of music, The Lightning Bottles is both a love letter to the 90s and a searing portrait of the cost of fame.

Marissa Stapley, bestselling author of Mating for Life, is a newspaper journalist and a National Magazine Award–nominated magazine writer. Her book reviews appear regularly in the Toronto Star and she writes a commercial fiction review column, Shelf Love, for The Globe and Mail. She has also taught creative writing at the University of Toronto and editing at Centennial College. Her second novel, Things to Do When It's Raining, will be released in August 2017. She lives in Toronto with her family. Visit her at MarissaStapley.com or follow her on Twitter @marissastapley.
 

Marissa Stapley's profile page

“It’s hard to write a rock’n’roll novel that’s both authentic and entertaining. Marissa Stapley has nailed it with this one.”
— ALAN CROSS, radio broadcaster and writer

“Be still, my 90s-music-infatuated heart. I knew three pages into this glorious book that The Lightning Bottles would be a new favourite. What a journey it took me on—from the euphoria of first love to the dizzying heights of fame to rock bottom and back again. I fell completely in love with these characters, with their adoration for each other and for music, their imperfect grasping at happiness, their resilience. A nostalgic, exciting, heartbreaking read. I'm obsessed with The Lightning Bottles—both the novel and the fictitious band therein.”
— SUZY KRAUSE, bestselling author of Sorry I Missed You and I Think We've Been Here Before

Praise for Lucky

“A hopeful and heartbreaking tale of love and loss . . . The Lightning Bottles is a rollercoaster ride of emotions. From the thrilling rise to stardom to the high price of fame, Marissa Stapley vividly brings the nineties rock scene to life.”
— ASHLEY ELSTON, New York Times bestselling author of First Lie Wins

“A wild and deeply satisfying rollercoaster ride through the world of a con artist with a heart of gold. Propulsive and affecting, Lucky is the most fun I’ve had reading a book in quite a while.”
— TAYLOR JENKINS REID, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six

“Marissa Stapley’s The Lightning Bottles is a passionate story about the driving urge to create, the ferociousness of love, and how it all can disappear beneath the chaotic terror of fame and fandom. Be careful: once you start, you won’t turn away from this thrilling tale of music, madness, love and forgiveness.”
— JESSICA ANYA BLAU, author of Mary Jane

“Stapley’s gorgeous writing cuts to the bone, and her grifter heroine, both vulnerable and fierce, is driven by a genius premise. With equally compelling alternate timelines, Stapley takes readers on a gripping, heart-wrenching journey of resilience, hope, and redemption. A stunning read!”
— SAMANTHA M. BAILEY, #1 bestselling author of Woman on the Edge

“Part mystery, part love-story, part ode to a great era in music, The Lightning Bottles is a heart-wrenching page-turner about addiction, loss, and the high price of fame.”
— ROBYN HARDING, internationally bestselling author of The Haters

“Marissa Stapley's The Lightning Bottles is a vivid and steely-eyed view of the music scene of the 1990s, an industry that sanctified its golden boys and took strong women down. It's a page-turner, for sure, but it's also an absolute heartbreaker about two damaged souls who find and lose each other, and how sometimes the thinnest thread of hope is all you get to try to claw your way back to happiness. I'm envious of anyone who hasn't yet read this gorgeous, deeply felt novel.”
— LAUREN FOX, New York Times-bestselling author of Send For Me

“A fiercely visceral, exquisitely written ode to rock and roll, the 90s, and the power of music to hurt and heal in equal measure . . . both a beautiful love story and a singularly unique mystery . . . The Lightning Bottles [will] take up permanent residence in your head, and in your heart.”
— LAURIE ELIZABETH FLYNN, author of Till Death Do Us Part and The Girls Are All So Nice Here