Thank you Simon and Schuster for the gifted copy.

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up!

It’s being said everywhere, and I’ll say it again, fans of Daisy Jones and the Six will love this book. Marissa Stapley did an amazing job creating the vibes of the 90’s music scene. As a kid of the 90’s the inclusion of chat rooms, mix tapes, call in radio contest, etc were a fun walk down memory lane. But more importantly, the author very clearly portrayed the misogyny and sexism that was, and still is, rampant in the entertainment industry. She also beautifully and tragically depicted the cost of fame and the addiction and trauma that so often comes along with it.

This book is told over dual timelines as Jane finds an unlikely partnership in her teenage neighbor Hen and they follow clues to unlock the mystery of what happened to Jane’s musical partner, and soulmate, Elijah.

This is a story about rock and roll, fame, pain and loss, redemption and recovery, and most of all, love.

The Lightning Bottles by @marissastapley is an exhilarating yet tragic look into the price of fame! 🎸💔✨

Blurb: 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.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

I absolutely loved reading The Lightning Bottles! It was full of intrigue and enthralling scenes. The writing is incredible, and it kept me reading into the wee hours of the morning! The character development is fantastic and you get to see Jane’s unlikely friendship with her super fan blossom. As they journey together to solve the mystery of Elijah’s disappearance, you can the feel the heartbreak and love that Jane has endured over the years. Overall, The Lightning Bottles is an incredible story that will stick with you for years to come!

Thank you to @simonbooks for the opportunity to read/review this ARC! 🤩📚

🏷️: #thelightningbottles #marissastapley #review #bookrecommendation #bookstagram

Jane Pyre met Elijah Hart through a web forum she created back in the early 90’s. Jane lived a very solitary life in Canada with her religious mother, only allowed to sing and play for her church group. While Elijah joined a rock band in the Seattle area and was already playing and creating music. They were from different worlds, but discovered that they enjoyed the same music. They had an instant connection and always found ways to communicate with each other over the thousands of miles. Eventually, they are able to form their own band, which becomes very successful. Then, while at the top, Elijah disappears one night in Iceland. He took a rowboat out on the water and was never seen again. Jane takes all the hate for pushing Elijah away. Fast forward 5 years later, Jane is renting a house in Germany. Little does she know, The Lightning Bottles biggest fan, Hen, lives next door. Hen has been keeping a secret that could mean Elijah is still alive. Hen and Jane work together to follow some clues that Elijah may or may not have left. This book follows two timelines- one in the early nineties leading up to when Elijah disappeared and one five years later when Jane goes searching for Elijah. This book pulled me into the story really quickly, but the pacing slowed down in the middle. It picked up again at the end. I never really felt connected to the characters, but I still enjoyed the story overall and would read more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC to review.

The Lightning Bottles is a book that takes you on an adventure through the hard to watch implosions of the much loved 90’s grunge bands. The book makes you really feel like you have a front row seat to all the turmoil and overwhelm of the song writers and band members who shaped a generation with songs filled with love and angst. The characters were written in a way that gave me more clarity to what band members were experiencing, and how those experiences were placed in a time capsule through their music. The plot was a captivating trek through darkness of heartbreak and the lightness of hope. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster: for gifting me this early addition.

The Lightning Bottles is a powerful rock-n-roll love story. Two soulmates become the world's best singer/song writers but fame has costs including their love. You'll experience the highs and lows of stardom, the struggles of loss and the rediscovery of finding yourself with the promise of a second chance.

This book is an unforgettable journey with one member of the band and a super fan as they unravel the disappearance of its lead singer. The past is connected to the present, as artwork leads the duo through Europe unearthing clues of what happened one fateful evening.

A heartbreakingly honest story about what it takes out of you to be the most beloved band in the world. This story is still haunting my thoughts.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster

Packed with '90s music nostalgia, especially for fans of grunge, this book is a treat for those who love this style of music. Personally, I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with grunge. On one hand, I love the raw, rebellious energy that fuels the music—it’s intense and emotionally charged. But the lyrics, often full of self-loathing, pain, and despair, can sometimes feel a bit too heavy for me. That same grittiness, though, felt like the perfect soundtrack to the rise and fall of Elijah and Jane, both as a band and as a couple. The angst and raw emotion in their music mirrored the fragility of their relationship, capturing both the beautiful chaos of their success and the heartbreak that came with their downfall.

The novel begins in 1999, on the fifth anniversary of Elijah’s death, supposedly from drowning. Henrietta (Hen) Vogel, now seventeen, is listening to a radio program dedicated to Elijah Hart, inviting fans to call in and share their memories of the music icon. A huge fan of The Lightning Bottles, Hen had been at their final concert in Berlin. Meanwhile, Jane Pyre, who’s been elusive since Elijah’s death, has moved to a farmhouse in Wolf, Germany, seeking escape. When Hen realizes her neighbor is Jane, she feels like fate has brought them together. They bond over Hen’s belief that Elijah might still be alive, sending messages to Jane through street art. Together, they set off on a wild road trip, chasing down clues in these mysterious works.

The story alternates with flashbacks to Jane and Elijah’s first meeting in an online chat room, where they connected over their love of music. After weeks of exchanging heartfelt letters, Jane makes the 2,000-mile journey to Seattle to finally be with Elijah. Eventually, they form their band—The Lightning Bottles.

The book is filled with clever parallels to real-life people and places, and I think Stapley did a great job tying those in. Themes of the price of fame, drug addiction, lawsuits over song rights, and the media’s power over public image, especially how it unfairly painted Jane as “difficult,” add a lot of depth to the story. While I really enjoyed the love story between Elijah and Jane, a few things didn’t quite work for me. The pacing felt uneven, and a major twist at the end didn’t make much sense. The book covered a lot of drama, which made it addictive to read, but the prose itself wasn’t particularly special.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read an early copy.

The Lightening Bottles by Marissa Stapley
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Once Jane was one half of the famous Lightening Bottles. Now she is trying to live a quiet life unnoticed. When her new neighboroffers up a clue, it sets in motion a road trip filled with sweet and painful memories.
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What I liked:
-I loved that this was about people who love music. Music meant a lot to me when I was growing up, so I could relate to Jane and Elijah and Hen and how they connected so heartfelt-ly to music.
-I loved how Jane and Hen were unlikely side kicks that were forced to recognize the things they had in common.
-The last couple chapters surprised me with all the emotion they packed.
-I loved the epilogue.
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ if you love music or road trips (or both) then be sure to check out The Lightening Bottles which published this week.

Their fame costs them more than they could have imagined

Once upon a time in the early 1990’s there was a husband and wife band who got their start during the early days of grunge. Janet Ribeiro grew up in a small town in Ontario, with a lousy father who left her and her mother Raquel behind (with Janet providing the push that sent him on his path). Raquel turned to religion for comfort, and soon imposed strict rules on what Janet could and couldn’t do, what she should and shouldn’t be….but her plans for Janet had nothing to do with what Janet herself wanted to become. Janet lived for music….listening to it, playing it, writing it….and singing in a church group was not cutting it. She set up a chat room for music lovers, and it is there that she found Elijah Hart. Elijah lived with his alcoholic father Moses and free=spirited mother Alice in Seattle, and found in Janet the lifeline he needed. Online chats led to letters, letters to phone calls; EIijah’s parents, his mother in particular, were delighted that he has found someone that made him happy and helped him to battle his personal demons, while Raquel thought that Elijah himself was a demon and did everything she could to cut off their communication. On the verge of her 18th birthday Janet stole her mother’s car, changed her name to Jane Pyre, and headed to Seattle. There Elijah was in the Marvel Boys, a local band he formed with his best friend Kim and others, and when he inevitably decided to leave them behind and instead write and perform with Jane, it was a move for which Kim would never forgive him and which earned Jane his unending loathing. Tragedy struck them unexpectedly, bonding them ever tighter and providing the inspiration for what would be their most successful song, the one that would launch them into superstar territory. Elijah’s voice and Jane’s writing combined to propel their career to instant fame, but the song would also be a millstone around their neck. Their fans were led to assume that it was Elijah who wrote all the music, even though he always swore he and Jane wrote it together. And it was Elijah who fans adored, while Jane became the target of rumors and hatred. After public and private struggles with addictions, Jane and Elijah came to a place where she could no longer keep him from self-destructing and after a fight he disappeared into the cold and rough waters off the Icelandic coast. After a days long search found nothing but a few articles of his clothing, Elijah was presumed dead, and Jane would become the one who everyone blamed for his death. Now it is five years later, and she moves into an isolated German farmhouse to escape the world but instead finds that she has a neighbor…17 year old Hen, a music lover and devoted Lightning Bottles fan who believes that she has proof that Elijah is still alive and trying to connect with Jane. Could it be true, or will allowing hope to resurface destroy Jane once and for all?
In The Lightning Bottles, the reader is introduced to two damaged teenagers who want nothing more than to be with one another and to make music together….although that is not strictly true, because Jane wants one other thing; she wants her music to be heard by the world and to be loved and appreciated for it, and that is a dream that proves beyond her reach. The ugly side of the music business and stardom is on full display, from jealous rivals and reporters looking for a juicy story to manipulative music executives who are interested in making money off of others’ talent rather than in helping them pursue their creative dreams.. Alcohol, drugs and sex are readily on tap and in fact are often pushed at the rising stars, and too many (both in the book and in real life) fall prey to addictions that will ruin their careers and their lives. It is impossible not to be reminded of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love (or in another era, John Lennon and Yoko Ono) as you read of a man who charms the world and the woman he loves who is reviled by the same people who idolize him. In Jane’s case, she is blamed for another’s sins even as she is belittled and condescended to for being female in the rock world, calling to mind Sinéad O’Connor, Marianne Faithfull and others faulted for behavior that was tolerated in their male contemporaries, How many women in any field are called a bitch if they demand high standards, or are judged not pretty enough, warm enough, or pleasant enough in order to be loved or admired? As readers learn the story of the two young lovers who seems unable to surmount the brutal world in which their dreams lie, they also are presented with the mystery of Elijah’s disappearance, and follow along with Jane and Hen as they pursue clues imbedded in street art which bears an uncanny resemblance to the drawings which Elijah drew for Jane about their relationship and dreams. These are characters who quickly gained a foothold in my head with their passions and despair on full display, as is the yearning of Hen to find meaning in her own lonely life. Readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid of Daisy Jones fame, of Isabel Banta and of Caroline Leavitt will want to dive into this parable of love and fame woven into a mystery. Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me early access to this ode to the 90’s and its depiction of talented women in an industry that seeks to minimize their power.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Marissa Stapley, and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Eh lol. I was really intrigued by the premise of The Lightning Bottles, but for me, the execution fell flat. I enjoyed Stapley's intro note about the women of the 90s that inspired her, and I did overall enjoy the pacing of the story. I think there was great commentary on the unfair treatment of men vs women, especially in the 90s music scene. There's a lot of behavior highlighted in the industry that is still prevalent, so I liked that Stapley was not afraid to call it out. Jane is a compelling character, but Hen and Eli just did not do it for me. I don't think Hen added anything to the story other than being a connecting point, and Eli and Jane's relationship was just very melodramatic as a whole. It was a bit predictable, and even though this was a short read, I wasn't hooked. If you like books about fictional musicians, maybe give it a shot and see if it works for you better than it did for me!

Love the book cover, love this story!
Set in the 1990's, when the fictional husband-wife duo the "Lightning Bottles" took the music scene by storm, this is a coming-of-age story, a love story, a love & loss story, and perhaps a story of redemption. From early on, Janet feels music in her blood but her religious mother disapproves of her genre of choice. Janet meets Elijah in an AOL chatroom in 1991 and just before her 18th birthday, she leaves home, reinvents herself as Jane Pyre, and sets out from her small Ontario hometown to join Elijah in Seattle. The story that follows chronicles the breakup of Elijah's Seattle band and his friendship with his best friend, Kim, Jane and Elijah's rise to stardom, and their struggles with alcohol and drugs, leading to Elijah's disappearance into the sea off the cost of Iceland. That timeline alternates with one starting up 5 years after Elijah is pronounced dead, when Jane moves to the German countryside and discovers that her neighbor, Hen, is not only a Lightning Bottles fan, but this teenage girl ended up with a souvenir from the duo's last concert that she thinks is a clue, that Elijah isn't dead. Hen and Jane set out across Europe on a kind of treasure hunt to follow the clues. This book is well written and the pacing is great. The characters are so multidimensional that I felt like I was reading about real people and was very invested in the outcome of the story.

I can’t remember the last book that made me cry this much; simultaneously, I can’t remember the last book to remind me of how long ago my teenage years were.

This book is historical fiction, for pete’s sake, and I almost wanted to protest and say it’s contemporary fiction! But no, folks, 1994 was thirty years ago, and this book largely takes place over the course of the 1990s.

Marissa Stapley has written a book I (as a Gen-Xer) didn’t know I needed, but as soon as I started reading the introduction and the dedication I knew this was a book I had been searching for my whole adult life but didn’t quite realize it. This book is filled with all my love for the female grunge and alternative musicians of the 90s who were hidden behind men because no one was going to take them seriously, surrounded by bands they didn’t know because labels refused to market female artists alone, played only late at night on MTV or the radio because their videos were too controversial (if they got played at all), and relegated to side stages at music festivals because of course no one wants to see female headliners. It also saw and recognized my rage for every female musician who’s ever been blamed for a man’s bad behavior or setbacks in music (and that doesn’t just apply to the 90s).

This book is historical in setting, but more of a suspense mystery and rockstar romance in feel. It’s dual timelines: the present (in which Jane is searching Europe for Elijah with a Lightning Bottles fan) feels more like a suspense mystery, while the past timeline narrative definitely has more of a rockstar romance feel as Jane and Elijah fall in love, become famous together, and then fall apart when the cost becomes too high for either of them.

Jane and Elijah aren’t based on any single rock star couple but seem to be an amalgam of so many of them: Kurt and Courtney, Mick and Marianne, John and Yoko, and probably more. They’re also undoubtedly filled with Stapley’s wishes and dreams for all of those rock stars who never got a chance to see what being at the top might be like due to the added perils fame brings along with it if you don’t have a good support network under you.

I’m not a fan of the genre label “women’s fiction”. I don’t like much of anything that implies that anything involving women should be segregated for any reason…especially when it’s art. I can’t deny that The Lightning Bottles is primarily a book about women and the way we navigate the world and our relationships, though. It’s present in the way Jane presents herself, the way she talks, in how she makes herself smaller while out in the world, and how she’s terrified to do anything that will cause Elijah to leave. If Elijah is a people pleaser (and he really is), then Jane is a fixer.

This book was brittle, almost fragile in a way. I cried and I got angry and I was emotional in a heart-sick way for all the female artists who were lost or forgotten in favor of men who didn’t deserve the praise heaped on them. At the same time, I’m heart-sore for all those rock stars who fell prey to addiction and their personal demons in an era when party drugs could be found in every bar and club and you could buy heroin at almost every house party. Everyone was sick and everyone was sad. In this book, I found some solace for my teenage self.

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and author via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Historical Fiction/Mystery/Rockstar Romance/Suspense Mystery/Women’s Fiction

Mystery • Litfic • 90s Rock • Soul Mates
Pub Date • 24 September 2024

Happy publication day! Thank you @simonbooks for the free ARC. #simonbooksbuddy

This book is a love letter to the 90s, the era of mixtapes, early internet chat rooms, radio call-in shows, layered t-shirts and flannels, and of course, the rise of grunge rock. It hit me like a wave of nostalgia.

I remember when Kurt Cobain committed suicide and the surreal feeling that it wasn’t happening, that maybe it wasn’t true, because no one wanted it to be true.

This sets the stage for this fictional mystery, following Jane, a washed out musician and song writer, and Hen, her 17 year-old German amateur detective neighbor. Using dual timelines, Stanley brings to life the cost of the pressure to succeed, the drugs and alcohol toxicity as a way to escape and numb the pain, and the misogyny and gender discrimination that is rampant in the entertainment industry.

This is also a romantic love story between two musicians who were both misunderstood, one beloved while the the other vilified, akin to John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

The book has several original lyrics/songs that I thought I’d love to hear actually sung out loud and played to music.

As a kid growing up in the 90s this one has my stamp of approval.

*The Lightning Bottles* by Marissa Stapley offers an intense and thought-provoking exploration of fame, addiction, and the darker side of the music industry. The mystery surrounding Elijah's disappearance kept me intrigued throughout, though the heavy themes of addiction made it a tough read at times. Stapley doesn’t shy away from the brutal realities of substance abuse, and for readers who have personal experiences with addiction, this portrayal might feel especially raw and unflinching. If not, the emotional weight of the story may be less impactful.

Jane Pyre’s character shines as a misunderstood artist and a woman navigating the misogyny of the music world—a clear nod to the experiences of real-life musicians like Sinead O'Connor. The feminist undertones, particularly the way Jane is vilified while her male counterpart is idolized, resonated with me and added a deeper layer to the narrative.

While the emotional intensity and darker subject matter made this book a challenge at times, the cross-continent road trip with Hen, the fan-turned-ally, offered some lighter moments and a fresh perspective on Jane's past. The musical backdrop and the complex dynamics of fame create a compelling and thought-provoking story that stays with you long after the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the book.

Title:  The Lightning Bottles  
Author: Marissa Stapley         
Genre: Historical fiction      
Rating: 4 out of 5

Jane Pyre was once one half of one of the most famous rock ‘n’ roll duos in the world, 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—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, and then around the world. But then Elijah disappeared, and everything came crashing down. Even now, years after Elijah vanished, Jane is universally blamed and reviled by the public. In an attempt to get some peace and quiet, Jane rents a house in a remote part of Germany where she knows she won’t be disturbed. But on the day she arrives, she’s confronted by her new next-door neighbor, a sullen teenaged girl named Hen who just so happens to be a Lightning Bottles superfan—and who claims to have a piece of information that might solve the mystery of what happened to Elijah, and whether he is, in fact, still alive and leaving messages for Jane after all these years.

This started off a little bit slowly, but I kept reading because it was fascinating, and I’m glad I did! Okay, I do have a problem with this being called historical fiction, because it’s set in the ‘90s, and I graduated high school in 1995, so that makes me feel really old, but that’s my problem!

The setting was well-done and felt authentic to the ‘90s, and I really enjoyed all the musical references. Jane was slow to warm up to, but she grew on me. I never really felt a connection with Elijah, but I didn’t dislike him or anything. This was a solid read!

Marissa Stapley is a bestselling author. The Lightning Bottles is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.)

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for gifting me a digital ARC of the new book by Marissa Stapley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

Jane and Elijah met when they were teenagers, communicating through the very basic internet available. Neither were happy and they connected immediately. When they finally met in person, it was magical on all levels - personal and then professional, as Jane wrote sons that Elijah sang. They got the big break they were dreaming of and became famous. But fame comes at a steep price. Elijah disappears, presumed dead, and Jane becomes hated around the world. She retreats to the solitude of Germany, only to be discovered by a teenage neighbor who claims to have proof that Elijah is still alive.

I loved this book! If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six, this is the perfect book for you. Taking place in the 1990s, when internet was in its infancy, and the Seattle grunge scene was taking over the airways, it's nostalgic in all the best ways. Told in the present as the neighbor, Hen, convinces Jane to go on an investigative trip, with flashbacks to Jane and Elijah's story. It definitely shows the dark side of the music business, as well as the prevalent drug culture and addiction battles. The characters are the best part though - I connected with them right away, felt their angst and struggles, and rooted for them throughout the book. This is a must read!

Jane and Elijah form the indie rock band The Lightning Bottles. They met online and started writing music together in the 1990's and started to get noticed during the rise of "Seattle grunge", even though that was not entirely the sound they were aiming for. Jane writes most of the songs and Elijah is a charismatic frontman. But alcohol, drugs, old friends, and fame are hard on the couple and Elijah goes missing and is presumed dead (this is in the opening, and it goes back and forth). When a teen fan helps Jane to see some street art that reminds her of Elijah, she comes to believe he might not be death after all and might be trying to get her to find him.

This is very loosely based on the relationship between Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. It is about a musician couple and their relationship with each other and the public. I loved the dual timelines and the hint of a mystery element as to what happened to Elijah. I thought the character development was so good and the way the story was set up was so well done. I was really pleasantly surprised by this book (given that I'd read Stapley's previous book Lucky and thought it was just mediocre.) I'm so glad I gave this one a chance. If you like fictionized books about musicians like Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie or Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, you'll probably like this one. I liked that it was propulsive with a touch of gritty and it struck just the right balance for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

This enjoyable musical novel follows fictional band The Lightning Bottles, composed of young couple Jane and Eli. Told from Jane’s perspective, the past storyline in the book runs from Jane and Eli meeting online in 1989 as teenagers, through meeting up for real, their meteoric rise as an alternative rock band and descent, until 1994 when Eli goes missing and is presumed dead. Alternating with the reveal of the past are chapters set in 1999, when Jane moves in to a remote house in Germany - only to be discovered by her 17 year old neighbor Hen, a super fan, who ends up leading them on a search to find out what really happened to Eli.

This book just did such a good job of transporting me back to the 1990s and the music scene back then. Jane and Eli are clearly inspired a little bit by Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, but they’re also very much their own characters, and I can see all the other musical influences from that time in their music and the music of other fictional people on the music scene who they encounter. Also loved the subtle feminist message of the way Jane not only gets no credit for her songwriting but is also mistakenly viewed as a villain by the media and the public. And I was just really invested in her story from start to finish, and read this one quickly.

I also really enjoyed Marissa Stapley’s last book, Lucky, and look forward to checking out both her backlist and whatever she writes in the future.

I have a complex mess of mixed thoughts.

THE LIGHTNING BOTTLES is well written and will be exactly the right book for lots of readers. But it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

First, the content has a strong YA vibe. Much of the story is told via a past timeline, where we get to know Jane and Elijah as teenagers. Lots of YA (melo)drama, which isn't my thing.

I didn't need endless pages of their burgeoning love story to understand their connection. I would have preferred more time with them as adults, as their career took off and they faced the challenges of fame. I felt this aspect was underdeveloped and rushed.

Then we get to the heart of the story, the “cross-continent road trip” referenced in the synopsis. I'm going to be vague because of spoilers, but I did not understand the point of it all. I mean, just, why? It was too much unnecessary subterfuge and reliance on chance.

I saw the ending coming early on, so I wasn't surprised by anything.

But this is my cranky-old-lady opinion. The story excels at showing how women in music are often vilified and blamed when their male counterparts fall off the figurative cliff. It's worth reading if the topic appeals to you.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I enjoyed the double timeline and how the story unfolded forward and backwards. I looooved Jane as a main character and feel that she was developed as an unlikeable female character in the best way that points to the double standard of representation, judgement, and expectation for women in media: I felt that the pacing of the middle of the book was a little off and the downward spiral in the middle felt like it went on for a long time, but was satisfied with the ending. I loved the story in the artwork as well, Adam and the Rib as a perfect representation of the story. Fun and fast paced!

I also really love this cover

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Books for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley is a must read for music fans. The story follows Jane Pyre-half of the worlds once most famous rock ‘n’ roll duos-as she goes on a journey to find out what happened to the love of her life all those nights ago in Europe. With her curious music loving teenage neighbor along for the ride the two of them follow clues to try and piece together what happened to Elijah-the man with the angel voice.

I loved this book! From the moment I started reading it I was hooked. The first night I stay up after midnight captivated by this story of music and star crossed love. I really liked how Stapley wove together past and present timelines. The writing was well done, the influence of the authors love for music was ingrained in the pages and I loved the song lyrics from the Lightning Bottles. The love story of Jane and Elijah gives Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love vibes. It has a powerful view into the true gravity of what it means to step into the life of fame, rock ‘n’ roll and constant public scrutiny.