Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the eARC.

I enjoyed the premise of The Lighting Bottles, and my favorite character was by far Hen. I struggled a bit with the setting, but that's my own issue and no fault of the book. I liked the mystery of this story and found it to be enjoyable.

This book was SO GOOD and held such a brilliant balance of mystery, raw emotion, and that adrenaline rush of that comes with the grunge music scene. I'm always a sucker for duel-timelines too, you already know, so that's an extra plus! And while there may have been a few parts I felt more development was needed and also where I found myself subconsciously comparing it to DJ&tS, I can ultimately say that I found both this book's plot and characters to all be very compelling and unique in their own right. Definitely recommend if you have a love for the 90s' grunge music scene (I know I do!), angst on angst and angst (say less!), and the electrifying but unforgiving path of what it truly means to reach stardom.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is outside of my typical genre, and I can confidently say I was not disappointed! This book had me feeling so many emotions from heartbreak, to grief, to hope, and I was crying real tears by the end.

Jane Pyre is a member of The Lightning Bottles with her husband, Elijah Hart. There are so many sides to Jane throughout this book. We watch her aspire to be a musician, fall in love, rise to fame, and battle addiction. She’s so misunderstood to the outside world, but those who truly know her see that she is ambitious and incredibly caring.

This story is told in such a beautiful way with the timeline jumps. As Jane relives her past on this journey, we see her rise to stardom with Elijah and then their inevitable fall. The way these flashbacks were placed throughout this book was so perfectly done and left so much emotional impact.

I really wish I could talk more about the journey she goes on and the outcome of this book, but let me just say: please read this! Just an absolutely beautiful novel!

I LOVED THIS!

What a refreshing book!! This was very much reminiscent of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six, but it worked so well. The Lightning Bottles seems to be inspired by Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love in the 90s. It really sent me down a spiral through the lore of the 90s grunge scene in Seattle and even Sinéad O’Conner on SNL.

This is an addicting and immersive story — very heartbreaking at times, but I could not put it down. The writing was great and Stapley heavily dove in to themes of addiction, sexism, & love. I only wish it was a bit longer, so I could see a bit more of the present timeline!

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy! The Lightning Bottles releases Sept 24!

This story takes off like a rocket on the 4th of July. I started reading it about an hour ago and I’m hooked. The characters are so alive and vivid, I can close my eyes and hear them. Elijah the missing and presumed dead rockstar, Jane his wife, and Hen the young girl trying to solve the mystery. It’s a love story about Elijah and Jane, she was only seventeen when they met in a chat room. The story goes from that time period to present where Elijah has been missing at sea and presumed dead for five years. So the story is weaved in a way that we get to know and love these characters. Jane wasn’t my favorite at first because she seemed cold, but you’d have to know why. Hen leads Jane to where Elijah might have painted a clue that only June would understand. The two set off on a journey to find more clues as they form a friendship. I read this book in twenty-four hours because I simply couldn’t put it down. This couple was madly in love and they just couldn’t help each other, so the step they took was insane. I loved this story, I’m giving it five stars and highly recommend it.

The Lightning Bottles is the star cross lover grunge story of my teenage dreams.

Jane Pyre treks across Europe to try to figure out what exactly happened to her husband and bandmate Elijah, who vanished in the middle of the night five years ago. Finally sober, she believes she is emotionally ready to discover the truth about his disappearance and move on from her chaotic LA life. Her new homebase outside Berlin is where Jane is sure she can let go of the past that haunts her, but she doesn’t expect her teenage neighbor Hen to be the one with all the answers. Together they go on a pictorial hunt through Elijah and Jane’s past to find the truth, forcing Jane to reconcile with the choices she has made and to try to understand how they have brought her to this juncture.

Alternating between flashbacks of The Lightning Bottles’ past and the present we watch the evolution of both the band and the couple as the rock and roll lifestyle filled with drugs and fame slowly takes Jane and Elijah down. Jane’s journey with Hen is not only a physical one but an emotional one as well, where finally another soul see’s what it is like to be her, the misunderstood bandmate that seems to carry all the blame for anything that ever went wrong in their life and their music.

If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six or are simply a fan of alternative music from the early ‘90s this book will hit the spot. With plenty of references to some of my favorite bands, this book had me wishing I could actually listen to the fictious band’s music. Overall it has a whole lot of Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain vibes, and makes one wonder if the fans really understood them at all?

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and of course the author Marissa Stapley for the advanced copy of the book. The Lightning Bottles is out on September 24th! All opinions are my own.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. I loved her last book, Lucky, but this read more like a first draft to me. I found the writing to be so inconsistent that at times I wondered if there were two writers.

The characters were flat with little development, especially with Hen who came out of nowhere and left just as quickly. I was really emotionally detached with all of them making it hard to care what happened in the story. Finally, the “coincidence” at the beginning was impossible to buy into, which made me question everything that follows.

Cool concept, but the execution didn’t work for me.

As a grunge/alternative music lover i was really excited to read this. It did not disappoint! Such a great story and characters. It was like Daisy Jones and the Six meets grunge and I loved it.

Seattle grunge music scene makes for a good story. Along with the graffiti trend of the 90's, this made for a good read. A good example of how someone (Elijah Hart & Jane Pyre) who rises to fame in a quick time span can easily go downhill just as quickly as so many of the bands/music artists of this era found out. Reminiscent of Kurt Cobain and his story. A good read, but sad as it is so close to the truths of the 90's band scene. Spoiler alert: not all stories have to have a tragic ending!
Thank you #NetGalley and #Simon&Schuster for the opportunity to read this ARC. I enjoyed the writing style of Marissa Stapley as well as the story.

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the greatest thing since Daisy Jones and Six…. Marissa Stapley’s The Lightning Bottles 🎸🤘🎧

The Lightning Bottles is the story of Jane Pyre and Elijah, bandmates and soulmates. They meet in Jane's (then Janet's) chat room late at night. Jane is Canadian, lives with her mother who is deeply religious, and plays in the church band but secretly loves other music. Elijah lives in Seattle with his parents and is in a band. When Jane turns 18, she leaves home to find Elijah and they eventually form The Lightning Bottles. As the group gains popularity, Elijah is the fan favorite while Jane is hated. When Elijah disappears, the hatred for her does not. Jane rents what she expects to be a secluded house in Germany to get away from everything and is greeted by Hen, a superfan. But Hen isn't just a fan, she has something that she thinks is Elijah leaving messages for Jane. This leads them to travel to several countries following the clues. In between their travels, flashbacks tell the story of Jane and Elijah and what led to his disappearance.

I liked Lucky, another book by this author, but was more interested in this book's story. This book has the same vibe as Daisy Jones and the Six, but didn't feel like a retelling of the same story. This band is in a different era and genre and has more of a love story. It is mainly told from Jane's POV with a few deviations that made sense. Rather than being in chronological order, it is told in two different timelines - from their meeting to when Elijah goes missing and from when Jane meets Hen and starts following the clues. They basically come together near the end so you don't know why Elijah went missing until right around the time Jane gets to the end of the clues. I really loved this book and was rooting for The Lightning Bottles. If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six, I highly recommend it. I hope this also gets the chance to be turned into a TV show or movie!

For fans of Daisy Jones and the Six comes The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley. When Jane’s husband and music partner dies under mysterious circumstances she becomes reclusive. Now 5 years later she has moved to Germany and just might discover her husbands death is now what she thinks it is.

4.5 stars
Be still my grunge-loving, 90s kid heart. This is by far one of the best books I have read so far this year. Part coming-of-age story, part romance, and part mystery- so many parts, but woven together seamlessly. For those of you multiple timeline people, there's that too. The book flips between 1991-1994 and its present day 1999, showing the journey of main characters Jane and Elijah. I could not put this book down and finished it in 2 sittings. Put this on your list right now (as well as the author's previous book Lucky, which I also loved).
HIGHLY recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

I loved this book. Nothing like a part mystery, part memoir-esque story with wild characters to hold your attention. Stapley does an amazing job of developing the characters that you feel like you have known them/heard of them (two of the characters were rock stars) even though they are fully fictitious. This book was hard to put down.

The Lightning Bottles is an ode to musicians who have faded away through death, disappearance or otherwise. The main character is Hen, a teen living with her shut-in mother who is obsessed with the (deceased?) lead singer of The Lighning Bottles. She saw him play in Berlin, near her home, shortly before he died? She’s listening to a 5-year anniversary tribute, when she notices a new neighbor moving in next door. Could it be the singer’s widow? Yes, it is.

That’s as far as I got. While this has high reviews on goodreads, it was extremely YA to me in tone and storyline. I couldn’t get into the writing.

THE LIGHTNING BOTTLES is a great read, especially for fans of grunge 90s rock. If you are not a fan of that musical era, then you might still enjoy the novel, but it might not hit your sweet spot in quite the same way. This story is steeped with musical references and embued with a true love of music.

I understand the comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six, but to me, this story does not quite measure up in terms of the character development. That does not mean, however, that this isn't a thoroughly enjoyable read because it definitely is.

The pacing is a tiny bit slow, in part because the author wants to tell the reader things versus just getting on with the story. Hence a 4-star rating from me versus a 5.

The novel does a great job with the unresolved mystery element and in exploring the price of fame. The back and forth in time is handled expertly.

As is often the case with books about successful musicians, the author also tackles the issue of addiction.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in this review are completely my own.

I love a rock and roll saga, and this surely was one. Gut punch in several places, covers addiction in a respectable way for fiction, and really zeroes in on music and what it means to us beautifully. Free advanced copy from Netgalley, book publishes 9/24

The Lightning Bottles, a grunge-rock duo, were phenomenally popular for not only their music, but also their tumultuous romance and other tabloid-worthy habits. But the music world is left in complete shock when Elijah Hart, the beloved lead singer, suddenly goes missing while the two are alone at a remote cottage. Five years after his disappearance, his partner, wife and lead writer for the band, Jane Pyre, is still misunderstood, angry and reviled (seen by many as responsible for Elijah’s fate). While trying to isolate herself from society in a small German village, Jane unwittingly moves next door to a teenage super-fan who may have a key to a hidden code that unlocks the mystery of Elijah’s whereabouts. The nostalgia of the Seattle grunge scene is compelling and the behind the scenes peek at this fictional rockstar lifestyle is voyeuristically entertaining. Add to the mix Jane’s struggle as a talented, opinionated female in the music industry and Stapley has created a hit single!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read this book in advance of it's release on September 24, 2024!
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3.5 rounded up! Marketed as a book for lovers of Daisy Jones and The Six, I was immediately interested in this book. DJATS changed my brain chemistry and is one of the books that turned me back into a reader as an adult. Needless to say my expectations were high and they were satisfied for the most part. I enjoyed the musical elements of this book as a major music fan myself. I found myself highlighting those descriptions about the way music connects to people as well as the lines about young love. What I found to be unlike DJATS is how strongly I felt about the love story at the core of the story. The love story between the two main characters of the fictional band is one of young love mixed with the struggles of fame, desire to be known and addiction which is not unlike DJATS but I found myself not rooting for them at times which with Daisy and Billy in Daisy Jones I truly did root for them almost throughout the entire book despite my best judgment. I think it part it was due to the fact we are in Jane's head and her existence for almost all the book and knew less about Elijah until the story itself demanded more information which at that point our loyalties lie elsewhere. It's also think their relationship was unfortunately easier to write off as a teenage trauma bond at certain points. Structurally I think the backstory should have been prioritized from the beginning and then the current day could have been worked in because I feel that way it would have given readers a better idea of what is going on and I think Jane's backstory is strong enough to be introduced sooner. I struggled with the back and forth timelines during the middle of the book but thought it to be pretty solid and effective as the action started to really come into play. Overall, I have no super strong qualms, I liked the book enough and found the commentary regarding the press' treatment of women musicians to be poignant and relevant.

What happened to Elijah, lead singer of The Lightning Bottles? Can Jane, his wife and partner in the group, along with Hen, find out the truth by following a series of clues throughout Europe? This book goes back and forth in time, charting the success of the Lightning Bottles and also Jane and Hen's hunt for clues.

I think the story is good, but the writing is just---not that good. Very dry and dull, almost like a book report and not a book. I wanted to like it so much, but it just didn't do it for me.