Lucky Night

A Novel

By: Eliza Kennedy

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

“[A] crafty new locked-room thriller of adultery and disaster . . . a fresh take on middle-class marital malaise . . . Kennedy’s page-turner brings [our] fundamental human fears into the blazing light of a towering inferno.”—The Washington Post

Two people, one hotel room, and all the choices and complications that make up a life.

After six years of a stolen hour here, another there, tonight is going to be different for Nick Holloway and Jenny Parrish. They’ve booked a room in a new luxury hotel in Manhattan, where they’ll spend the entire night together for the first time. Expectations are running high for this brief reprieve from ordinary life: they both need a good bout of ravishing sex and witty conversation.

But that’s not what they get.

Because they’ve barely gotten started when a smoke alarm goes off. Nick is annoyed, but not worried about what must be only a minor glitch. Jenny is anxious, guilty—is karma coming for them at last?

This existential page-turner seamlessly shifts between Nick and Jenny’s perspectives as the reality of their situation becomes apparent, and all their secrets, evasions and regrets come spilling out. Stripped of their defenses, disagreeing about everything, these two flawed, funny, very different people are forced to be honest—with each other and themselves—about what they want, all they stand to lose, and whether their affair is really as casual as it seems.

Critic reviews

“[A] crafty thriller of adultery and disaster [and] a fresh take on middle-class marital malaise . . . As the writer and therapist Esther Perel has said, ‘death and mortality often live in the shadow of an affair.’ Kennedy’s page-turner brings those fundamental human fears into the blazing light of a towering inferno.”—The Washington Post

“A page-turner, this locked room thriller takes place in a luxury New York City high-rise, where a middle-aged couple is meeting for their monthly extramarital tryst, when a fire alarm goes off. Convinced it’s a false alarm and reluctant to leave their bed for the snowy world outside, they stay put until it becomes too late to leave. Part Towering Inferno, part confessional, the story is engaging, blazing hot, and ultimately satisfying. I finished it in one night and am already casting the movie in my mind.”—USA Today

“Kennedy returns with another nuanced, thoughtful look at infidelity that takes place over one harrowing night. . . . It’s well-worth watching the layers of Jenny and Nick’s emotional armor being peeled back as the tension between them and the danger mounts in Kennedy’s increasingly gripping and emotional novel.”—Booklist, starred review

“Lucky Night starts out as a funny, sexy story about an affair, but it deepens into something darker and more urgent. Eliza Kennedy’s novel treats love like the life-threatening emergency it sometimes is, a force both destructive and illuminating.”—Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author

“An electrifying love story that defies all expectations. Lucky Night alternates between profound intimacy and terror, between claustrophobia and pleasure, and illuminates our conflicting desires for safety and the sort of exquisite connection that makes us feel alive. A dazzling novel.”—Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street

“Lucky Night is a tautly sexy, savage fever dream of clandestine passion and mounting fear. Kennedy keeps her pair of lovers on the knife’s edge between fantasy and exposure. It’s a tour de force of dramatic tension and revelation.”—Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man and Welcome Home, Stranger

“Two characters locked in a hotel room having an affair go at it when every mask and protective layer is stripped away, and they are at their most vulnerable. Fun. Sexy. A little ‘dangerous.’”—Jay Ellis for Elle's "Shelf Life," author of Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? and actor on Insecure

Good for teens

Romantic, thrilling, but not sure it was for me. It is about middle aged people, but probably written for a much younger audience.. the helplessly romantic

The dialog was sparkling. ✨️

Very good story that left me wanting more. The dialog was cleverly written. Wonderful narrator!

Narration made it easier to read.

I love to read and listen along at the same time. Usually it’s a nice added bonus or helps keep when reading if I have to switch back and forth. For this book the actual novel has zero quotes and thus very little to differentiate who is speaking. When listening I didn’t even notice. However when reading I realized it sometimes made it so I had to re-read to understand clearly what was a thought and what was dialogue. While it didn’t bother me. I know a couple people who couldn’t read it and just listened. So if
You’re debating continuing the audio book is your best path and it’s worth it. This is a story that I enjoyed even with two deeply flawed protagonists I probably would hate in real life

Good story, good narration.

Original story line, very good dialogue between two characters, nice satire on modern media. This would make a terrific play. Quite captivating