Lucky

Lucky by Marissa Stapley was originally published in 2021. Lucky is a Reese’s Book Club Pick and a New York Times bestseller. It is a thriller mostly set in 2008 during the financial crash. The book delves into Luciana Armstrong’s past as a grifter. She travels extensively, staying in places such as New York City, Las Vegas, and Seattle. Thematically, the novel explores The Power of Luck and Hope, Familial and Romantic Influences, and Performance and Lies.

This guide cites the Simon & Schuster paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material contains miscarriage, assault, and violence.

Plot Summary

Lucky focuses on a grifter, Luciana Armstrong (Lucky), and alternates between Lucky’s present day, 2008, and Lucky’s past. The Prologue, set in 1982, describes how Lucky was abandoned on the steps of a church. A nun in training (who is really a con artist), Margaret Jean, hears the baby cry and blesses John Armstrong, a con man, when he claims Lucky. The sections in the past then turn to Lucky as a 10-year-old, when John convinces Lucky to help him with scamming a widow, Darla, and her daughter, Steph. They are led to believe that Lucky has a rare illness and give Lucky and John money for her treatment. After they get the money, John and Lucky leave in the middle of the night.

Upset about losing her friend Steph, Lucky tries to run away from home. She ends up lost in a forest in Maine in her nightgown when John finds her. When Lucky turns 11, John suggests that they go back to live with Steph and Darla in Washington. John claims that Lucky is cured, and Darla pays for her schooling. When Darla becomes insistent about Lucky seeing a doctor, John and Lucky sneak out in the middle of the night again.

In 1999, Lucky and John live on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. For a while, John works a law-abiding job as a waiter. Eventually, he begins working on a con—a fake charity—with his acquaintances Priscilla and Reyes. These connections help John obtain identification documents; Lucky pretends to be someone called Alaina Cadence so that she can take the high school equivalency exam, as well as the SAT. Lucky gets high scores and is accepted into a business program at the University of San Francisco. She meets Cary, who uses the fake name Alex to hide the fact that he is Priscilla’s son. Lucky begins to fall in love with Cary, until she discovers his lies. When she tries to break up with him, he convinces her to stay by getting her a rescue dog, Betty.

Later that year, John, Priscilla, and Reyes are arrested for their scam. John takes most of the fall and is imprisoned in San Quentin, a prison near Sausalito. Meanwhile, Cary convinces Lucky to scam some Stanford students. Once Lucky finishes her degree, Cary suggests that they move to Idaho. He doesn’t tell her he got the house there from Priscilla. For a while, in 2004, Cary is a househusband and Lucky opens an accounting and investing firm. However, he convinces her to scam her clients. They use some of the money for in vitro fertilization, but Lucky miscarries.

Cary and Lucky’s scam begins to fall apart after the 2008 financial crisis, when the investors start asking for their money back. The couple plans to fly to Dominica after stopping in Las Vegas, where Lucky buys a lottery ticket. The night before their flight, Lucky gets drunk and sleeps through her alarm. Meanwhile, Priscilla has someone beat up and detain Cary, so he also misses the flight. Lucky disguises herself as Bonnie, a journalist, and steals money from a poker player in Vegas. She uses the money to take a tour bus to the Grand Canyon. There, a man steals most of her money.

Lucky walks to Tusayan, Arizona, and learns that her lottery ticket is a winner, but she can’t claim the winnings while she is a fugitive. Lucky visits John in prison to ask for his advice. Reyes now works for a nonprofit aimed at helping prisoners, and she is leaving a meeting with John as Lucky arrives. John is starting to have issues with his memory and tells Lucky the location of her mother, Gloria. However, John doesn’t want Lucky to visit Gloria and suggests that she get in touch with Priscilla or Steph. Lucky takes the bus to Little Spring, Oregon, where she gets a job as a waitress in a diner. Once she figures out that Steph is in Seattle, Lucky visits her realtor business there, pretending to be a potential buyer, and doesn’t reveal her true identity.

In Fresno, California, Lucky rents a storage space and hides her lottery ticket in its smoke detector. She then goes to Priscilla’s Place, which appears to be a homeless shelter but is part of Priscilla’s latest scam. Lucky discovers that Priscilla had Cary beaten and took their dog, Betty. Priscilla returns Betty but believes that Lucky knows where the money she and Cary stole is located. So, Priscilla threatens Lucky. Lucky calls Reyes, who holds on to Betty while Lucky visits Gloria.

At Devereaux Camp, Lucky learns that John lied to her—Gloria is not her biological mother. Lucky gets drunk and confesses that she has a winning lottery ticket, which Gloria steals when Lucky passes out from the alcohol. Priscilla steals the ticket from Gloria. When Lucky contacts Reyes, Reyes explains that she got John released from prison. Lucky confronts John about his lies, and he agrees to go to the church where he found her as a baby. There, they encounter Sister Margaret Jean, who pretends not to recognize them. Lucky’s biological mother, Valerie Mann, had been in contact with Margaret Jean and hoped to find the baby she gave up as a teenager. Margaret Jean tells Valerie that she found Lucky.

When Lucky is on her way to turn herself in to the police, Valerie, a Manhattan district attorney, intervenes. Valerie confesses to leaving Lucky on the church steps and apologizes. She helps Lucky get a plea bargain: In exchange for working with the FBI to catch Priscilla and Cary, Lucky will be able to claim her lottery ticket winnings after the trial. Valerie tells Lucky that she originally named her Julia and that Lucky finally has a choice in who she wants to be.