"If you knew you could get away with murder would you?" Only If You're Lucky is a dark and chilling story about female friendships, lies we tell, secrets we keep and how much do we know about the ones closest to us. This book did not disappoint and had me hooked from the very beginning. The book had great characters, amazing plot and had mind blowing twist. I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend this book to other readers especially if they love a good thriller. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this book in exchange of my honest review of the book.

4.5
I’m a big stacy Willingham fan after reading all the dangerous things last year, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this new one! And it didn’t disappoint!!! I loved this collage setting thriller, with the group of girls living in an old Victorian home owned by the guys frat house next door. I could picture everything so clear and why it is set in modern time it just had a nostalgic 90s grungey feel to it almost. And I loved that so much! I loved the characters, and pictured Kristen Ritter as Lucy. I don’t know why but she fit her perfectly in my mind! I loved how this played out with the time lines, the connections between everything one, the slow burn but than the twist at the end I really didn’t see it coming!

Only if Your Lucky is my second novel by Stacy Willingham. I have some mixed feelings on this one but I really think the ending of this one is much better. I wasn’t a fan of the characters in this one they just weren’t likeable for me. The storyline was very well written and it’s a perfect mystery but it’s definitely a slow burn.
The story bounces from past to present which I actually really enjoy when reading, it gives a clear picture of what the characters life was like. A little mind game when solving a mystery.

Overall it was a good thriller/mystery and I will read more by Stacy Willingham. This one got a little bit of lower rating from me because of the characters and pace of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for providing me with the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and Stacy Willingham fro this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! While it was a bit of a slowburn, it completely held my attention and I couldn't "turn" the pages fast enough to find out what happened.

3.5 stars for me but rounded up to 4!

🎓 Campus thriller
⏰ Jumping timelines
👯‍♀️ The tangles of friendships - who you should and shouldn’t trust
📖 If you enjoyed the thrills of The Last Housewife, The Last Time I Lied, None of this is True, I’d recommend this for you!

I liked A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things a bit more than this one but I’ll definitely want to read more from Willingham

(DNF at 50% mark)

When Margot falls in with a new group of young women at her liberal arts coastal college, their bonds are tested by numerous incidents.

I could call this novel a "slow burn" thriller, but I feel like that would be a misnomer. There is no burn. There is no thrill. The characters are all dull and vapid and nothing really happens. There are multiple events that are alluded to but, from what I have heard, the meat of this story doesn't really become good until the last 20% of the book. I just don't have time to sit through this when it took me weeks just to get through the first half. Not worth the effort.

This book is wild and honestly I read most of the 2nd half in one sitting because it got TENSE. This book is a SLOWBURN with alternating past and present POVs. The author gives a tiny clue or bombshell then rips the reader away, answers just out of reach. In this case it really fuels your need to keep reading even if you think you know what’s going on. The story also gave me many flashbacks and feels to being a new student in college and I think she captured that energy and mindset so well. And the characters… well…. You’ll have to read and make your own opinions 😂

“If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?”

This book was amazing!! I loved that this book took so many turns that I had no clue how this was going to end. When the book ended my mouth fell to the floor in shock. I definitely can’t wait to see what Stacy has for us next!!

Stacy Willingham came out of the gates with a couple amazing books, and while this was a good one, it was not her best.

After Margot loses her childhood best friend, she is hoping for a fresh start at the college they were planning to attend together. She’s never had to find her own way before, and when dynamic Lucy asks her to move into a house with some other girls, Margot knows this is just what she needs to jumpstart her new life. What she found though was a lot more than she bargained for.

This book was a slow burn that I wanted to devour, but it left me feeling frustrated at times because it felt like there was too much set-up for the last 20 percent of the book to really let it all out. This wasn’t a bad book, but for me, it wasn’t what I’ve grown to adore about the author. I look forward to what she’s got in store for us next.

Thank you to Stacy Willingham, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of the book for an honest review.

I loved Willingham’s last book and was so excited to get this one as well! This one has some absolute twists and turns but most of it comes in the last 25%. This is definitely a slow burn with a big reveal at the end. Overall, I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as All the Dangerous Things and I think that one was much more mind-fucky the whole way through where as Only If You’re Lucky seems like it went for the shock effect at the end. Overall an enjoyable thriller.

After really enjoying A Flicker in the Dark, I was really excited to receive this ARC for Only If You're Lucky. Stacy Willingham's writing style is great and this was a thriller I really did enjoy and thought the premise was great.

The only thing that made this feel just ok for me, was it felt a little repetitive with certain things in a way that took the pace down a little at certain points. There tended to be a bit of re-explanation of the past in ways that weren't entirely necessary.

Overall though, I enjoyed the characters here and this author has great way of creating an atmosphere and drawing you in. Still definitely worth the read. Really excited to keep reading her books!

Many thanks to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

For a thriller, this was a solid one. Stacy Willingham has secured herself as a writer of compelling plots.

Who is Lucy? What happened to Margot’s friend, Eliza? What is going on with this group of college friends?

I enjoyed the backdrop and the small college town vibes and the off-putting weird friend who is controlling and has secrets. It felt very in vein with other “Dark Academia” settings, but in places is a little lackluster.

Here’s what this book did well. Plot and twists and reveals. They are slow and methodical and quite surprising. The ending is satisfying for a thriller and I am being vague to not give anything away.

Where it lacked was any type of character building. I wouldn’t be able to know who Nicole, Eliza, Sloane, Margot, and Lucy were. They all read as the same character to me.

In comparison, Stacy Willingham’s other main characters are memorable to me.

Overall, this is a fun, popcorn thriller and I recommend it as a weekend or beach read. It is a well plotted thriller.

I was given an ARC by the publisher, but my opinions are all my own.

This lacked intrigue and suspense for me. I felt the narrative was repetitive in nature.

The story revolves around Margot, a shy college student, befriended by the bold magnetic Lucy the end of their freshman year. Living together off campus with two other girls, their sophomore year takes a dark turn when a neighboring fraternity boy is murdered, leaving Lucy missing. The novel explores complex friendship, extreme desire to belong, loyalty at what cost, envy, and betrayal.

Things at the end “surprised me” but not in an “wow this changes how I feel about the rest of this book.” Honestly, I struggled reading this one. I set it aside and after release was able to grab audio with my scribd trial which helped me finish.

I’m also wondering if this age group drama just isn’t relatable to me 🤷🏼‍♀️

2★| Thriller

Thank you netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great thriller! I loved previous books of Stacys and this was on par with them.

I think for me i would categorize this as more of a suspense and mystery than thriller.

Margo embarks on the chapter of her life as a freshman at college. She feels out of place and lost at first because shes having to do this alone, instead of with her best friend Eliza who tragically passed away not too long ago. Margo quickly becomes friends with the “it trio of girls” and is invited to live with them off campus. She doesnt know much about them or their “head queen bee Lucy” but she is drawn to them, especially Lucy like her friend Eliza. Margo finds herself confronted by her past when Elizas boyfriend whom was the last to see her alive shows up at the frat next door. There’s secrets everyone is keeping but nobody knows how deadly those secrets are and what are people willing to do to keep those secrets?

This is seriously such mystery. I had no idea where this was all headed. I could tell maybe one part once its revealed that it made a lot of sense but the ending was such a truth bomb of twists that i was left floored! I loved the college life setting and how unreliable all the characters seemed to be. It left you questioning everyone and everything.

A question from the book that was talked about a lot and left in mind while writing this review and thinking of the story was: If you could get away with murder would you do it?

3.5 Stars
“If You Knew You Could Get Away with Murder, Would You do it?”

This book was disappointment for me! A bit of a slow burn, and not very fast-paced. I guess I went in with some serious expectations because the author's previous two books delivered such a gut punch of emotions with heart pounding moments that kept you turning page after page.

BUT, most of this book reads like YA in a college setting.
There’s lots of games, truth telling, and accusations throughout this story. There’s also lots of references to Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, which makes sense because in reality we have a bunch of harmless, naïve girls who are capable of both good and evil. While there is a mystery component, it lacked a sophisticated intrigue.

Margot is a college student, who is grieving the death of her best friend that died shortly after their high school graduation. After spending her freshman year staying mostly to herself, she is befriended by the charismatic, Lucy Sharpe. Lucy draws Margot into her more daring and adventurous life. Margot soon finds that there is more to Lucy than meets the eye. One of their fraternity neighbors is murdered and Lucy goes missing.

There were some interesting twists and turns and a good ending but it was a long road to get there.
I found this to be more a character study/look at female friendships than a thriller until near the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St, Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, and the author for an ARC of this book which I had the pleasure of reading. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for sharing this book with me early to read and review. This book wasn’t my favorite but I do love bits of it and know others will too!

Thank you for the arc copy.

Overall this book was okay. It was a little choppy at times but did keep my interest. I did not like the characters as much in this book as this authors other stories. Good tension over all.

"If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?”

Here I am with my first 5 star read of 2024!!! I have LOVED reading Stacy Willingham’s books, I can understand why this one had so many mixed reviews. For starers, it’s a slow-burn, college campus thriller which in my opinion is very different from her last two novels. Lucky for me, I love college campus thrillers, especially those that show the darker side of friendships, obsessions, secrets, murder & a twist I did not see coming.

Margot is entering her freshman year of college in a grief sicken daze. Her best friend, Eliza, died just three weeks after their high school graduation and has been unable to move on from everything that led up to Eliza’s death. Margot is shy and finds herself playing it safe her freshman year, that is until Lucy Sharpe, who is larger than life asks her to room together the following year. Margot ends up staying that summer with her new roommates and begins to come out of her shell, that is until the school year begins and someone from her past shows up and all those old feelings coming rushing back. As the semester goes on, Margot starts to uncover even crazier things realizing that her past and her present are much more intertwined that she ever thought.

Whenever I picked this one up, I found myself completely immersed in the story and each twist that came up perfectly falling into place.

what a frickin, wild ride! while the characters had no personalities and margot was the epitome of boring, the story kept moving along with twists every few chapters. i'm glad that this was not a total disappointment.

This author's books need to be on every single bookworm's shelf! I love everything she writes and boy can she tell a story! I loved the layers of secrets that were revealed as the story progressed. She has a way of building suspense and keeping the reader glued.