I really enjoyed the author's previous two books but this one fell a little flat for me. It dragged quite a lot in the beginning. The last 20% or so was interesting but it took way too long to get there.

I loved this thriller! A great story about toxic female friendship! The story revolves around Margot who is starting college alone after the recent death of her best friend. As Margot immerses herself in new friendships and college life the story gets more twisty with more questions than answers. This book is fast paced and I couldn’t wait for all the loose ends to fall into place. There were a lot of layers in this well developed plot and I was definitely engaged in it from the first page to the last. If you are looking for a book full of suspense give this one a try!

Loved this book and it was really enjoyable. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

One of the many aspects of reading that I love is that while I may not have thoroughly enjoyed a book
many others have and will. I share that tidbit as Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham was a disappointing read for me. Margot's dearest friend, Eliza Jefferson, died the summer after graduation. Their friendship had fractured shortly before graduation as a result of Eliza's budding relationship with a boy, Levi Butler. who had recently moved next door. Margot was devastated by Eliza's tragic death, and there were some unanswered questions after the investigation, yet decided to move forward and attend the small liberal arts college she and Elza had planned. Her freshman year was miserable and lonely even though her very nice roommate tried to help. Right before classes end for the summer, she meets Lucy Sharpe, and she is ecstatic when Lucy invites her to live with her and two other girls for the summer and the academic year. Lucy is everything that Margot isn't: fierce, funny and fearless. All is going well until Levi Buler arrives on campus. I'll be honest I found Margot to be a tedious character, constantly bemoaning her many "perceived" flaws. The book seemed to just go on and on, although I'm glad I stayed with it as the ending was definitely a surprise worth waiting for.
Thank you to NetGalley and Montour Books for the opportunity to read an ARC of Only If You're Lucky in exchange for my candid review.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
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I have to say that the more books that Stacy Willingham puts out, the better she gets! This one is probably my favorite out of her books and I loved that she incorporated the dark academia into this novel. Willingham constructs a rich a complex dynamic among the roommates in this book and her writing captures a compelling exploration of friendships, secrets, and a haunting mystery. My only c complaint is that this is definitely much more of a slow burn mystery instead of a thriller like it is being targeted as, so this is just something to be aware of going into the book! But overall, definitely one that if you are looking for a quick read, this is a good one!

I love Stacy Willingham. This book started a little slow, following Margot's POV. Margo is a college student whose BFF recently passed away before starting school. Margot accused a boy of murdering her BFF. Margot and her late BFF discussed attending college together but it was all cut short. However, in college, a popular girl, Lucy, befriended Margot and invited her to live with them. Margot wondered why Lucy and her friends chose to befriend Margot. The four girls partied and did normal college stuff. But one day, the boy Margot accused of killing her BFF showed up at her college and was living next door to her. It doesn't end there because he was found dead and Lucy was missing. Margot's perfect year at college is now invaded by police.

Stacy Willingham is a phenomenon. I love her books. this is no exception.

Thank you, Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Welcome to Rutledge College!! Happy Pub Day to Only If You’re Lucky by @stacyvwillingham!! I loved this book. It simmers with tension and intrigue. The dual timelines perfectly highlight each of the character’s actions and their motivations. The friendship and dark academia tropes are some of my favorite and Willingham has created the perfect mix of it. I can’t wait to read her next book.

This is another of my recent thriller marathon reads. Stacy Willingham’s All the Dangerous Things was one of my favorite suspense novels of last year, so I was really excited to dive into her newest book. I combined the ebook with the audio book and I’m really glad I did. The well done audio is what got me through this one.

This book is a slow burn and one that never quite ignited for me. It felt a little on the YA scale to me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but was not what I was expecting. I found the twists to be somewhat predictable and I never had that moment of shock and surprise that I long for in a thriller and that disappointed me. I appreciated the examination of the sometimes obsessive nature of young female friendships, but I’ve seen it done before and executed more effectively. Not a bad book but compared to the high bar Willingham has set, it was kind of a miss for me. Still, I look forward to whatever she does next. Thank you to @netgalley @minotaur_books @macmillan.audio for arcs of this book.

Thank you to Minotaur publishing for my gifted audiobook. I really enjoyed the narration. I couldn’t stop listening. I enjoyed the storyline and the plot. I love when you read a mystery or a psych thriller and can’t figure out who did it or how they did it until the very end. I had a feeling but didn’t know the “how”. I just love this authors writing so so much.

I really wanted to love this book! It’s a DNF for me, unfortunately. I found the MC to be super irritating and unlikeable in a way I just couldn’t get past. The pretty little liars/mean girls esque girls clique could’ve been so good but was just a miss. Waayyy too slow of a slow burn.

Margot is hoping college can give her a fresh start. After losing her best friend since childhood that was supposed to accompany her to college, Margot knows she has to find her own way. But she has never done that without her best friend by her side. When Lucy, beautiful Lucy, asks her to move into a house with her and some friends Margot is shocked and pleased. She is hoping she will finally find her people. She ends up finding a lot more than she bargained for with her new found friendships.

I loved Willingham’s other books. They were hard to put down…this one just didn’t do that for me. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and I saw the big twist that was coming for the most part. It was okay, but not my favorite of her books.

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

Margot is mourning the loss her best friend, Eliza, who died 3 weeks after high school graduation. She continues on to Rutledge College in South Carolina without her friend and muddles through her first year. Then she is drawn to Lucy Sharpe who is charismatic, outgoing and mysterious. Lucy invites her to live with her and her friends in an off campus house connected to the fraternity Kappa Nu. Things are great until a fraternity brother is murdered and Lucy is missing without a trace.

This was a slower paced psychological thriller that was a fun read with several twists. It read like a YA thriller but I liked the dark academia vibes and the twisty female friendships. I didn’t figure out all twists and this one was full of them in the end. It did bring back some college memories:)

Stacy Willingham has not written a disappointing book yet. This story was engaging from the first page and slowly builds to the point where you don’t know who to trust, who is telling the truth, or what is happening.

It was a fast & fun read.

Thank you to everyone for this gifted copy of Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham!

I have loved Stacy’s work in the past, but this one wasn’t my favorite of her work. I felt like there was something missing, but ultimately the “slow burn” was soooooo slow. It wasn’t until about 65% through the book that I was finally invested and enjoying the book.

I will say that Stacy did a really good job in her writing where I was pretty convinced that the book was going one direction, so the twists took me by surprise.

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! Snag it now, as it published 1/16/24!

This was my first Stacy Willingham book & I had fun with it! I really like her writing - super descriptive & a quick read. The main character of this story gave me the absolute CREEPS. She was just a little too obsessive for my liking - whether she was written that way on purpose or not, it gave me the ick the entire time.

I called a couple of twists, but the twists DID keep coming & a few I was surprised by. Overall, a quick eerie thriller set in a college town (which is one of my favorite thriller novel settings). I'm looking forward to reading more work from Stacy!

I loved Stacy Willingham's last two books and was thrilled to get early access to her new one! Only If You're Lucky absolutely did not disappoint. This was a quick, twisty story that I flew through because I had to know what was happening. I appreciated that all of the characters had secrets and seemed suspicious at some point, so I could never really trust any of them or their motives. The first half was a bit of a slow burn to get everything set up, but I was on edge the whole time and loved the off campus college setting. The ending went a little off the rails and felt rushed, but the twists were excellent. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what the author comes out with next! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy! Since Stacy willinghams debut novel I’ve been hooked. I love her writing style. In this book she takes us back to college, Margot has just left her hometown after her best friend died, she was very obsessed with her and becomes even more introverted in her first year at college until Lucy appears and takes her under her wing. Lucy is just like Eliza was and Margot becomes obsessed. Then Eliza’s boyfriend comes to school and starts hanging around Margot and Lucy, Lucy doesn’t trust him. This book was fairly boring, I have really enjoyed her other two books and will definitely read her next one but maybe I just don’t like books set in college. The ending got a little exciting but otherwise it was rather dull.

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for the ARC. I am a huge fan of this sub genre of college murder mysteries and I think Only if You're Lucky is one of the best that I have read. I really enjoyed the dual timelines, it's one of my favorite things whenever I read a mystery/thriller. I also loved the toxic friendship between the four girls and how complex it was. I loved both Margot's past and present friendships and how we got to see the complexities of friendship, how you can both love and hate someone so much. Also the whodunit part was really well done, the author kept me questioning what actually happened and I loved the constant reveals of such intriguing information that makes you ask more questions. Overall this was a really good book, totally a pageturner.

This was an enjoyable listen! I kind of guessed how things were going to go pretty early on but it didn’t alter my thoughts. Margo becomes obsessed with her bestie Eliza only to have things end up tragically. So she sets sail to college where she befriends a group of girls who aren’t any better. There were a few things that I definitely didn’t see coming (I’m spoiler free so I won’t say it here) that had me surprised! Overall, a great chick-lit thriller with Pretty Little Liars/The Craft vibes.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, perhaps the high amount of excitement put my exceptions too high. It was so different from her first two and felt very YA/new adult. It was on the slower side but overall, I was interested to find how it ended but it fell flat for me. If you are a fan of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife you will enjoy this one.