Do you really know who your roommates are? This thriller is full of suspenseful twists and turns about four college roommates and some frat boys living together in side by side housing. Margot, the malleable one, is traumatized by the death of her best friend Eliza, and is drawn to Lucy, with a magnetic personality who is similar. But Simone and Nicole warn her, Lucy is not whom she seems. Each have a secret and are bound to each other with the desire to belong and be seen. As Lucy drives the narrative with her mind games of "Would you murder someone if you knew you could get away with it?", the girls try to deal with some unexpected trauma when one of them turns up dead. What happened? The narrative goes between the past and present, with juicy bits and details added to spice up this story of murder and mayhem. Fast-paced, I had to read this in one sitting because I could not put it down. Many thanks to #netgalley #onlyifyou'relucky #stacywillingham for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This twisty story was engaging and suspenseful from the very start! The characters were all morally grey and generally unlikeable. I love Willingham’s storytelling abilities and look forward to so much more! Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

A mind wrecking 3.5/5

It took me a bit to get into the book. It was switching from before to after, which confused me and took me a bit to get used to. It dragged on for a bit too long and gave unnecessary clues throughout the book.

When the book got good it was great but was also in the last 50ish pages. If you choose to read this, just know that it is a slow burn and then will blow your mind towards the end.

My thoughts on this one will be short and sweet.

It was fine. Not good but not bad. Kinda forgettable really. I was initially drawn in the story but it didn't hold my attention super well. By the halfway point, I was looking forward to finishing.

I've really enjoyed this author's previous books and will continue to read her upcoming books.

This book was definitely a slowwwwww burn, but I felt like it kept my attention with the suspense just enough to want to continue reading it. I did call one of the bigger twists about 30% in, so it was somewhat predictable, but the ending held a surprise for me. I enjoyed reminiscing college life, as all our characters attend Rutledge University. I found it interesting that the setting for the story was inspired by the author’s actual college experience. That was fun!

New book review: Only if You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham

Summary:

Margot is a new college student who becomes captivated by the charismatic Lucy Sharpe. She gets invited to live with Lucy and two other girls for her next semester. It seems like a dream come true being in a house with the popular girls next to a fraternity. But when a murder occurs next door and the Lucy is missing, the surviving girls in the house begin to get questions from the police.

My Thoughts:

I loved this one! Stacy Willingham is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! With some shades from Ruth Ware’s It Girl, this book takes its own twist on the popular girl on campus. The twists and turns this book takes makes any reader appreciate the art Willingham took into crafting this book!

Get yourself a copy of this book! I was lucky enough to receive an early copy from Netgalley in the fall of 2023, but it was recently released!

I am definitely a fan of Willingham, and this is my second book of hers I’ve read. This one took me quite a bit of time to get into but once I did, I was captivated by her character’s and writing. These flawed characters were so fascinating and I really enjoyed discovering their secrets and seeing how the book concluded! The mystery part of this really kept me turning those pages and the characters were so detailed that I felt as if I were watching them on the screen. I loved the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde parallels along with the notion of what constitutes a truly evil deed and whether it can be justified. While I would warn that this is a bit more of a slower burn than say, All the Dangerous Things, I think it is absolutely worth the read. Once you get about 60% in, I just couldn’t flip the pages fast enough, wanting to know how it would all play out. I also really loved her author’s acknowledgement regarding what parts of the story were real and what was fictional. Overall a really solid mystery! Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur for my gifted eARC!

Four college girls strike up a friendship led by the alpha of the group, Lucy. She has something that Margot finds irresistible, and she reminds Margot of her best friend Eliza who died three weeks after high school graduation. Eliza’s boyfriend, Levi, shows up at Margot’s college as a student and Margot can’t believe it. She never liked Levi and suspects he had something to do with Eliza’s murder. The four girls move into a home that is attached to the Kappa Nu fraternity. One of the fraternity boys is found dead and Lucy is missing.

This book is one of those over the top thrillers. At 85 percent on, I was rolling my eyes. The focus on intense college friendships made this feel really YA to me. I could not get into these characters at all. I think this would be a good pick for readers in their 20s and dedicated thriller lovers who don’t mind outlandish twists.

A dark and chilly look into female friendships.
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All eyes go to Lucy Sharpe on their college campus so when her eyes focus on Margot, a shy and studious freshman, she can’t believe her luck. Immediately she says yes to being Lucy’s roommate along with Sloane, the sarcastic one, and Nicole, the nice one. Together they live next to the biggest fraternity on campus. With Margot finally coming out of her shell and out of the grief that’s had a hold of her since her best friend died before high school graduation, she feels like she’s found her place. But seeing a blast from the past threatens to ruin the new life she’s made for herself. A murder occurs and Lucy turns up missing. How are all these events connected?
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This was…okay. I guessed most of the twists and wanted more of a resolution at the end than I got. I had heard this one wasn’t as good as her first two so I feel like that might have swayed my feelings going into it. Still a solid thriller for fans of the genre and the audiobook was well done. This book released this week!

CW: vomit, drug and alcohol abuse, grief, death, murder, gaslighting, sexual assault, drastic weight loss due to trauma, PTSD, adultery

🔥 Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham 🔥

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

💭 Thoughts:
If this book could be summed up in two words it would be SLOW BURN. 🔥 I loved the imagery and dark academia setting; however, I felt like it dragged until the last 25-30%. By the time I got to the end, the twists felt underwhelming. I wish they were sprinkled throughout instead of in bulk at the end of the story. I absolutely LOVED a Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things, so I recommend those two over this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve read all of this author and I will continue to do so! We meet Margot in her first year of college. She is shy and quiet. At the end of her freshmen year, Lucy Sharpe tells her she’s going to join her and her two friends, Nicole and Sloane living in a house over the summer and for the next school year. The house is owned by a fraternity and Nicole is dating the Fraternity president. Margot is taken with Lucy, she reminder her of her best friend, Eliza, who unexpectedly passed away. The four them become good friends and have a wonderful time together. During the middle of their sophomore year, one of the Fraternity brothers is found dead. Now Lucy is missing and no one can seem to find her.

This book was SO good. Willingham successfully layers the storylines together to fit perfectly. Reading this book was like peeling an onion, as I kept reading, so many things were revealed. I didn’t know where this book was going to go (and honestly, I requested it on NetGalley purely because of the author), but I really enjoyed where the author decided to take this book. It felt new; it felt different.

Each character had such an individual personality. You could even tell by their actions, without saying a name, who it was because of how distinct these girls were. No one is really who you think they are, and that’s the best part! There were so many twists and turns it was great!

I know that this has been described as a slow burn, and maybe it is a little bit in the beginning and the middle, but it quickly speeds up (at least it did for me). I don’t think that I would change anything about this book. I’m so glad that I read it!

Margot is in her freshman year at Rutledge University in South Carolina. A place she was supposed to be with her best friend but unfortunately, she died in an accident before they could get there together. Or was it an accident? Margot blames it on Levi, a boy that came between Margot and Eliza and was with her when she fell. Margot is at loose ends until she meets Lucy. Lucy is wild and in charge, a lot like Eliza in many ways, and seems to be just what Margot needs. She ends up moving in with Lucy, Sloane and Nicole, right next to a fraternity house. As time goes on, she starts to see different things about Lucy that make her pause but doesn't seem to keep her away. Little things she says are starting to get to Margot. Sloane warns her that Lucy likes to keep people dangling but Margot finds excuses for her all the time. And then, Levi shows up at the college and things change dramatically. Levi is murdered and Lucy is missing. Anyone would kill for the right reason or person, wouldn't they?

The story started to drag for me a bit but so picked up with the ending. Fantastic ending! I was reeling with the reveals! That is what lead me to the 4.5 stars.

Genre: Thriller

Format: Audio/E-book - thanks @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the complimentary copy!

4.25🌟 - I enjoyed it!

I love a campus thriller! This one was so fun. This felt like a lot of drama, more character-driven, and had more suspense building up to the plot! I felt really invested in the story and finished it within a a day!

Thank You to #NetGalley,,#Minotaur Books, #StacyWillingham for the free eARC #Only if you're lucky

Stacy Willingham has become a new favorite author. Her books usually have a lot of thriller and suspense, but this one is more mystery and drama. The first 100-200 page area a slow burn. The story can become confusing between the before and after and then all the characters. I liked some of the characters, but not all of them.

After her best friend Eliza dies weeks after graduation, Margo, heads off a liberal arts college in South Carolina. She is very shy, keeps to herself, and stays inside the little shell she has created for herself. Eventually larger than life, charismatic, bold, and center of the attention Lucy Sharpe notices her towards the end of freshman year.

Lucy asks Margo to be her roommate. She finds herself living in off-campus housing with Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole. Margo starts coming out or her shell and starts to share her trauma and become close friends with Lucy. Half-way through sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys living next door is murdered and Lucy goes missing. .
Will they ever discover the truth? Were their relationships real or fake? How well did they really know each other? Can the heal after everything they've been though.

Only If You’re Lucky is a wildly thrilling read. The whole story has such an eerie feeling - you know something is about to happen - and the anticipation of the climax of the story is fabulous. The characters are creepy with a setting even creepier. The twists came out of nowhere and left me stunned. Stacy Willingham’s books keep getting better and better.

I have posted this review on Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5970285377

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2NVtKDr0Zw/?igsh=MXBqdnc5MWMyazk3Nw==

And Amazon

I enjoyed this overall! The twist at the end was amazing. I enjoyed the characters, there were some parts that I found myself skimming with the amount of detail. Overall, I really enjoyed!

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

🤯🤯🤯🤯 this book blew my mind!! “only if you’re lucky” is a dark, twisty thriller, unsettling tale of female friendships, deception, lies and morality.

Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can't say no.

And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered... and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.

This was a slow burn but I found the alternating timelines of past and present incredibly intriguing. Highly recommend!!

Release Date: January 16th, 2024 - Out Now!

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for my free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I don't know what it is, but for some reason, Stacy Willingham's writing just "gets me." I found her stories to be so bingeable and different from each other in the best ways. I love the set up of this one and I found each character to be complex to the point where you can't wait to find out more by them. I found the "twist" to be very shocking and I think this may be my favorite.

I am so excited to discuss this book in my upcoming bookclub on my YouTube channel.

This is a phenomenal dark academia thriller centered around friendships and secrets. It was definitely a long slow burn, but I promise it is all worth it in the end! The twist shocked me, I didn’t see it coming. One great part of this book is that it is very character driven, to the point that I felt like I started to really know these people. The only drawback I found to this book was that the ending felt a little rushed.

This was the second Stacy Willingham book that I’ve read, and it will not be the last! Thank you so much to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.

I love a good dark and twisty novel, and this one definitely that. After a boring and safe first year at college, Margot becomes enamored with a girl on campus named Lucy Sharpe. Lucy has a magnetic personality and honestly reminds Margot of her best friend who passed away before college. The friend who was supposed to be there at school with her. When Lucy notices Margot at the end of the year and invites her to be their roommate, Margot is shocked but obviously can't resist. With little knowledge of pretty much anything except that this is a great opportunity to escape her boring (but sweet) roommate, she ends up in off campus housing with Lucy and two other friends Nicole and Sloane. All the while she continues to wonder how she was chosen by this clearly popular and self-assured girl who could have picked anyone to be her roommate. The house the girls live in is connected to a frat house on the other side of a shed in the backyard. The frat house/frat boys introduce a boy from Margot's past that she believes is responsible for her best friend's death. And when he ends up dead on a night out, many mysteries and secrets start to unravel.

The ending definitely requires some suspension of belief, and the novel was definitely pretty dark over all showing some not so pretty sides of college life. I also found the characters pretty unlikable over all. Themes explored are definitely heavy on the ideas of trust and betrayal. Who can we really trust? How far would we go to keep a secret?

Though I have not yet read any of Stacy Willingham's other novels I would be inclined to do so because this definitely kept me interested and wanting to find out what would happen next, though the characters and setting might not be my very favorite.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy to read and review.