Only if You’re Lucky is a compelling and suspenseful psychological thriller with all the twists! The story revolves around a group of friends who meet their freshman year of college. The four girls quickly become best friends and move in to an old house off campus that they rent from the fraternity that owns the house. As the girls get to know each other it becomes clear that one of them is lying about who she really is. As you get to know the girls better, it becomes clear that they all have secrets to hide.

This book explores the complexities of female friendship and has elements of a coming of age story. The plot has a nonlinear timeline and is a bit of a slow burn. The story reminded me of a Megan Miranda thriller. This is Willingham’s third novel. I have loved all three!

I switched between the audio and ebook. The audiobook is narrated by Karissa Vacker. I always love her narrations so I would recommend both!

Margot is a shy first-year student at her South Carolina university when she meets bold and magnetic Lucy Sharpe. When they become roommates for the summer, Margot breaks out of her shell, but when Lucy ends up missing and one of their friends is murdered, Margot begins to realize Lucy wasn’t who she said she was and there is so much more behind why Lucy befriended her.

Stacy Willingham writes amazing psychological thrillers so I was really excited to read Only If You’re Lucky. I love dark academia thrillers, and I really enjoyed this story of four college roommates, dark secrets, and a summer that will change all of their lives.

Margot, Lucy, and their friends were the girls we all loved to hate growing up. Their characters weren’t likable, but I was completely drawn into the sorority house feel this book gave me. While reading I had total Mean Girls meets Heathers vibes, and I was here for it! With that said, this book read a bit more YA than Willingham’s previous novels. As a big fan of YA thrillers, I was okay with that, but I can see others not enjoying it as much.

I loved the campus setting and the unreliable narrator worked so well for this story. The book is told in multiple timelines which was perfect. I enjoyed the past and figuring out what happened to Margot’s best friend, then the months leading up to Lucy’s disappearance, and finally the police investigation in the present. All of the timelines worked well and came together perfectly in the end.

The middle of the book dragged a bit, but I never lost focus and loved every single twist thrown in. I was surprised with the ending, and I’m not sure I would have ended it the way Willingham did, but overall I really enjoyed this book.

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

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted e-copy.

Only if You're Lucky is different from this author's previous two books, in that I wasn't quite hooked right away. We know that Margot is starting college after the death of her best friend Eliza a few months prior. She spends her freshman year holed up with her roommate, but then meets Lucy and everything changes. They move into a house next to a fraternity house and party a lot with the guys.

We also know someone died, and Lucy is missing.

The chapters bounce between present day, with the detective questioning Margot and her roommates to try to find out where Lucy is, the time leading up to Eliza's death, and the time leading up to this new death.

There are some pretty big twists at the end, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. I didn't necessarily see them coming (which is always good) but then I feel like it wrapped up pretty quickly.

This book was a fun binge read, and the perfect book to read during this stupid polar vortex.

3.5 and worth rounding up to 4! Not my favorite of her novels, but entertaining and enjoyable with some unexpected twists at the end that I was unable to predict ahead of time!

The twists and turns in this one gave me the best kind of whiplash. Lost track of all of the times I gasped out loud! I loved Willingham’s first two books, and enjoyed this one as well. The audiobook is narrated by one of my favorite narrators, @karissavacker .
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Margot has always been a bit of a wallflower, content to let a best friend shine, with hopes of being swept up in her glow. When magnetic Lucy Sharpe notices Margot and asks her to move in with her and two friends at the end of their freshman year of college, Margot jumps at the chance. Lucy is the sun that everyone seems to revolve around. She reminds Margot of her best friend from high school, who died tragically. A trauma that Margot has worked hard to leave in the past. But when one of the fraternity guys in their friend group is brutally murdered at a party, Margot’s traumatic past begins to catch up to her. How well does she truly know these guys and girls? And will the murderer be caught before striking again?
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Part psychological thriller, part dark academia, Willingham grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. I couldn’t read it fast enough! I loved her exploration of female friendships. Vacker blew me away again with another stunning narration. Thank you @macmillan.audio @minotaur_books for the ARCs!
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Only if You’re Lucky- Stacy Willingham
4.5/5⭐️
Pub Date: 🎉Today!🎉
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“I don’t like the way he says that—Girls—like we’re children being scolded. Some words should be ours to own, at-times-vicious yet tender terms of endearment we toss around like glitter that suddenly taste sour in the mouths of men.”

Margot leaves for college in the wake of losing her best friend, and before long finds herself entangled in the enigmatic Lucy’s world. Lucy invites Margo to live next to a fraternity, whose pledges include Margot’s deceased best friend’s boyfriend, Levi. Only if You’re Lucky hinges on a murder, and is told in before and after timelines. Who is responsible? And would you murder someone if you knew you’d get away with it? Would you lie for your friends if it was them?

3.5 stars. This twisty campus novel kept me guessing, and I really enjoyed the exploration of friendship, jealousy, and secrets. The characters felt a little thin at times- especially the roommates Nicole and Sloane. With such big twists, it would have helped to have stronger connections to their motives.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for review!

Another fantastic book/story by Stacy Willingham. Great characters. Great story flow. Definitely recommend!!

Thank you #netgalley and #minotaur books for the eARC.

AUDIOBOOK ARC REVIEW
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Read How: 🎧
Narrator: Karissa Vacker
Setting: South Carolina


Even though I didn't finish this book however I read enough to have an opinion.
Majority of this book nothing NOTHING was happening other than partying, playing games, and drinking. Margot was a terrible friend which honestly didn't affect how I feel about this book because I like terrible main characters. I just wish everything wasn't drawn out so much.
I also think the transition between the timelines didn't happen smoothly.
I did listen to the audiobook and I didn't mind the narrator.

Thank you, NetGalley, St Martins Press, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book/audiobook in exchange for an honest review

Stacy Willingham’s writing is phenomenal! It has a way of sucking you in from the very first page and won’t let you go until the very end. Even then, it’ll have you up all night thinking about what you just read.

One thing I will say about this book is you need to go into it blind! That ending was NOT what I was expecting and it was great! The beginning was a little slow but it started picking up and I was immediately hooked. I loved the gothic academia feel this story had and I enjoyed the before and now POV’s.

If you love toxic friendships with murder then I highly recommend picking this one up! This beauty is out now! Thank you so much to Minotaur and Netgalley for the e-arc!

Only If You're Lucky (ARC)
Stacy Willingham
3.5⭐️

Again, another one of my most anticipated reads this year that unfortunately didn't take hold of me. I'm just so sad!

This book started off really interesting to me. Enough to obviously keep me going. But maybe around 20% of the book, it started stagnating. It's still interesting because of the premise- like what really happened to Eliza, Levi and Lucy. But how it was written and presented was not as compelling to me as I want it to be. I think the frat/college scene was just too mundane. It was just okay. It picks up by around 60%. I did get thrown off several times about what actually happened and who did what! Honestly did not expect the actual plot to turn out this way so that took hold of my attention. However, the way it ended was also not as satisfying.

I struggled reading and finishing this book. I could not be bothered to pick it back up except I did out of obligation because it was an ARC generously given to me. I do wish I liked this a lot more.

Thank you @minotaurbooks and @macmillan.audio for my gifted book. My thoughts are my own.

As Margot is mourning the death of her high school best friend, Eliza, she reluctantly goes off to a small college in South Carolina. Margot struggles through her freshman year and even though her roommate is nice, she is not Eliza. At the end of her freshman year, Lucy Sharpe notices Margot and invites her to live in a house she shares with 2 other girls. The house is owned by a fraternity and the girls can live there inexpensively because one of them has a boyfriend in the fraternity. As Margot becomes almost obsessed with Lucy, she is stunned when Eliza’s boyfriend Levi moves into the frat house next door and Lucy becomes involved with him. Before the end of the school year, Lucy goes missing and one of the frat boys next door is murdered.

I don’t usually enjoy novels that take place during college (unless I am reading a YA book), but I did enjoy this one. The slow-burn story unfolds through alternate timelines and we gradually learn surprising truths about all the main characters. The conclusion is stunning.

I enjoyed this one but if you have not read this author, I recommend you start with A Flicker in the Dark or All the Dangerous Things first.

Thank you Minotaur Books for the advanced digital copy!

Okay, I’ll be honest, this one started off slow. There was a lot of building things up and I just wanted things to start happening. And then they did. There’s a lot of red herrings, which I expected because I feel like that’s kind of the author’s MO, but the twists were solid and did not disappoint. Margot’s internal critiques and insecurities felt way too familiar to early college Cait and let’s just say I’m glad things worked out differently for me 😂

While I think the book probably could’ve been more engaging in the beginning and definitely could’ve have gotten the same effect in less pages, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who loved Flicker In The Dark or likes stories where you don’t know who to trust.

While I was sucked into this storyline immediately, it is more of a “slow burn” psychological thriller.

The story is told from the POV of Margot, a shy girl who has been described as bland and boring. She is befriended by an outgoing, free spirited girl in college named Lucy. Margot can’t figure out why, but she is so desperate to belong that she doesn’t question it when Lucy invites her to move into the extra room at her house, which is connected to Kappa Nu (a frat house).

Margot had been through a lot recently, between the death of her best friend and not making any new friends in her freshman year, so she jumped at the chance to accept Lucy’s offer.

Everything is going great until a person from her past shows up in that very same group of friends - the person she blames for her best friend’s death.

The characters are all young, irresponsible and unreliable. They are constantly partying, doing drugs, stealing, etc. One of the worst offenders was Lucy, yet all the girls in the house are completely drawn to her. It’s interesting to watch as she played games with them and I was intrigued on why they wanted to be friends with her when it seemed like all of them had their suspicions about her.

The story takes many twists and turns and I didn’t see a lot of them coming until they were right in my face. There’s a lot of suspense and anticipation with wanting to know what the heck happened and guessing how things would turn out in the end. Stacy Willingham does an amazing job at leaning into the psychological thriller aspect, and really makes you get into the minds and psyche of these characters.

The story goes back and forth between past and present timelines. One complaint I have is that sometimes it was a little hard to follow on which chapter was past and which was present since it was only listed at the beginning of some of the chapters and not all.

Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and Stacy Willingham for the advanced copy!

Stacy Willingham does it again!! Every time I pick up a new book from Stacy, it’s better than the last.

The entire time I was following the story (I read along and listened), I was trying to figure out what was going on. I knew I wasn’t going to guess the exact details, but the way it was unfolding was very easy to follow and make guessing. Stacy gave us all the pieces of the puzzle with the final picture, but let us put it together chapter by chapter. I LOVED it. I was invested in the MC’s role and story, wanting her to tell me more and as much as possible.

The twists felt effortless! I didn’t feel the story became too much or unrealistic. Everything fell into place perfectly. Highly recommend.

Thanks so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Willingham's three books have been completely different: an atmospheric serial killer book, a moody domestic mystery, and now, with Only If You're Lucky, a book that feels almost young adult. Set in college, Only If You're Lucky looks at female friendship plus a lot of teen toxicity and dysfunction.

The characters are unlikeable, the setting is evocative. I found it odd yet very compelling!

I had such high hopes for this book because I LOVED A Flicker in the Dark. I received an ARC copy of this book and started it a few days ago. This book focuses on a group of friends who are living in a house owned by the fraternity next door. Although, these girls seem to have the perfect friendship, we all know that can't last. United by the outgoing, Lucy, all 3 of the other girls find out that they were all chosen for a reason.

This is a good choice, if you are looking for a simple mystery "who done it" kind of thriller. I gave this book 3 stars because at times it was hard for me to pick up. Willingham's other books are such page turners that I thought this would be similar. However, because of the back and forth of the "before" and "after" I found it a little dull and not as interesting. The book get's good about 80% of the way through and I personally didn't guess the twist!

Overall, a decent read and I'm still going to keep this author on my auto-buy list.

This is one of my most anticipated books of the year. I listened to the audiobook for All the Dangerous Things and absolutely loved it. So, I was beyond excited by the opportunity to read an advance copy of Only If You’re Lucky. If you enjoyed Stacy’s other books I think you’ll like this one too. It’s dark academia and filled with secrets, lies, suspense, twists, and turns. Wow. Just wow. So much I didn't see coming. I'm planning to grab the audiobook for a reread.

Congrats Stacy for bringing us another thriller to add to our TBR! I have a love/hate with the college/dark academia genre. There are just too many unlikeable stereotypical characters involved. Often times the plot is also very predictable: frat parties, heavily drinking, murder, secrets, etc. Overall, I did enjoy it but definitely had some minor flaws in my opinion.
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For starters, I did find Margot’s inner monologue beyond repetitive. It was strangely obsessive and really made me dislike Margot for making a whole other person her personality. It felt really one dimensional for a min character, which might be Stacy’s point to begin with.
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I did enjoy all the plot twists though! I didn’t predict a lot of them. With this genre there is only so many ways it can go soooo I was happy with the ending and where Stacy took it.
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Overall, I’d place it at number #3 of her books:
1. A FLICKER IN THE DARK
2. ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS
3. ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY
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𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 @𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘳_𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 @𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘤.

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

Margot’s first year of college was a far cry from what she hoped it would be - dealing with the loss of her best friend Eliza who was supposed to be there with her has Margot on the sidelines. That is until magnetic, charming Lucy invites her to live off campus with her and Nicole and Sloane. Lucy loves to push the boundaries and frequent games of truth and dare are taking Margot out of her comfort zone in more ways than she could imagine. Until a part of her old life collides with this new college existence in unexpected ways…

This was a slow burn dark academia story of complexities or friendships that morphs into more of a twisty thriller in the last third of the book. Margot was not necessarily relatable but that did not impact my enjoyment of the story - relationships were at the heart of it and storytelling really pulled me in. Multiple timelines, including police investigation aspect of the story, had me in a “just one more chapter” mode.

Grab this one if you enjoy:
✏️ twisted female friendships
✏️ college setting
✏️ slow burn
✏️ great character development
✏️ beautiful covers 🫶

A huge thank you to @netgalley @minotaurbooks for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book - I read it in one sitting! Who is Lucy Sharpe? But more so, who is Margot? I found Margot to be such a complex character - I didn't know if I could trust her narration or version of events. She seems to idolize Eliza and then Lucy wanting to be more like them but she also seems judgmental of their decisions. The relationship between Lucy and Margot is interesting. And I just wanted to hug Nicole...

It felt realistic to have 4 very different people live together as roommates while in college and trying to fit in without getting too carried away and losing yourself.