Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of "Only If You're Lucky" by Stacy Willingham.

I loved Willingham's first two novels and was excited to check out her upcoming one- unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one nearly as much as her others.

Meet Margot, a college student, who's best friend Eliza died 3 weeks after high school graduation. It's the end of freshman year, and Margot meets Lucy, and moves in with her and 2 other girls immediately. They grow close throughout the year, but drunk college students are only fun when you're one of them making all the bad choices, otherwise they tend to be predictable, tedious disasters and unlikeable- there are soooo many horrible characters in this book. We spend entirely too much time inside Margot's head, hearing the SAME obsessive thoughts repeatedly. The first half of this novel was too much of a slow burn and NOTHING happened. The second half picked up and was enjoyable, with a few surprising (and a few predictable) twists.

3 stars, because of the ending.

Let me start by saying, I absolutely loved Stacy Willingham's two previous books. They both were top reads for me last year. From my understanding, Only if You're Lucky is considered dark academia, which this would be my first read in that genre.

I was very interested in Margot and Lucy. I immediately knew that Levi wasn't the culprit but had an idea that Lucy and Eliza did have some ties. Margot came off very naive and low-key obsessive. She seemed to be easily influenced and was very attached to her friend group. Its like she didn't have much of a personality outside of her friends.

The story was a slow burn for sure. The last 15-20% did pick up just a little bit. I found the story to be redundant in several parts. For instance, the before were from the same view. I think had their been different viewpoints in the before, after and present, it may have come together a bit better for me. Maybe POVs could have been from Levi, Lucy, and Margot.

Overall, I do think the story was interesting. I wanted to read it to find out how it all ended. I was underwhelmed with the ending, but then again, I was kind of expecting it. The writing was done very well.

I will continue to support Ms. Willingham. I look forward to seeing what she puts out next. This just wasn't the book for me, but I do think that its a great introduction into thrillers and maybe even dark academia.

I rated this book 3 stars on goodreads. I'm between a 2.5/3 star with it overall.

Once again, Stacy Willingham has written a book that I was so excited to get my hands on. She has such a way of developing characters and twists, and I did not see this one coming (as unbelievable as it was).

Willingham's writing is so beautiful and the tension throughout the book kept me on the edge of my seat. This slow burn isn't like her other novels, so reader beware. It did have interesting characters and a fun setting, but I couldn't convince myself to love it as much as her other books.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e ARC of Only If You're Lucky!

Thank you to NetGalley, Stacy Willingham and St Martin’s Press for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t know quite what I feel about this one yet. I read it and I felt like I wasn’t that into it, but I read it in two sittings. The ending had a stellar twist and I liked the variety of characters. So I think I liked it mostly

This is another great campus/academic thriller from Stacy Willingham, although it is definitely more of a slow burn than her other books. I wasn’t a huge fan of the main character, Margot, but her naïveté was exactly what was needed to move the plot along. I enjoyed how the book was divided into multiple time periods (past, before the “event”, and after), because it gave us enough detail while also keeping us wanting more. The last third of the book is one plot twist after another, and I honestly did not see any of it coming! Also, can we take a moment for the cover? 🤩🤩

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read before pub day on January 16th!

I absolutely loved Stacy’s first two books and this one didn’t disappoint. Although it’s not as fast paced, it’s still a solid story that keeps you on your toes. The exploration into female friendships was excellent and took me back to my college years. It’s amazing what lengths girls will go to to protect each other. I really enjoyed the jump between timelines and how everything was revealed. I’m not usually a reader who tries to figure out what’s going on. I enjoy the reveals as they come, but something about this story made me want to figure it out. I couldn’t, and I’m so glad. It was such a satisfying ending. Because of the pacing of this story, I think it’s best experienced on audio.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan audio for advanced copies. My thoughts are my own.

📕Friendships are creation of luck. If you are lucky, you’ll find one who will love you, protect you, cherish you, not abuse you, and not use you. Your paths will be crossed by luck. If you are good at reading people, you’ll figure out whether your friend is giving you what you give to him/her or not. If the latter, you’ll end it.
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📗Friendships are compatibility. You don’t make friends with people you think you have nothing in common. It’s hard to make those work. But sometimes someone comes to you and makes you their friend. You won’t think you are meant to be friends with this person but it happens. Those friendships, beware of them! That’s what happened to Margot
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📘Lucy took Margot by surprise when she wanted to be friends with her. Lucy wanted Margot to be her roommate. She introduced Margot to a different world she wouldn’t care for because Margot lost her best friend. Even being at college without her best friend was too much for her. Lucy, though, she was different than everyone and Margot was slowly going to realize you wouldn’t be randomly chosen for a friend by a queen bee

3.5 stars! Willingham is back with another enjoyable binge! 🙌🏼 ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY is different than her other books— it feels more like a YA mystery/drama than a fast-paced thriller, and is heavily character driven vs plot driven. knowing this may have helped me cope a little better with the slow start, since it wasn’t until about 70% of the way through the book that i felt truly invested! but from then on, i couldn’t put it down! 👀👏🏼

if you’ve ready any of her work, you know that Willingham is an amazing writer— and that stays true here!! i loveee her storytelling. plus she always gives multiple twists & keeps things unpredictable. although i prefer her other two books over this, she’s for sure an autobuy author for me!

thank you netgalley & Minotaur books for the eARC, i really appreciate it!

ONLY IF YOU'RE LUCKY by Stacy Willingham

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy. This book is out 1/16.

Looking back, I've rated all 3 of Stacy Willingham's books that I've read 4/5 stars. Guess I pretty consistently love them!

Eliza and Margot are best friends, Margot's timid personality balancing Eliza's daring nature. The summer before the girls leave for college, Eliza dies, and things aren't as straight forward as they seem. Margot meets a group of friends at college, falling into their house and routines easily. One of the girls, Lucy, reminds Margot of Eliza, but Margot is determined to do things differently this time. Except a fraternity pledge dies, and Lucy was the last one to see him alive.

This book reminded me of Pretty Little Liars in the way that there is a group of girls keeping secrets and hindering a murder investigation. Lots of lies and lies of omission, and blackouts from drinking, both which make it trickier to figure out who is the bad guy.

I related to the setting- I lived off campus in college, I was in a sorority, so all of those pieces felt familiar to me. Thankfully nothing like this happened during our years there! However, I found it hard to relate to any of the characters. I found the character of Margot annoying and slightly obsessive. Lucy was manipulative and not a good friend. Sloane and Nicole were wishy washy... just an overall meh cast.

As for pacing, the first half of the book was a little slow, then the second half was a pretty unbelievable. I don't want to go into details and spoil anything. I did read it in 24 hours, but I was recovering from the stomach bug, so not able to do much else.

Margot and Eliza are childhood best friends who plan to room together their freshmen year of college. But tragedy strikes three weeks after their senior graduation leaving often-overlooked Margot alone to navigate college. Fortunately Margot finds herself paired up with Maggie, her equally overlooked roommate, who is happy to stay in, snacking, while binge watching one show after the other.

Having completed her freshmen year, Margot plans to settle in with Maggie and find a place on campus to live together. Until....she is approached by Lucy. Lucy who reminds Margot so much of Eliza - the childhood best friend who died three weeks after graduation. Lucy, like Eliza, is larger-than-life, and easily grabs the attention of those around her. It's only natural that Margot is drawn to her and readily accepts a totally unexpected and out of the blue invitation by Lucy to live with her and her two friends, Sloane and Nicole.

The long summer after freshmen year leads to fun evenings drinking and spending time with the boys in the frat house next door. Then Levi inexplicably shows up - the one whom Margot holds responsible for Eliza's death. Levi watched Eliza through his bedroom window at her most personal moments; Levi broke into Eliza's family home when they were gone just to be in her bedroom, in her space, to be near her. And now Levi is zeroing in on another friend of Margot's, Lucy.

I really enjoyed this and didn't want to stop reading once I started! Anything that keeps me super engaged and guessing from beginning to end will always be a five out of five star and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED read for me!

Thank you NetGalley, Stacy Willingham, and Minotaur books for the opportunity to read this ahead of its anticipated release date - January 16th - in exchange for a candid review! It was a pleasure to read such an amazing book that will be released on my birthday!

I think this is my favorite Stacy Willingham book yet! I loved the collegiate setting and atmosphere created by this house (which she talks about in her Acknowledgements) and had a lot of fun learning about these characters and how they're all intertwined. I think I did myself a big service by taking notes on the characters and plot points, because they came together in a very satisfying way at the end that I think would be much less satisfying if readers don't keep everything and everyone straight throughout. Definitely some things were convenient and a little unbelievable, but in my opinion that comes with the territory of mystery/thrillers and especially young-adult / college-aged thrillers like this one. Overall I think it did what it was setting out to do and I had a fun time reading it!

I loved Flicker in the Dark by Willingham so when I saw this one on NetGalley I knew I wanted it. Unfortunately, Only If You're Lucky didn't hit like FITD. The story/plot itself was okay but felt a little unnecessarily convoluted at the end. And I think I could have gotten the whole idea of the book with about 100 less pages. It just didn't really get interesting until the last 30% for me. Also, I found the MC pretty annoying. All of that said, there was a found family aspect and that's one of my favorite themes so that was fun to read and some of the twists came together nicely. Altogether not a bad read, just a little slow and fluffed up for my taste.

Margot, a shy college student, is drawn into the bold and dangerous world of Lucy Sharpe when Lucy invites her to room together. Living with Lucy and two other girls, Margot begins to break out of her shell, but their lives take a dark turn when a fraternity boy is murdered and Lucy goes missing.

This was a slow paced thriller but left enough intrigue and mystery to always have me at the edge of my seat. I typically don't like to guess the twists but with slower thrillers, my mind tends to wander..and I was surprised at where it went. Not at all what I had thought.

Read if you like...
dark academia vibes
eerie settings
female friendships
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
whodunit murder
twisty endings.

I was also super interested in the author's note at the end where Stacy talks about which parts of the story are true to her life.

Thank you to NetGalley and mintour books for an e-arc exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 stars

Synopsis: Margot starts at Rutledge after the death of her best friend that should have joined her looking for a fresh start. Instead she gets into a group of friends that provides more than just a fresh start.

What I liked: this is my first book by the author after hearing such praise for a flicker in the dark and such dangerous things. I can understand the praise because the twists in the book were really good. I loved them and kept turning the pages. However I felt that the first and middle part of the book dragged a little. There was a lot of details about the environment and events that I didn’t think needed to be added. I liked the characters but wanted more of them especially Levi and Nicole. I kept feeling like more context about them would help.
Overall I think the twists were amazing but the pace was a little slow. I would like to read more from this author as I can tell she is a talented writer.

Everyone is obsessed with Lucy. She is magnetic and can get you to do anything...maybe even murder.

This is a college based thriller centered around meek Margot and her attraction to larger than life personalities Eliza and Lucy, who share striking similarities in their ability to illicit borderline obsession for Margot. Shared from Margot's POV in the past with Eliza and the future where Lucy is missing, you see a story come together that you won't know what to believe. There are some red herrings distributed throughout this story, and you know something went down with the main characters, but you're piecing it together until the very end. Around the middle the pacing bogged down significantly, and I kept going hoping the end reveal would be worth it. It wasn't the most shocking, but it was interesting to see how the pieces fell into place.

Thank you so much to the publisher for my eARC! All thoughts are my own.

I have never read this author and have been wanting to give her books a try. So I was thrilled to get an advanced copy of her newest booK! Sadly I had to DNF this one but I think the problem is me. I am almost 20 years older than the characters in this book and just had a really hard time relating to them and their college lifestyle. I was definitely young and crazy (a long time ago-ha!) but the age gap kept me from really investing in the story. I do think this one will be a big hit and I am excited to dive into the author's backlist!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and Stacy Willingham for this ARC to read and review!

I feel like this book moves a little slower than Stacy’s other books (which I absolutely loved and 100% recommend!) … but even tho the pace was a little more subtle .. the story will grab you! The entire thing is shrouded in dark mystery … with shadowy secrets looming in the background building up the suspense of truth being revealed page after page. I was constantly waiting for the bomb to drop! Everyone of these characters are a hot mess and you just don’t know where they all connect and where it will all lead … until finally you do and it leaves you with your jaw on the floor! Whoa! Another solid thriller from Stacy!

Aw I wanted to love this one since I loved Willingham's previous books, but it was underwhelming all around. The pace was slow and repetitive, and the action didn't pick up until the last third of the book.

I liked the college setting and the girls living next door to a frat house, and the alternate timeline helped piece together how our characters got where they are. Unfortunately the character development was lacking as I didn't love or hate any of them enough to really care about the outcomes.

Not a favorite for me, but if you like an unreliable narrator and story of complex female friendships you may enjoy this one.

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Genre: thriller, mystery
Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫 (2.5/5 stars)
Format: ebook

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, it didn’t do it for me.

Likes:
- college setting
- dual timeline (before and after)
- mysterious characters
- SOME of the twists
- short chapters

Dislikes:
- SLOW build up (didn’t pick up until over 60%)
- unbelievable, too convenient ending
- wasn’t invested in the story
- most of the twists didn’t feel very shocking

I almost DNFed at 85% because I realized I didn’t really care what happened.

I think some may like this, but if you’re a big thriller reader like me, it will probably fall a bit flat.

Thank you so much for my eARC from Minotaur Books in exchange for my honest review!

A book that kept on giving. Full of plot twists and turns that I should be expecting but did not see coming!

This book was absolutely fascinating to read! The characters were complex and interesting, the writing style super easy and with a very nice flow! I wanted — no, needed — to know what next!

Who did it? And why?

I love me a book that keeps me on the edge of my seat at all times and this one was it!

Absolutely recommend if you’re interested in murder mysteries/thrillers!