I am a Willingham fan, so I knew I would want to read this one.

Margot spends her first year of college hiding in her room after the unexpected death of her best friend Eliza. When popular girl on campus Lucy asks her to move in for the summer, she decides to take Lucy up on the offer and make some changes. The off campus house is located next to a fraternity, and Margot gets blindsided when Levi - Eliza's boyfriend - starts rushing that fraternity. Levi's appearance seems to jumpstart questions about Eliza, and Margot is concerned when Levi and Lucy start to form a close relationship.

The book shifts time periods between Now and Before. As readers, we know in the Now that someone has died and someone has disappeared, but we don't yet know exactly what the situation is. This book is very much a slow burn, driven more by character development than by actions moving the plot along. There were times when I almost forgot that I was trying to get to the bottom of a mystery and I was just invested in reading about the characters.

I enjoyed this book, but I took a star away because it felt like the book was a little longer than it needed to be in order to develop the story and the characters. If you're already a fan of Willingham or if you love a character-driven thriller, this one might be for you.

I really wanted to like this, but finishing the book was a struggle. I did love the premise and thought the story would be a slam dunk, but I was so bored. The first 80% of the book drags. Margot is insufferable as a main character. This book would have benefited from multiple POVs since the main character was so weak. I loved her first two books, so this is a disappointment.

Stacy Willingham is one of my favorite authors and was very excited to read this one. The college setting filled with secrets and lies was very fun! Some of the twists I did feel were predictable but still an enjoyable read!

This was more of a drama than it was thriller. Lots of character development. A little bit slower at times. I never knew I could like academia so much. That ending I don’t think anybody could ever see coming. I thought I knew what was going to happen and never would I have seen that twist come.

Another winner from Willingham. This is a great beach read thriller. I did not see the twists coming. I read a lot of thrillers and it’s hard to fool me. This had all the ingredients for a great read. Good character development, good plot and great twists. I will be recommending this one!

I absolutely loved this author’s previous two thrillers. Unfortunately, this one was not for me. I found the plot pretty boring and had trouble getting through it. I never connected to any of the characters. The ending had some action and twists I enjoyed.

This was way too slow to be a thriller, and it felt very young adult to me. Nothing really happens until the end, so it's just another waste of time to be let down.

This one was just average for me. I have really liked Stacy Willingham's previous books but this one was just OK. I felt Lucy was too over the top and Margot was flying way too under the radar. I had a hard time believing they would be friends. I think that's why it was just OK.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy.
Rutledge University is a small liberal arts school in South Carolina and it where Lucy, Margot, Sloan and Nicole all meet each other and form a friendship their Sophomore year. Margot is shy and quiet and dealing with the death of her best friend from back home 2 years prior, it was deemed an accident but Margot has doubts about Levi, Eliza's boyfriend. Levi attends Rutledge and is found dead at a Fraternity party one night and Lucy has gone missing.
You need to read the first chapter and Chapter 54 onward, the rest of the book is repetitive and is only setting the stage for the last 25% of the book.

Toxic female friendships meet mystery in this thriller by Stacy Willingham.

Our main heroine Margot, mourning the death of her best friend, is enamored with the vivacious Lucy who invites Margot into her friend circle by living with them in off campus housing. What follows is a dead frat boy and the disappearance of Margot's newest best friend, Lucy. This is a very slow burn thriller that doesn't really ramp up until the final act. It's a bit boring to be inside Margot's head as she's navigating her grief, new friendships, college, and trying to solve this mystery.

While this is marketed as a thriller, which it most certainly is, it would be better served to be marketed as a YA thriller. The characters are young and the story suffers a bit for it. I don't know of any college girls who sit around playing spin the bottle with frat boys.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Loved this book!!! This is my 3rd book by this author and one of my favorites! did not see the end coming. It had so many little twists and puzzle pieces throughout the story that perfectly fit together into the final reveals. It perfectly captured deep female friendships that are built based on a power dynamic so well. How the personalities all add into one another, and how things get messy if someone goes against the leader. The author wrote amazing characters with so many different layers in this book - making it such an enjoyable read that all tied together in the end. Another added detail I liked was that part of it took place in the Outer Banks.

I absolutely love Stacy Willingham and this book was no exception. I loved every twist and turn the author took us through and can’t wait for what the author does next.

This is a tough book to review, because while I liked it, I didn’t love it, and it felt very different from the author’s previous work. I really enjoyed All the Dangerous Things (and A Flicker In the Dark is in my to-read pile), but I struggled with Only If You’re Lucky. This is a very slow-burn, character driven novel, and the lack of tension and urgency unfortunately made this a bit of a slog. I also felt this was a bit overlong and maybe could’ve been trimmed or tightened up a bit. However, I do enjoy Willingham’s writing and ultimately I liked how everything came together in the end. I’ll still be reading anything she writes in the future, even though this wasn’t a favorite.

ONLY IF YOU'RE LUCKY is a dark and chilling look into female friendships, the lies we tell, the secrets we keep and how much we can ever know those closest to us. It kept me engaged and I stayed up WAY too late to finish the story because I needed to know how it ended!

"Only If You're Lucky" by Stacy Willingham is a riveting and intense thriller that will keep readers hooked from beginning to end. The story follows a young woman who becomes entangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a cunning and manipulative killer. Willingham's expertly crafted plot twists and turns will keep you guessing until the very last page. With its fast-paced action and suspenseful moments, this book is a must-read for fans of the thriller genre.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview and advanced copy of Only If Your Lucky. The opinion's expressed below are my own and this is my honest review.

Overall I enjoyed Stacey Willingham’s newest book, Only If Your Lucky. I previously read and enjoyed A Flicker in the Dark and All The Dangerous Things, so I went into this one with some idea of what I expected, but was surprised to find myself amidst a slow burn thriller, I did enjoy the story overall, but felt as though I were reading a YA/new adult story as opposed to adult fiction and think had I not had my own preconceived notions about what to
expect, I likely would have enjoyed it more. It wasn’t bad, just not what I’d expected.

This is the third book that I have read by Stacy Willingham. The first two were A Flicker In The Dark and All The Dangerous Things and I really enjoyed them both and highly recommend! However, this one was a slow burn for me that seemed geared more towards a younger audience with not a lot of suspense as the previous two that I have read. In this book there were little clues here and there that left you wondering why was that mentioned, but in the end it all made sense and wrapped up as a great ending. In my opinion, if the ending, which was more suspenseful, was consistent throughout the book, it would have been better. Thank you NetGalley, St, Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, and the author for an ARC of this book!

This book did not feel like the same author of a flicker in the dark or all the dangerous things, but it could have been the environment for me. I still really liked it - and i do love books set in college (ahh takes me back to another time)
I was really surprised by the twist but i figured at some point there would be a connection! It did feel a little slow at times, which is why it was 4 instead of 5 stars!

LOVED this book! Can’t stop recommending it to friends and family, campus thrillers are a particular favorite genre of mine and this didn’t disappoint plus I loved the toxic female friendship theme.

3.5 STARS

Only If You’re Lucky was one of my most anticipated thriller releases of 2024 after reading and loving both of Stacy Willingham’s two previous novels. I would probably consider this one to be my least favourite of the three, but there was a lot I enjoyed in this one! I loved the dark academia vibes and college setting which was so vivid to me. There were a lot of characters, most of them were unlikeable, but it made for some drama.

I did find the first half of the book to be slow as it felt more character driven and building up the story. As a result, I wasn’t pulled into the story very quickly. That being said, once I got just past the halfway mark, I couldn’t put this one down! There was action, secrets being uncovered and a few twists. Some of the reveals I didn’t necessarily find surprising, but there were also some that I didn’t expect.

Overall, I like this one and rated it 3.5 stars. This is definitely not my favourite by this author but I will still keep reading all her work! If you are looking for a slower burn, dark academia mystery with a college setting with themes of friendship at the core, check out Only If You’re Lucky!

Thank you NetGalley, St.Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for the e-arc in exchange of an honest review.