This was a great academic thriller! I love stories with college friends with secrets. This one did not disappoint. I loved the storytelling and how the story unfolded. It was a bit of a slow burn, but totally rewarding at the end with all the twists that Stacy Willingham is known for. The writing was great and helped get through some of the slower parts. The main characters were pretty well developed and this helped to understand their motivations.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of this ARC which publishes 1/16/24

You can call me a fan of this author and Lifetime movies and fun to curl up with both. I could see it playing out and maybe predicted a few scenes, but I enjoyed it. The characters are not so likeable, so be patient and take it for the incredible college scenes within.
College students: Lucy, a ring leader; Sloane, sarcastic one; Nicole, a sweet one.....then there is Margot who has nothing in common with any of them. She is shy and tries to play it safe. She has been invited to live off campus with these other girls, although she has a hard time finding her place with anyone.
Margot has a death aura around her and everyone that encounters her suffers accidents or tragedies. Her best and only friend, Eliza, died after HS graduation. Now a fraternity boy next door to the girls has been murdered and Lucy has disappeared.
The tension builds in present day with a kickstart from the past leading up to the disappearance.
Margot's paranoia heightens when a boy from her HS moves in next door.
A lot of mind games in this one and loyalty disintegrates as betrayal and envy each play a part.
Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

Stacy Willingham has been hit or miss for me so far. This one was a hit! I love dark academia and the vibes of it in this one did it for me. Stacy does so well with intertwining past and present POVs that make it easy to follow while still being twisty enough to leave you guessing and trying to unravel what's happening. I really didn't guess the twist in this one either so that's always a win for a thriller in my book! Can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Only If You're Lucky has a different feel from Willingham's previous books, but once again delivers on the shocking twists. Although I found this slow to start, I was soon enthralled by the lives of these characters. Following Margot, and her new group of college friends, this book keeps you on your toes and constantly wondering what to believe.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I was beyond excited to get the chance to read this one because I loved A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham, and it did not disappoint!

Read if you like: mystery/thrillers set on a college campus, plots that deal with the dynamics of female friendships, and an unreliable narrater with a mysterious past. Reading this book truly felt like solving a puzzle. It was very moody and Willingham has such a great ability to describe situations and emotions in unique ways. There was so many interesting passages that reveal so much about each character in the book.

With that being said, my biggest critique is pacing. It felt like it took too long for interesting things to happen. So much of the book is reading passages where the protagonist is working things out in her head, which is interesting to read at some points, but there needed to be more action to drive the story forward, and I felt like there wasn’t enough until about 70% in. The last 30% of the book made up for that and I couldn’t put it down until the end. If you love a slow burn mystery, maybe the pacing wouldn’t bother you as much, but besides that, it was still really good and an enjoyable read.

Only If You’re Lucky is a great mixture of dark academia and thriller. While this one’s very different from the author’s previous novels I think she slayed it because I was absolutely hooked from the start. The book centers around Margot after the loss of her best friend who tragically died one night at a party. It was ruled and accident, but Margot thinks the boy her friend was seeing may have played a role in her death. Fast forward one year later and Margot is in school studying English when she meets the enigmatic Lucy. Lucy is everything Margot wants to be, so she not only befriends her, but she moves in with her and two other girls as well. What starts as a fun new situation thanks to the frat house next door and all the parties they attend quickly becomes more malevolent when the boy from her past suddenly joins the fraternity. And what happens next will shock readers to the core. The twist is fantastic, unexpected, and brilliant. I didn’t see it coming although I do suspect that some readers will. It may not be completely original but the lead up TO the twist is so I was excited!

One other thing to note about this book is that it’s more of a slow burn, character driven novel. Books like this are not for everyone but I do recommend it because I think the author did an amazing job telling this story.

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
❥ Dark Academia Thrillers
❥ Slow Burn/Character driven novels
❥ Riveting twists

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Margot is a freshman at a small college struggling with grief from the loss of her best friend. She spends the majority of her first year holed up in her dorm room with her roommate, admiring the popular girls from afar. But, right before the end of the year, Lucy Sharpe, the queen of the cool girls, invites Margot to move in with her and her friends. Margot decides to take a leap and say yes in honor of her lost friend, who she knows would have jumped at this chance.

Margot spends the summer with Lucy and her new roommates, and the boys from the frat house next door. Margot starts to recover from her grief and come into her own, but this new life and friendship is too good to be true. Just when she thinks things are turning around, the boy that came between her and her best friend, and the last person to see her alive, joins the fraternity and is always there.

This book had a lot of great twists and a complex plot with a great unreliable narrator. At its core, this book is about the complexities of female friendships. Another great read by Willingham, who is an author I will always read!

I loved the writing style of this one! It was very engaging and easy to follow along. But the twist fell extremely flat to me. I found myself guessing each twist and not being surprised by any of them. It somewhat ruined the book for me since it is a mystery/thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have come to love Stacy Willingham’s books. They keep me on my toes and keep me guessing. This is a great college-age, academic setting thriller that has plenty of twists and turns to keep you coming back. The narration for the audiobook is fantastic and I’d highly recommend it!

While I enjoyed the author’s writing style and I thought the premise was interesting, this one fell a bit flat for me. The twists were a little predictable but still one of the better parts of the book. I really did not like how the dual timelines were done. I’m fine with slow burns but it seemed unnecessarily slow at times. Thankfully the chapters were quite short. I didn’t personally connect to the characters, but I thought they were written realistically. The dynamic between Lucy and the other girls felt very “Pretty Little Liars” and I did enjoy how the author explored those relationships. Overall, not my favorite but still worth a read if you like this author’s writing!
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for providing this eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This thriller takes place at a small college in North Carolina where main character Margot has recently moved off campus with three new roommates. Margot feels an instant connection with the ringleader of the new roommates, Lucy, as she reminds her of her high school best friend who died shortly before they got to go to college together. However there is a big mystery of the book regarding why Lucy has now suddenly disappeared, shortly after the murder of a fraternity student who lives next door.

I had an uneasy feeling the whole time reading the book. The author did a good job of creating an uncomfortable atmosphere that had me questioning every character's intentions. The book has you questioning: how did Margot’s best friend from high school really die, how did the college student next door really die, and who really is Lucy, this person that Margot is growing so closely attached to?

I liked that this thriller/mystery centered around college age students as that is not something I typically see when reading thrillers. We got to see these people who are already at an age where everything is very uncertain - and now they have to deal with these very real life, big things happening like two deaths and a disappearance.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

This was a 3.5-4 star dramatic thriller. The book centered around a group of college kids before and after a crime took place. While the pace lagged at times, there were several good twists at the end that were unexpected and provided for a very good read. I did not find any of the characters extremely likable but the plot twists made the book extremely fun and satisfying.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

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

This was my first Stacy Willingham book, and it definitely won't be my last. This was a fun academic thriller, with crazy characters and some fun twists. However, while I enjoyed the story line, I felt like it was dragging a little. I also wish the ending was more shocking. Overall, not bad but not my fav.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫I loved this book. It’s about a group of friends in college. All of them are drawn to one of the girls, but, gradually, they all become suspicious of her. Then, a murder happens 👀
Def Recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. This was a slow burn thriller, about young adult collage age friendship and life in college. I liked it, but kept wondering when the reveals would occur. It was overall, a fun read.

Margot and Eliza are besties forever, they do everything together and don’t keep secrets from one another, until one does, and it impacts their friendship forever. A year later, Margot is starting college and history begins to repeat itself….

Loved the dark academia. Loved the twists. Loved the unlikeable characters (but there were A LOT to keep track of). Fun thriller.

After losing her best friend in a tragic accident the summer before college, Margot heads to college in small town south Carolina excited to start fresh, but still mourning her best friend she was supposed to room with. While there she befriends Lucy, an outgoing and mysterious girl in her hall, whom she eventually moves in with sophomore year, along with two other girls.

💕I loved Willingham's book A Flicker In The Dark so I had high hopes for this one, and it was pretty good! Slower in parts and definitely more character driven than action packed, but I felt it was super relatable which was fun in a sense. If you went to college in a small town, that was very traditional with frats and off campus housing, (S/O Miami of Ohio!) living with friends in run down little houses you rent and become besties with your neighbors through the back yard, you'll be able to picture this book perfectly. Willingham took al lot of this from her own experience at UGA and it really came to life with this book and brought me back to my college days and fond memories.

✨It flashes back to past and present, where you find out more about Margot in high school, and present day where there is a murder and a person missing. It was so different from her first two books and felt very YA/new adult. It was on the slower side but overall, I was interested to find how it ended. Wrapped up nicely with enough twists to surprise you but not give you whip lash from too much happening at once.

⭐️Not going on the favorites list but I still definitely recommend!
--THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR THE ADVANCED COPY!!

I’m a HUGE fan of Stacy’s first two books! They are some of my very favorite thrillers. Unfortunately this one did not live up to those two.

The first 60% of this book is slow. It picks up in the last 40% and REALLY picks up in the last 25%. There were a lot of twists I didn’t see coming. So I settled at 3.5 stars between the two different parts. I was hoping for more creepiness and mystery in the first half and it was lacking. It felt very YA, probably mostly because it was about girls at college living next to a fraternity house.

I’m still a huge Stacy fan and can’t wait for her next one but this one a bit of a disappointment for me. 😕

This book is gripping from the beginning, and fans of Ruth Ware and Gillian Flynn will enjoy it. After her best friend since kinder, Eliza, dies in a freak accident, Margot heads of to Rutledge by herself where she finds she doesn't seem to fit in. At the end of freshman year, she's approached by cool girl Lucy, asking her to be the 4th in their fraternity adjacent house. Margot can't believe her luck...why her? But Lucy is an enigma to say the least, with lots of secrets, narcissistic behavior, and manipulating like no other. Even her "friends" seem to keep her at arms length. Then, freshman Levi joins the fraternity and Margot can't believe it. The same Levi who became friends ( or maybe more) with Eliza right before she died is not here at Rutledge? And Lucy is intrigued. Who is Lucy really? What is she hiding? And is Margot who she claims to be? How far would you go to protect the ones you love? Lie? Cheat? Steal? Murder? Told in "before" and "after" timelines, this book is a page turner with twists galore. Not quite 5 stars for me, but more than 4!

Thank you NetGalley, McMillian and McMillian Audio for this ARC and ALC.

Stacy Willingham has a gift when it comes to integrating twists that the reader would not necessarily see coming. In her new release, Only If You're Lucky, she delivers yet another surprising twist that lovers of the thriller genre expect. Though the mood of this novel was at times reminiscient of young adult, a genre that is not one of my favorites, the true expertise of this author's plot construction comes at the end of the novel, where there are not one, but multiple twists. Bravo, Willingham.