I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive an advance copy of Only if you’re lucky. Willingham’s previous two novels were both a five star read for me so I was ecstatic to read this one. This book took me by surprise, I didn’t expect it have a slow pacing. I don’t think I would classify this book as a thriller, more so a mystery. I enjoyed the flashbacks throughout the book to better understand Margot. I do think some parts were a bit repetitive in terms of Margot’s obsession with Eliza and then again with Lucy. I love that Willingham tackles the topic of toxic female friendships. Overall I did enjoy the ending and all the twists along the way. All the loose ends were tied up in the end.

If you’re looking to pick this up I would advise looking up the trigger warnings.

Thank to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great book about complicated, co- dependent, toxic, destructive female friendships.

This is a perfectly good story until you get just over halfway through. Then... it's fabulous! You know how sometimes, the ending ruins a book? Well, I LOVED this wrap up!

Margot is a college student that has been through a lot. Her best friend dies, she struggles to relate to her parents... it's tough. Enter Lucy. Lucy makes everyone feel special. She somehow really gets Margot. Margot finds herself being accepted by new friends and is feeling good. But... is it really good? Something seems off.

I hope you like this book as much as I did. 4.5 stars!

I have really enjoyed both of Stacy Willingham’s previous two books, so when I received a copy of her upcoming story, I was pretty stoked! Plus this one has some campus thriller vibes which is a sub genre I have always enjoyed!

The story primarily follows Margot during her first couple years of college. She’s still grieving after the death of her best friend the summer after graduation and her first year is pretty uneventful and she mainly flies under the radar. But that changes once she’s pulled into the inner circle of the enigmatic Lucy. Soon enough, Margot, Lucy, and their two other friends/ roommates all become the best of friends and it coincides with the murder of one of the frat boys next door. What follows is the unraveling of secrets, lies, and friendship. And one of the big questions from this book is, if you could get away with murder, would you do it?

This was a super quick read with short chapters that will make it easy to fly through, even if the pace is a bit on the slower side than this author’s previous work. I will say that none of the characters are very likable so at times it did hinder how much I was enjoying it because they were just do frustrating. However, I do understand that was probably the point of the whole thing because this book brings up topics like complicated, toxic, and obsessive female friendships. In addition, there is even a small side with darker theme when it comes to frat culture and privilege.

There were also two POVs, once from the present day and what Margot was up to with Lucy and Co. and then also from the past in the months leading up to the death of Margot’s best friend. It becomes apparent there’s some sort of underlying connection between the two and as the story progresses. While I did find a bit of a predictable, it still kept my interest as I wanted to really grasp everything that happened and the reasons behind it.

While this was admittedly not my favorite from the author, I can still see plenty of people enjoying the atmosphere and vibes of this one!

I liked the mystery and thriller vibe of this book, as well as it taking place on a campus with a questionable friendship. It kept me engaged that's for sure!

Absolutely amazing. I'm a sucker for some messy, toxic, female friendships and this DELIVERED. Stacy Willingham does it again, my friends.

This book was okay, I just had trouble getting into it. The ending was pretty good though. I just didn’t really care for the main character and I struggled to stay engaged for most of the book.

Margot tells this coming of age campus murder tale of toxic friendship. It moves back and forth in time- before and after the death of Levi, the boyfriend of Margot's bff Eliza, who died the summer before. Oh and Lucy, the queen bee, has disappeared. Is Margot a reliable narrator? I wasn't as taken with this as I have been with Willingham in the past (the age of the protagonists, I think) but it is a page turner, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of the campus thriller.

stacy willingham knows how to keep a reader hooked. from the second i started this book i couldn't put it down and i read it in one sitting (as i've now done with all three of willingham's books). this book was executed so well, and i loved all the twists and turns along the way. i'll definitely read anything that willingham writes

This story was so good because it felt real to me. The characters, the setting, and the writing overall was great. I listened to this one and I think this narrator is amazing!

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
I really loved the author’s previous two books, A FLICKER IN THE DARK and ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS, so I was really excited when I received a copy of her up-coming thriller. I went into this one thinking that it was a thriller like her previous two books were, but it ended up being more of a mystery rather than a thriller. I do enjoy a dark academia type of book, and this one had that going for it. I feel like it was really slow moving, and too slow for my liking. I did enjoy the twists, betrayal, and the secrets…but the time it took to get to all the good stuff I was warn out and bored. This one sounded so promising, but unfortunately it left me wanting more and feeling rather disappointed.

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞?
If you like a dark academia read that is SLOW moving and don’t mind the build up to the twist at the end, then this one may be for you.

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️3/5

I usually enjoy college campus thrillers and overall I enjoyed this but it felt very slow for anything to actually happen. I found that I often put it down and it would take me a while to pick it back up which never happens. I’ve loved her other books but this one was a bit of a miss for me. Definitely a slow burn!

I just finished reading "Only If You're Lucky", by Stacy Willingham. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This book took me a long time to read. It started well and I was introduced to the character of Margot who is involved in a mystery involving her best friend who died. She goes off to college and meets some girls including Lucy who also has many secrets and seems overly interested in Margot. There is a lot of mystery and suspense in this book which slowly unravels and exposes all the truths in a succint way.

The part I liked about this book was the way all the characters were connected to each other in a way that makes sense. I also liked how each part of the mysteries unraveled slowly because the author took time to carefully construct each part of the novel. I liked how the book ended and that all the loose ends were tied up.

What did I not like? I didn't like the main character Margot. She seemed a bit narcisistic and self-absorbed. I didn't really feel an important connected to her and I didn't feel any sympathy for her. I felt less sympathy for Lucy. She was an awful person and her story didnt resonate any sympathy from me. I didn't like what happened to her at the end but I didnt care about her enough to feel anything more than "meh" at he end about her.

That is why the book took so long to read. It was good but not great. It was okay. But I am not sure I can recommend it.

First read of 2024 & she's a G O O D I E

Thank you St Martins Press, Minotaur Books & NetGalley for the early copy of this book. Stacy Willingham's newest publishes January 16th! Get your pre-orders in now!

***Big heads up my sweet souls!*** Please check your trigger warnings before you read this. She covers a lot of heavy topics including underage drinking to rape.

Stacy Willingham's thrillers get better every year! Her style is MUH JAYM!

I am a sucker for a university setting when I dive into any genre. I get so much nostalgia from the anxiety of starting a brand new life + the chaos dorm-style living. Willingham set the stage with the main characters lounging on the college lawn & studying from their textbooks which made me miss college so heckin much. I loved the friend groups nefarious hijinks + the tiny acts of rebellion they took part in. Living through these characters eyes really helped me step right back into my early twenties.

Willingham captured the freedom of university living well in this thriller and I think that's one of the reasons why this story enraptured my bookish attention.

The setting gripped me but in Willingham fashion, her newest didn't disappoint when it slapped me right in the face with some bomb.com twists. I was not ready for this book, you guys.

BUT I can see a lot of people being underwhelmed with this story solely because of how overdone the "it girl" having a mysterious past + the toxic college setting has become. I will say that frequent thriller toe-dippers will have an easy time figuring out a few of the twists in this one so don't go into this one thinking it's going to be this psychological...mind boggling... life changing story.

I was really uncomfortable with the scenes where Margot & Lucy watched Eliza have sex with Levi. I thought it was a very creepy action coming from a high schooler...

I thought that Margot's obsession with her best friend was a bit repetitive and extreme in the beginning. It felt like Willingham was trying to fill in some pages by continuously trying to write in how much Margot loved Eliza but in a thousand different words. I got to the point where I was thinking "OKAY WE GET IT.. she has an uncomfortable addiction to her bff. Lets continue with the good stuff...thank you."

Those are the reasons I ultimately gave this four stars but I was super entertained. It's just a good ol' fast-paced & binge-worthy palate cleansing thriller.

If you were a fan of "In My Dreams I Hold a Knife" by Ashley Winstead or "His & Hers" by Alice Feeney, you're going to want to scoop this suckah up!

Mean Girls with a Mystery Flare
College Nostalgia
Toxic Friendships
Quick Read
Good Versus Evil

Omg. Y’all this book was crazy. I kept thinking I knew who was the guilty party but then there would be a serious plot twist. I am a sucker for good plot twists and this one has plenty of them. I had a hard time putting it down and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough the last half of the book.

Only If You’re Lucky is a college campus thriller that shows you just what can happen when a shy quiet girl trusts the wrong people. It’s chalked full of drama, lies, schemes and partying that it’s no wonder things go horribly wrong. This one is dark and full of suspense with a sprinkle of pure madness that I really enjoyed reading.

Wow! What a way to end the year! This was my last book of 2023 and it was definitely a winner! Karissa Vacker delivers another stellar narrative performance and accentuates the shroud of darkness covering this cast of characters with her silky smooth voice. Dark academia is my favorite thriller trope and Stacy proves her versatility by fully embracing everything about it that I love - mystery, the more dangerous side of college life, and friendships that either make or break you.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
Margot plays it safe. She's always the supportive friend found in the background, never the center of attention. Enter Lucy, dripping in confidence and catching the eye of everyone she walks by. Margot is stunned when Lucy asks her to be her roommate, even though the two have never spent time together. On a whim, Margot accepts the offer and quickly finds herself as one quarter of a group of the very best friends. Entwined in the lives of the fraternity boys next door, Margot is at the center of a world she never imagined for herself. Halfway through the semester, a boy is killed and Lucy goes missing. Now, Margot is left to put together the pieces and figure out just what to do to make it all right.

WHY I LOVED IT:
The entire story is like a puzzle, going back and forth between timelines, offering just enough information to make you think you know what's going to happen. The ending was shocking and tied up all the loose ends. I also really liked the characters and how their different personalities merged into the perfect friendships. Blending a coming-of-age story with a murder mystery and dark academia, Stacy has easily solidified her place on my auto-buy author list!

Though I enjoyed this book quite a lot (hello insane characters!!!), I felt this one was more of a slow burn than the other two by Stacy Willingham. I would definitely still recommend, especially if you like books set in college town, Greek life, etc. What a wild ride!

Stacey Willingham is a bit of a hit or miss author for me. I didn’t like her first book, but really enjoyed her second. This one falls in the middle, I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it. I do think this book is being mismarketed; Goodreads calls it a thriller, and it’s definitely not. I would categorize this as a domestic suspense or mystery rather than a thriller. This book is very slow burn; the first half of the book is character building, with us following our main character Margot as she builds her friendship with Lucy. The mystery aspect isn’t fully revealed until the second half of the book. Most of this books focus is on female friendships, and keeping secrets, so if you go in expecting a thriller full of twists and turns, you will be disappointed. I really enjoyed what this book had to say about toxic female friendships, and the twist did shock me. However, one of the plot points hinges on a trope that I find triggering, so it was hard for me to fully enjoy the book. I also found it to be a little bit too slow of a slow burn for me at times, and wanted things to speed up. I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love it either. I did find it quite a bit different from Willingham’s other books, so if you haven’t liked her previous work, this may be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

✦Only if You’re Lucky by Stacey Willingham✦
★★★ 3/5 stars

“You’re only young once, & only if you’re lucky”

⟡ Synopsis
Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; & Nicole, the nice one. 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 3 weeks after graduation. Margot & 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..& Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.

⟡My Thoughts
I can definitely see how his slow burn mystery with unlikable characters, toxic friendships, & dark academia vibes could be exactly some people’s jam - but unfortunately it fell about middle of the road for me.

👍🏼 the good
-I really enjoyed the dual timeline of “before” & “after” & how the end ultimately came together. While the first half was quite repetitive, the last few chapters were full of twists that I didn't see coming.
-Narrator Karissa Vacker did a great job, I loved listening to her!
-I always love when the actual title of the book makes an appearance in the book.

👎🏼 the not so good
-It was a S L O W burn, so I had a really hard time staying engaged in the story, until about 80% of the way in. When it finally got to the twists - they were good, but I wished the action came sooner with less unnecessary buildup.
-The use of similes was exhausting - “arms hooked together like a chain-link fence” & “transforming in her hands like soft, wet clay” were so overused (like a broken record, you get the idea 🙈)
-It read a bit like YA, which isn’t my favorite but I think this was just due to the college setting.

⟡Read if you like:
- dark academia vibes
- South Carolina/Outer Banks setting
- Slow burn with lots of ending twists
- Single POV but dual timelines
- College frats + friendship drama
- In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

I consider myself very *lucky* to have been given the opportunity to both read & listen to this ARC, it publishes on 1/16!
Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, St Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio ◡̈

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: Only If You’re Lucky had a medium-fast pace.

POV: Only If You’re Lucky is told from Margot’s 1st person POV.

Trigger/Content Warning: Only If You’re Lucky has trigger and content warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

Death
Grief
Murder
Toxic Friendship
Infidelity
Vomit
Alcohol
Drug Use
Stalking
Gaslighting
Animal Death
Domestic Abuse
Eating Disorder
Emotional Abuse
Misogyny
Rape
Toxic Relationship
Injury/Injury Detail
Mental Illness
Physical Abuse
Sexual Assault
Violence
Blood
Sexual Content: There is moderate sexual content in Only If You’re Lucky.

Language: here is moderate swearing in Only If You’re Lucky. There is also language used that might make some readers uncomfortable or offend them.

Setting: Only If You’re Lucky is set in and around the college town of Rutledge, South Carolina. There are also some scenes set in The Outer Banks.

Age Range: I recommend Only If You’re Lucky to anyone over 21.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

When her best friend, Eliza, dies three weeks after graduation, Margot can barely function. She spends her freshman year hiding in her dorm, studying and playing it safe. That is until Lucy Sharpe bursts into Margot’s life. Loud, brash, and magnetic, Lucy demands attention wherever she goes. And for some reason, Lucy has honed in on Margot as a friend. Before she knows it, Margot starts coming out of her shell. Soon, she is best friends with Lucy and moves into the house Lucy rented with two other girls. But, things start to unravel when a member of the fraternity (who owns the house and shares a backyard) is murdered at the end of a week of pledging. Soon after, Lucy goes missing. What does Margot know? Why was the frat boy killed? Why did Lucy go missing? And who was Lucy?

Main Characters:

The main characters in Only If You’re Lucky are Margot and Lucy. I will offer advice about Margot (since the book is told from her POV): She is a very unreliable narrator. I couldn’t tell, throughout the book, if she was holding back the truth on certain things or just lying. Her grief (and guilt) over Eliza’s death colored her view of certain events and people.

Lucy, on the other hand, was an enigma. She was a whirlwind of activity and seemed to have her hand in everything. I was surprised by her background when it was revealed. But, in a way, it did make sense.

My review:

Only If You’re Lucky is the second book I have read by Stacy Willingham, and it has cemented her as a favorite for me in this genre. I enjoyed reading this book and was utterly surprised at the twists (and yes, there are several) that the author reveals at the end of the book.

The main storyline centers around Margot, her grief over Eliza’s death, her flashbacks to the events leading up to Eliza’s death, Lucy, and the events leading up to and past Lucy’s disappearance. The storyline was well-written and did keep me on my feet. The layers that it had was excellent. Once I peeled back one layer, the author revealed another.

The thriller/suspense angle of Only If You’re Lucky was terrific. The author didn’t hesitate to throw Margot into the thick of things when she started living with Lucy. There was a point where I did think that maybe she was a little crazy (because of her intense dislike of Levi). Let’s remember the twists. Those twists made the book. I figured out one, but the others took me completely by surprise. Like, my mouth dropped, and me saying, “No freaking way,” surprised.

The author switches back and forth between the present day (during the police investigation into Lucy’s disappearance) and the events leading up to everything. I found it a whirlwind, but it worked. The author kept those two storylines apart until the end, when she merged them. And the way she combined them was pretty crafty.

The end of Only If You’re Lucky was terrific. I was surprised by the things that were revealed about Lucy and Margot. Things I didn’t even see coming and that I, like Margot, thought Levi did. I was also surprised at the very end events of the book, where the author explained Lucy’s disappearance. And that was the biggest surprise of them all.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley, and Stacy Willingham for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Only If You’re Lucky. All opinions stated in this review are mine.