Thank you to netgalley and publisher for a free copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

This wasn’t my favorite from this author but it was good. We are going to be reading this book in March for my book club. I will reread when it gets closer.

Lucy is outgoing and people love to be around her. Margot is the opposite. She goes with the flow and she blends in with others.

When someone gets murdered, the cops have to go through the whole sorority hoises to try to find out who was involved.

The ending of this book was worth reading this book but I wanted more. I found this book to be more of a young adult thriller book and not what I was expecting it to be.

3.5 stars but will read anything Stacy Willingham writes.

Only If You’re Lucky ~ Stacy Willingham

A friendship develops in an off campus house between two opposites, Margot and Lucy. But when Lucy ends up missing after the murder of a frat boy neighbor, Margot is pulled into a web of lies and betrayal she never saw coming.

Willingham is a must-read for me so this was a no-brainer book to get me back in the swing. Perfect for those who can appreciate a slow-burn build to some unexpected twists. Willingham writes relatable suspense - I was immediately swept into college life all over again filled with frat boys, late nights, and forever friends. With a surprise ending, this is surely one to add to your list - a BOTM January pick that hits the shelves January 16th.

I have become a fan of this author's books however this one fell short of the others. It came across to me as almost young adult but it was also so drawn out and a bit boring as well as unbelievable. I said "Oh, Come On!" a number of times out loud. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Only if You're Lucky will be available on 1/16/24.

📚: Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
⭐️: 4/5

An academic setting, toxic friendships, secrets, and lies. Oh, so so many lies.

Margot is what one would call “vanilla.” She melds her personality to her friends - which for her life had been her best friend, Eliza. Eliza dies only weeks after high school graduation, leaving Margot to navigate her grief - and college - alone.

Enter: Lucy Sharpe. The girl everyone wants to be (or loves to hate). She attracts attention just by existing on campus - and seemingly out of nowhere, chooses Margot to join her clique. But why?

Minus one star for pacing issues in the first half, but when it picks up and the truth starts to unravel, this read becomes unputdownable.

Big thanks to @stmartinspress via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Be sure to grab this read on 1/16!

Only If You're Lucky follows Margot, a college sophomore, who is still mourning the lost of her childhood best friend, Eliza, and looking for a fresh start after a lonely first year at school. After meeting Lucy, an enigmatic and captivating fellow student with many similarities to Eliza, Margot jumps at her invitation to move into an off-campus house with Lucy and her two best friends, Sloan and Nicole. The house is owned by the fraternity next door, and soon enough, Margot has started to form tight bonds with her new roommates and opened the door to an entirely new social life including an old and unwelcome face from her past. The novel bounces back and forth between both the present, where Lucy has gone missing and a student has been killed, and the events in Margot's life during both her high school and college years that led up to this moment.

I have loved Stacy Willingham's first two novels and recommended them over and over to fellow readers, so I was beyond excited to get early access to her newest book, but unfortunately, Only If You're Lucky wasn't a 5 star read for me like her prior novels have been. Although the characters in this novel were much younger than those in previous books and younger than me as well, I had no problem connecting with them and following a story set in a college setting as some other reviewers have mentioned. However, I felt like the pacing of the novel was too slow burn, and there was not enough plot during the majority of the story to keep me wholly interested. I did enjoy the ending and Stacy Willingham is still the queen of a great twist, but I didn't feel like it made up for the other 3/4 of the book. I don't think this is a bad book by any means, and I will still read anything Stacy publishes. If anything, she has just set the bar very high with her first two novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.

thank you to Minotaur & Netgalley for the e-arc! I’ve been a huge fan of Stacy’s past releases, but this one missed the mark for me unfortunately.

I found it to be incredibly slow to start, but I did really enjoy the ending! I felt this one was a little more predictable than her previous releases as well.

I enjoyed the last 20% more, but the predictably and the characters being a little two dimensional made this a 3 star read for me.

Personally, this just wasn’t for me but I will definitely be reading her future releases!

Thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I was super excited to read another book by this author after loving another book by her. Unfortunately this one I didn't find quite as good as A Flicker in the Dark. I just couldn't get into the story about a mysterious roommate and the college setting. It all unfolds in the last 3 chapters but it's not all that surprising.

When cool-girl Lucy invites Margot to move into a house off-campus with her two friends, Margot can't believe her luck. Her freshman year at college had be ho-hum, especially after losing her best friend the summer before in an unimaginable tragedy— a friend who had made her life brighter who was supposed to be her roommate in college.

Living with Lucy, Nicole and Sloane changes everything. Suddenly she has a life and friends to party with. She has the girls and a whole fraternity of boys who live next door and own their house. Everything is going incredibly well, until someone from Margots past shows up. And then someone is murdered. And it appears that everything isn't quite as amazing as she first thought.

Stacy Willingham is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and I'm excited every time I see a new book out from her. Only if You're Lucky is a MUST READ for 2024. There's so much suspense, and mystery and the pace of the book is spot on.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now.

"If you could commit a crime and get away with it, would you?" That's the question at the heart of "Only If You're Lucky."

Meet Margot, a shy freshman at Rutledge in South Carolina. Before Lucy Sharpe entered her life, Margot was content staying in the shadows, always protecting her friend Eliza until Eliza's unexpected passing. Lucy's unexpected offer to be roommates in an off-campus house seems like a chance for Margot to break out of her shell and make friends, so she accepts, even though she's never socialized with Lucy or the other roommates before.

Sophomore year takes a dark turn when one of the fraternity brothers living next door is murdered, and Lucy goes missing. This suspenseful tale by Stacy Willingham explores Margot's journey from reserved to entangled in a sinister mystery.

Having enjoyed Willingham's previous novels, I was thrilled when my ARC request was approved. 'Only If You're Lucky' stood out for its focus on college students, a departure from the author's usual suspenseful settings. The characters' age added depth to the storyline, delving into the complexities of early adult female friendships.

Not your typical fast-paced thriller, 'Only If You're Lucky' has a purposeful plot, a perfect setting, and well-developed characters. Willingham cleverly sprinkles clues throughout, keeping readers guessing until the shocking climax. Margot's role as an unreliable narrator adds an extra layer of intrigue, compelling me to keep turning the pages.

I highly recommend adding 'Only If You're Lucky' to your 2024 TBR. Stacy Willingham, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy; all opinions are my own. Happy reading!

I enjoyed this book! I liked the college setting and the friendship drama. It was a slow burn, but I didn’t mind that as I didn’t see the ending coming. I do find this author’s writing a little overly descriptive and repetitive. Overall, I enjoyed this while reading it but I wasn’t blown away. It isn’t a book that will stick with me. 3.5 stars

Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham is a highly recommended novel of psychological suspense.

Margot has always been the quiet one and has spent her first year at Rutledge College in South Carolina grieving the loss of her best friend, Eliza. She is surprised when out-going Lucy Sharpe invites her to join her and two friends renting a house-off campus. Margot surprises herself by saying yes and joins Lucy, the dynamic ringleader, Sloane, the sarcastic smart one, and Nicole, the nice one. The house is owned by the Kappa Nu fraternity, and in fact there is easy access to the frat through a backyard shed. The arrangement seems to be going well, but by the middle of their sophomore year one of the frat boys is dead and Lucy is missing.

The writing is very good in this well-paced campus thriller. Suspense builds gradually as the narrative alternates between two timelines, before the murder and the investigation afterwards. It is also clear that more is going on than meets the eye and part of the intrigue and tension is finding out exactly what secrets are being kept. It is definitely a college setting with lots of drinking, partying, and an often present truth or dare game (which I was skeptical that college students would actually play).

Details about Eliza and Margot's past are slowly revealed as the present day intrigue ramps up. A darker side to Lucy's character also emerges. It becomes more difficult to know who to trust as more information is revealed. Certainly the perplexing nature of angsty female friendships and the search for belonging in college is explored. You need to suspend some disbelief at the ending, but the drama leading up to it is entertaining.
Disclosure: My complimentary review copy was courtesy of Minotaur Books via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Edelweiss, X, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Whoa. I've only read A Flicker in the Dark and I didn't really like it but this was so much better! Someone is dead. Someone is missing. Are they linked? There are so many questions throughout this book and by the end my jaw was on the floor. So many bombs were dropped and links were linked. The chapters go back and forth from Before to After until they merge and things start falling into place. I enjoyed the creepiness of what was real (!!!) in the Author's Note.

Stacy Willingham has released another un-put-downable book. Only If You're Lucky is filled with rich characters and well-developed friendships. Margot spent her freshman year at college struggling to deal with the death of her lifelong best friend. Right before the start of summer break, she meets Lucy, a fascinating and popular girl who offers Margot a spare room in the house she is renting from some college fraternity brothers. We follow Margot as she becomes roommates and friends with Sloane, Nicole, and Lucy during their sophomore year at college. This story follows two timelines: before the murder of one of the fraternity brothers from the house next door and the disappearance of Lucy, and after.

I loved the development of the characters, the palpable closeness in their friendships, and the edge-of-the-seat writing style. I simply could not put this book down. If you like thrillers, read this book!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a free copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller up until the end. It is immersive and reminiscent in some aspects like female friendship and trying to find your place in college. However, that is hopefully where the relatability ends, because there’s also murder, plural that is. The end for me was very unsatisfactory. I’m not really even sure what I wanted the ending to be. I was torn and really felt like either outcome that was possible for the scenario unfolding would have been unsatisfying.

I really didn’t like it one. I made it 50% in I just feel like this was so disorganized and the writing wasn’t engaging at all. Really disappointed because I have loved the authors other books.

3 stars!

This was my first time reading a Stacy Willingham book and i'm definitely open to reading more in the future.

I did see a handful of reviews that stated this was a slow burn, which I normally don't enjoy, but decided to give it a shot! It was certainly slower paced than I would prefer and it did end up picking up by the last 30% or so.

I did question some of the characters decisions throughout the story, however there was a lot of character development.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Having read all of the author’s books, I can say fans of her previous titles, especially Flicker in the Dark, won’t be disappointed with this one. The same excellent plotting and detailed characters grace these pages and the twists are highly unpredictable which isn’t something I say often. I had an inkling, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is a fantastic read.

All the twists. Books starts with Margot’s friend Eliza dead, mysteriously from the readers perspective until the end. We meet Lucy. Margot moves in with Lucy, Nicole and Sloan, next door to a frat house. Levi, a blast from Margot’s past appears, who may have had something to do with Eliza’s death. Then we find out Levi dies and Lucy is missing. But the how is what we haven’t learned. The book time jumps but in a way that is perfect for building the mystery. I never saw the ending coming, but I did guess what happened with Lucy, but not until much further into the book.

I’m a fan of Stacy Willingham’s books. All the Dangerous Things is my personal favorite, and I was compelled to read it in one sitting.

Only If You’re Lucky was much slower than her previous books. It never did hit the high notes for me that push me to finish to unravel all of the details. Margot didn’t grab me as a character, nor did her friends. Add in the relative flatness of Lucy, and I just felt so-so towards reading.

I think I personally didn’t connect with this novel as much as other was because the characters were young college kids. The small campus did remind me of my own undergrad experience. I did appreciate her note at the end explaining the shed and how it connected to her own college experiences. I always enjoy seeing a glimpse into the writer’s process.

I’d have to land on 3.5 to 4 stars because the story idea itself is interesting! I liked the mystery and how people weren’t who they seemed to be,

One of my favorite things about finishing a thriller is that " whoa feeling." Like wow, I did not see that happening. This book starts slow. I had a hard time getting hooked into the mystery. I knew something was happening but I wasn't hooked yet. The story of Eliza and Margot. Margot hating Levi Butler and then Lucy. How does Lucy tie in to it all.

Overall a good mystery/thriller that if you get past the slow parts it will leave you shocked.