“One day we were strangers and the next we were friends. That’s usually how it works with girls.” Here are reasons to read the Thriller book:

4 friends - Margot, Nicole, Sloan and Lucy are all friends who live in off campus housing at Rutgers
Loss - Margot in particular has just been trying to deal with the loss of her high school friend.
Timeline jump - through many timeline jumps we see how Margot lost her friend, who was responsible, and how her new friend Lucy dazzled her to help with her grief
Return - But this is a thriller, so how does the return of the boy next door signal a return to the traumatic past?

For me what this book does well is the twists. There are quite a few that take you by surprise, even though one I had a feeling about. However, while this book was one that once you get into it was hard to put down, the pacing felt a little disjointed. Sometimes it’s extremely fast paced and sometimes it was kind of slow. But overall the twists were quite a good payoff.

I had to DNF this book at 15%. I did not realize that the entire book was based on college students. I have come to realize that I am not the audience for this plot. If we would have gone back and forth from the college years to adulthood, then maybe I would have enjoyed it more. I just did not care about the characters and their immaturity.

Only if You're Lucky is a suspense novel about a group of girls in college.
Margot spent her freshman year in college playing it safe. She spends most of her time in her dorm with her roommate. When Lucy, the most popular girl in the dorm, invites her to live with her and her friends last year she jumps at the opportunity. Now Margot is tangled up in world of boys, parties, and drama. Except something isn't quite adding up about the girls she decided to live with.
This was very twisty and all the plot threads came together really well in the end. I loved the framing of the book with the beginning being the girls talking to the police and how the whole story slowly circles back to that.

First of all, wow! I have read Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham and this book did NOT disappoint.

This book is super twisty and was written with such intentional details. I loved the college setting and living off campus. The relationships built and shared in this book are also so unique and made this book that much better. I would consider this a must read thriller.

I am such a fan of Stacy Willingham. A Flicker in the Dark is my favorite! This book is another hit. We meet Lucy Sharpe in this novel. She exudes danger and people are captivated by her- especially Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year of college.
Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with Lucy and two other girls. Their home is adjacent to a fraternity house. In the acknowledgments, Willingham tells about living in a similar house when she was at the University of Georgia. Margot is spiraling after the death of her best friend, Eliza. She is in awe and a little frightened of Lucy. Margot blames a guy from her hometown for Eliza’s death. When he pops up in the fraternity, another murder happens and secrets are unveiled. It’s a gripping story!

I really enjoy everything that Stacy Willingham writes. She knows how to do a psychological thriller.

This one is about four college friends. The ringleader, Lucy, who befriends three others and unbeknownst to them, each for a reason. The main character, Margot has had a very tough year, beginning with her closest friend’s death. Meeting Lucy feels like the change she needs to start fresh, and she runs with it. However, things aren’t what they seem as her past comes back and everything she thought she knew ends up being wrong.

I really enjoyed this book and it left me totally stumped and speechless. I am a true fan of any book that I can’t figure out - and this was one that left my jaw on the floor!!

That being said, there were parts in the middle that seemed to drag, and I was aching for the suspenseful twists to come. I hope if anyone is reading it for themselves and feels this way that they stick it out because I think you’ll be happy you did! This book wrapped up with a nice bow, and although it’s not what I was expecting, I kind of loved it for that. Thank you NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this ARC. Very thankful!

3.75ish stars

This was a darkly entertaining tale of murder, betrayal, secrets, and revenge. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite book from the writer, but I have consistently enjoyed her stories, and I didn’t suspect all the twists and turns of the story’s resolution before they were revealed. I’m excited to see what her next book brings.

Only if You're Lucky is a thrilling look into the dark side of female friendships and how you can never really know the people you think you know. I've been a fan of Stacy's writing since reading her debut and while this novel is a bit different from her others, with its dark academia feel, it's a wildly fascinating and enthralling tale that deeply sucks you in as the story unfolds.

We follow Margot as she closes out her freshman year at a small College in South Carolina, she's spent the year isolating herself in her dorm room dealing with and attempting to heal from the passing of her best friend a year prior. Margot is approached by the charismatic and endearing, Lucy Sharpe, who invites her to move into a house off campus with her and two best friends. Margot agrees to leave the dorms behind and embrace new friendships and the college experience, she could never imagine the way that secrets and lies could begin to unravel from befriending a stranger.

The story is a bit of a slow burn and I did see a couple of the twists coming but the context and depth of the story are needed for the impact that the final twist has, Stacy keeps you guessing until the end! This is such a satisfying, suspenseful read with so many hints riddled throughout the beginning, leading to a shocking ending that makes sense even though not every loose end is tied. I got to a point with this book where I physically couldn't put it down, it kept me guessing and something about reading this felt nostalgic. It kind of reminded me of Pretty Little Liars in a way. Either way, it's a brilliant read that is sure to make you a fan of Stacy Willingham's dazzling writing. Five Stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an advanced digital copy of Only If You're Lucky.

Only if You’re Lucky is my least favorite of Stacy Willinghams books so far. I didn’t dislike it but I didn’t love it either. I will say I definitely wanted to know who did it so I wasn’t considering DNFing it or anything. A decent book, just not her best in my opinion.

Margot went to college in South Carolina for a new start. It’s a chance to get away – from her small town, her family and the memories of her dead best friend.
She gets her wish when the enigmatic Lucy invites her to join two other girls in a shared house for their second year. But as Margot gets to know the girls, she begins to realize that something’s off about Lucy, she’s not quite what she seems.
Six months later, Lucy is missing and a boy from the frat house next door is dead, leaving Margot in the wake of the investigation. But as the police continue to dig, they realize Lucy isn’t the only one with secrets.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-arc.*

Margot was supposed to go to school with her best friend Eliza, she even turned down Duke to do so.  But Margot is there and Eliza's not because she died in the spring of their senior year.  Margot spent her freshman year introverted and antisocial, and then she met Lucy, a popular girl who invited her to live with her and her friends Nicole and Sloane for sophomore year.  Margot couldn't figure out why she was picked to be part of the group but jumped at the opportunity, especially since Lucy reminded Margot of Eliza.  And then, just as Margot thinks her life has turned a corner, Levi, the boy that Margot insists is the reason Eliza is dead, shows up on campus as a freshman.  
I found this book weirdly slog-like for a thriller - I really wanted to know what happened but I found it just went too slow.  There were a few twists but nothing that saved the book for me; I enjoyed parts but not enough parts.  I listened to half of it on audio and read the other half and I did think the narrator did a great job.  From I've heard the author's back list is really good and so I'm going to read it and wait for her next one.  

3.5 stars

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

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read an online arc of Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham.

I am still pondering the title of “Only If You’re Lucky.” The main character, Margot, certainly was not lucky in many ways, nor were the people surrounding her. She loses several friends (and a few rivals) during the story. Her longing for a more normal, loving family proves false. And Margot’s new found independence is at the expense of the keeping of some rather deadly lifelong secrets.

The story is told through a singular voice, Margot’s, which I was not entirely fond of through much of the book. It was only when the story pushes past her passive persona into the second half of sophomore year, and the reveal of some rather large “Truths” that she gets more interesting and can carry the narrative. Many of the characters, like Sloane and Nicole, could have benefitted from being fleshed out more and treated as more than background, especially in considering the big reveal in the last few chapters. It might also have been interesting to get some more insights into the second major character, Lucy Sharpe, through her own voice.

Still the story was twisty and many of the reveals in the story were surprising. Once the action started, the book was hard to put down until the satisfying conclusion. Make sure you read the acknowledgments to find out more about the inspiration for the girls off campus housing arrangement. 4/5 star read

Thank you to NetGalley, author Stacy Willingham, and St. Martin's Press-- Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was SO good!! With each new book that Stacy Willingham writes, she hones her craft even more. This has been my favorite of the books she's written so far, mainly because I love any sort of "college-aged girls coming of age" story. Add to it a twisty mystery and a slightly dark academia setting, and it was a great book. I found each of the girls so fascinating, and I would have loved to see even more of Sloane and Nicole vs mainly just Lucy and Margot. The setting leapt off of the page and definitely helped to add to the atmosphere of the read. It wasn't the most "original" mystery overall, and I was able to predict some of the twists, but there were a couple that did end up surprising me. Mainly, this was well-written, suspenseful read that had interesting characters that I couldn't put down.

Having read both of Willingham’s previous books and loving them, I was super excited to get a copy of this. Sadly, it’s my least favorite of the three. It was the slowest of slow burns, extremely wordy thus making it far longer than it needed to be to convey the same plot. I put this one down a couple of times because I was bored but it did pick up towards the end of the book. I actually figured one of the twists out pretty early on or at least had an inkling.

I know Willingham is an outstanding writer so this miss (for me) won’t stop me from grabbing whatever she writes next.

This book deals with the nature of friendship and belonging. The psychological suspense of this book will have you wanting to read and turn the page quickly. This book was really good.

Not your typical college murder/thriller mystery - it is set next door to a frat house and the main characters are college students rather than a student/professor vibe. The first part of the book moved a little bit slow, but then it really picks up mid-way through. The twist is a big one and I never figured out all the plot moves until they were unveiled to me, which I enjoyed. Would recommend.

Stacy Willingham is quickly becoming "the gold standard in psychological suspense" (Goodreads review).
Margot and Lucy become fast friends when Lucy invites Margot to live with her at the end of their freshman year of college. What occurs during their sophomore year will send the college into a tailspin.
Another great read by Willingham for me! It is a story of growing up during a young woman's college years, and the loyalties between friends when disaster strikes.

Margot arrives to college without her best friend. That wasn’t the plan, they were supposed to go together. While at college, a popular girl, Lucy Sharpe, befriends Margot, asks her to move into her off-campus house with her and two of her other friends, and they quickly become best friends. But somebody moves in to the frat house next door, somebody from Margot’s past that she would rather forget. And something is off about Lucy, and Margot is going to get to the bottom of it, especially after one of the boys next door is murdered.

Stacy Willingham is a captivating writer, and I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book. This book did not give me that heart-pounding creepy feeling that I loved in Willingham’s other book, A Flicker in the Dark. The book is a dark psychological thriller with secrets and lies, but I felt like it was missing something. I liked the story, it was refreshing and different from a typical thriller’s storyline (almost like a YA book). I actually surprised myself when I figured out the twist, and it was a good twist with everything nicely coming together in the end!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and @NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Being that this is a Stacy Willingham book, I did fly through it. Her writing enraptures your attention until the very end. I will say, out of all her books, this one might be my least favorite (even though I did like it)! However, the twists and turns didn’t cause a shock factor and the ending came too quick.

This story follows Margot, a young college girl trying to find her tribe after the death of her best friend. When she meets Lucy, she starts to feel herself coming out of the darkness. Lucy is spontaneous, fun, and mysterious. She moves in with her, as well as two other girls, Sloane and Nicole. She starts to see the light at the end of the tunnel, until she bumps into Levi. The boy who’s responsible for the death of her best friend, at the frat house next door. When Lucy ends up missing, what follows is a before and after timeline leading up to and following her disappearance.
Thank you to netgalley for an ARC of Only If You’re Lucky! Coming out on 1/16/24!

Another great mystery from Stacy Willingham to get the year started!

After the death of a college student, Lucy Sharpe is missing. Her larger-than-life personality is what drew Margot to her at the end of her freshman year at Rutgers. Finding herself living with Lucy and two others (Sloane and Nicole) in an off campus house the summer before her sophomore year will change Margot forever and will also make her face the death of her best friend Eliza, which has haunted her since before she left for college.

I primarily listened to the audiobook and the narration is fabulous. Karissa Vacker is quickly becoming one of my favorite audiobook narrators. Even though I’d just listened to her narrations for two of Kate Alice Marshall’s books, I find she does such a great job of bringing characters to life with a unique sound for each.

I enjoyed Willingham’s debut A Flicker in the Dark and then really enjoyed All the Dangerous Things earlier this year but this one is my favorite so far. It does have a more YA / New Adult vibe to it, which I attribute to the college atmosphere and settings. However, with references to more sensitive topics such as: domestic violence, anorexia, and toxic friendships, it’s definitely not for a younger audience. I found that Willingham did an excellent job of portraying the need to ‘belong’ that teenagers and college students tend to feel.

I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting the ending and while the pacing was a bit slower than her previous books, I still found myself hooked. If you enjoy dark academia stories and unexpected twists than this book is perfect for you.


Only If You’re Lucky comes out January 16, 2024. Huge thank you to Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for my advanced copies in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.