A Flicker In The Dark and All The Dangerous Things were two of my more highly rated thrillers of the last two years, so I absolutely jumped at the chance to read this author’s latest. (Swipe for synopsis ➡️)

There’s no denying that Stacy Willingham has mastered the art of creating suspense between characters and her latest book was no exception. Right from the start, I felt like our narrator wasn’t giving us the whole truth. It kept me turning pages, eager to learn more.

The setting of a college dorm full of girls drinking to excess with the fraternity boys next door and playing dark versions of spin the bottle and truth or dare made this book feel a bit YA/NA for my tastes. I don’t read YA, but I stuck with this one anyway and I’m glad I did.

Our main character, Margot, and our antagonist, Lucy, provide us with the perfect compare and contrast subjects. My high school English teacher would be delighted! 😂 These two girls show us a Jekyl & Hyde story of young women with the capacity for good and bad, truth and lies, dreams and nightmares.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Stacy Willingham for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

This book was fantastically immersive. I fell straight into the plot and felt like I was back in college (except for any murdery parts).

Margot finds herself starting college alone after her best friend died in a tragic accident the year before. This was not how the plan was supposed to go. She gets sucked in by charismatic Lucy and finds herself falling right into place with a group of girlfriends.

When someone from Margot's past shows up unexpectantly, someone is murdered, and Lucy disappears without a trace, the girls' world is flipped upside down.

I thought the author did a great job giving each of the girls their own individual personalities. I was nervous that we had to keep track of four of them, but it was no problem at all. They were all so unique but also so relatable. I could honestly say, "oh I know a person like that," when it came to all of them.

Lucy was the popular bully, and I loved to hate her. She was written in such a way that you could see how someone like Margot fell under her spell.

I started to have an inkling of where the plot was going, but not to the full extent. This is my second Stacy Willingham book, and I am excited to see what this author has in store in the future.

I've been a Stacy Willngham fan since her debut, Flicker in the Dark, and then I loved All the Dangerous Things, but Only If You're Lucky is next-level twisty and amazing. The reveals are shocking and unpredictable, and the characters could be the girls next door. I've heard Stacy Willingham referred to as a rising star in the thriller/mystery/suspense world, but it's clear with her latest book that she's arrived. If I could give this more than five stars, I would.

The college friendships in the book are portrayed well and I liked the various red flags that started to appear while reading. Of course as an adult I see toxic/unhelathy friendships differently than I did in college so I liked that viewpoint that the reader is on the outside! This is an author I have enjoyed before, and while this isn't my favorite book of hers, it is a good book and worth the read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Margot is a freshman in college and meets the enigmatic Lucy Sharpe. Margot is never one to be the center of attention, but always the sidekick. Somehow, she manages to attract the attention of the tenacious Lucy, and we begin to learn that Margot had a best friend before college named Eliza, who was very similar to Lucy.

Margot is invited by Lucy to live with her and 2 other students starting the summer after her freshman year in a house rented by a fraternity. When a new student shows up at the fraternity for his freshman year, Margot is in for a surprise as she knows him from her life back home.

WIth Lucy's friendship, Margot begins to come out of her shell, when one of the fraternity brothers is murdered and then Lucy goes missing. Through dual timelines of story telling, before and after, we learn what happened to Eliza, Lucy, and the murdered fraternity brother.

I really enjoyed Willingham's 2 previous books and requested this one because of those experiences. This one was not quite as good as the first two, but I enjoy the author's writing style and felt engaged throughout. Even though some of the storylines were a bit predictable, I still liked reading this book and will continue to read any of her future works.

I received this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review. I feel like for such a complex storyline, it was written so well. I enjoyed getting to know Margot and her roommates. I felt like Lucy was sketchy from the very beginning, but I never would have imagined why she was acting that way. I never would have pictured the 4 girls getting into so much trouble and then having to figure their way out of it. Overall, it was a great read with lots of plot twists

I love Stacy Willingham’s writing style so I have been so keen to jump into Only if you’re lucky and it did not disappoint!!!

“If you knew you could get away with murder would you?” Lucy Sharpe is larger than life and when Margot is singled out by her and invited to live in an off campus house with Lucy and her two best friends she can’t help but say yes. Margot has been struggling with adjusting to college life and has been stuck thinking about her high school best friend Eliza who died tragically and reminds her so much of Lucy. But Margot is going to learn the true meaning of friendship and that real friends will do anything for you. I listened to most of this one on audiobook before I needed to finish and binged the rest on kindle. I loved the narrator and recognize her from other books and she has such a talent of bringing the books to life. Highly recommend the audiobook, if I were a more patient person I would have finished it that way. I thought the twist was good and it took me longer than it probably should have to be able to predict it. Overall I gave this one 4.5 stars rounded up for a fun thriller with a great ending.

In just a few words…so twisty! This story took me straight back to my college days but with a few giant twists that kept me reading to find out more. While not my favorite from this author it will definitely keep me reading more from her! This title had a few moments that drug on longer then I think the story needed but it also built some good suspense. Kept me guessing what the twist would be the whole time!

ARC audiobook provided in exchange for an honest review.

Karissa Vacker does a wonderful job with the narration on this book! Most is from a female perspective but she handles other characters perfectly too! The story is well written and I loved all the details that went into character development. I really felt like I was a part of this book and trying to solve the mysteries along with a group of friends. The ending made my head spin in the best way possible and I would definitely recommend for anyone who likes psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators!

Good and evil play out in this psychological thriller., Only if You're Lucky. Willingham has drawn out a sinister dark academia plot about friendship and the lengths you'll go to avenge those you believe have wronged you.

I feel its better for the reader to jump right in the story as there are several mysteries at play on this campus. You'll finish this book hating every character after its final shocking revelations.

Thank you Minotaur Books for the complimentary copy.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book! My review will post to my blog on 1/11/24. I'll also post the review to Goodreads and retail sites.

I've had both "All the Dangerous Things" and "A Flicker in the Dark" on my iPad for at least a year. After reading this book, I am definitely bumping them up on the list. "Only If You're Lucky" was exactly the thriller I needed at this moment, and I loved how it explores the intricate dynamics of friendship and the deep-seated desire to be more than ordinary.

The story follows Margot, a shy and cautious young woman who has always played the role of the sidekick, never the center of attention. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Lucy Sharpe, a larger-than-life character who exudes an addictive magnetism. Lucy reminds Margot of her best friend, Eliza, who was killed in an accident three weeks after graduation. Eliza was always the magnetic one that everyone noticed - Margot, her faithful sidekick. The two were supposed to attend college together, but instead, Margot had to go alone, flying under the radar and making few friends (per usual). Then, at the end of their freshman year, Lucy singles out Margot and asks her to become roommates. Unable to resist the allure of something daring and the possibility of having the fun and exciting college career she'd dreamed of with Eliza, Margot agrees, stepping out of her comfort zone into the unknown.

Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with Lucy and two other girls, Sloane and Nicole - each different in their own way. Despite their differences, the four girls become deeply intertwined, forming a bond that both supports and challenges them. However, their idyllic college life is shattered when a fraternity boy and someone from Margot's past is brutally murdered. The incident sends shockwaves through the campus, and tensions rise as suspicion and fear grip the college community. Amidst the chaos, Lucy Sharpe suddenly disappears without a trace, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions and a whole lot of suspicion. Margot, Sloane, and Nicole claim that they have no idea where Lucy is, but are they being honest, or are they covering for their friend?

Through Margot's perspective, the novel delves deep into the twisted nature of friendship. It examines the lengths to which individuals are willing to go to belong and the consequences that ensue when envy seeps into those relationships. As the layers of each character are peeled back, readers are left questioning everyone's motives and loyalties. Per usual, I had several suspicions about where this one could potentially go, and I'm happy to say that it kept me on my toes the entire time I was reading it.

Willingham expertly reveals just enough information at the right moments, keeping readers guessing until the very end. There were a couple of nice twists toward the end that I did not see coming at all, which is always a happy surprise for me because I'm usually really good about figuring things out early on.

Overall, "Only If You're Lucky" is a gripping and enthralling read. The characters are all rich and complex, the pacing is perfect, and the plot is very tight. I really enjoyed this one and will be checking out the rest of her books in the coming year.

3.5

This follows a group of four college friends after a fraternity brother is found dead at a party. We get a dual timeline – before & after they are being questioned by the police about this event. This is a story about female friendship dynamics, jealousy, and obsession.

The scene is very much college frat party – lots of drinking and partying late into the night, which I didn’t love because that’s just not really my thing. The four girls live in a house owned by a frat and are constantly hanging out next door at the frat house.

I did enjoy the writing style. The way Stacy Willingham allows the plot to unfold and gives us reveals is very satisfying to me. I feel this way about all her books, but this is my least favorite of her three. Nothing really had me on the edge of my seat, but I was intrigued to see how everything wrapped up.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an early copy in exchange for a review!

Only if You're Lucky is a slow burn thriller focused on a group of college girls all with secrets they would like to keep buried.

I love Stacy Willingham's writing (having read her first two novels and rating them 5 stars), but I did not find as much of a connection with this story. The story includes exactly what you would think for college age girls (partying, classes, boys etc), so it reads a little more new adult/young adult than her previous novels. The premise centers around Margot and her roommates in their first year of college. After losing her best friend, Margot tries to move on with her life and go off to college. Margot meets Lucy, an absolute fire cracker of a person and she ends up moving in with her and 2 other roommates. All is not what is seems though, when Margot starts to uncover things about Lucy as well as the things she never knew about her best friend and she finds her self down a rabbit hole, questioning everything she thought she knew.

The story is also very slow burn with little bread crumbs left throughout until the end. I did find the last 100 pages to be where the story really picked up and I did enjoy the twists at the end. The bulk of the story though was very monotonous in tone and I didn't feel much tension and suspense really until the end. I did enjoy the Jekyll and Hyde references though and felt the psychological questions were what made the story. The story spends a lot of time on good vs. evil, how everyone can have both sides, as well as the aspects of just wanting to fit in, be a part of the group and feel wanted. I do think this book is thought provoking in that regard and I did up my rating based on this.

Overall, I just felt this story was very different from Stacy's previous works and is definitely for readers that enjoy more of a focus on the psychological parts of the story than the actual thriller part. rating is 3.5 stars rounded up. I will continue to read Stacy's works as I really do love her writing style and can't wait for the next one!

Margot is the quintessential sidekick. Always classified as “Eliza’s best friend” no one took much notice of her on her own. After Eliza’s tragic death, Margot is lost trying to make her way as a freshman in college.

Margot then meets Lucy Sharpe and she suddenly feels special again. Everyone is drawn to Lucy yet she continues to remain somewhat of a mystery even to her closest friends.

After a string of increasingly disturbing events, a fraternity brother is dead and Lucy is now missing. Margot and her roommates must work together to solve the mystery of Lucy’s disappearance. While discovering the true identity of their friend, the three girls also form an unlikely bond.

I really enjoyed this book overall, but it was an extremely slow start. The story really didn’t pick up until the last third of the book. If it weren’t for how the author tied everything together, I would have given the book a lower rating. This was my first book by the author so I look forward to reading her others.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Man I really hoped to love this one. The beginning had me so intrigued. As the story went on though I lost interest. I felt like it was constantly talking in circles. Would get little hints and could piece some things together. Then talked in circles again.
It is about college students, however, read more high school to me.
I did not call some of the twists as the story unfolded. So they were a pleasant surprise for me!
Overall, it's just not my favorite read.

Thank you, NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for allowing me to read and give my honest review.

Lucy is a presence to be reckoned with. She’s bold and magnetic, and Margot is instantly drawn to her at the end of their freshman year of college. Margot is always the side character and never the main character. When Lucy asks her to room together, she can’t say no. Margot soon finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls. She starts coming out of her shell, a shell she’s been in since her best friend Eliza died. The a a guy from the frat house next door is murdered and Lucy has gone missing.

Only If You’re lucky is another addictive thriller by Stacy Willingham. I was fortunate enough to receive this book as an eARC and an ALC through NetGalley. I love to hybrid read part of a book and listen to the other part if I can to fully immerse myself in the book experience. I have to say that I loved reading the ebook as much as I loved listening to the audiobook, and will be getting a physical copy when it’s out to keep on my personal library. I loved all the secrets and drama that unfolded in this story and loved that I didn’t see the twists coming. Stacy Willingham really knows how to hold your attention while her stories are unraveling. This audiobook was narrated by Karissa Vacker and she is an artist!! I actually just listened to another audiobook she narrated and I’m pretty sure I love her (as a narrator). I’d be happy to listen to any audiobook she narrates. Only If You’re Lucky is out 1/16/24 and it’s worth the read/listen. So keep your eyes peeled for pub day!

Thank you so much NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copies and the chance to read/listen and review it honestly.

Happy reading!

Major ‘slow southern summer’ vibes in this book, which fits perfectly with the setting and the authors background, but unfortunately (for me) made the first half of this book quite the slow burn. Me and slow burns are notoriously in a love-hate relationship; it’s just my reading preference that I need something to keep me hooked in and interested. ⁠
Despite the slow start, this is a quick read and once I hit the 50% mark things started picking up, and I enjoyed the last half. I thought I had things decently figured out but I didn’t see the ending coming at all, and the twists and turns didn’t stop coming once we hit the last 25% of the book.⁠
Overall this one landed in the middle of the pack for me, but I will definitely keep reading Stacy’s work!

I couldn’t put this book down. I was hooked from page 1. Told via alternating points of view between the past and present, Stacy takes you on a wonderfully crafted Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde-ish twisted journey. The story is full of misdirection, and you can’t imagine how it will all end. The ending was a real twist. And I loved that not everything is all tied up nicely at the end. @stacyvwillingham is an auto-buy/auto-read author for me!

Thank you to @netgalley @stmartinspress @minotaur_books and the author for a free advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first novel by Stacy Willingham and it was an enjoyable read. I liked the book, but I did not love it. There were some a lot of slow moving parts and I was in a way able to guess what happened in the end. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys New Adult novels and a little bit of mystery with some twists and turns.