If a thriller explores toxic female friendships I’m always gonna read it so that’s all I needed to know before I started this one. I also have a good track record going with the author, I enjoyed her two previous books, but I will say her previous ones were slightly better for me than this one. BUT! This is still worth a read in my opinion because a good thriller is getting harder and harder to come by anymore. Anyway, the college setting was strong for me here as well as the aforementioned female friend group with young women who were well drawn and characterized by the author. There are some really good twists too that I didn’t totally see coming, so overall this was another solid read from a trusted author.

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars!! Thank you to NetGalley for this arc! This story follows Margot who is attending the college that her and her best friend, Eliza chose to attend together before she was killed. Margot blames Levi, her neighbor for Eliza’s death and she feels that Levi fractured their friendship.

Margot goes off to college and has a pretty normal college life until she meets Lucy. Lucy instantly pulls Margot into her friend circle and she moved in the frat house with Lucy, Simone and Nicole. They all spend the summer together living in the frat house and when school starts again in the fall, Levi is attending her college and is living in the frat house, which brings back memories for Margot. Also, Lucy isn’t what she seems and something is going on with her too. Why did Lucy become friends with Margot? What happened to Lucy? Who was the boy that was murdered and why? This book will definitely have you guessing and not knowing what going to happen next!

4.5/5⭐️ Only If You’re Lucky- Stacy Willingham


𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒


Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive, dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can't say no—something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious.


And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined.


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 three weeks after graduation. Margot and 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... and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.




𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒:


THANK YOU to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, netgalley, and Stacy Willingham for this ARC (pub date is 1/16/24). This was definitely a page turner with twist after twist (some I predicted, some I did not). This is my third book by this author and definitely may be my favorite by her (also loved All the Dangerous Things and Flicker in the dark-but less so).


Definitely READ for lovers of thrillers. A lot of background and written in a “before and after” format, this author is definitely an auto-read for me. Love the setting of the off-campus housing and thought the loose ends all got tied up by the end. I will say it seemed like it ended a little abruptly.


Keep your eye out for this one!


#bookworm #bookish #bookblogger #bookgram #instareads #readmorebooks #bookstagrammers #goodreads #bookstagram #thriller #netgally #arc

Stacy Willingham is a go-to author for me and it’s easy to understand why. Her latest is another original concept in a dime a dozen genre that has character depth, surprise twists and a spooky setting! I love when a house morphs into a character and I felt like it took center stage, making what happened within its walls even more ominous and creepy! If you’re looking for a fast-paced story that will keep you up all night turning the pages, pick this up. Then, let’s discuss that ending. Wow!

3.5 stars

Having read Willingham’s other two books, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into this one. Sadly, this one was not my favorite.

I couldn’t connect with the main character, Margot. She lacked personality and came across as very flat. The supporting characters were fine, but unlikeable. The story progresses with Before & After chapters from Margot’s POV. I wish we had an additional POV, as this might have amped up the suspense of the storyline. Ultimately, since I lacked a connection to the characters, I struggled with caring about what happened to them.

I was surprised that the story read like a YA novel. This deviated from how her first two were written. Typically, YA novels are hit or miss for me.

I’m a fan of Willingham’s writing and will continue to read future works, but this book might work better for a younger audience than myself.

I loved this author's previous book ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS. I gave it 5⭐. This was really good too, but more of a slow burn. Taking place on a college campus, a group of girl friends share a house that's owned by the frat brothers next door. Well one of the frat brothers ends up murdered, and one of the girls is missing. This did feel like it read more like a YA, with lots of talk about the partying and drinking games. It's a character study about female friendship, loyalty, lies and secrets. There was a decent twist, but you may need to suspend disbelief a little bit, still good though. 

Out January 16.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. My review will be posted on Instagram, Bookbub, Goodreads, and Amazon once it comes out.

This is a slow burn of a thriller - a very slow burn. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer a quicker pace. This focuses on a group of college friends where one who has gone missing, and at the same time, there's an unsolved murder of another student. The story is then figuring out if these events connected, as well as unraveling secrets many of the characters have along the way. What I did appreciate about this one was that the way the college environment was built was very realistic (which isn't always the case) and played quite well into the story. But overall, I just wanted even more twists at a faster pace. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this January 2024 release.

I loved A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things. They were both solid 5 star reads. Only if You're Lucky was good, it just felt like something I had read before. That's not a bad thing, just nothing earth-shattering. I did not really connect with any of the characters. The story drags a little towards the middle with a lot of drunken frat-party descriptions. Normally I love a college themed story and I did really enjoy this story, I just felt it could've been a little bit better. Nice twist and still a good read. I think if I had not read this author's stellar previous two. I would've been just fine with this one. I still recommend it through and definitely this author!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Stacy Willingham and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
I will post my review to Amazon, Instagram and other retail and social media sites upon publication.

Was so happy to receive an arc from this author! Loved the book kept me gusessing the entire time. I will definitely be reading more from from this author.

Only If You’re Lucky ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A binge-worthy college drama mystery thriller.

Margot and her best friend, Eliza, have plans go to college together. They were going to live together and have a life they always wanted away from their hometown. That is until an accident happened after their senior year. Now Margot is there alone and it’s the end of her freshman year. Trying to decide if she wants to room with her now roommate again or not, she meets Lucy. She’s brighter than life, big personality and reminds her of her best friend from back home. She moves in with Lucy and 2 other girls that live in a house off campus. She finally fits in and makes new friends. Only not everyone is whom they seem. She finds herself questioning just how far she will go for her friends.

Overall, I liked this one. I felt it was a little slowish at times but the story was good. It was a college drama setting told in a then and now storyline. The twist were good and I liked how we got to piece together the information.

This book comes out on January 16, 2024. Be sure to add it to your list. You don’t want miss this one!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my advanced readers copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

Put Stacy Willingham on your auto reads list right now. If she didn’t make the list following A Flicker in the Dark or All the Dangerous Things, Only if You’re Lucky will put her on your list immediately. When Margot goes off to college after losing her best friend Eliza, she’s the quiet one….until she catches the eyes of Lucy who is about to change in life in unimaginable ways. Margot takes up the fourth bedroom with Lucy, Sloane and Nicole and could never see coming all the challenges that would come her way. When the past shows up next door, Margot is put to the test. This story has me flipping pages faster than I could absorb the plot. I truly did not see the end coming before it was upon me.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5 to 5 star

Thoughts: if you are looking for a binge worthy college drama/thriller, this is a great one! This is a book you binge!! If you liked In My Dreams I Held a Knife, you will want to pick this one up! It kept me guessing until the VERY end!!

I am such a huge fan of Stacy Willingham’s first two books, so it saddens me that this one didn’t work as well for me. One thing I love most about her writing, is her attention to pacing and ability to keep the reader engaged throughout the story. While I think this had a few really interesting elements, including the very atmospheric collegiate setting, ultimately, the pacing felt off and I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters. The reviews are a bit all over the place for this one, so definitely check it out if it sounds like a book you might enjoy.

Read if you like:
•dark academia
•slow burn
•large casts of characters
•more mystery than thriller

Thank you Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copies.

I hate to say it, but I'm in the camp that found Only If You're Lucky boring. I LOVED A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things. I was beyond excited for this book. It fell so flat for me. I didn't find it interesting, I didn't find the mystery all that great, and the ending was just okay. The one twist was fine, but I saw it coming.

Nearly all of the book is simply setting up the characters and the backstory. It bounces between before the murder and disappearance and after. There was far too much "before" and not enough "after" and to be honest, this book probably could have been at least 50 pages shorter, if not more. There were at least three times I considered DNFing but pushed on because I enjoyed Willingham's other books.

I wish I had better things to say but this was a total miss for me. I'll give it three stars because the last 30% picked up some and it redeemed the book, otherwise, it was just meh,

Thank Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This has a ton of potential and I really do love Willingham's ability to write such wonderful prose. Her writing is so artistic. I also loved her two previous books a lot.

I wish I were more interested in this one, however. I felt really bored for most of the story and just wish the storyline gripped me more. Thrillers are all blending in now, and it needs to feel fresh to be interesting and this felt on the bland side and could blend in with other thrillers that were written before and easily forgotten.

I hope her next books impact me like her first did! She's talented with words and I look forward to her next novel even though this one didn't work for me.

Special thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

'Only If You're Lucky,' is a page turning, sit on the edge of your seat thriller with lots of twists and turns. Definitely worth a read.

This was a slow burn mystery centered around a house of college girls. I found this book to be just fine, but it didn’t blow me away. Which makes me sad because Willingham's first book, A Flicker In The Dark is easily one of my fave thrillers. I'm not really certain what was missing for me in this one, it just sort of fell flat for me. But, even though I wasn't blown away by this one, there were definitely several good aspects to it:
-a surprising ending
-minimal profanity
-no explicit sexual situations*

*CW: Toxic relationships, Infidelity, Child death, Animal death, Gaslighting, Stalking, Drug use, Sexual assault/violence (not explicit)

Huge thank you to @netgalley and @minotaur_books for an arc of this book!

Stacy Willingham's new book is described as sharp and twisty, which is definitely an accurate description. The setup at the beginning had me hooked and dying to get to the end so I could have answers. Once I got there, I wasn't disappointed. The ending shocked me and I'm still thinking about it!

Only If You're Lucky is definitely a different thriller than Willingham's usual thrillers. I found this one to be more slow-paced. This caused me to become a little disinterested in the middle because I wanted something to happen and I felt many things kept being repeated (ie. Margot really not liking Levi, Margot being obsessed with Lucy). I kept reading because I felt like the ending would save me and it did. Overall, her third book wasn't my favorite of all her books but it was a solid thriller.

Definitely recommend putting this on your 2024 TBR!

This book was good, but not great. I've loved Stacy's other books that I've read so I was a bit disappointed. The pacing of this one was a little slow until the end. I got a bit bored of the main characters fawning over Eliza and then Lucy and all the frat party descriptions. What Stacy still did wonderfully in this book is her skill with imagery. She really draws you into the scene the characters are going through and helps you picture how they're feeling. I read the book in one day because I was curious what would happen, so it succeeds as a thriller in that aspect. I just wish the pacing and plot had been a little more thoughtfully developed. Maybe it's just the backdrop of the story I'm not vibing with because I loved her writing as always! Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC!

I am usually a fan of Stacy Willingham's books. Her books often get me hooked by the slow burn plot and the creepy atmospheric feel of Georgia, but I felt this book missed the mark until the ending. Most of the book was filled with stories about frat parties and the chronicles of drunk girls. Hearing about frat parties might be cool, but Margot or the other characters had no likable qualities and did not draw me in. Although I hated the college life plotline, the truth or dare aspect was entertaining. The plot was still very repetitive, and I was eagerly waiting for the twists to come. The ending made up for the whole book. There were a few moments I was not expecting that gave the end a very satisfying feel.

I had access to both the Kindle and audiobook versions, and Karissa Vacker was excellent as the narrator. She kept the story moving.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and to Macmillan Audio for giving me a copy of the book.