Stacy has done it again, but dare I say even better? This one is a bit different than her other two, but I loved it. It’s a tale of friendship and heartbreak and murder. I love her use of multiple timelines that come together in the end. I cannot recommend this book enough!

We follow Margot as she enters college without her best friend who passed away after graduation. She’s lonely until a group of 3 girls take her under their wings. They change her life completely. She moves into a house that is owned by the fraternity next door and life seems to be going well for Margot now, only nothing is as it seems.

Thank you to Minotaur publishing and NetGalley for this ARC

Being accepted into a cool girl’s group gives a quiet, troubled young woman the chance to reinvent herself….but at what cost?

After the tragic death of her best friend Eliza, introverted Margot leaves her Outer Banks home to attend a small South Carolina college. Freshman year is difficult; she and Eliza had planned for years to attend the college together, and Margot is still struggling with grief and guilt. It seems like a miracle when, towards the end of the school year, she is approached by Lucy Sharpe and asked to take a room with her and her other friends the following year. Lucy is everything that Margot is not, self-assured and adventurous. Margot impulsively accepts the invitation, and ends up spending the summer in an off-campus house with Lucy, Sloane (the sarcastic but scholarly friend) and Nicole (the gentle and kind friend). The house is owned by the fraternity next door (whose current president is Trevor, Nicole’s boyfriend), and Margot spends the summer getting to know her new group of friends as well as spending time together with them and some of the frat boys. When she discovers that Levi, the boy who tried to interfere with Margot and Eliza’s friendship and the person Margot blames for Eliza’s death, turns out to be a pledge at the fraternity, Margot is furious. She tells Lucy and her other roommates what happened with Eliza and Levi, and her suspicions about him in general. As the new school year begins Margot’s friendship with Lucy grows closer, in large part because Lucy reminds her of Eliza. Margot is troubled however by Lucy’s apparent curiosity about, and interest in, Levi, as well as how little Lucy reveals about herself. Two things about Lucy become clear; no one can be sure what Lucy will do next, and it is highly likely that none of what they know about Lucy is, in fact, true. When someone dies during a fraternity celebration and Lucy disappears, rumors fly and Margot and the remaining friends are left to deal with the police and the aftermath. What happened that night? And what role if any did Lucy, Margot, and the others play in it?
The dynamic of friendships between women plays a large role in this thriller. It is unclear to Margot why someone like Lucy would choose her to fill the fourth bedroom in the rented house, but she so desperately wants to reinvent herself that she doesn’t question her luck. The moments and actions that cause friendships to grow and strengthen unfold over the course of the novel, as do Margot’s (and the reader’s) suspicions about Lucy. Lots of drinking to excess and getting high permeate the household, and Margot goes along with it all. What is the fascination that Lucy holds for Margot and the others? What happened to Eliza all those months ago? Is Levi the bad guy that Margot believes, or is there more to the story than she is telling? As other reviewers have mentioned, in some ways this feels like a YA novel given the age of the characters and the setting, but there are strong elements of a psychological thriller pulling it together. Anyone who has fallen under the sway of a charismatic friend can relate to the vulnerable Margot, and understand why she is so easily manipulated by someone like Lucy. Not until the end of the book does the reader find out the truth about Lucy’s background as well as what led up to Eliza’s death. Readers of Stacy Willingham’s earlier novels should definitely pick up a copy of this, her latest, and fans of Lisa Unger, Rachel Hawkins and Mary Kubica would also likely find this of interest. Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review (even if it did keep me up reading past my bedtime!),

This one felt different than Willingham’s last two books to me! The setting was excellent and really easy to immerse yourself in. I immediately understood Margot, I loved learning about her past and her relationship with Eliza.

The twists KEPT coming. They were super well paced and spaced. I always understood what was going on. They felt so well done that they always felt just out of reach, like I should’ve and could’ve guessed what was coming, but didn’t.

The college setting, and maybe even just the character name Lucy, reminded me often of Tell Me Lies. There are manipulative relationships and a lot of secrets and lies. But that’s about where the similarities end.

Margot and Eliza were best friends and planned going off to Rutledge College together. That is, until Levi moved in next door to Eliza, causing a rift in the girl’s friendship. He was with Eliza when she accidentally fell to her death. Margot went off to Rutledge on her own where she spent a nondescript year until she met Lucy who invited her to room with her and two other girls in a house next to and owned by a fraternity. There’s something mysteriously alluring and dangerous about Lucy who fast becomes Margot’s new best friend. And then Levi turns up as a pledge at the fraternity….

I read Willingham’s All the Dangerous Things and liked it. However, I had a difficult time engaging with this novel. The characters were not very likable, although many were quite sad, and all the obsessing just didn’t draw me in. As timelines went back and fourth, I thought it was a slow burn with a lot of repetition. I kept waiting for the twists and as the story spiraled downward in the last part of the book, I finally found the tale more compelling. The novel was a good commentary on the pain and danger inherent in the desperation to belong and the question asked in a Truth or Dare game, “if you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?” quite thought provoking.

There are many readers who will really like this book…it just didn’t quite do it for me. However, I am looking forward to reading Willingham’s next work.

After falling in love with Stacy Willingham after her debut novel, she became an auto-buy author and her latest, Only If You're Lucky, did not disappoint. The alternating time frame, before/after, and the two seemingly different storylines kept me interested, engaged and guessing how it was all going to come together. The last 45 minutes of this book were one twist after another that had me staying up past my bed time to finish the book because I needed to know how it all ended. Fans of Willingham, and those who are new to her and think this book sounds good, need to add Only If You're Lucky to their TBR.
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Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's press.

In this story we are following Margot. Margot's best friend Eliza was killed right before they were meant to go to college. A year passes and Margot and a friend named Maggie are planning on living in an appointment together. But at the end of the year Margot decides to room with Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole. Lucy reminds Margot of Eliza so she agrees and moves into a house that is right next to a fraternity. Lucy is actually revealed to be Eliza's half sister because Eliza's father had an affair and paid for Lucy's mother's house and bills. Margot and the girls go to the frat house and befriend the guys there. Nicole is dating Trevor who is the president of the frat and determines who lives in the house next to them. Lucy is believed to have killed Levi who is the reason that Eliza died during the summer before college. Eliza actually died because she was drunk and when she tried to get Margot to talk to her she fell and broke her neck dying instantly. Nicole killed Levi, mistaking him for Trevor. Sloane kills Lucy because she figured out what Nicole did. Margot, Sloane, and Nicole decide to hide Lucy's body and figure out a plan to make the police and everyone believe Lucy killed Eliza and Levi.

I loved this book!!! I’m starting this review excited because I’ve read a lot of mediocre thrillers lately, but I could not put this one down. It’s my favorite of this author’s books so far.

About Margot, who starts college shortly after her best friend’s death, this book is a look at the complicated relationships we have with others. There is always more than meets the eye, and no one is as innocent as they seem.

I was completely into Margot’s story, curious to find out how her friend died, and totally caught up in her friendship with Lucy. Stacey dropped clues at the most perfect times, and I was totally invested until the end.

I’m so thankful I received this ARC, and to spread the word to add this to your TBR right now! Thank you to the publishers and the author for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this a 3 star. The story line was there but the ending just wasn't what I had hoped. Great writing style and I would read more from this author but kind of a middle of the road book.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC! Y'all are going to eat this one up when it hits the shelves in January!!!
I will always read anything Stacy Willingham writes forever and always- she is so talented.

This is everything I love in a thriller- Southeastern US college setting, so many twists and turns and complex layers, unreliable characters... I also really love the Jekyll and Hyde parallels! Such a quality thriller.

I loveddddd this novel! It was right up my alley and a great mystery/thriller for me! Set in a small college town, featuring crazy parties, new friendships, and a place to start completely new. This book left me guessing from the start - when I thought I knew I really didn’t😂 This book was bingeworthy and I loved the story. Stacy is becoming one of my favorite authors! Five stars no doubt.

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham is a book that I was extremely excited to read but after finishing I felt that this fell into the pile of other southern mystery novels and while Willingham is a great writer, she never meets the level of other authors like Ashley Winstead or Riley Sager.

WAIT STOP, I loved this. Big Stacy fan here. I loved both of her other books. This one was very different. It felt more fast paced to me compared to the first two.

This was based off college aged students. It is also told in two timelines which I am a huge fan of. Margot heads to college the summer after her best friend was murdered. She is trying to reinvent herself, remove herself from the past. Then the guy next door digs up her past while she is trying to make new friends. One of her new roommates, Lucy, has a troubled past herself. Margot finds out that it is possible to love and hate Lucy at the same time. What is she hiding?

This is a solid 4.5 star for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stacy Willingham, and a publisher who shall not be named until they take responsibility for their actions. Speak up. Readers want accountability. Do better.
Publication Date: 01/16/24

The highly anticipated 2024 release from Stacy Willingham follows Margot as she struggles to get over the death of her best friend, Eliza. At the end of her first year at Rutledge, Margot meets and befriends Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole who seem to pull her out of her shell though their friendship turns out to be more than she bargains for.
Filled with college drama, friendship, and secrets, Only If You're Lucky is a slow burn with a YA feel. I enjoy Stacy Willingham's writing style, but for me this one lacked the intrigue that I was expecting. It was a bit predictable, and I didn't feel any real connection with the characters.
Overall, I give Only If You're Lucky 3 stars.
I would like to thank Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Stacy Willingham makes a bid for the young adult audience with her latest thriller, Only If You're Lucky, coming out January 16. Drawing on her own college experience at the University of Georgia when she lived off campus with roommates, she sets the novel in Rutledge, South Carolina, but uses the house she rented from a fraternity complete with a shed in the backyard connecting the two properties. The rest of the story is fiction.

With such episodes as undergrads playing spin the bottle and beer pong and drinking until they pass out, the story will appeal to a younger audience than Willingham’s previous books, A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things. The story flows through two timelines called Before and After with the dividing point being the murder of a student.

Margot is a quiet young woman plagued by grief over the death of her best friend Eliza after their high school graduation. At the end of her freshman year at Rutledge, a friend named Lucy invites Margot to join her and Lucy’s friends Nicole and Sloane in renting an off-campus house owned by the fraternity next door. Sloane is sarcastic, Nicole is nice, and Lucy has a mysterious air about her.

While the four coeds seem to coalesce, in the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity pledges, Levi, is found dead after going into the woods with Lucy during a frat-sponsored camping trip. Shortly thereafter, Lucy goes missing. Who killed the frat wannabe and what has become of Lucy? The answers to those two questions are multi-layered and shocking.

Stacy Willingham, a former copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies, now devotes herself to writing fiction full time. She earned her BA in Magazine Journalism from the UG and MFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design. Her debut novel, A Flicker in the Dark, was optioned for film by Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone. Willingham lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting December 6, 2023.

I would like to thank Minotaur Books, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

I am normally a fan of Stacy Willingham and enjoyed her previous book. This one simply didn't hit the mark. I almost gave up part way through because I found it slow and tedious. It's a great premise for a book, but the characters were very unlikable and there just wasn't any bang for my buck. 2.5 stars

DNF at 65%

Thank you for the opportunity to read Stacy Willinghams latest novel. After loving A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things, I was very excited about a campus thriller. However, I found it to read very childish, and found the main character to be annoying. The constant partying and drugs was very monotonous, and I ended up DNFing around 65%. After over half the book, I still was unsure what the main plot points were.

Again, thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the advanced copy of Only if You’re Lucky. I will continue to support and read Stacy’s work in the future, but this book was not for me

After A Flicker In the Dark and All the Dangerous Things, I was Stacy Willinghams number one fan. She has such a gift of sucking you into the story within the first couple pages and this one was no exception. It was a tad more predictable than her first two but I still loved it; it was such a fun one to read and definitely brought me back to my own college experience. Thank you to @stmartinspress , @netgalley and @stacywillingham for my copy!

Only If You're Lucky wasn't a typical thriller for me. More of a slow burn to see how the pieces of the puzzle would unravel. Margot is a shy young freshman in college, when one of the most enigmatic and popular girls, Lucy selects her to be her new friend and housemate. Margot is thrust into a new life of girl friendships and this quad of girls live in a house next to a fraternity. She has always been in the shadows, but now a new world of college has been opened for her. When a fraternity member is found murdered and Lucy is missing, Margot and the remaining roommates must unravel the mysterious Lucy's past to find out what happened.

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't my favorite of Willingham's. I found the beginning to be pretty slow and kept waiting for something exciting to happen. Around 2/3rds of the way through the book really picked up in intensity. Overall I found the ending very satisfying, even if it took awhile to get there. Great read!

Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 stars, rounding up

I am going to be honest, I was thiiiiis close to DNFing this one. It was taking me SUCH a long time to get into and I wanted something faster paced, but as with everything Stacy Willingham writes the way the little details come together in the end? Chef's kiss. Made this whole thing worth it.

Margot lost her best friend just months before heading to college, and now she's going through the motions. Sure, she has her roommate to hang out with, but for the most part she's still grappling with tough feelings of loss. When she meets magnetic Lucy Sharpe and enters her inner circle, things start changing for Margot. She no longer wants to be passive, she's ready to be more bold.

But when secrets start to come out about Lucy, the past Margot is finally ready to leave behind stirs back up again. And though Lucy has a big personality, she is not at all who she says she is.

The first 60%ish percent of this took me entirely too long to read. Margot is somewhat unbearable - just a moody, sad college kid letting everyone else dictate her life. It's a slow college student novel, and there really didn't feel like there was much action here.

I absolutely love Stacy Willingham and I think I was comparing this too much to how quickly I read A Flicker in the Dark. Yeah, yeah, I should treat each book as its own, but sometimes that is hard!!

I was starting to wonder when things would start to click - around 65% the pieces started to come together a little clearer and I was hooked. I'm not sure how you improve the first part other than just making the pacing of having some details spilled sooner, but it definitely takes a while to get to the point where you don't want to put it down.

The first half of this I would've rated 2 stars if I am being 100% honest. The second part leans closer to 5 stars, and the ending is honestly pretty satisfying. I skewed my final rating to 3.5 - if you can get through the slowness of the intro, the end makes it all worth it!ARC Review! Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy of Only If You're Lucky in exchange for my honest review. | 3.5 stars, rounding up

I am going to be honest, I was thiiiiis close to DNFing this one. It was taking me SUCH a long time to get into and I wanted something faster paced, but as with everything Stacy Willingham writes the way the little details come together in the end? Chef's kiss. Made this whole thing worth it.

Margot lost her best friend just months before heading to college, and now she's going through the motions. Sure, she has her roommate to hang out with, but for the most part she's still grappling with tough feelings of loss. When she meets magnetic Lucy Sharpe and enters her inner circle, things start changing for Margot. She no longer wants to be passive, she's ready to be more bold.

But when secrets start to come out about Lucy, the past Margot is finally ready to leave behind stirs back up again. And though Lucy has a big personality, she is not at all who she says she is.

The first 60%ish percent of this took me entirely too long to read. Margot is somewhat unbearable - just a moody, sad college kid letting everyone else dictate her life. It's a slow college student novel, and there really didn't feel like there was much action here.

I absolutely love Stacy Willingham and I think I was comparing this too much to how quickly I read A Flicker in the Dark. Yeah, yeah, I should treat each book as its own, but sometimes that is hard!!

I was starting to wonder when things would start to click - around 65% the pieces started to come together a little clearer and I was hooked. I'm not sure how you improve the first part other than just making the pacing of having some details spilled sooner, but it definitely takes a while to get to the point where you don't want to put it down.

The first half of this I would've rated 2 stars if I am being 100% honest. The second part leans closer to 5 stars, and the ending is honestly pretty satisfying. I skewed my final rating to 3.5 - if you can get through the slowness of the intro, the end makes it all worth it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy of Only If You're Lucky in exchange for my honest review.

ARC - I have loved Stacy’s other books and was excited to receive an ARC for her newest however this one was not my favorite. I truly felt the first half was tough to read, boring and just too many words/descriptors. I felt like so much was repeated over and over through the book and had me skimming for new information. I did like it more towards the end but I wish the whole book flowed that well.