Phew, the last 25% of this book was a wild ride with so many twists and turns. I truly did not guess all the twists, which I so often do with thrillers. However, the first half of the book was pretty slow. I kept speculating where the book was headed and was pleasantly surprised it was not what I was thinking. This book was very different from Willingham’s other 2 novels, which I enjoyed a lot more than this one. Willingham is a great writer and I will definitely continue to reach for her books. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this Advance Readers Copy (ARC) to honestly review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This might be Stacy Willingham’s best book to date and that’s saying A LOT! This author quickly became a favorite after I read A Flicker in the Dark. I will drop everything to read a book from her. It’s increasingly hard to keep my attention on reading these days and this author does it every time. I just need to pace myself! Great work!

“Your only young once, only if you’re lucky.”

Four college girlfriends, three murders. Who are the murderers? Can they get away with it? Are friends for life a myth, a fable, or can you really have friends that remain your friends for life, through thick and thin, through good and bad?

Four girls live in a house on a college campus with boys next door. Lucy is the ringleader. Her favorite game when they are all together is truth or dare. The question that haunts everyone is, “ If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?”

The book is slow to get going but the twist and the last 1/3 make it worth reading. Giving this one 3.5 stars. I am a huge fan of Stacy Willingham and am always bummed when I finish her book and have to wait for the next one to come out!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I love when it involves school and girls. Mean girl vibes for sure and interesting to see how everything would play out. I was shocked at many twists and turns.

I absolutely loved Willingham's first two books so was excited to dive into this one. It was a bit of a different style, and just didn't work well for me. While it did pick up in the last fourth of the book, it is a forgettable story for me.

Margot is a shy, blending-into-the-background kind of girl. Lucy, however, is magnetic; someone you can't seem to look away from. When Lucy asks Margot to be her roommate at the end of freshman year, everything will change for Margot. When a fraternity brother is murdered and Lucy goes missing...things may not quite be what they seem.

The obsessed friendships here were a little stale for me. I didn't find any of the characters likeable. It was tough to get through and overall didn't work for me.

thank you for allowing me to be an early reader! i loved A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things so i was extremely excited for this one!

unfortunately, this one let me down a bit. i'll start by saying these characters were truly insufferable. i couldn't stand a single one of them. i also found it to be SOOOO SLOWWW for the majority of the book, picking up around the 75-80% mark and that's far too late in my opinion. the first half of the book was extremely repetitive, and too much inner monologue and too many comments about two "friends" being so similar. it made the big "reveal" super obvious.

I felt this one just dragged on and on and i eventually started to skim through the same FMC's thoughts over and over and over. i felt like the same details were drilled into me page after page.

I struggled to get through this one but I will still read this author's future work!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ | Stacy Willingham’s “Only If You’re Lucky” just secured her spot on my auto-buy author list. I absolutely loved this fast-paced thriller. Willingham’s snappy imagery and quick pacing torpedoed me through her book in a single sitting. And of course, it wouldn’t be a thriller review if we didn’t talk about that twist—sharp, cunning, and merciless… Willingham’s got it all.

Now that was a twisty thriller of a ride! I previously loved A Flicker in the Dark and this one was similarly enjoyed.

I could easily relate to Margot and her desire to fit in and be included by the young women she seemed to adore. I think many of us have been through that in our younger life and still feel the same way into adulthood. This will help readers of all ages relate to and enjoy Margot's story.

As with her previous work, I saw some twists coming, but not others, and I found myself changing my theories throughout the novel. I really enjoy a book that can keep me on the edge of my seat like this one.

Only If You’re Lucky
Stacy Willingham
4⭐️

Willingham does it again with another gripping novel you wont want to miss!

Only if You’re lucky was a well written and cleverly plotted story that at its heart is a story about female friendships, lies, and the secrets we keep! It’s definitely a slow burn but paced well so that the more you read the more engaged you become. The characters felt lifelike. Even like unlikeable ones. 🤔😆 I enjoyed the before and after timelines and was completely immersed in the the academia setting. The well planted Easter eggs and unexpected twists Stacy crafted were so perfectly placed and kept me guessing (mostly wrong) to the jaw-dropping end.

What I enjoyed;
✨ Slow Burn
✨ Dark Academia Thriller
✨ Dual Timeline
✨ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Pub Date 1/16/24. A huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

1. I had no idea Stacy Willingham went to UGA, so that was super cool to read in the acknowledgements. Go Dawgs!
2. This book was super good!
It wandered and meandered in places, but on the whole, that was all necessary for the book. I enjoyed the ending, though I could have used a wee bit more explanation. However, I kind of like that a lot of it was left up to interpretation. Definitely worth the read!

This story was good but not great. I was looking for more of a wow factor. More secrets. It seemed weird to me that Margot had no love interests. Maybe more interactions with Levi. The other two girls were there but didn’t really come into play until the end.

I REALLY loved Stacy Willingham's first to books, so I was thrilled to get a chance to read Only If You're Lucky early. Unfortunately, this wasn't the book for me, which is a definite bummer. I personally could not get into the story - the plot moved incredibly slowly, and there just wasn't enough forward progress to keep me engaged. Excellent character development could save the day in this case, but all of the characters fell utterly flat for me. There was so much toxicity in their relationships, and they never really came off the page for me to care what happened. I made it 55% through the book and I still have no idea who's who, what's going on, or what happened a year ago when the former best friend died.

I needed more from this to really keep me reading. I'm sure folks who enjoy slow burns will be delighted with this, but it didn't work for me.

Margot is from a small town who has just lost her best friend to a horrible accident right before they were to head to collage together. Now Margot finds herself alone and in need of some friendship. That’s when Margot notices Lucy Sharpe, the cool girl who everyone gravitates to. Lucy lives off campus in a house with two other girls, Nicole and Sloane. One day out of the blue, Lucy approaches Margot and invites her to be the fourth girl in the household. Margot jumps at the change, especially since Lucy seems to carry the same charm as her deceased friend, Eliza. Once Margot arrives at the house she notices a small shed attached to the house by the boy’s fraternity. Little did she know the boys would also have access to the house. Lucy and Margot’s bond grow closer, but Lucy seems to keep alluding to hidden secrets. Ones only Margot would know. Life at college is great, until one day a new pledge at the boy’s fraternity is rushing. It turns out to be Levi, the boy who was with Margot’s best friend Eliza the night she died. Margot is determined to make his life miserable and to get her new friends turned against him, but it seems Lucy has other ideas. The story line is told in two different time periods and come to a shocking conclusion that you’ll never see coming.

For me this book was a solid three stars right up to the last 50-100 pages, when the pace picked up and some unexpected twistiness happened. I would recommend it to others with the warning that it starts relatively slowly. For me, the payoff was worth it.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital copy in advance of publication.

This was dark and twisty. I was torn between taking breaks from it and wanting to know what happened next. Not my favorite of the authors but worth a read.

A story about college friendship, lies, hidden pasts, and murder.

After the loss of her high school best friend, Margo tries to move on and find her place in a new college friend group centered around outgoing party girl, Lucy. Lucy is Margo’s polar opposite, just like the best friend she lost. Along the way toxic relationships are formed, old acquaintances reappear in Margo’s life, lies are told, and more lives are stolen.

Only If You’re Lucky was a little slow moving for my liking. There was a strong plot with a few good twists and turns but it took a long time to get there. Most of the action was packed in the last 1/3 of the book. Once I hit that point I couldn’t put it down! A solid 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eGalley of Stacy Willingham's Only If You're Lucky!

Stacy Willingham is an auto read for me and this is yet another 4-star review of her latest book. The setting, characters, plot were all phenomenal and kept me up late finishing it!

The mystery in the book was so refreshing and well thought out that I had no clue at the outcomes of the many different twists and turns.

Make sure to pick this one up. It deserves ALL the stars!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, perhaps the high amount of excitement put my exceptions too high. It was so different from her first two and felt very YA/new adult. It was on the slower side but overall, I was interested to find how it ended. If you are a fan of In my Dreams I Hold a Knife you will enjoy this one.

***** Many thanks to St Martins Press, NetGalley, and Stacy Willingham for the #gifted copy as it was provided to me in turn for my honest opinion.

I was really looking forward to Stacy Willinghams latest novel but after starting it, I realize I am not the right audience for this book. It was so SLOW and I was skimming pages from the very beginning. To me, this is is a YA book which I am not a fan of. Looking forward to her next great book since I have loved her last 3 books!

Margot is off to college after a difficult summer. Her best friend, Eliza died a few weeks after graduation. In college she meets Lucy one day and is invited to be a fourth roommate. Margot, Lucy, Nicole, and Sloane live in a house owned by the neighboring fraternity. Parties obviously take place with the girls and frat boys. Levi, a familiar face, shows up to join the frat, but what will Margot think? He was the last one to see Eliza before she died.

Honestly this was super slow. I loved Stacy’s previous books but this one missed for me. Felt like I was back in a sorority with the silly drama. More of a YA vs thriller.

Thanks to Stacy Willingham, Minotaur Books, and Net Galley for the ARC! Pub date 1/16/24