I absolutely flew through Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham.

Only If You're Lucky reminded me of Mean Girls but in a university setting with a heavy amount of alcohol involved. it Four girls are sharing a house off campus together that they are renting from the fraternity brothers who live next door. The main character Margot is invited late to the group by leader Lucy. Margot and Lucy both have secrets from their past that keep the reader guessing until the end.

At times this book was repetitive but for the most part I enjoyed it and was here for the story. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 on Goodreads for this bingey and enjoyable read.

This was a slow burn for me. A bit too slow. I have that experience with this author and was hoping for something more but I DNF at 25%.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I'm always hooked on books from Stacy Willingham! I have to sit and binge read them especially the endings. This one was very different from her previous two books with our main characters being in college, but I loved the premise of this! The twists at the end had me shocked. I can never guess what will happen at the end of her books. While this was a slow burn thriller, it was completely worth it.

“If You Knew You Could Get Away with Murder, Would You do it?”

Lucy Sharpe is larger than life-Just like Margot’s childhood best friend, Eliza, who died three weeks after their high school graduation. Both were the kind of girls who always chose “dare” over “truth”, the kind of girls who were always the center of attention as soon as they entered a room.

So when Lucy somehow notices Margot, and invites her to become one of four roommates in an off-campus house, near her new college-she couldn’t say no. This is exactly the fresh start she needs-a chance to regroup, and be a part of a close knit group of friends.

It turns out that college friends ARE different. They would do anything for each other.

ANYTHING

Margot and Lucy become close, 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.

I love Stacey Willingham’s prose, and this book is no exception. I will definitely be reading whatever she pens next!

BUT, most of this book reads like YA, and I have outgrown that genre. Reading about college girls playing “spin the bottle”, and drinking until they are sick or passed out-yawn!

And, the reveal? It stretched believability too far for me.

If you want to revisit the nostalgia of your college days, or enjoy twists, no matter how outrageous, perhaps this will work out better for you. Expected publication date: January 16, 2024

Thank you to Minotaur books for the gifted copy, provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review.

If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it? This question comes up a lot in this book and for good reason. This book is about friends, friends who thought they knew each other and then realize they don' t know anything about each other. The secrets come out, people die, accidently, mistakenly and on purpose.

As always with Stacy Willingham, the story builds slowly but steadily. I found this book to be very sad. Tragedy is all around this story and I can just feel their emotions, their heartache and their desire to be accepted, by anyone. I think it is something a lot of teenagers and college students struggle with. They are still trying to figure out who they are and where they belong in the world. It is very relatable and I loved how some of the parts in the story were real, I like when authors put real details in their books.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the chance to review this book.

In terms of mystery/suspense, I found A Flicker in the Dark a decent novel with fantastic writing, so I was interested whether Only If You’re Lucky would be an improvement.
Unfortunately, this book lacked so many things that are missing in not just a suspense/thriller novel but an interesting and good novel.
The narrator and the plot was boring and heavily slow up until the end. I saw the twist from a mile away so I couldn’t enjoy it.

First, thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publishers for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This book started off as a solid 4, but did seem a little long and too much of a slow burn. It’s a good mystery/suspense set in a college scene with girl drama: trying to be friends and fitting in. And of course, some people may end up dead!

3.5 stars

What to expect in this book:

-Dark academia
-Alternating timelines
-Pretty Little Liars vibes
-College campus setting

Thoughts 💭

This is my third of Stacy Willingham’s books and her upcoming release (publishes January 2024) and follows the story of Margot, a college student. Margot comes to Rutledge, a liberal arts college in the south, to escape the pain and heartbreak of losing her best friend, Eliza. When Margot is singled out by the alluring and popular Lucy Sharpe, she quickly can’t say no to befriending and living with her. Lucy and Margot move into a house owned by an on-campus fraternity with two other girls, Sloane and Nicole. When one of the fraternity boys is murdered and Lucy mysterious vanishes, Margot questions everything she knows about herself, Eliza, and Lucy. Can she trust the girl that she befriended? And can she trust the evil within herself?

In so many ways, this is a story of the battle of good and evil within all of us, the power of complexity that lies within us morally and ethically as people and especially in friendship. While there were many parts of this story that I enjoyed, I was ultimately let down. This book was less compulsive and enthralling than her previous two (A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things). I did not find the twists to be as unpredictable or shocking and felt like this was much more of a mystery than a thriller overall.

While this isn’t the most memorable of her books, I did enjoy reading it and am honored to receive an advanced reader’s copy thanks to #Netgalley and #stmartinspress. If you are a lover of mysteries and dark academia, be sure to look out for this one in January.

I love Stacy Willingham and was super excited to receive an ARC of this book! I ended up giving it 4 stars. The story was good and the twist at the end wasn't something I guessed, but I found myself skimming through pages just trying to get back to the plot. Overall good and I would recommend!

3.5 stars rounded up
This story to me was a YA coming of age about Margot who has a twisted relationship with her friends in the midst of a murder at her college. This books pacing was slower compared to the authors first 2 novels but it still had twists and turns that kept me guessing. Once I hit the 60% mark of the book I couldn’t stop reading because I finally was getting the pacing and the answers I needed.

Stacy Willingham’s first 2 novels were both 5 stars and I loved them so much that I just wasn’t expecting the turn into a YA story about college parties.

Things I enjoyed, the in depth look at friendships that grow and change through tragedy and trauma bonding. The lessons that Margot learned in the end that even your best of friends have secrets that they cant share. The character of Lucy she was the most intriguing because she was the most mysterious.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

5/5 stars! I love academia thrillers and this one didn’t disappoint. Especially love the multiple surprises at the ending.

Would be a perfect sept or Jan read to get into a new semester vibe.

This kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through! I highly recommend this to any thriller book clubs out there! Stacy Willingham does it again!

Jekyll and Hyde, good and evil, dark and light, love and violence. These words aptly describe the characters in this dark thriller. Quiet and shy Margot and bold and outgoing Eliza had been best friends since childhood with dreams of going to college together. But fate stepped in and Margot found herself going off to school alone. When she finds herself befriended by a trio of girls led by mysterious and fearless Lucy Sharpe, sinister events begin to unfold and just when you think you have it figured out, guess again.

As a big fan of Stacy Willingham, I was so excited to learn that she was releasing a third psychological thriller. My reaction to this one was very different as I found myself a little disturbed by the dark and chilling characters and the depth of the emotional mind games and toxicity in the friendships. But wow! Ms. Willingham did give a very powerful twist to wrap this one up!

Thank you NetGalley, Minotaur Books and Stacy Willingham for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

There is lovely flowing prose about friendship, trust, coming of age and spreading your wings. There are lessons about who we place our beliefs in and reliance on. While the plot is creative and inventive, this story didn’t draw me in on any level. I really enjoyed a previous book by this author, but couldn’t wait to finish this one for all the wrong reasons.
I never lived in a dorm or had roommates while in college. I expected to relish learning about the students and their experiences from that perspective. I wasn’t able to establish any attachment or even curiosity towards any of the characters. The events alternating between before and after just frustrated me. I did not guess the outcome, but I was mostly just trying to finish and move on to something else as quickly as possible. The last 25% was everything I had wished for in the first 75%. I always feel badly writing a negative review knowing the author worked tirelessly creating the novel. I feel certain that others will find it interesting. I will still consider reading future books written by Ms. Willingham.
An advance reader copy of “Only If You’re Lucky” by Stacy Willingham, St. Martin’s Publishing, Minotaur Books was provided by NetGalley. Publication is expected Jan. 16, 2024. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

Stacy Willingham has quickly become one of my “must-read” authors. Her characters are multi-faceted and relatable. It was twisty how everything came together. Really enjoyable.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

First, I want to say, this should be rated YA. It has a very YA feel and is s college based novel.

Overall, this was a good thriller that kept me intrigued the whole way through.
It was well written and I did not see the ending going the way it did.

However, I didn't really like the story at all. I was disappointed in the way it ended up going.

Lucy is bold and dangerous and shines very brightly. Margot is the exact opposite but is drawn to Lucy at the end of their freshman year. They end up sharing a house together off campus with two other girls. Margot is finally starting to feel like the fog is lifting after her best friend Eliza died her senior year of high school.

Things are going well, and Margot feels like Lucy is her best friend. Until one of the boys from the fraternity next door unexpectedly dies and Lucy is missing.

I have enjoyed all of Stacy Willingham’s previous books and I was very excited to get this one. This one was a little different than her previous two books in that this one is not a police procedural, rather a thriller set around some college girls. I enjoyed getting to know Margot throughout the book. The writing is done exceptionally well, and on par with what I expected from this author. There was so much drama in this book that it sucked me in and captivated me from the start. Even though this one is a slow burn, it held my interest, and I couldn’t put it down. I liked the twists and didn’t see them coming, they were well done, and I’m still shocked. I think that this one is a good exploration of college aged and teenaged friendship. It was a little hard keeping track of all the characters, but once I had it down things were great.

Overall, this is a solid mystery / thriller and I recommend it to those looking for a book where nothing is as it seems.

Thank you to St Martins Press, Minotaur Books, @minotaur_books and Netgalley @netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was highly anticipated by many, including me. However, I feel let down and misled, as I expected an adult psychological thriller. This read like a YA suspense novel. The characters of Eliza and Lucy were cardboard alpha females and I found it hard to bring myself to care. The main character was pathetic and kept making bad decisions. The wiring was engaging, which kept me reading, but the plot and characters were subpar. I love this author, but am disappointed in this, her third novel. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for my gifted digital advance reader copy!

Quiet and reserved freshman Margot is used to blending into the background. She's often overshadowed by her friends and forgotten by strangers. Lucy is Margot's polar opposite- she's magnetic, beautiful, and bold. She doesn't hesitate to say what she thinks and never hides how she feels. Seemingly out of the blue, Lucy invites Margot to live off-campus with her and two other girls in Margot's year. Somehow the girls draw Margot out of her shell, and she starts to come into her own, forming a particularly close bond with Lucy. By the middle of sophomore year, however, one of their neighbors was found murdered and Lucy is missing.

I was so excited to receive this book in advance, as Willingham's first two novels are among my favorite releases of the past two years. Here, she departs from her previous style of novel (police procedural, mystery) and dives headfirst into the dramatic world of the teenage girl and dark academia. If you've been following my reviews for a while, you may know that I am a sucker for a good boarding school/college murder mystery, and this one is no exception. I read this book in a single sitting while on a plane and was so spellbound that I barely slept.

While Willingham does traverse familiar ground, she does it exceptionally well. Between the drama among the girls, wanting to learn more about Lucy and Margot's respective pasts, and the murder investigation, this one had just enough of everything going on without being too overwhelming or over the top. I did predict a few of the twists early on, but found this to be an enjoyable and entertaining read nonetheless.

Fans of The Last Time I Lied (Riley Sager), The Divines (Ellie Eaton), The Lying Game (Ruth Ware), and The Maidens (Alex Michaelides) will probably lap this one up.

The third book by ms Willingham, and definitely won't be my last if she continues to bring out this solid, amazing books. This book had me sucked in from the very first chapter. And the writing, just absolutely beautiful! I hated, loved, and felt all the feelings each character had and was going through. What a solid solid 5 stars! I will definitely be recommending to my patrons!