A dark academia that reminded me of a cross between Pretty Little Liars and How to Get Away with Murder. I loved the college roomies who live next door to a fraternity house take on this book. Lots of lies and secrets that unfold, which always make for an interesting story. I especially enjoyed the friendship dynamic between Margot and Lucy, one who’s malleable and one who’s bigger than life.

This slow burn does take a bit to ramp up,
and the middle could have used a bit “more” but I’m a fan of an academia thriller.. so I was invested. Each of the characters are flawed which really added to the intriguing female friendship dynamic that’s at play. Willingham knows how to build up a story and the ending was packed with twists. I binged the second half of the book in one sitting. A very well executed and memorable ending.

This book was decent. I enjoyed certain parts of it and others I didn’t. I’ve definitely read worse.

Stacy Willingham is soooo good at keeping you guessing until the very end of her books, I honestly had no idea where we were going for half this story, but in a good way. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was a majority of the characters, for being in college they were written in a way that sounded like they were still in high school or younger. Eliza and Lucy were by far the most annoying of the bunch, but I did love Nicole and Sloane. The endless twists kept me going and of course this author continues to be an instant buy for me.

Wow. What a wild and haunting ride this book was. So many twists and turns, it was quite haunting actually and I really enjoyed it. I don't want to say too much and spoil the story, but it has a bit of everything- friendship, lies, secrets, envy and betrayal. I highly recommend!

Huge fan of this author, but this book fell short for me this time. Definitely too slow of a start and while the ending made up for that with the twist, it’s still not what I was hoping for.

Margot is off to college without her best friend, Eliza. After tragedy struck, Margot, had to move on without her. While at college, Margo meet some new friends, one being Lucy. Lucy has friended Margot, who is intrigued as she reminds her a lot of her friend Eliza. As they become friends and the roommates Sloane and Nicole become some of her friends, things do not appear as they seem. When one of the frat boys next-door gets murdered, and Lucy disappears, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Margot is determined to figure it out.

This book is a good read, just not one of my favorites this year. And definitely not as good as the first two books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC. This book comes out in January!

Psychological and chilling. Stacey always has you on the edge of your seat. The mystery wasn't quite as thrilling as in her previous works, but the relationships between the characters were so raw and real and entrancing. I would definitely recommend this to fans of psychological thrillers!

I loved A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things so I had to pick up Only if You’re Lucky!

This is the story of Margot’s exploration of friendship that is laced with themes of belonging, loyalty, envy, and betrayal.

Oh boy y’all I’m on the fence with this one. The set up was amazing and the end was twisty! BUT getting there was a slog. I think there was just way too much detail on the relationships and atmosphere that I was bored. I did love how it all came together in the bed and will read any book Stacy Willingham writes!

Only if You’re Lucky follows Margot in her second year of University as she navigates new “cool” roommates while still trying to accept her childhood best friend’s death. Just as she begins to get comfortable, a face from her past shows up and makes moving on all the more difficult.

This story is told both in past and present and moves very slowly for the first 60% of the book. The story is also a bit all over the place and felt like it could have been tightened up quite a bit, which may have helped with the predictably of the twist(s).

Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for an advanced copy.

3 stars

The last quarter of this book was good, it just felt like it took us too long to get there. Thank you for the chance to read and review this book.

Margot is a college Freshman who doesn't know what to do with herself after the death of her somewhat toxic high school BFF. The only reason she had even applied to the college she attends was to follow her BFF. After one year at university having only one friend but a friend who seemed to be both genuinely good and psychologically sound. So our girl Margot decides that the best thing to do with her grief and foggy mental health is to take up with a a trio of college age wonder girls who's "leader" is one big giant red flag. Out of absolutely nowhere Ms. Leader invites Margot to move in with them., she agrees. At which point everything goes downhill, like downhill to hell. After moving in Margot learns that their landlord is a frat... Yes, four girls with a fraternity for a landlord, sounds safe, right? One of this frat's incoming pledges happens to be a dude who had a fling with Margot's now passed BFF and was the last person seen with her before her tragic and suspicious death. No bueno. This book is a thriller that deals with personality shifts, power dynamics, morally grayish characters, a plenty of plot twists.... also a weirdish obsession with a sort of version of truth or dare.

I have read all three of of Stacy Willingham's novels ( I think she's only written three if I'm wrong talk to Goodreads) of the three this book was my favorite. It's a fast easy read, the plot pulls you in. Although the main characters are young this novel does not read like a YA or New Adult novel and can easily be enjoyed by most adult readers. This book was a solid 4/5 stars for me. Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one is landing at more of a 3.5 for me. Read on Kindle.

This is my first Willingham book and I did enjoy it! This story follows Margot through the summer after her freshman year of college and her new friendship with three other gals. Margot has a past that she's not really willing to share but she soon finds out her new friends have secrets as well...and secrets that might be connected to hers.

To make matters even more complicated, for the summer these four gals are living next to a fraternity and their properties are connected by a shed...

We go back and forth between chapters to the Before times and After. We know something terrible has happened and the pages will turn until we finally learn what happened that night.

I liked the suspense in this one, I wanted to keep coming back to it. I didn't totally connect with it being in my 40's and college being quite a while ago, but I did feel like it was well written and was a good (not GREAT) but good thriller that kept my interest. I would for sure be interested in giving another Willingham book a shot!

Minimal language and adult themes/spice.

Thank you to NeGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoy Stacy Willingham's writing and was excited to be approved to read an ARC of Only If Your'e She has a talent for introducing twists and suspense into her stories that are exhilarating. While this book also has Willingham's signature surprising turn of events, it takes it's time in coming. The story moves at a very slow pace for the first 70% of the book - I checked where I was once it started to pick up. The biggest plot twists that I love are the one that you can see breadcrumbs of in the story before the reveal. The, "why didn't I see that before?" moment for the reader. This one relied more on characters and information that arrive late in the book. Overall, I felt the story needed whittled down.
While I am still an eager reader of Stacy Willingham 's books, this particular venture was not my favorite work of hers thus far.

My thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love Stacy Willingham’s writing and love the twist/suspense she writes into her books. This twist was too late in the book for me and I wish she put it earlier like her other two books. Overall great writing and story.

Thank you to Stacy Willingham, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

Wow! Overall loved this book. I was so excited to be approved for this ARC. I give this 4 stars - I love a good psychological thriller and the plot and suspense was great throughout the novel. The only issue I had was keeping track of all the characters. They were all introduced in the beginning which left me a bit confused. It is a bit of a slow burn, so it takes a little bit for the pace to pick up. Overall, another great thriller from Stacy Willingham!

2.5
I've read and loved Stacy Willingham's other two books but this one was unfortunately a miss for me.
the timeline felt muddled. This was a book that featured chapters from "before," "after," and also kind of present day? And the present and after chapters would also have long sections where the main character was thinking back on things that happened... so they would suddenly feel like before chapters.
Stacy also has a history of doing double-whammy twists—where there will be a mini twist that you'll maybe see coming (making you think you've guessed the ending) and then they'll be ANOTHER twist that totally throws you off. I thought it was fun in the first two books, but it didn't really work for me here.
Overall, it was just a little disjointed. The last 100 pages felt like we were suddenly with new characters—I didn't sympathize with the main character anymore and the reveals felt out of line with what we had gotten to learn about all of our suspects.
I'll definitely pick up more from her in the future, but this one was a bit of a letdown.

This is Stacy Willingham's third book. I have read her other two books and really enjoyed them and this was no exception. It did have a slow start for me but then it really picked up. Margot is the main character and it starts with her going off to college but memories of losing her best friend, Eliza, continue to haunt her. At the dorms she meets a girl named Lucy and Margot is instantly mesmerized by her and throughout the book continues to be drawn to her. Things change when someone from Margot's past, Levi, shows up after freshmen year is over and things change drastically after that but I won't say why since i don't want to give anything away.
The book does have a point of view of before and after which helps tie the story together as it progresses. Just when you think you know what's going on there is twist after twist! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I devoured Only if You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham! Margot goes off to college while mourning the loss of her childhood friend. She meets a new group of friends that will make her college experience one she will never forget. An old acquaintance resurfaces as this thriller takes twists and turns all leading up to a crazy ending. The college setting was nostalgic, the writing was fantastic . . . I loved this one!! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC!

I absolutely loved A flicker in the dark and All the dangerous things. So, I was obviously super excited when I was able to her get my hands on Only if you’re lucky.

This one is a slow burn with little bread crumbs scattered throughout unlike her previous fast paced two thrillers. It was a little slow for my liking but I will say, it was most definitely worth the read because the twists made up for the slow pace.

This one was packed with twists on twists. 🤌🤌🤌

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

I love Stacy Willingham, who writes great suspense novels. This one just wasn't one of my favorites. Maybe it was the demographics -- I'm not college-age any longer so the navigation of those friendships feels more foreign to me. Maybe it was the mystery -- it moved more slowly in the beginning and then wrapped up quickly at the end. Maybe it was the narrator -- I'm a little over narrators who we can't trust. Despite those things that didn't click for me, I still read this quickly and wanted to know what happened. I appreciated the fraternity house as a setting/character.

Thank you #NetGalley and #MinotaurBooks for allowing me to read this book.This was a tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal.