Only If You’re Lucky is yet another wonderful thriller from Stacy Willingham!

The main character, Margot, started her first year at a small college. She was going through the motions, because just a few weeks into her summer, her best friend died. She was meant to go off to college with her but instead, she’s grieving her loss with a roommate she doesn’t know.

In comes Lucy— a very mesmerizing girl to anyone she meets. She’s a very magnetic and tends to enthrall everyone she meets! She invites Margot to room with her and two other girls, Sloan and Nicole in a frat owned house off campus. Margot takes that opportunity and runs with it. She dives into the party scene head first all while learning and uncovering so many details that send her on a wild journey when her best friends ex boyfriend dies and Lucy goes missing.

This story is slooooowww burn. The first half was a LOT of character building and backstories. It’s told in dual timelines which gives so many little clues that I didn’t really put together until the end. It’s full of twists and turns that were so well done and believable! Willingham nailed the intricacies female friendships and the lengths they’ll go to protect themselves and each other. She also did a wonderful job describing the feelings of wanting to belong and what lengths someone will go to to be accepted. Overall I really enjoyed Only If You’re Lucky! Even though it was pretty slow burn in the first half, it kept me turning those pages and really paid off in the end!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and Stacy Willingham for the ARC! 🫶🏻

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read this advanced copy! I loved both of her other books so this was a treat.

When Margot’s best friend suddenly dies, Margot is forced to go to their chosen college alone. Missing Eliza, Margo meets Lucy who reminds her of her childhood friend. Why is Lucy singling her out to befriend?

This book is definitely a slow burn but worth sticking it out! Everything will be revealed in time. What you need to know is that it’s about friendships, murder and the ties that bind us together. How we all have love and hate in our hearts. The potential to lie and tell the truth. To do good AND bad.

Margot lost her best friend in high school and after her death has had a hard time moving on. She felt that moving to college would be a chance to put the past behind her and reinvent herself. Freshman year she mainly stayed in her room and hung out with her room mate. Then Lucy asks her if she will move into a house with her and her friends.

Lucy reminds her so much of Eliza and longs for a best friend. She has watched how Lucy, Sloane and Nicole are all so close and wants to be a part of that inner circle so she ditches her one friend and moves into the house which is is owned by Kappa NU fraternity. One fraternity brother gets murdered but who did it?

This was a slow burn and targeted at a younger market as it talks about drugs, college, high school, fraternity, hazing and so much boring stuff that I didn't enjoy.

I have enjoyed her previous books.

3.5 stars

I’m seriously conflicted on this one. I loved Willimgham’s previous 2 books, and I did like this one but not as much. It was a sloooow burn. And I hated literally every character. I kind of guessed the twists early on (though that doesn’t really bother me personally). The book picked up big time in the last 25% but I’m not sure if that saves it. I’m glad to have read it, I just wish I had known going in that it was going to be a slow burn, I would’ve saved it for when I wanted that type of book. I may have rated it higher then.

Her writing is still great, and the mystery still informs well, I was just hoping for a bit better pacing.

Only If You’re Lucky begins with three college girls being questioned by police about the disappearance of their roommate, Lucy, following the murder of one of their friends, Levi.
Margot went to a small college – choosing it with her best friend from home, Eliza – who tragically dies three weeks into the summer after their senior year of high school. Margot goes to college anyway and rooms with someone the college chose for her, Maggie.
Margot and Maggie seem to get along until she meets Lucy – who mesmerizes everyone she meets – especially her best friends Nicole and Sloane. So, when Lucy asks Margot to room with the three of them for the summer and next year, Margot jumps in with both feet. As she says after losing Eliza, “I don’t just need to be saved anymore. I need to be resuscitated.”
Only If You’re Lucky is the story of the girls and their fraternity friends/landlords who own the house they live in and charge minimal rent, but also gives them access to their house any time.
Many backstories are revealed – how everyone fits together – and all the lies involved in everyone’s life – before and after their college time together.
I was caught up in everyone’s stories and couldn’t wait to see how it all came together in the end – and it didn’t disappoint!
Only If You’re Lucky is a book that should definitely be on your TBR list!

•Only If You’re Lucky 🔥•

📚Genre: thriller
🤔Rating: 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺(5/5)
#️⃣ of pages: 384
👯‍♀️ read if you like: dark academia, The It Girl, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, unreliable characters & all the twists
🗓️Publishing Date: January 16, 2024

👍🏼:
•y’all know I love a dark academia & this nailed it.
•love the SC setting! I also loved that in the acknowledgments she mentioned the setting was based on a very similar setting from her time at UGA
•I always love when the actual title of the book makes a subtle appearance in the story 👏🏼

👎🏼:
•nothing negative here!

Overall…
Yep, I consider myself very *lucky* to have been given this amazing ARC! I mean, all @stacy does is write AMAZING books! This one was SO. DANG. GOOD. I really thought I had everything figured out, but she surprised me with some of the twists at the end! The characters were developed well and all had a very unreliable sense to them, making the book even more enticing, especially with all the Jekyll/Hyde vibes. The writing is just so descriptive and so detailed & just showcases how talented Stacy Willingham is. I enjoyed this SO much & can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on it in January!!!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review!

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4.5 stars rounded up. Stacy Willingham doesn’t miss when it comes to crafting an intelligent mystery/thriller. This was a *journey* full of secrets and lies and people who make you question everything.

Told in a ‘Before’ and ‘After’ timeline, the book opens in the After with one freshman fraternity member, Levi, dead and one girl, Lucy, missing. Everything that unfolds in twists and turns from Margot’s point of view—one of Lucy’s three roommates and the best friend of a girl who died the previous summer after last being seen with Levi.

The only thing that kept this from being a full 5-star read was the pacing feeling like it got off to a slow start for me. It took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I had a block of uninterrupted time to push through, I was sucked in. It’s a book that uses the themes of Jekyll and Hyde to examine the idea that good and bad can exist in someone at the same time. It was well-crafted and applied to every character involved in different ways for each one, and it takes a look at how each one reacts to finding themselves in a position to question where they fall. It’s hard to say too much in reviews for these kinds of books without spoiling anything. I will say there were a few twists/reveals and for a rundown: one I didn’t see coming at all, one I had an inkling that it was a possibility, one it was clear something was off about the circumstances, and another was one part expected and one part surprising. Every one made sense from the tracks that were laid throughout the body of the novel leading up to them. It’s all in the details that weave together as Margot finally connects everything.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, and Stacy Willingham for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This dark academia novel has it all, mystery, secrets, manipulation, lies, and enough twists and turns to give the reader whiplash.

I have also read Willingham’s other two novels and already consider myself a huge fan of her work. This novel felt different….darker….and every bit as amazing as the others.

This novel follows Margot who in a way is still dealing with the untimely loss of her best friend. We learn about her past and live through her present while she starts a new journey as a freshman in the college she was supposed to attend with her best friend. She makes new friends and has a lot of new first year college experiences that teach her a lot about her past and current selves.

What will she learn about the death of her best friend and how will she deal with those truths?

This may be my favorite Willingham novel to date. I can’t wait to see what this authors talent brings us next.

Another hit by my new fave author! This book explores the intricacies of female friendships, all the unspoken rules and unshared secrets. It is the epitome of the very correct stereotype that women fight with words. You might find yourself looking deeper into a friendship that has always been there, finding the cracks that have also always been there but been ignored.

Some of the prose is just so expertly and poetically crafted, such as “arms like seat belts wound tight around our waists,” “making our skin droop like overworked clay,” and “arms like loose nooses wound around each other's necks.” I was truly in awe of the writing style in this book. Stacy has really outdone herself.

It felt a liiiiitle slow in the middle, but the characters were so compelling, and the back and forth between past and present kept me hooked and tense. Overall, I definitely recommend this book to thriller and drama lovers alike!

I’m exceeding grateful to have gotten and ARC of this book as I loved Stacy Willingham’s other books. This was a fantastic book about a girl (Margot) who moves away to college after her best friend dies in a tragic accident and befriends another girl (Lucy) and becomes sucked into her world of friends and parties. Their lives become complicated when one of the boys (and ex-boyfriend of of her high school best friend) is murdered and Lucy goes missing. This book is full of twists, turns and had me on the edge of my chair until the very end!

(3.5 stars) entertaining & mysterious; alternates b/w past & present; slow burn but almost too slow; a bit repetitive at times & I wish more/stronger hints were thrown in throughout the story as opposed to getting hit w/everything at the end; enjoyed how it all tied together tho; gave Pretty Little Liars vibes: teens in highschool/college w/tons of secrets; definitely an unexpected ending

Special thank you to Minotaur Books & NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I have read both Stacy Willingham's previous novels and was really excited to read this one before it's released.

Only If You're Lucky follows the main narrator Margot navigating college and grief without her best friend Eliza by her side. Eliza and Margot were supposed to be going to Rutledge together and experiencing all the college things together. However, Eliza died in a freak accident before embarking on the journey to college. Margot is navigating her grief, focusing on school, until she meets Lucy Sharpe at the end of her first year. Margot is drawn by mysterious Lucy. Shortly after meeting Lucy, Margot finds herself live off campus in a house with Lucy and her two roommates - Sloane and Nicole. Over the year, Margot finds herself attached to Lucy, Sloane and Nicole, but this all hits the fan when a one of the fraternity boys, Levi, from next door has been brutally murdered and Lucy goes missing.

This book is presented in two timelines that eventually all meet. A major theme of this book was based off Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - good versus evil.

Twists, turns, gaslighting and manipulation occur over the course of the book and will leave your jaw-dropping.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and was so excited that I was selected to read this novel before its released. I did find this novel to be vastly different from Willingham's previous two. I also feel like this could be marketed as a YA novel probably because of the college setting.

A massive thank you to Stacy Willingham, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings include death, murder, gaslighting, sexual assault, alcohol and drug use.

I have read a book by this author and really enjoyed it. I didn’t like this one as much but it is still a good read. Margot goes to college by herself after her best friend Eliza dies unexpectedly during the summer before freshman year. She spends her freshman year as a quiet student that doesn’t join clubs or make friends easily. The end of the first year, an exuberant, social butterfly Lucy takes Margot under her wing and invites her to live in a house with two other friends of Lucy, next door to a fraternity. She comes out of her shell and starts to have a real “college experience “. She soon starts to doubt Lucy and wonders who she really is. The other girls in the house make comments about how Lucy can be. There is a big twist toward the end (which I should have seen coming), but didn’t. It sets everything up for a dramatic ending that finds each of them being capable of both good and evil. And each of them have something to lose and must rely on the others to keep their secret. At times, it seemed to drag on and I think that some of the memories of the past friend was repeated and could have been shortened.

Both of Stacy Willingham's prior books were 5 star reads for me so I was thrilled to be approved for Only If You're Lucky. I feel like the beginning was very strong but it lost me a bit in the middle. It became repetitive and felt geared more toward a younger audience maybe because it's a college setting. Around 70% a reveal was made that was very good and from there I was pulled back into the book. I wound up finishing the rest in one sitting. All the pieces came together in a surprising way.

Thank you St. Martin's Press, NetGalley and Stacy Willingham for an advanced copy. Only If You're Lucky comes out January 16, 2024.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, as it was one of my most anticipated. Let me start this by saying Stacy Willingham has become one of my auto buy authors and I adore her writing. Her first 2 books were instant favorites for me, so I just had to read this one ASAP. That being said - this was not for me. This book was not bad by any means. But after reading her first 2 so recently, it was a little bit of a bummer to see such a different writing style/story line. The storyline gave me similar vibes to Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars - like eerily close, and unfortunately it was an internal distraction comparing them all. It was a slow burn which I do not normally mind, but it felt too drawn out to get to the twists and resolutions. I was able to guess some of the twists, but not all of them, and I have to say the ones not guessed added nicely to the storyline. She wrapped up everything for me though, and left nothing unanswered. I enjoyed the subliminal hints throughout the book that lead to the resolutions though, so when we learned everything, it leaves you said OH that makes sense, Overall I enjoyed reading it just fell a little flat for me personally. I still adore this author and will remain buying any book she puts out moving forward.

An interesting story about:
College friends
Roommates
Lies
Games
Parties
Accidents
Murder
Rape
Twisted minds and games between
friends who are not who they appear to be.

A mind bending novel where the twisted pieces of the puzzle slowly come together in a suspenseful thriller. Childhood friends, college friends and roommates who have a lot in common with accidents and tragedies. You can guess who's and how’s and be wrong again and again in this wild and crazy mystery.

3.5 Stars
I felt so lucky when I got this approval on NetGalley. I have previously read A Flicker In The Dark and loved it, so I was so stoked to get approved for Stacey’s newest book! While I did enjoy this book, I was a little confused in the beginning because there were a lot of characters introduced very early on. I was also able to guess a few of the twist early on & it was a slow burn so I would have appreciated a little more action in the beginning. However the end of the book did pick up quite a bit and there were a few twist I was not expecting. Thank you so much NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for this ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC e-copy of Only if You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham.

When I saw the next Stacy Willingham thriller pop up on my NetGalley, I didn’t even need to read the description—I put in my request right away.

Like Willingham’s other novels, Only if You’re Lucky draws you into the mystery right from the start, and the characters’ secrets are revealed gradually as the story progresses. This novel centers around Margot, a college student from the Outer Banks who, after the death of her lifelong best friend, is easily drawn into another tempestuous friendship with a wild and unpredictable classmate named Lucy.

This novel and the relationships within it, namely between Margot, Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole, are instantly reminiscent of Mean Girls and Heathers, promising the reader a wild ride into the (sometimes deadly, apparently) intricacies of female friendships. What better basis of horror is there than the very concept of womanhood?

… 345 pages later, and Stacy Willingham has done it again. I didn’t see the twist ending coming, though all of the clues are there, masterfully hidden in little bits of dialogue and character interactions that are written off as insignificant at first. I enjoyed every second of this book, which absolutely lived up to the hype for me. Full of clear atmosphere, compelling characters with compelling motives, and a thrilling mystery at its heart, Only if You’re Lucky is yet another winner by this author.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ - EXCELLENT

CW: death, descriptions of dead bodies, murder, alcohol and drug usage, implied domestic abuse, implied sexual assault/rape

This book centers around a main character that wonders why the popular girls chose her -i despise this type of character.

This book really picked up at the 64% mark (reading it on my kindle)
Looking back to the beginning of the book, I see the author expertly set everything up to click into place.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Only If You’re Lucky. I really have enjoyed her last two books so I was excited to read this one early. It think it is my favorite so far. It is what I would call a slow burn at the start but I didn’t mind and it definitely gained momentum as you continue reading. I was sucked in from the start. Think thriller/murder mystery with a side or psychological suspense.

The story is set at Rutledge College and centers around Margot and the new friends she makes at college, a tragedy from her past, a missing girl, and a murdered boy. Margot has landed at Rutledge College after the loss of her childhood friend, Eliza. She spends her first year kind of in daze and going through the motions. She moves into off campus housing with a girl named Lucy who just invites her to move on with her and two other girls. She doesn’t know any of them but is looking for a change to jar her back to life. With a back and forth between past and present, the book opens with a boy named Levi murdered and Lucy is missing. The story takes you on a journey connecting the dots between Margot, Lucy, and Levi.

I literally could not stop reading this book. It is one you will want to add to your “to read list” for sure.