I am sad to say I did not love this one. I throughly enjoyed Wllingham's last two novels but Only If You're Lucky fell flat. The characters were all unlikable, Margot was especially annoying and clingy and I am not a fan of the toxic cool girl friendship which Lucy fell right into.

I finished this on 3x speed.

I look forward to Willingham's next novel but this one is a hard pass.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillin Audio for the ARC

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ALC. I really liked the narrator on this one. The story kept me interested the whole way through. I did have to take notes in the beginning because of all the characters but you soon learn who is who. The twists I did not see coming. This was very enjoyable and i would recommend.

Only If You’re Lucky is my second book by Willingham. While I really enjoyed All the Dangerous Things, this one just wasn’t it.

This is a slooooow burn, where not much happens until the last quarter of the book. The writing is fabulous, but the middle was just a bunch of words without much excitement. (Unless you are into college girls getting drunk and playing spin the bottle, yawn.)

I started by reading this one, which took me forever, I just couldn’t get into it- and then switched to audio. I did enjoy the narration by Karissa Vacker. I think her voice helped to liven up the storyline.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this one unless Willingham is an autobuy for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of this author and loved getting an early copy of this one available January 16, 2024.
This quote sets the tone. “One day we were strangers and the next we were friends. That’s how it usually works with girls.” What an ominous quote and its just as easy to go from friends to enemies.
Rutledge University is the setting where girls come together and the story develops when Margot and Lucy and unlikely pair to become friends.
Margot is shy and still is mourning her best friend. Lucy is the opposite, outgoing and she draws Margot in with a friendship. After all we all want to feel special. Are Lucy’s feelings genuine or does she have ulterior motives? College roommates and a duel time make this one fascinating and of course twist are always a plus. Willingham does it again.

I love Willingham’s style of writing and Only If You’re Lucky did not disappoint.

A coming of age story of friendship, lies, secrets, and the experiences along the way that teach us about ourselves and help to shape us as we grow.

The narration grabbed me right away, and although there were a few slow bits in the middle, that last 25% of the book was the best - and most unexpected.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillian Audio for this advance audiobook in return for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub date: 16 Jan 2024

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced reading copy of Only if You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham.

Margot has newly graduated high school and is beginning her freshman year at the college her and her newly deceased friend Eliza agreed to go to together. There Margot was isolated only attending classes, studying, and staying hidden in her dorm room. When Margot is offered the opportunity to live off campus with the “it girl” Lucy and her tight friend group she can’t jump fast enough. Margot wants to ge molded into the girl Lucy tells her to be. But by sophomore year there is more to all the girls then they originally believed about one another.

Stacy Willingham always has great writing ideas although usually something in her story telling is always a little off for me. I would recommend this to M.L. Rio’s If We Were Villains readers and Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars readers.

It honestly pains me to write this review because I have loved Stacy’s first two thrillers— both so fast paced and binge worthy— but this one is soooo opposite of the first two. This was extremely slow paced, dark academia and quite boring. The whole thing kinda felt underwhelming & honestly if it wasn’t for me having the audiobook format to pair with the ebook, there’s no way I would’ve finished it. 😭

I’m between giving this a 2.5⭐️ and 3⭐️ because it was fine, nothing groundbreaking and also not one I can recommend that people must read. 🥺

Thank you to the publisher for the chance to be an early reader.

This book started strong and had me hooked but it felt like nothing much happened the entire time. The ending was decent but nothing spectacular either..

Huge thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press & MacMillan Audio for advance copies in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Narration: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Only If You’re Lucky is the newest thriller from author Stacy Willingham. This time she goes for a dark academia vibe with a story following four girls on a college campus. Their leader, Lucy, is magnetic, bold, dangerous….and missing. When Lucy disappears after the death of a boy in the neighboring frat, her friends have many questions. They also have many secrets.

I really enjoyed this mystery. I always love a college-set thriller and this one really capitalized on the setting. The story was significantly elevated by excellent narration from Karissa Vacker. I highly recommend checking out the audiobook format!

ALC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham is a coming of age thriller with an interesting story and a twist I did not figure out! This is actually my favorite book by this author as I did not enjoy her other works quite as much. The narrator did a good job (as expected from Macmillan Audio!). It took me a bit to get into the story itself but the author has such a rich style of writing that I wanted to continue listening to the book. I personally really like stories where the past affects the present and we need to figure out what happened then and how it is affecting the now. I feel like it dragged a bit in the beginning so I would advise to not give up on it too early!

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this audio book.

ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY is a psychological thriller with “Mean Girls” vibes. The college town setting quickly takes a turn to the darker side when shy, introverted Margot meets beautiful, self-assured Lucy and her cool-girl sidekicks Sloane and Nicole.

Margot is struggling with the loss of her best friend Eliza and finds herself vulnerable, lonely and desperate to belong. Although the two girls barely know each other, Lucy encourages Margot to be the fourth roommate in an off campus house owned by one of the school’s fraternities. Immediately there’s a problem-Eliza’s boyfriend Levi is now her next door neighbor and he always made her uneasy.

This dark, campus thriller centers around the dynamic of friendships and suspicion when you get the feeling that NO ONE is telling the whole truth.

This one is definitely a slow burn with twists the last third of the book. I would also put it in the YA category because of the ages of the college kids. The girls and frat boys were extremely unlikeable which made me wonder-WHO was going to be the most toxic of the group??? I gave this one three stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy I was fortunate enough to receive.

College freshman Margot goes to college still grieving over the tragic death of her best friend. Unable to shake the grieving good girl she has become, Margot wants a change. So when Lucy, the magnetic leader of thre "it" girls makes Margot an offer to move in to a house owned by a frat with her and the other girls Margot jumps at the chance. Soon Margot's grief seems less as she becomes a part of the elusive group, doing things that the old Margot would not do. When the boy that Margot is sure killed her best friend shows up at the frat house Margot is spun again into the anger and spiral of grief. As she shares her past with Lucy, will Lucy help Margot with her grief, or is there more to Lucy's interest in Margot? I'm not going to lie, reading the crash course of Margot's life was difficult. This young woman struggling to deal with complicated grief, looking for relief in the wrong places. I honestly almost DNFed the book it was so painful to read. I kept with it and the twist was exactly what I needed to keep me hooked. This book was dark but for those who love twisty psychological thrillers than this one is for you. The narrator did a wonderful job of making the descent of a young woman seem palpable and real. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

I tried really hard to get into this one and while I'm very thankful to Stacy Willingham, Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press, this one just wasn't for me. I think it is because it seemed a little too Coming-of-Age for me, it just didn't resonate and I got a little lost in the writing styles.

Thanks for the advance copy. I was so excited to get the latest book from this author because I had read the other books she wrote. This book was good but compared to the others, it just felt different, but not in a bad way. The story was a slow burn for me. The excitement really came at the end.

The story basically centers around a college student who mourns the loss of her best friend from high school. She suffers in grief and reminiscence about their bond all the time. She gets invited to become a roommate with a popular girl in college who she is not friends with. They become close, essentially she becomes her new best. Then she becomes obsessed with her new best friend and questions her quirky behavior. The boy she holds responsible for her friend’s death moves into the fraternity house next to her. She holds resentment and wants him held accountable. His presence brings about a whole set of actions that finally reveals what happened in the past and some tragic events that occur presently.

I enjoyed the book. It just took a long time to get to the climax of the story.

Stacy Willingham has emerged as a must read author for fans of psychological thrillers. Her earlier books have been some of my favorites. Only If You’re Lucky is a solid entry, but does not live up to her previous working . It has all the twists and turns I’ve come to expect from Willingham, but lacks the uniqueness that makes her an auto buy author for me.

Only If You’re Lucky follows Margot, a shy college student reeling from the loss of her high school best friend. Her vulnerability makes her an easy mark for the larger-than-life Lucy, the roommate who exposes her to situations and people outside her comfort zone. When one of Margot’s fraternity neighbors is brutally murdered and Lucy disappears, Margot is left questioning everything she thinks she knows.

The story is gripping and will please most thriller fans, but I’ve come to expect more from this author. Still, it’s an entertaining read made all the better by the excellent narration from Karissa Vacker.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Margot, an intensely shy college student, latches on to Lucy, a hugely popular girl, who inexplicably invites Margot to move into the house she shares with two other girls. The story plays off the relationship between the young women and the arrival of a male student Margot believes was responsible for the death of her childhood best friend. Willingham is a promising author, but I feel her books could stand some editing; this like her others could have been shortened

ONLY IF YOU'RE LUCKY was an alluring story. Friendships are put to the test and you never know what to believe or who to trust. I liked the alternating timelines and getting a deeper insight into Margo and Eliza's friendship. By the end, I was shocked by the discoveries. I like a book that keeps me guessing and this one made me think. I felt the story read more like a YA thriller and I enjoyed it until the very last page. Stacy Willingham is clearly a gifted writer and this was very different from her last two books. The narration was excellent, and easy to listen to. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to Macmillian audio for my gifted ALC, NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my gifted copy.

This review will be shared to my Instagram (@coffee.break.book.book.reviews) in the near future.

I'm feeling indecisive on Only If You're Lucky, the latest thriller from Stacy Willingham. I like all of her books but they usually get so confusing toward the end that I couldn't tell you what happened now, years after reading them. This one was more straightforward, though it was so outlandish and our main character was so annoying that it was hard not to roll your eyes sometimes. The best part of this for me was Karissa Vacker, the audiobook narrator. She's one of my favorites. I don't want to drag it because it was still good and worth reading but you need to know some of this going into it.

Margot is a follower. She followed her bestie Eliza her whole life. They were even going to the same college- Eliza's pick of course. Fall has rolled around and Margot is at school alone. Eliza died tragically over the summer.

Like a dog waiting on a leash that's been tied to nothing, Margot needs someone to mold her into an interesting human being, which makes it all the more stressful to hear only her unreliable perspective.

She is chosen by the cool chick named Lucy and Margot dumps the friend who's had her back to go be a dancing monkey for Lucy and company. Lucy reminds her so much of Eliza. But also Maggie reminded her of Eliza.. and herself? I don't know. Anyway, they get into shenanigans and get into trouble obviously and it's super messy. It did keep my attention, despite my issues.

This was supposed to be some sort of critique on the nature of friendship but I just found it silly and I don't really know anyone who acts like this, though anything is possible.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen and review.

I am often not a fan of college settings in books ...... they have never once reflected my four years in school...... but Stacy Willingham managed a thing few authors have done for me - made me invested in these young folks. Interesting female characters, friendships, redefining yourself, murder...... there is a lot to unpack here and the twists are many.

I was not a fan of Willingham's A Flicker in the Dark, but this one has redeemed her in my eyes. I loved the twists. I'm really bad at guessing, and Only if You're Lucky kept me listening and guessing all the way to the end. Narrator Karissa Vacker did her normal excellent job of voicing both male and female and moving the story forward without a hitch.

This is the third book by this author and I have loved each one! I listened to the audiobook and the narrator is one of my favorites- she is amazing at differentiating between voices and keeping the reader’s interest all the way through. The storyline was great- suspenseful and intriguing. Highly recommend, especially the audiobook!