Although I really enjoyed Willingham's last 2 books, I had a hard time getting into this one. I'm not a big fan of books about kids going to college, partying, obsessed with others, etc., so from the start I wasn't thrilled with the storyline, but I thought I would give it a try. The story plods along and gets better towards the end, but not good enough to entice me to recommend this book. Sadly,, this was not a good read for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

“I crave it more than I’ve ever craved anything: the kind of friendship that I once knew so well, not comfortable and contained but something messy and maniacal and real.”


This was my first Stacy Willingham book and it didn’t do much for me. However it seems like this book might deviate from her normal writing so I still plan to at least read A Flicker in the Dark.

The setting of this book was Rutledge College in South Carolina. But it reads like a series of college party scenes rather than anything remotely nostalgic or relatable to me. The characters and setting and events are everything that was absent of my college experience and it was not enjoyable for me to read.

I could maybe still enjoy the book if the suspense at least was there, but it was a slow-burn read told in ‘before’ and ‘after’ chapters giving small teases that manage to keep you interested. But I grew tired of reading about everything that happened when they were drunk or high or hungover.

I will say that the ending twists did save it a bit (I liked the accident, mistake, necessity aspect) but unless this is a scene you find interesting or engaging, I don’t think the twists are worth all that comes before.


Basic Premise

The book begins with the knowledge that we have a dead body— a frat boy pledge named Levi Butler— and a missing girl— a bold, brash, and unpredictable college girl named Lucy.

And that’s how the chapters divide- before and after.

“Levi is dead, Lucy is gone, and someone has to pay.”

Margot’s college experience doesn’t start the way she had planned it. Her best friend, Eliza, dies three weeks before they were supposed to attend Rutledge together.

Freshman year is a blur of grief and depression, but one girl— Lucy— sticks out, elusive and magnetic, the object of a lot of rumors, and a reminder of Eliza. At the end of the year when Lucy invites Margot to live with her and her friends Sloane and Nicole, Lucy jumps at the chance.

“being loved by Eliza was like a sudden hit of adrenaline— a gateway drug, something addicting and freeing that left you craving your next hit the second she stepped away. And if Eliza was adrenaline, that makes Lucy something even more. Something more addicting, more dangerous. Something that I probably shouldn’t be dabbling in— but at the same time, something impossible to refuse.”

But we find out that Lucy might have picked her for a reason. And Sloane and Nicole for that matter.

“nice Nicole and studious Sloane and malleable Margot.”

And so this book asks the question: How far would someone go for friendship and belonging? What happens in a house full of potentially toxic friendships?

“Sloane is trying to tell me that, if I’m not careful, Lucy will… turn me into something I’m not. She’ll twist me and mold me until I’m unrecognizable, transforming in her hands like soft, wet clay. She’ll shape me into whatever she wants me to be. Something useful to best fit her needs, a deliberate instrument of her own design. But here’s the thing Sloane doesn’t know: I want to be changed. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, really: for someone to scoop me up and tell me what I’m supposed to be.”

So where is Lucy and what really happened to Levi?


Comments

I didn’t really find any of the characters likeable. It’s just kinda unimaginable to me that someone could be so malleable and easily manipulated to do whatever someone tells them to do. Or even in this case, willingly being pulled in to something clearly not right.

I don’t find that kind of personality relatable or endearing; I find it annoying. Have your own mind.

I just find it not only hard to believe, but hard to read when someone is so taken in by someone who is clearly a toxic type of person; obsessive friendships are alien to me. And when it’s drawn out for so long and detailed as the primary aspect of the book, it’s exhausting.


I know the college party scene is probably part of a lot of people’s college experiences, but it had nothing to do with mine and reading about it was a bit repulsive. At least if there was something redeeming about it then its place in the book would have purpose and development. But it was just the perfect storm of dysfunction to facilitate more problems, manipulation, and stupidity.


There just wasn’t anything appealing to reading it. As I started it I was wondering if I was going to like it, and as I continued, my engagement level never really went up.


The title of the book comes from this line:

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

I liked the title, but I’m not sure if this is the strongest line. Does it mean you’re only young if you’re lucky? Haha. I think it means that hopefully you don’t die. But I just think it’s a bit clunky of phrasing and they should have picked a different title or tied it in stronger than this.


I did think it was interesting that the house the girls live in that’s right next to the frat house is based on Willingham’s own college experience and housing. The shed and the crawl space were the same, but the rest of the story, people, and relationships were fictional.



Recommendation

Most of my dislikes of this book had to do with the characters and setting. I didn’t have issue with the writing style and I did like the twists. I also appreciated that there weren’t a million f-bombs.

So I am definitely willing to read another one of her books. From what I can tell they deal with adults which is a better story line for my interests. I think I’m picky about college-related books. (Though I’m not sure I can read All the Dangerous Things because I have a hard time with child abduction/death type of stories)

‘Only If You’re Lucky’ was not for me, but could easily be a hit for others if they don’t have as strong of feelings as I do about the morally ambiguous character types and setting.

[Content Advisory: 18 f-words and 28 s-words, a lot of drinking, smoking, drugs, and the college party scene; moderate sexual content]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

Wow. Just. Wow. It’s seldom I find a dark, twisty thriller I can’t decipher halfway in. This kept me biting my nails until the very end. I loved the character development and the absence of trite literary device asked styles everyone seems to depend on for this genre. Loved it

Loved this book! It was a slow start for me, but I'm glad I kept reading because there were quite a few surprises! I wasn't able to put it down after that!

It took me awhile to finish this book but I was determined to. I may be in the minority with my review. The book pace was sluggish and very repetitive. It didn’t take off until about 70% of the way through the book. It is more of a mystery than thriller. It had flipped btw past and present which was confusing at times. It did have some interesting twists toward the end. I wanted to like this book. It was just a meh for me.

Margot is surprised when Lucy, an outgoing popular girl, befriends her. Margot finds herself living off campus with 3 other girls (Lucy, Sloane and Nicole). Margot is starting to find herself again after the death of her best friend until there’s a murder and Lucy goes missing.

Stacy Willingham has quickly become an auto buy author for me. Her books are full of twists and turns and this one was no exception. I was on the edge of my seat while listening to this audiobook. While I didn’t connect or even like the characters I was intrigued by them and their relationships.

I definitely didn’t see the big reveals coming. I will say this book was a little slower paced and at times repetitive but I still enjoyed it.

The audiobook was well done and kept my attention. I enjoyed listening to the narrator.

Reading this story, I was fully prepared to give it a 5-star rating, depending on the ending, of course. It was fast-paced and kept me intrigued. Unfortunately, I found the ending anti-climactic. I'm not sure that I ever really developed a liking to any of the characters, which makes sense in the end when we learn everyone involved has their faults. 3.5 stars.

Wonderful story, great character development, great writing! Highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it

TW: Language, drinking, death of friend, classism

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can't say no—something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious.

And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, 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.
Release Date: January 16th, 2024
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 386
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Writing is descriptive

What I Didn't Like:
1. Boring
2. Characters found in any other basic thriller

Overall Thoughts:
Cool another book that makes out like making friends with other girls is just as easy as reaching for a banana in the same basket.

It's so difficult to like Margot when she pretty much mentions that her furniture is prefect for her parents mansion but not this new place and then to her mentioning not wanting to go to a party with public school kids.

60 pages into this book and I'm already tired of hearing about Eliza.

Honestly she says that Trevor being around is like him bringing Eliza to college but she lives in the ghost of her because she's always bring her up. Every sentence is Eliza this - Eliza that. What about Margot? Or anyone else...

Final Thoughts:
I dnfed at page 100. I was bored and nothing happened. I didn't care for these typical college people. Hearing about how hot someone was to drinking and drugs reminded me how much I hate being around people that do this stuff. No thanks.

This book is great if you like reading about basic one dimensional rich characters.

Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the ebook & Macmillan Audio for the audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you for this advanced copy! This was my first time reading Stacy Willingham. I enjoyed the setting of Only If You’re Lucky as it brought back memories from my college years. I did think the story was a bit slow and drawn out. I also feel somewhat implausible, at least for all aspects to work together. I was entertained but would rate this somewhere in the three star range.

I thought I had things figured out until I didn't. Even though the characters are in their 20s, it doesn't give off ya vibes. I highly recommend this book.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬💭:
There’s no denying that this author is a master storyteller when it comes to thrillers. Flicker In The Dark and All The Dangerous Things are two amazing thrillers she’s written that I fell in love with. So as long as she writes it, best believe I’m going to read it!

Thank you for my e-ARC Minotaur Books!

𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛📝:
Margo moves in with 3 other girls to finally come out of her shell on her sophomore year after spending her first tucked away hiding. In the middle of the school year, their next door neighbor winds up dead and their ringleader Lucy is missing.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. Compared to her other books, this one was slow. It was not as fast paced as her other ones, but she has been consistent with the short chapters which remain to be what keeps me glued and intrigued. It doesn’t really pick up until half way through, but I ended up enjoying as things unfolded. Some parts were repetitive which I didn’t love, but overall it played out as a really great dark academia and got tied up all neatly as it ended. It was giving me Mean Girls meets How To Get Away With Murder vibes. If you love these kinds of plots, this is absolutely worth picking up!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚: 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘢, 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘹 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘛𝘰 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳

Stacy Willingham is one of my favorite thriller writers. When this books was announced I posted a huge excited post about it. So, when I started it and then had to restart it, and restart it, AND RESTART it to say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement. I just could NOT get into it. It draaaggggggged. But, because I love Stacy I went against my norm and continued. I fully believe in the DNF, but have faith in Stacy. It did pick up in the last 25-30% but really you shouldn’t have to wait that long for good content.

One thing that did keep me going here was the fact that I also listened to the audio as I did an immersive read and Karissa Vacker was the narrator. I adore her and would honestly listen to her read anything but she did add something to this one, even the draggy parts.
2.5 rounded down.

Slow Burn - dark academia- psychological thriller-female friendship, adoration, obsession - unreliable narrator - long bonfire nights - a visit to an uninhabited island - frat boys next door ...
This book is captivating in it's own way, short chapters kept me engaged while the single
POV was balanced with flashbacks to different times.
The main character Margot has to cope with her best friend Eliza dying during their senior year (was it an accident ?) instead of deferring like her parents want her to she starts college first as dorm life than moving in with loose acquaintances but as soon as Margot comes out of her shell again things pick up around her as well, people die and people disappear ... what is going on and does it all relate to her ?
This was an entertaining and quick read !

Only If You're Lucky delves into the angst of college living, and the friendships we make that shape our experience there. Margot has come to a small liberal arts university still reeling from the death of her best friend Eliza, who died right after high school graduation, spoiling the girls plans to attend the college as roommates. She drifts through the first year with a kind but boring roommate, and she can't help but be intrigued by a girl on her floor named Lucy, who is effortlessly cool, and reminds her a little of her friend Eliza. She is surprised but thrilled when at the end of the year Lucy asks her to move in with her and her two running buddies, Sloane and Nicole.

The girls are living in a house on the grounds of a male fraternity. The author does a good job of drawing a Southern Gothic picture of the less than healthy life at the boy's fraternity. Margot loves her new life, but is thrown for a loop when a boy from her hometown shows up as a pledge at the fraternity. She blames him for her friend's death.

Things get steadily murky from this point. Lucy has a lot of secrets, and Margot, our narrator may be hiding a few of her own.

This author is a good writer and has an easy to follow flow of words. I really enjoyed two of her other books, but I am so far removed from the college experience that this book had a bit of the YA feel to me, like a Pretty Little Liars vibe. Like the last two books I've read, I feel this book could have benefited from some editing. Margot's ruminations became repetitive and almost boring to me after a certain point. While certain revelations are made in these spooling of Margot's memories, I feel like some of it could have been more succinct and tightened writing.

The ending was interesting and actually rather chilling to me. It's unnerving to think how people can hide who they are, and justify their actions.

For me this read was a 3.5, but I'm rounding up rather than down, because I think Ms. Willingham is a good writer.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review,

While this was not my top of Stacy Willingham books, I still find her skill at slowly building a story and crafting characters absolutely marvelous.

This was reminiscent of pretty little liars for me and it drenched me in nostalgia for my younger self. For my college self. My shy self with a best friend. I love that Stacy never crafts “completely perfect” or even likable characters and this book was full of unlikable ones (something I liked). I loved the college murder mystery, and the links between Lucy and Eliza threw me for a loop.

I especially liked how this book looks at female friendships, female envy and jealousy: that innate thing we all feel when we meet a girl we are just fascinated by for some reason.

This was so much fun and I will read anything Stacy writes!

What a chilling read! Only If You’re Lucky felt completely different from Stacy Willingham’s previous two books. It’s more of a dark academia campus thriller, which is a thriller trope I love!

I will say that it starts off pretty slowly–there’s a lot of scene setting as we meet all the characters and get used to Margot’s daily life on campus. Once the twists get going, though, they really take off.

It’s I guess technically new adult but reads like a YA thriller at times–these characters are young and have a lot to learn, but that’s part of what endears the reader to them. Margot was hard to like at first, but she grows on you as the story picks up pace. The story becomes an interesting discussion on toxic female friendship and what it means to belong.

While I appreciated this new side of Willingham’s writing, the book took a little too long to get to the point. The story is good, but I had to switch to audio partway through to hold my interest. My library hold came in just in time!

Unfortunately, this book was not it for me. Dragged on and on with unimportant details and summed it up in 3 pages at the end. As a Stacy Willingham fan, I was disappointed.

Willingham is clearly a talented writer and it shines through in this one. I really enjoyed all of the Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde references and how the author used them to compare female friendships. Also, I really enjoyed the dark academia aspect and the unexpected twists. Readers and fans of her prior works, will also enjoy Only If You’re Lucky!

This book is a multiple timeline thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat until the absolute very end.

After the tragic death of her best friend, Eliza, Margot is struggling to move on with her life. She is enrolled in their dream school and trying to make the most of it, but everything seems to remind her Eliza until she meets the energetic and mesmerizing Lucy Sharpe.
Lucy invites Margot to move into a home off campus that she shares with her two friends Sloane and Nicole. The home is owned by the fraternity next door, so it's always an endless party until it isn't. Lucy is missing and one of the fraternity members is dead. Is this related or do the two events have nothing to do with each other?

So this book definitely kept me reading because I wanted to know what happened.
This is another book that will have you guessing until the very end; and it is definitely a jawdropping book.

I recommend this one if you love thrillers but I definitely enjoyed this book.