I enjoyed this book despite it feeling a bit YA. It was a slow burn with lots of unlikeable characters. There were lots of twists but it took a while, pretty much until the end of the book, to get to them. Dark academia meets murder mystery. 4 ⭐️

I loved the atmosphere, the first person narrative (my favorite) and her writing style. I really enjoyed the college campus setting and the uniqueness of each character. Some were definitely unlikable but it made the story more real with this particular setting. This book gave a good amount of suspense but also brought on other emotions as well. I really enjoyed this one and can't wait to read more by Stacy.

3.5 stars. This was a slow but that kept me entertained. I did have high expectations based on the author's two previous books. This one was ok. It was difficult to connect with these characters. So you have a slow burn with unlikeable characters. Me not liking the characters didn't take away from the book for me as I felt the author wanted us to not like the characters. There was great tension and suspense buildup throughout the book. There were also twists that I did not see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Read Completed 12/29/23 | 3.25 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Minotaur books, for the audiobook review copy. This free copy did not affect my review in any way.

ONLY IF YOU'RE LUCKY was a very different read than Stacy Willingham's previous two books, and sadly, this one didn't really work for me. Willingham's gorgeous moody, atmospheric writing is lost on a college setting that once again is just full of drinking and drugs half the time complete with the same enigmatic, mysterious girl that the main character is weirdly drawn to. Not inaccurate for college but, snooze, boring, give us something else.

Stacy Willingham's books are slow burns, but the beginning of this book was just boring and drama, not tension and a cool slow burn that creates suspense. The first 15% is setting up at college which bored me completely and I almost quit the book because I didn't like how young adult everything felt. We could have skipped a lot of that, knowing how everything ends. Then until about 60%, it's a drama and grief while experiencing college with some very minor flashes to present-day that show a hint of the thriller side of the book. FINALLY at about 60-65%, we get some good, interesting reveals that make things more thriller, less college drama. There are many thrillers that follow this feel too, setting up drama for much of the book until the ending finally gets to the more thriller part. That's also never been my style. I end up quitting a lot of those books early on.

I also really didn't care for the characters. I didn't like Margot at all -- she was trying to find herself in many ways but nothing about her was endearing. Lucy was annoying and I don't understand why everyone liked her... but I guess such is the way when people are fighting for your affection. The other roommates are barely there and barely developed and I would have liked to see more group dynamic, at least. All of the frat boys were annoying.

The ending does have a twist or two that I partially saw coming but they were still a surprise... but it really didn't warrant the rest of the book. I would have MUCH rather spent the majority of the time in the book in the present day with the actual exciting part than spending all of the time in the past. The past could have revealed some things along the way and instead, we get to spend more time in the present feeling the suspense and tension that everyone must have been feeling.

Mostly, the setting and age range just didn't do it for me. I trusted Stacy Willingham to be able to write anything because I loved her first two books, and this wasn't a bad book but it definitely wasn't what I was hoping for. I felt a little better about it at the end, but there was just too much I didn't like.

If you enjoy books in a college setting, maybe this one will work better for you! It all just felt too young adult and mostly, I felt like Stacy Willingham's writing style just clashed with this atmosphere and vibe. Nothing really seemed to fit and it all felt like it was forced to work here. I'm sure people will love it but it just fell short for me.

Too slow and too wordy for me to find it interesting. It took me forever to even get half way through the book. This one seems geared towards a younger audience than her previous books. Something about the writing with this one that just didn’t do it for me. I was bummed because I love a good dark academia book. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t it.

3.5 stars!
College life, friendship drama, murder mystery, betrayal and hidden secrets! Margot was our MC and she was a freshman at Rutledge. Like any other freshman, Margot has a hard time adjusting. The life in Rutledge was not what she had pictured when her best friend Eliza and her was planning it. It’s an escape from life at home that she wanted to be far away from, it was the fresh new start that she hoped for yet there seem to be something that was not fulfilling. Eliza was no longer with her, she tragically died the summer after Highschool graduation but she seem to be everywhere around her.
I love the good character development in this book. Though the ending was somewhat predictable to me , I still favor the manner of it unfolding. It was like peeling each and every layer delicately to reveal the truth. Margot was very unreliable main character. I both like and dislike her. She was doubtful, childish and insecure the whole time and it did get to my nerves. There were parts that were redundant yet I think it played out positively because it added to the buildup of the plot.
If you enjoy psycho-mystery with dark academia vibe, this book is for you.

Special thanks to St.Martin’s Press via Netgalley for the advance e-arc in exchange of my honest review.

I was lucky enough to receive both the E-ARC and Audiobook.to this book. I was excited because I had never read anything by this author. So I started the ebook and well it was just not working for me. I switched to the audiobook and sadly that didn't capture my attention. I just couldn't connect with the characters the storyline etc. So sadly I DNFed this book. I'm rating the book 3 stars because while it wasn't the book for me it might be the perfect book for someone else.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC. And to Macmillan Audio for the ALC

All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

This is a comfortable college friend murder suspense story along the lines of pretty little liars. It takes place half in the outer banks in high school and the rest of the POVs are in college. Overlap in characters, dual timeline stories. I love the style of books like this because it sets you up for some great twists. I did see some of them coming but was definitely surprised by a couple.

Bit of a slower burn to start and doesn't heat up until close to the end, but the majority of the book is a story in toxic friendship, popularity, "one of those girls" (everyone knows one) and what kids will do to fit in.

This is a comfort thriller for me. Love this type of story and love this author's writing.

The first 60% was too slow for my preference for a thriller and the main character had the personality of a wet napkin. The last 40%, however, felt like a different book and had twists on twists. I think it could’ve been about 75 pages shorter and it would’ve helped the pacing a lot. I guessed some of the reveals but there were others that dropped my jaw to the floor and had me nearly throwing my kindle 😅 I’m so glad I buddy-read this one with a dear friend - it made the guessing game so much more interesting and really forced me to think about all the details more than I would have on my own.

Margot and Eliza, both children of wealthy families, have been best friends all their lives. They did everything together. In fact, they planned to go to the same college and live in the same dorm rooms together. Then Levi came into their life, and Eliza began keeping secrets, and Margot felt worse than a third wheel. Eliza died at a graduation party, and Margot came undone.

She still went to the college the friends had planned to attend, but trudged through her days, barely leaving her dorm room or interacting with others.

A year later, Margot falls under the spell of the charismatic and enigmatic Lucy, who invites Margot to share the rent on a house with two others. Margot meets Sloane and Nicole, and learns that that the house they're in connects, through its back yard, to the yard of a fraternity house. And the frat boys are their landlords.

Soon after she moves in, Levi joins the fraternity. Margot is infuriated, and Lucy focuses her attention on him, as the girls and the frat boys party many times together.

The action cuts to the present, when Margot, Sloane and Nicole are questioned by a police detective. Levi is dead, and Lucy is missing. The girls maintain it’s not unusual for Lucy to do unusual things, like disappearing for days on end before returning suddenly. Privately, the girls decide to stick to this story until the detective moves on, leaving them in peace.

This story didn't hold a lot of interest for me. The frequent mention of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a pretty big clue to one of the secrets in this story, as well as a window into two of the characters.

It's not super hard to figure out who was behind Eliza's death, and the fiction the girls provide the detective isn't hard to penetrate either, giving the reader the answer to Lucy's disappearance.

This was not author Stacy Willingham's better efforts.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This is my second title from Willingham and it did not disappoint. The book follows Margot and her three girlfriends and their life in their college rental. When a boy from Margot's past shows up at the fraternity house next door, old secrets are brought up. This thriller is interesting and and a quick read. It is set in South Carolina as well as the Outer Banks. Having traveled to these areas before I was interested in the setting. Willingham does a good job unfolding the story. She brought me back to my college days. Would highly recommend!

The story was engaging and had some very good twists at the end. I know some people get annoyed by an unreliable narrator- but I quite like one, and we find one in this story.

Margot, the main character is a reserved, quiet observer personality. What the reader begins to understand throughout the story is how possessive she really is. She grips on to strong, assertive females and feels more complete in their presence.

Margot’s best friend died right before attending the small college she and Margot planned to attend together. While there, she meets Lucy, who reminds Margot so much of her best friend that she is drawn in and falls pray to her manipulative ways. This story explores their relationship and also looks back at her relationship with her best friend and her death.

This book is billed as dark academia- but I’m not sure I agree. It is set at a college campus- but there is not much to do with the school. It centers around the house that Margot lives in, and the fraternity house next door. This story felt way more YA than this author’s previous books. This wasn’t my favorite (that would be A Flicker in the Dark), but I still enjoyed it. I saw one of the twists coming, but the others caught me off guard.

Read this if you like unreliable narrators, more of a YA bend and love psychological suspense. I think you’ll really like this one. Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the arc to read and review.

In the author’s note, I learned that the author attended UGA, as my daughter did, so that was a fun fact to learn. Go Dawgs!

The ending definitely saved this one, but it got a little snoozefest worthy in the middle. I would’ve liked more action. Not my favorite from the author

This is an interesting look at how jealousy can destroy the soul and the twists and turns that transpire on a college campus. The characters are not particularly likeable, but they aren't meant to be and while I wasn't always sure what was going on, I had an idea of where the story was headed. It's an entertaining mystery and I really enjoyed the audiobook, narrated by Karissa Vacker.

2.5 ⭐️ I have to say I do enjoy a slow burn thriller but this was a bit too slow. It took until 70% for it to take off and even then it was still slow. I felt there were some major plot holes and a few things that didn’t make sense. I do enjoy Stacy Willingham so I will read more of her books but this one was just a miss for me.

My least favorite by Stacy Willingham.

It was entertaining enough, but there wasn’t the suspense or mystery I was hoping for.

And even when the ‘twist’ was revealed- I wasn’t surprised in any sense.

I’ll continue reading her books because I love her writing style- but this missed the mark for me.

Moody and evocative, this book is the very essence of a slow burn, best described, in the author’s own words, as a tantalizingly “slow simmer”, bubbling and congealing, before “morphing into a full-blown boil”.

Margot, our first person POV, is a strange and disturbingly-repressed narrator. Revealing little, and concealing much about what feels to the reader to be a harrowing and traumatic past, all we know is that very recently Margot’s best friend Eliza died, and Margot is now on her own at her South Carolinian college, seeking a newly-solitary social footing, grieving and shaky and uncertain as she faces her new surroundings on her own.

When Margot unexpectedly is approached by Lucy, and is introduced into her pals Nicole, and Sloane, (the threesome forming a close and undeniably cool clique, with icy-eyed Lucy their enigmatic leader), Margot can’t believe her luck when she is offered an opportunity to room off campus with them.

As the girls and their party-loving, alcohol-fueled world unfolds - centering on interactions with the testosterone-soaked frat boys who have unfettered access to the girls’ fraternity-owned (insanely creepy) rooming house - it’s pretty clear that everyone is hiding something, beginning with Lucy, and definitely including Margot, and her obsessive need to fit in.

As the tension mounts, it’s clear that the girls’ house, (and its carcass-filled hunting shed), may just be the most disquieting setting ever penned to page, particularly as host for the inevitable love, longing, power and lust, and all the trappings, that come with partying youth.

A terrific read, and a deeply unsettling one, with twists, turns, secrets and hidden vulnerabilities, guaranteed to keep a reader reading, right up to the doozy of an ending.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

I really enjoyed this story. I wasn’t sure where the story was going and while the large twist really surprised me, I started to guess how the ending would go. Overall though, it kept me guessing throughout most of the story.

I have been provided with a review copy of Only If You're Lucky from NetGalley for an impartial review. Awwww this was such a cute story. I was just captivated by everything that was taking place. It was just so easy to get into these characters lives and you just can't help but fall in love with them. I can't wait to see what's next from this author.

This is my 3rd Willingham book and while I was very intrigued by the premise, this was definitely a slower burn than her other 2. I loved the ending with the acknowledgements that inspired her from her own experience at her college house. Glad to hear it wasn't similar in any other way except the setting ;) I would say this book is my least favorite of the 3 but I still was compelled to know what happened. I ended up surprised but I wasn't as excited about the reveal as I was with the other two. Willingham is still an auto-read author for me, though I suspect not as many readers will favorite this book when the other two are so strong.