Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham was intriguing and kept me guessing. I like this author and have found her work engaging and superior throughout. However, this book is a little slow and has moments of intrigue but the big moments happen at the end of the book and it has already lost my interest.

After losing her best friend prior to graduation, Margot heads to college on her own in the fall, where they’d planned to attend together. A loner her freshman year, Margot is shocked when Lucy, a popular girl from her dorm, approaches her at the end of the year and offers her a spot as the fourth roommate in a house with herself and her two friends, Sloane and Nicole. However, halfway through the year when a fraternity brother from next door dies, and Lucy goes missing shortly after, questions begin to arise about their friendship.

This book immediately gave me a sinister version of “Mean Girls” vibes, with Lucy as the ringleader Regina George, and Margot as the new girl Cady Heron. It took me quite a bit of time to feel invested in the story; it’s a definitely a slow-burn thriller and the pace doesn’t really pick up until towards the end. Unfortunately, this book didn’t quite live up to my hopes for it in comparison to Stacy Willingham’s previous two novels. While not my favorite, it’s worth a read for fans of dark academia and twisted female friendships.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my gifted e-ARC!

hmm…really picked up towards the end which might make me lean more towards 4 stars more permenantly. didn’t find it twisty until about 70% in which was disappointing compared to willinghams first two. i love an unreliable narrator and loved the main character which kept me reading. the story itself was a bit repetitive and i would’ve liked to get another’s very point. all of them turning crazy was a bit much for me. poor levi deserved better

I enjoyed this book! I thought it was pretty fast paced and enjoyed the back and forth between the timelines. I’m still a sucker for her debut novel, but she is becoming an auto buy author for me.

Only If You’re Lucky
By Stacy Willingham
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

What a well-written thriller! I realllllly enjoyed this one!

Margot struggled a lot emotionally through her first year at Rutledge College. Margot was supposed to be going off to college and living with her best friend, Eliza, but Margot’s world is wrecked when her best friend dies right after high school graduation. Margot makes friends with her new roommate, Maggie, but things just aren’t the same and Margot wants more for her college experience. Just before moving out of the dorm, one of the most captivating students on campus, Lucy, approaches Margot about moving in with her and some other girls Margot has never met. What seems like a super exciting invitation and a chance to branch out and become someone new ends up becoming a nightmare for Margot. After moving in with Lucy and her friends, Margot ends up in the middle of a murder and missing persons case. Will the truth ever come to light?

A Flicker in the Dark was one of my favorite books in 2022 so I had really high hopes for this one. I really enjoyed this one! It had lots of mystery in it. I will say that I kinda guessed one of the bigger twists, but that didn’t really impact my reading experience.

What a fun way to reminisce on college 🤣 so many of the experiences in this book were so relatable to my college experience. MINUS THE MURDER!! Just want to set the record straight on that one 😂. At one point the girls are getting ready for a Halloween party at a frat house and I had flashbacks to picking out costumes and hitting the town with friends.

This is perfect for those who love a thriller that has an academic setting. I could also see this being a fun read for a younger audience, but definitely check trigger warnings before letting your teen read!

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the eARC! This one is available now, and you need to get your hands on this one!

Willingham's All The Dangerous Things is one of my all time favorite thrillers, so I went into Only If You're Lucky with high expectations. I thought that this was decent and avoided the really unbelievable plot twists that absolutely ruin thrillers for me. However, I did find that this wasn't as good as Dangerous Things. The dynamic between the girls was good, the suspense for the first half built very nicely, but the ending for me just felt a little bit out there.

Do you really know who your roommates are? This thriller is full of suspenseful twists and turns about four college roommates and some frat boys living together in side by side housing. Margot, the malleable one, is traumatized by the death of her best friend Eliza, and is drawn to Lucy, with a magnetic personality who is similar. But Simone and Nicole warn her, Lucy is not whom she seems. Each have a secret and are bound to each other with the desire to belong and be seen. As Lucy drives the narrative with her mind games of "Would you murder someone if you knew you could get away with it?", the girls try to deal with some unexpected trauma when one of them turns up dead. What happened? The narrative goes between the past and present, with juicy bits and details added to spice up this story of murder and mayhem. Fast-paced, I had to read this in one sitting because I could not put it down. Many thanks to #netgalley #onlyifyou'relucky #stacywillingham for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This twisty story was engaging and suspenseful from the very start! The characters were all morally grey and generally unlikeable. I love Willingham’s storytelling abilities and look forward to so much more! Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

A mind wrecking 3.5/5

It took me a bit to get into the book. It was switching from before to after, which confused me and took me a bit to get used to. It dragged on for a bit too long and gave unnecessary clues throughout the book.

When the book got good it was great but was also in the last 50ish pages. If you choose to read this, just know that it is a slow burn and then will blow your mind towards the end.

My thoughts on this one will be short and sweet.

It was fine. Not good but not bad. Kinda forgettable really. I was initially drawn in the story but it didn't hold my attention super well. By the halfway point, I was looking forward to finishing.

I've really enjoyed this author's previous books and will continue to read her upcoming books.

This book was definitely a slowwwwww burn, but I felt like it kept my attention with the suspense just enough to want to continue reading it. I did call one of the bigger twists about 30% in, so it was somewhat predictable, but the ending held a surprise for me. I enjoyed reminiscing college life, as all our characters attend Rutledge University. I found it interesting that the setting for the story was inspired by the author’s actual college experience. That was fun!

New book review: Only if You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham

Summary:

Margot is a new college student who becomes captivated by the charismatic Lucy Sharpe. She gets invited to live with Lucy and two other girls for her next semester. It seems like a dream come true being in a house with the popular girls next to a fraternity. But when a murder occurs next door and the Lucy is missing, the surviving girls in the house begin to get questions from the police.

My Thoughts:

I loved this one! Stacy Willingham is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! With some shades from Ruth Ware’s It Girl, this book takes its own twist on the popular girl on campus. The twists and turns this book takes makes any reader appreciate the art Willingham took into crafting this book!

Get yourself a copy of this book! I was lucky enough to receive an early copy from Netgalley in the fall of 2023, but it was recently released!

I am definitely a fan of Willingham, and this is my second book of hers I’ve read. This one took me quite a bit of time to get into but once I did, I was captivated by her character’s and writing. These flawed characters were so fascinating and I really enjoyed discovering their secrets and seeing how the book concluded! The mystery part of this really kept me turning those pages and the characters were so detailed that I felt as if I were watching them on the screen. I loved the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde parallels along with the notion of what constitutes a truly evil deed and whether it can be justified. While I would warn that this is a bit more of a slower burn than say, All the Dangerous Things, I think it is absolutely worth the read. Once you get about 60% in, I just couldn’t flip the pages fast enough, wanting to know how it would all play out. I also really loved her author’s acknowledgement regarding what parts of the story were real and what was fictional. Overall a really solid mystery! Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur for my gifted eARC!

Four college girls strike up a friendship led by the alpha of the group, Lucy. She has something that Margot finds irresistible, and she reminds Margot of her best friend Eliza who died three weeks after high school graduation. Eliza’s boyfriend, Levi, shows up at Margot’s college as a student and Margot can’t believe it. She never liked Levi and suspects he had something to do with Eliza’s murder. The four girls move into a home that is attached to the Kappa Nu fraternity. One of the fraternity boys is found dead and Lucy is missing.

This book is one of those over the top thrillers. At 85 percent on, I was rolling my eyes. The focus on intense college friendships made this feel really YA to me. I could not get into these characters at all. I think this would be a good pick for readers in their 20s and dedicated thriller lovers who don’t mind outlandish twists.

A dark and chilly look into female friendships.
🏫
All eyes go to Lucy Sharpe on their college campus so when her eyes focus on Margot, a shy and studious freshman, she can’t believe her luck. Immediately she says yes to being Lucy’s roommate along with Sloane, the sarcastic one, and Nicole, the nice one. Together they live next to the biggest fraternity on campus. With Margot finally coming out of her shell and out of the grief that’s had a hold of her since her best friend died before high school graduation, she feels like she’s found her place. But seeing a blast from the past threatens to ruin the new life she’s made for herself. A murder occurs and Lucy turns up missing. How are all these events connected?
🍺
This was…okay. I guessed most of the twists and wanted more of a resolution at the end than I got. I had heard this one wasn’t as good as her first two so I feel like that might have swayed my feelings going into it. Still a solid thriller for fans of the genre and the audiobook was well done. This book released this week!

CW: vomit, drug and alcohol abuse, grief, death, murder, gaslighting, sexual assault, drastic weight loss due to trauma, PTSD, adultery

🔥 Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham 🔥

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

💭 Thoughts:
If this book could be summed up in two words it would be SLOW BURN. 🔥 I loved the imagery and dark academia setting; however, I felt like it dragged until the last 25-30%. By the time I got to the end, the twists felt underwhelming. I wish they were sprinkled throughout instead of in bulk at the end of the story. I absolutely LOVED a Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things, so I recommend those two over this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve read all of this author and I will continue to do so! We meet Margot in her first year of college. She is shy and quiet. At the end of her freshmen year, Lucy Sharpe tells her she’s going to join her and her two friends, Nicole and Sloane living in a house over the summer and for the next school year. The house is owned by a fraternity and Nicole is dating the Fraternity president. Margot is taken with Lucy, she reminder her of her best friend, Eliza, who unexpectedly passed away. The four them become good friends and have a wonderful time together. During the middle of their sophomore year, one of the Fraternity brothers is found dead. Now Lucy is missing and no one can seem to find her.

This book was SO good. Willingham successfully layers the storylines together to fit perfectly. Reading this book was like peeling an onion, as I kept reading, so many things were revealed. I didn’t know where this book was going to go (and honestly, I requested it on NetGalley purely because of the author), but I really enjoyed where the author decided to take this book. It felt new; it felt different.

Each character had such an individual personality. You could even tell by their actions, without saying a name, who it was because of how distinct these girls were. No one is really who you think they are, and that’s the best part! There were so many twists and turns it was great!

I know that this has been described as a slow burn, and maybe it is a little bit in the beginning and the middle, but it quickly speeds up (at least it did for me). I don’t think that I would change anything about this book. I’m so glad that I read it!

Margot is in her freshman year at Rutledge University in South Carolina. A place she was supposed to be with her best friend but unfortunately, she died in an accident before they could get there together. Or was it an accident? Margot blames it on Levi, a boy that came between Margot and Eliza and was with her when she fell. Margot is at loose ends until she meets Lucy. Lucy is wild and in charge, a lot like Eliza in many ways, and seems to be just what Margot needs. She ends up moving in with Lucy, Sloane and Nicole, right next to a fraternity house. As time goes on, she starts to see different things about Lucy that make her pause but doesn't seem to keep her away. Little things she says are starting to get to Margot. Sloane warns her that Lucy likes to keep people dangling but Margot finds excuses for her all the time. And then, Levi shows up at the college and things change dramatically. Levi is murdered and Lucy is missing. Anyone would kill for the right reason or person, wouldn't they?

The story started to drag for me a bit but so picked up with the ending. Fantastic ending! I was reeling with the reveals! That is what lead me to the 4.5 stars.

Genre: Thriller

Format: Audio/E-book - thanks @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the complimentary copy!

4.25🌟 - I enjoyed it!

I love a campus thriller! This one was so fun. This felt like a lot of drama, more character-driven, and had more suspense building up to the plot! I felt really invested in the story and finished it within a a day!

Thank You to #NetGalley,,#Minotaur Books, #StacyWillingham for the free eARC #Only if you're lucky

Stacy Willingham has become a new favorite author. Her books usually have a lot of thriller and suspense, but this one is more mystery and drama. The first 100-200 page area a slow burn. The story can become confusing between the before and after and then all the characters. I liked some of the characters, but not all of them.

After her best friend Eliza dies weeks after graduation, Margo, heads off a liberal arts college in South Carolina. She is very shy, keeps to herself, and stays inside the little shell she has created for herself. Eventually larger than life, charismatic, bold, and center of the attention Lucy Sharpe notices her towards the end of freshman year.

Lucy asks Margo to be her roommate. She finds herself living in off-campus housing with Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole. Margo starts coming out or her shell and starts to share her trauma and become close friends with Lucy. Half-way through sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys living next door is murdered and Lucy goes missing. .
Will they ever discover the truth? Were their relationships real or fake? How well did they really know each other? Can the heal after everything they've been though.