I’ve been really excited to read this book since I loved Stacy Willingham’s other two novels and it didn’t disappoint.

The entire book is told from the perspective of the main character, Margot, who is struggling with the sudden death of her best friend right after high school graduation. Now a sophomore in college, she is living with three other girls next door to a frat house. One of the frat boys is murdered and Margot’s roommate is suddenly missing. It is told in dual timelines- before and after her roommate’s disappearance.

There are tons of twists and turns in this book- none of which I really saw coming. It also took place at a coastal college in SC, so this brought back tons of memories of going to college in SC and living in Charleston myself.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. So many suspense novels are predictable, but this one wasn’t. It was a little juvenile with the characters being so young, binge drinking, etc, but that didn’t take away from my overall feelings of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for giving me the chance to read this one early- it comes out this week so give it a try!

{3.5 stars}

Margot is a young girl without her own charisma. She is the type who tags herself onto a much more vibrant… and risky personality to help her get exposure to the world. She sees herself as the safe, unassuming type. However, people around her keep dying or going missing.

This is a solid thriller. But nothing that wow-ed me like previous Willingham books. It has the usual girl drama, but there is a little meat behind this. Everything lines up the way it should, but I just wasn’t satisfied by the ending. Still a solid pool/beach read.

Thanks to Minotaur books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

I enjoyed this psychological thriller with dark academia vibes.

Our FMC Margot is portrayed as a shy and reserved gal, but you question who she is as the story continues. I enjoyed the slow burn, even though it sometimes dragged a bit too long. I found it necessary to understand our characters and their dynamics, and as a reader, you start to question everyone.

Read if you enjoy:
-dark academia
-Slow-burn thrillers
-eerie settings
-unreliable narrator
-whodunit murder
-twisty ending

This was a 3.5, maybe 4-star read for me! I will be posting my full review on pub day!

Thank you, Netgalley and Minotaur, for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 9/10
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

It’s official, Stacy Willingham is in my top 5 authors of all time and is definitely my favorite thriller writer. I truly could not put this book down!

Thoughts:
-I’m not typically a big fan of thrillers that take place in schools (high school or college) because they always tend to feel a bit Pretty Little Liars to me, but not this one. Willingham crafted such a world and story that pulled me in instantly and kept me hooked
-Regardless of how toxic the friend group was, they were written in a way where I can almost understand how they got to the point of no return without even realizing it. Their intimate and fun college kid moments were such a perfect juxtaposition to the darker things looming under the surface
-The then-and-now timeline kept me on my toes because I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop
-Margot was my least favorite. I understood the need for her personality, but her unwavering obsession with not one, but two of her friends was so incredibly unsettling
-As someone who’s usually great at guessing endings, I only predicted one small part. Every twist and turn had me more shocked than the one before
-Willingham has a knack for writing unreliable characters and my favorite thing about this book was how I didn’t feel like I could trust one character

For me, this book was a home run. Stacy Willingham is an incredible author and I highly recommend this book as well as her other two!

Thank you Stacy Willingham, Netgalley, and Minotaur Books for gifting me the first book I’ve binged in a long time in exchange for an honest review!

This author wrote All The Dangerous Things and A Flicker in the Dark. Both excellent books. I could not pick between the two which was my favorite. This one is not quite as good. Sadly to me it left me asking a few questions.

While this book could have you holding your breath at times it also had me scratching my head. I still wonder about a couple of things that I can't name without giving something away. It's about college students and the things that a particular group get into. Namely murder. There are several deaths/murders in this story. Also sex abuse and rape though not explicit. Some indiscretions between a married couple.(where my main question comes in) And a lot of possible back stabbing. No pun intended here.

Told in a before and after voice from the main character Margot. Margot starts living in an off campus house with three other girls. The main one being Lucy. Lucy it seems is liked by quite a few of the students so Margot feels it's ok to stab her current roommate in the back and start living in another place without her. That was her mistake.

Lucy has some pretty deep secrets. Ones that made me feel sorry for her. Like who was her father. What was it she truly wanted from the roommates. From Margot. Maybe it was just acceptance. Maybe she wasn't really as strong as they all thought she was. That is my opinion anyway. I liked Lucy for the most part. Yes she knew how to get what she wanted in many ways. But in the biggest way she was let down. She was hurt deeply. So yes, I felt sorry for her.

The problem I had with this book was that it was very predictable. At least to me it was. I figured out way early how Lucy and Margot would be connected. Not exactly what, but I knew it involved Margot's deceased best friend. No doubt. And I was right. I also figured out a couple of other things though none of it really hurt the book.

This book was good. Just not excellent like the previous two. I do still look forward to this author's next book.

Thank you #NetGalley, #StacyWillingham, #StMartinsPress for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

3.5/5 stars. It just feel a bit short for me. I do advise you read it and judge for yourself. We all like different things and see things different. Enjoy!

Stacy does it again! She has continued to prove why she quickly grew to be one of my favorites. Only If You’re Lucky was sharp, twisty, and a deep exploration of friendship, secrets, and death. One of my favorite things about all of her books is that she ties up every tiny little detail, even ones you don’t realize you needed tied up until she does it! This one was no exception, and I loved seeing all of the details and twists come together, like following breadcrumbs to a destination. I alternated between physically reading and listening to the audio, and both were exceptional.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for my ARC and Macmillan Audio for my ALC in exchange for my honest feedback!

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham

My rating:
3/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Margot’s first year of college was not what she expected it to be after her best friend died right before they were going to go to college together. At school, Margot meets Lucy and is instantly drawn to her. They quickly become friends and Margot’s life changes forever.

I had seen a few mixed reviews of this one and I was so confused because when I went into this one I was absolutely captivated with the premise and setting. I love a college campus setting with a story with people who have addictive personalities.

About halfway through, I started to understand and lose interest in the story. It felt like the middle of the book was one big section that felt different from the beginning.

When everything comes together and is revealed, it left me with an unsatisfying feeling. I figured out most of the twists and at that point I wanted the book to be over.

I cannot quite say what happened with this one as to why I lost interest, but the beginning of this book was SO good!

I had read All The Dangerous things from the author and I really enjoyed that one, but this one missed the mark for me. I think that the characters were generally unlikeable which made me not connected to what happened to them.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC! You can read this one on January 16th, 2024!

Only If You're Lucky
by: Stacy Wilingham
St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books
release date:01/16/24

The on and off campus locale of South Carolina's Rutledge college serves as both a setting and an atmospheric character in Willingham's new academic thriller. Grieving over the loss of her best friend, Margot leaves her Outer Banks home bound for her first year of college. She then leaves her dormitory to live with three other women, including mysterious Lucy, in a house like no other.

Willingham's writing completely swept me up into the twists and turns throughout this steadily paced psychological mystery involving murder and disappearance. The boundaries of friendship, trust, and truth are jagged and taken to the limits. I have enjoyed all three of Willingham's novels, looking forward each time to her next one. I like her way with words and story.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for an advance reader's copy. My review is my own.

#OnlyIfYoureLucky #NetGalley #StMartinsPress #MinotaurBooks #StacyWillingham

Margot is sort of a wallflower during her freshman year in college since losing her best friend, Eliza in a tragic accident over the summer. But then she meets Lucy, a tantalizing girl that sucks her into her party world. When a neighboring fraternity boy ends up dead, quite the story about the girls starts to unfold.

Could I classify this one as a little bit of dark academia? It’s not really a throwback to academic old times, but it is set in a college and it’s surely dark! It was interesting to read that Willingham’s idea for this story came from the real place where she lived during college. It gave me a little bit of a vibe like The Maidens, The Secret History and The It Girl. I liked all of those and also enjoyed this read.

Pick this up if you’re looking for a slow burn dark thrill.

𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨
📖: Only If Your Lucky
✍🏼: Stacy Willingham
💻: Minotaur Books
📆: January 16, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5

⛔️16-up⛔️

👇🏽 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕚𝕗:
•you’re a fan of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
•bath and body works warm vanilla will always hold a special place in your nostalgic heart
•you love a dark academia thriller with complex friendships that always ends in murder


💭 𝕞𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤:
If you didn’t know it, I love Stacy Willingham.

I loved A Flicker In The Dark and All The Dangerous Things. This one is different. Slower maybe? But the writing is still incredible.

Slower than her first two books, this one focuses more on friendships and the complications that come along with them. The ins and outs of the complexities of trauma and how unresolved issues can lead to destruction.

Of course it had its mystery and a few twists as well as murder! It’s a really well written story and once again, I am blown away by Willinghams writing.

Keep your eyes peeled for this one! Hitting the shelves January 16!

Thank you so much to @netgalley @minotaur_books and @stacyvwillingham for this ARC! It was the perfect Christmas gift for this bookish gal.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC. I really loved Stacy Willingham’s first 2 books, but this one was a bit of a let down. It reads a little bit too YA for my taste, and the main character Margo is super boring. It’s too slow and nothing really happens until about 80% into the book. I almost DNF’d.

Only If You’re Lucky follows Margot who meets Lucy at the end of freshmen year and moves in with her. This seems like a good thing for Margot because a few weeks before she was set to go to college with her best friend Eliza, she dies. The two end up becoming good friends. However things change when one of there neighbors end up dead, and Lucy goes missing. Are these two events connected?

I have read other books by Stacy Willingham and I really liked them. However, that wasn’t really the case with this book. It was written like a YA book and focused on a lot of a drama rather than thriller aspects. I found a lot of details in this book super unnecessary. The characters in this fell flat and I found myself not caring. I also felt like this book was hard to keep up with. The ending was okay. But this wasn’t the best thriller I have ever read.

I have been a big fan of Stacy Willingham since her first book, A Flicker in the Dark, was published and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the BOTM copy. I won a copy of All the Dangerous Things from a Goodreads Giveaway and I was elated! I tore through the book so fast that the ending left me dizzy with its astronomical ending. Her books have been five star reads because of the slow burn storyline and the explosive surprises.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2024, but unfortunately, it fell short for me. I found the story repetitive, the main character slightly annoying, and the big surprises at the end didn’t excite me. Her books usually leave some kind of imprint in my mind that lasts years, but after reading this book, my mind was ready for something new and completely erased this story from its storage. *poof* 🧠

I will always be a fan of this author and look forward to her next book.

Thank you so much for the advanced copy of Only If You're Lucky.

As a big fan of Stacy Willingham, I was very excited to read her newest book. I absolutely loved it. One thing that I think is really cool is that this book is wildly different from her first two. The setting of the house in the college town was pretty cool. I got a pretty good mental image of the setting because the description was so vivid. I really like that it was Stacy's real connection to the book because it was written based on the house that she lived in during her college years.

While I was reading the story, I was a little skeptic because I felt like the story was going in circles about how much Margot missed Eliza and that Lucy was just replacing her....but geez that last 15% of the story absolutely made up for the slower parts. Stacy just really took her time simmering the story, leaving breadcrumbs along the way. I did not guess ANY of the twists and that always makes me giddy as a reader. I am already recommending this book to everyone I know and I wish it great success when it is published!

Well - this will be a 3 star review but one of those 'still read this it was good 3 star reviews'. Hear me out though.. I think if I didn't have high expectations from this author because of her previous two books I would have liked it a whole lot more? This one felt quite juvenile, then it almost lost me, and the end left me mega confused. I really don't want to spoil anything with my review, so I won't explain why I was confused or what I didn't like all that much about it, but it didn't hold up to her previous two books.

Now, in saying that, it was still fairly good. It was super dark, super twisty, the writing was phenomenal and it was hard to figure out what characters to like or trust. It was a fairly slow burn, but it weaved the dark tale to set you up for the blow out ending.

I am in the minority on this one I think, but this book just did not wow me at all like Willingham's other books have. Even if you consider this a slow burn mystery, there is very little that happens for the majority of the book. Sometimes, slow burns have great character development, but the majority of the characters to me were two dimensional and didn't stand out from one another. I've read reviews of people talking about twists and turns throughout the book......that was not my experience. The action picks up a bit at the end, but really the resolution is unsatisfying and incomplete at that point. I will pick up the next by Willingham, but I will temper my expectations a bit more going in.

3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stacy Willingham is an incredible author and I love her books A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things! Only If You’re Lucky is my least favorite of her books so far and fell a bit short for me. It is a slow burn and I did not feel like it ramped up until the last 30%. This book is centered around college life, mind games and friendships you would kill for!

Margot and Eliza were inseparable best friends since they were young, until Levi Butler moves in next door and their dynamic begins to change. Eliza mysteriously dies and Margot decides to continue with her and Eliza’s original plan to attend Rutledge. She is immediately enamored with the elusive Lucy. Lucy has undeniable charisma and her presence draws you in. Lucy invites Margot to live with her and two other girls, Sloane and Nicole, in a house they rent from the fraternity house next door. One of the fraternity boys is brutally murdered at a party they are all at and then Lucy goes missing shortly after… Everyone is harboring secrets and new details come to light as police are investigating the murder and missing person.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for the pleasure of reading this ARC of Only If You’re Lucky! Grab your copy when it comes out on January 16, 2024 🖤

This one was a 4.5 ⭐️ read for me, so I’m actually kinda surprised the overall rating isn’t higher.
I enjoyed the multiple timelines & how the story was formatted to keep you guessing, revealing a little in the present & then backtracking to reveal something in the past. By the end of it, when I thought I had it figured out, it surprised me again. With all the twists and reveals, it really hooked my attention and kept my interest through to the ending (which I also enjoyed).

Read if you enjoyed the show How to Get Away with Murder… but don’t expect it to be the same plot. I love books where everyone has secrets & often omits the truth and this book delivers on both accounts!

A big thank you to @minotaurbooks @macmillianaudio @netgalley & @stacywillingham for the EARC & ALC of this book! I really enjoyed (as usual) flipping between the ebook and the audiobook - especially since it was so well narrated by Karissa Vacker 🤯🙌🏼

My FIRST 5⭐️ of 2024 🎉🎉
I’ve been admiring her books after seeing them as BOTM picks & all over Bookstagram - but this is the first one I’ve actually READ (I promise I’m reading her backlist ASAP!) and I am so glad I did!

Only If You’re Lucky centers answers the question of “If you could get away with murder, would you do it?” - filled with themes of dark academia, greek life, friendship, death investigations & more. Flipping between past and present timelines in a very intentional & cliffhanger-esque way (yes I made up that phrase), I flew through the chapters hanging on to every word & trying to guess the way things were going to pan out - I was HOOKED!

I feel like I’ve read enough thrillers that it’s becoming easier for me to guess the ending, so when twists take me off guard I am THRILLED - which is what happened here! If you’re looking for a thriller that delves into the risks & rewards of friendship or one that makes you question if someone is who they say they are this book is for you!

**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press-Minotaur, and Stacy Willingham for an ARC of this book!**

Have you ever seen the cult-classic film Clue?

(Yes, the film inspired by the board game, with the likes of Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, AND Madeline Kahn in it. If you haven't seen it...make it a weekend goal...you WON'T be sorry! But I digress)

The film actually has not one, not two, but THREE potential endings, wherein the mystery of whodunit is explained in detail by the butler, Wadsworth. He has figured out the murderer (or murderers!) in each scenario and tells the group in detail how, where, and when each murder was committed.

But one of the lines the group YELLS at the butler in each one of these endings UNFORTUNATELY popped into MY head when I was at about EIGHTY PERCENT of the way through this book...

"JUST GET ON WITH IT!"

Margot has that same buzz of excitement that every young adult has when entering college...and she's equally relieved to leave her high school life behind. Her closest friend Eliza died tragically a short time after graduation and Margot hasn't even begun to chip away at the complex trauma brought on by the event and everything that came before it...including Eliza's entanglement with some less-than-savory characters. But in an attempt to move on, Margot approaches college with fresh hope and settles into her first year at school with a nice albeit boring roommate.

That's all well and good -- until one day, she's approached by the enigmatic and intoxicating Lucy, a beautiful student who is the center of every crowd, with a reputation for danger. Lucy makes Margot an offer she can't refuse: she can come live with Lucy in an off-campus house with two other girls, the sassy Sloane and doormat Nicole, and have easy access to the exciting life she could only have imagined before. Eager to break out of her shell, Margot accepts the invitation and gets swept into a life of late nights, partying, drugs, and dangerous games of Spin the Bottle...not to mention entanglements with the Frat Boys Next Door.

But when a familiar face from her past reemerges, Margot realizes that the man she holds responsible for Eliza's death is within reach...and this might be her only chance to make things right. And when Lucy asks the group one night during one of her trademark games, "If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?"....is her question simply rhetorical? Or does Lucy's dark streak extend farther than her trio of soul sisters knows? And when she says she would do anything for her friends...does she truly MEAN...anything?

If there's one thing I NEVER expected from Stacy Willingham after being BLOWN AWAY by her first two books and the creativity, the artful prose, and the veritable HURRICANE of twists and turns in her plots...it was THIS kind of run-of-the-mill book. This one falls neatly into a category that has over-saturated the thriller space lately: the Terrible Teen and her Trio of Friends Trope. Granted, these characters are in their early twenties...but sad to say, this book reads ENTIRELY like YA. In some respects, this may have been hard to avoid, given the location and subject matter...but although I hate to say it, these are Willingham's least compelling characters to date. Although magnetic Lucy was intriguing at the start, by about 25% in, her character became as one-dimensional as the rest of them, and I became less and less interested in her backstory as the novel wore on.

And speaking of backstory...while Willingham normally balances two timelines with efficiency as well as intrigue...I found myself not really caring AT ALL what happened to Eliza in the past, despite the mysterious circumstances of her death. Each journey into the past felt like a snooze, and hardly more interesting than what was going on at the college...and trust me, after a few recounting of drug and vomit filled evenings, THAT picture was plenty clear too. I've just read too many books that are like this, and frankly, it's not the kind of experience I need recounted. The good characters were painted as overly good, the bad as overly bad, and when even the 'good' characters aren't particularly likable? You're in a for a LONG ride.

Speaking of long rides, though I somehow finished this book in 3 days, I think was due to sheer force of will and a desire to get THROUGH it rather than the experience I had with her previous books, where I couldn't flip the pages fast enough. The biggest reason for this struggle? Pacing. When I said earlier that at EIGHTY PERCENT I was STILL waiting for the majority of the big reveal...this is no exaggeration. Slow burns are often problematic for me in and of themselves because I tend to be a fan of breakneck twists and turns, quick chapters, and mile-a-minute twists rather than the alternative...and coming from Stacy, who KNOWS how to write a sharp and speedy book...this felt especially tortured. The amount of times I rolled my eyes in this book just out of sheer impatience made me want to throw in the towel more than once...but I was ACHING for the compelling ending I hoped would come once all was revealed. And the final twists ARE decent, and brought my rating up slightly...but in all honesty, as much as it pains me to say this...it felt like too little, too late.

There are so few voices in the genre who have emerged in the last few years with a voice that feels unique, fresh, and new with the writing chops to back it up, and I still consider Stacy Willingham to be one of these talents. In her author's note, Stacy reveals that she drew a LOT of inspiration for writing this book (aside from the murders, thankfully) from her time at the University of Georgia and some of the associated places there. It often seems like when an author writes a book inspired by life or something they felt they needed to say, it can go one of two ways: the work can stand out as one of their best and most authentic...or the departure from their 'usual' work can seem like a spur of the moment trip from the airport where you picked a destination at random...and rather than ending up in Vegas, you ended up in Boise.

But when it came to this particular gamble, however, I think Willingham would have been better not leaving ANYTHING to chance.

3.5 stars