Keeping this review short and sweet as I don’t want to give anything away.

If you are a fan of slow burn thrillers, this is a book for you. Told in dual timelines, this book had me curious from the very start. With lots of small twists that leave you with more questions than answers, I was kept intrigued throughout the story. At times I did feel the pacing could have been a little faster, but it didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying this book.

I loved the additional layers of the need to belong, exploring the complexities of female friendships, and that we may not always know our closest friends as well as we thought. Be sure to add this to your winter TBR!

Thank you to netgalley, Stacy Willingham, and Minotaur Books for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

// 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 //

Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Genre: Thriller - Academia

𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑰𝒇 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆:
⏪ Flashback Chapters
🎓 Academic Settings
🤬 Unlikable Characters
👯‍♀️ Friendships

𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔
This is a slower burn than her other novels. The last 20% is where most of the action was. Most of the characters were unlikeable. They weren’t girls I could see myself being friends with or even wanting to be friends with, and I really don’t understand Margot’s attraction to them. That being said, I think what WAS relatable was this sense of going to college with an opportunity to redefine yourself. You get to decide who you want to be without your past being a defining factor that holds you back. We see this in both our main protagonist as well as in Lucy. But what happens if our last suddenly comes crashing back? Can we truly escape it and does our past define part of who we are? The author also creatively intertwined the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to reinforce this concept of exploring other sides of ourselves as well as the human struggle of balancing the good vs evil inside of us.

I absolutely loved the eerie atmosphere of the house in this one. It felt like such a tangible place. It took me back to the dingy college apartment I lived in and all the strange happenings there. The creepy terrible smelling shed between the properties just added an extra creep factor to the whole thing!

I appreciate the opportunity from @stacyvwillingham and @netgalley for an advance review copy. I absolutely cannot wait to meet Stacy again @parnassusbooks books early next year to hear more about her inspiration for this novel.

I recommend you pick this one up in 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒚 when it releases! It’s different from her previous books but has the same suspense and character building as the others I also previously loved!

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In "Only if You're Lucky," Willingham follows Lucy Sharpe, a je ne sais quoi kind of girl. She's confident, elusive, and addicting. People can't help but gravitate towards her. Margot is one of those people. When Lucy asks Margot to live with her their sophomore year, Margot jumps at the opportunity.

With Lucy as the ringleader, Margot finds herself welcomed into a new friend group. Lucy and Margot become quick inseparable friends. But, Margot's story takes a turn when one of the fraternity boys living next door is brutally murdered, and Lucy vanishes without a trace.

I was so excited to read this book. Willingham's "A Flicker in the Dark" was one of my favorite psychological thrillers, and "Only if You're Lucky" lived up to my high expectations; it was a captivating read that I would happily recommend.

Willingham uses incredible detail to paint the entire atmosphere; reading her books feels as if you're a fly on the wall watching the scene unfold before you. She expertly unfolds the story using a past and present timeline, while building up to the moment it all connects.

Willingham is an amazing story teller, and I look forward to reading her future books.

I think this has been my favorite by Stacy Willingham so far. There were a lot of twists in this one and some I for sure did not see coming. I liked there a sort of dual timeline with a before and after but it wasn't to far removed from the event. While the main character was not always likeable I was compelled by here and wanted to see where her story was going. I don't want to give too much away and I went into not really knowing what to expect and I think that was the way to go. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Stacy you did my head in for sure!! a story filled with a rollecoaster full of emotions and had me guessing right til the end. twists and turns throughout and as always Stacy knows how to write a good thriller

Thank you to publisher and netgalley for this arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own and arent influenced by anyone

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this one as much as Willingham’s “A Flicker in the Dark”. I really like the writing style, all the metaphors were beautiful, and I couldn’t stop reading, but I don’t really know why I couldn’t stop. I wasn’t necessarily invested in any of the characters because most of the story happens in ‘the before’ pretty chronologically which felt dragged out. And the reveals between ‘the after’ storyline and ‘the before’ storyline confused me on occasion because there would be a small reference to something during ‘the after’ that we learned about in ‘the before’ or we eventually learn about in ‘the before’, but it was hard to keep track of what we did and didn’t know yet. I found myself flipping back to confer the details. I also felt like we spent too much time in ‘the before’, so by the time we find out everything for ‘the after’, the ending felt rushed and not really believable.
I would recommend this as a good beginning mystery/thriller for someone just getting into the genre.

do yourself a favor and grab this book as soon as it comes out! Oh my goodness…the twists and turns, the characters, the reveals - AMAZING. I had to force myself to put this down in the middle of the night and couldn’t wait to finish this morning. This author has quickly become one of my favorites and I can’t WAIT to see what she writes next!

THANK YOU to the author - Stacy Willingham, Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this incredible ARC in return for my honest review :)

First let me say thank you St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion. Wow, this book was much more than I had expected. There were so many great twists that when I thought I had it all figured out, well I was wrong. I couldn’t put this book down and it kept me guessing till the end. I recommend Only If You’re Lucky if you like a good mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this one. If you’ve been around for awhile you know that Stacy and I have some beef - Flicker in the Dark was so god awful but I vouched to give her a second chance, and All the Dangerous Things really saved her for me.

I do feel as though this book should be labeled as a YA book, it felt very YA at times (which I didn’t mind!!!) but the idea that this took place on a college campus made it feel YA to me, and some of the interactions were very YAish - I definitely didn’t mind it whatsoever, but I just felt like it should’ve been categorized as YA.

There were parts that just confused me and gave me the ick- which I’m not going to disclose here because this is a spoiler free review!!

Definitely snag this one if you:

📕 Enjoy fast paced reads

📕 Love college campus settings

📕 Were in a fraternity/sorority in college

📕 Enjoy Past/Present POV switches

Even though my rating wasn’t a 4/5 star rating, I would still recommend to anyone in the mood for a fast paced thriller!

3.5 stars ⭐️ Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book. I loved this authors other 2 books so I was very excited to read this one. This was a dark and VERY twisty slow burn. This book has it all; friendships, boyfriends, good vs evil, question after question, lying, betrayal, confusion. I thought I had it figured out twice and didn’t, even when I thought I had it there were still pieces missing. If you like a crazy slow burn with over the top twists, you’ll love this one. I wasn’t a huge fan of how it all came together in the end but I couldn’t stop reading or trying to guess so to me, that’s a good thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley an St. Martins Press for the ARC!
I want to preface this by saying 3 stars is still a good book to me. I will still recommend a 3 star book, it just means that there was some issues or things that didn't work out for me within the book.
The book started a bit slow for me in the beginning but picked up decently towards the end. This is a dark academia read that delves into how manipulative and devious female relationships can be. It definitely gave me "Heathers" vibe and I loved that! Loved all the twists and turns! hope to read more from the author in the future!

"Only If You're Lucky" by Stacy Willingham is a fabulous read in my opinion, earning a solid 4 stars. The clever use of before and after timelines kept me engaged and guessing right until the very end. The characters were well-crafted, with a mix of likable traits and flaws that kept me intrigued about how they would all come together. In many ways, it's a relatable book that encourages contemplation about the human spirit, the choices we make, and the underlying hurts and fears that shape our lives. A thought-provoking and enjoyable journey.

I’ve been in a reading slump for a while, but not now! Margot is a college freshman still grieving the death of her best friend. She just wants to fit in. Out of nowhere, Lucy Sharpe asks to move in with her & two other girls. Margot is surprised and wary, but she can’t say no. She’s living off campus and becoming close friends with her roommates, especially Lucy. All is well until a boy from the frat house next door is killed and Lucy turns up missing.

Only if You’re Lucky is an exploration of female friendship with lots of twists and turns. It’s a slow burn at first, but once you get closer to the end you’ll race through it and find out you didn’t even come close to figuring things out. Loved it!!

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

I have read Stacy Willingham's previous 2 novels and really enjoyed the twists and turns so I was very excited to ready an early version of this book. I really believe that female friendships are a unique category of relatinoships that should be widely studied and discussed. These special connections display a wide spectrum of human emotions and behaviors. I think that was very well portrayed in this novel, although I was able to guess some of the twists. I think the ending could have been more well developed and I would have liked to read more on the "afters" vs. "befores."

I finished this book back in August, and I've been avoiding posting a review for this one (and I don't think I will even share my thoughts on Instagram) because I just didn't love it. Stacy Willingham quickly became an auto-buy author for me after A Flicker in the Dark, which was one of my favorite books of 2021. All the Dangerous Things was so good, but I didn't love it quite as much. And now this one... I am disappointed. I feel like it didn't come together until about 65% through, and the characters were empty. There was no one to root for or care about. I hate to say this about a Stacy Willingham book, but this one was just ok for me,

This one was a bit different from Willingham’s previous releases, but it was just as good! The main characters are younger and the book gives off a vibe somewhere between YA and adult.
With thrillers I always try to figure out what’s going to happen in a book and for this one I couldn’t! The twists were great and not very predictable for me! I kept turning pages trying to figure out what was going to happen. Overall definitely recommend grabbing this one if you enjoyed her other books!

I loved A FLICKER IN THE DARK and ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS, so I was thrilled to get an early copy of Stacy Willingham’s newest, ONLY IF YOURE LUCKY.

Willingham is the queen of dark and suspicious characters and settings, and she definitely delivers on that here. In fact, all the characters in this book are dark, which is a good and bad thing for me. Good, because it keeps me suspicious, but bad because I then struggle to connect to and care about the MC’s outcome, which is kind of what happened here. The ending really caught me off guard, which I loved, but readers should be ready for a slow burn as they make their way toward the big reveal.

Overall, this book had an interesting story that kept me engaged enough to keep reading.

However, it was not as fast-paced as I was expecting it to be and I was not a fan of the way some of it ended. It also felt like there was some unnecessary filler information that made it drag on at times.

I will say that there were a few twists near the end that I did not fully see coming.

I think I had high expectations for this book going into it and it just didn’t fully do it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

Thank you very much to NetGalley for the ARC for a book I was dying to get my hands on!

The story revolves around the friendship of 4 college roommates whose lives are seeming so regular college girl stuff, but more deep than anyone can imagine.
Margot is reeling from her best friend Eliza’s death. She goes off to college and finds a roommate that is quiet and more boring to play it safe. One day, she is out and meets Lucy who seems exciting and fun and Lucy invites her to room with her, Sloane and Nicole. Sloane and Nicole are besties and the 4 of them grow exceptionally close. The off campus house they rent has a shed that connects them to another house with frat brothers.

I really liked the story especially reading of the girls friendship and the fun. It did get a bit slow for me during the first part but the info and the feeling you get while reading is absolutely necessary for what is to come. There are many, many revelations through the book dropped and all of them were completely unexpected.
I did not guess ANY thing that happened in this book at all, it was awesome.

There’s a lot of things to unpack and this author can write to make you feel things for instance; describing the hazing of the frat brothers having to lay in the homes crawl space, I felt like I could smell and see what they’d see. The shed description, I could see it.
The feeling of best friends and the feeling that you’d do anything for them.

I rated this a 4 star, it was really good and captive. It did not actually take me long to read. I took a break after I started it to read another book.