Only If You're Lucky is a delicious slow burn thriller that will keep you guessing and on your toes through it all. I'm not a big fan of slow burns, but Willingham can definitely deliver. I urge you to push through and keep reading, you won't regret it.

Margot is the epitome of an unreliable narrator. I honestly didn't know who to trust in this twisted tale, everyone was so flawed and untrustworthy. I loved diving into each of them and getting to know them. They were such a fun bunch of characters.

The way the author dropped little twists here and there kept the suspense high until the explosive conclusion. It was fantastic and unexpected. This is definitely a character driven slow burn novel, which I do not usually enjoy, but the author knocked it out of the park and kept me hooked.

🎧 @karissavacker is slowly becoming one of my favorite narrators. She is honestly amazing. The way you can feel the emotions and tension through her dialogue is such a fantastic experience. She also does different voices, which makes it easier to follow the story. Honestly, the audio was really good !

✨️Thank you to @netgalley, @macmillanaudio & @stacywillingham for my free ALC in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Al1WixZT7/?igsh=MXJsbm5tYXZzbHd1aw==

I was able to get my first Netgalley audio of the year, Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham finished before publication day! 🎉 (January 16)

I really enjoyed Wilingham’s other books, Flicker in the Dark (4⭐️) and All the Dangerous Things (5⭐️) so I was super excited when I was approved for Only if You’re Lucky.

A dual timeline, college setting, that involves female friendships, loss, suspense and murder…but I wasn’t sure what to think about this book. 😕 I liked it. It bugged me. I was back and forth.

I waffled between giving it 3 or 4⭐️ The story is a slow burn, but wallops you in the end, so I gave it 3⭐️ on Goodreads but more like 3.5⭐️ Clear as mud right? 😂

I thought it was a good book but I feel it wasn’t as good as Willingham’s others. Still a huge fan and will definitely read whatever she puts out.

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillion.audio for this ARC!

This was a great academic thriller! I love stories with college friends with secrets. This one did not disappoint. I loved the storytelling and how the story unfolded. It was a bit of a slow burn, but totally rewarding at the end with all the twists that Stacy Willingham is known for. Karissa Vacker did a great job as always narrated and I was impressed that she was able to use so many different tones of voice for each character. Definitely recommend for fans of dark academia/academic thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for my copy of this ALC which publishes 1/16/24

I was so excited when my copy of this book came through. The audiobook narration was excellent and I found myself unable to stop listening as I was so hooked into the story. I had my suspicions on where I thought the book was going but I guessed incorrectly and loved the twist that was thrown in. This thriller wasn't as fast paced as I prefer but it still set the scene with the buildup of the past and assisted in getting the reader to know the characters. This was a chilling dark academia tale which I really loved.

I enjoyed this dark academia book! It was a good mix of fun, and twisty, and snarky. Sometimes dark academia feels formulaic, and although this had the looking back aspect that they mostly have, it was not reminiscent of other dark academia books. I liked the hazing vibes and the college town. Very good!

I have come to love Stacy Willingham’s books. They keep me on my toes and keep me guessing. This is a great college-age, academic setting thriller that has plenty of twists and turns to keep you coming back. The narration for the audiobook is fantastic and I’d highly recommend it!

This book had me on edge wondering what was going on the entire time, then I felt like it fell a little flat at the end. I did not predict what was going to happen, but I didn’t get that “whoa crazy twist” feeling that I have gotten from her other books. I hate to give only 3 stars because I love this author so much but the ending was not the fireworks I have come to expect!! Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

Stacy Willingham’s latest thriller, Only If You’re Lucky pulled me in immediately. Within just a few minutes of listening, I knew that it would be a juicy read. I’ve always been drawn to stories about female friendship, teenage behavior, and family dynamics. I’m happy to report that Willingham checked all of the boxes in each department. This psychological suspense novel is dark, gritty, and super twisty.

READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:

- College setting
- Complex female friendship
- Mean girl vibes
- Character studies
- Juicy drama
- Slow-burning thrillers
- Murder mysteries
- Unexpected twists and turns

I must admit that I did NOT see the conclusion coming, and all of my predictions were thrown right out the window. I highly recommend going the audio route as one of my very favorites, Karissa Vacker narrates and does a phenomenal job. 4/5 stars for Only If You’re Lucky! It’s out on January 16th!

"Only If You're Lucky" by Stacy Willingham was another hit! The narrator did an outstanding job, bringing the story to life with an engaging and captivating tone. While the plot started a bit slow, it gradually built up momentum, and boy, did it lead to a satisfying ending. Willingham's storytelling skills shine, and the characters grow on you. If you can hang in there through the initial pace, the payoff is totally worth it. Overall, a solid read with a fantastic narrator!

“If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?” This is the pivotal thought running through everyone’s mind as Lucy dares people to think about their ability to do harm. Lucy is both charismatic and a bit unhinged, always the center of attention and keeping everyone around her on their toes. Margot is drawn like a magnet to Lucy, who reminds her of her best friend Eliza who tragically died after they graduated high school. Margot, still working through her grief, reaches the end of her freshman year at Rutledge having barely left her dorm room. She is shocked when Lucy asks if she wants to room with her and her two other friends Sloane and Nicole in an off-campus house owned by the Sigma Nu fraternity.

Margot hopes to get out of her shell her sophomore year, and gets far more than she bargained for. Being next door to a frat house, there is always a party, and having Lucy as a roommate means they are always down to party. Margot begins to experiment with alcohol and drugs and finds her world turned upside down when Levi from her hometown shows up, brining all her memories of Eliza with him.

Only If You’re Lucky is a character study for sure. The references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde throughout the book makes you question where the line between good and evil lies. Stacy Willingham does an excellent job of making you question every character’s morality. Her ability to keep the reader guessing is uncanny. I love when I find psychological thriller writer who can keep me questioning who a killer is until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author Stacy Willingham for the advanced copy of the audiobook. Only If You’re Lucky is out on January 16th. All opinions are my own.

I loved this one! It’s my favorite by this author. It’s about a group of friends at college. There is one of the girls that everyone is drawn to, but as time goes on, they become suspicious of her. And then there’s a murder 👀

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review

If pretty little liars took place in college and you added some frat boys to the mix. The reading experience for me was like dishing out the juicy gossip with the girls over brunch and mimosas.

I am normally not a mystery/thriller girlie in the slightest, but I always enjoy a Stacy Willingham thriller. I find this to be the case because Willingham's thrillers notoriously dip their toes into literary fiction. As in, her characters have substantial depth and stand on their own outside of the mystery elements, which I find is unfortunately not the case for most of this genre. For me, this is essential in order to be emotionally invested in an author's characters. Also, her prose are quite poetic, and I found myself appreciating her writing even even in the quiet moments between thrills.

Willingham is clever in how she reveals information to the reader, and with each piece of the story she unravels, I find myself glued to every word. The way that the truth was revealed at the end was especially brilliant.

As for the audiobook experience, Karissa Vacker narrates all of Willingham's books, and I must say she is utterly fantastic at narration in this genre. I would not reach for a Willingham thrillers in any other format. It was key in capturing my attention continuously throughout during otherwise slow moments.

✧ 5 stars

This again was not at all what I expected!

We start with Margot and Eliza…Seniors in HS. Best of friends. Plans for life made or being made…
And then, Eliza is dead!

We skip ahead to first year of college. Margot goes ahead with the plan the two had worked out, even though Eliza is not there…

In time she meets some friends, but nothing like what she had with Eliza…

It all turns around at the end of their first year when Margot meets Lucy!
You see, Lucy is one of the ‘it’ girls…and she wants Margot to come and live with them. And not in a dorm, but in an for campus house.

We watch as Margot tries to fit in with this new group, and make friends of them…

Very interesting twists and turns throughout, but I never expected it to end in the way that it did!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for an ARC of the audiobook which will be released on 1/16/24!

#OnlyIfYoureLucky by #StacyWillingham and narrated nicely by #KarissaVacker.

3 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 rounded up to 4!

Check out all my upcoming reviews and pre-views on
FIG @ #BookReviews _with_EMSR or on my new FB Bookclub Reading With Elaine!

Thanks for reading! 📚📖

I’m a HUGE fan of Stacy’s first two books! They are some of my very favorite thrillers. Unfortunately this one did not live up to those two.

The first 60% of this book is slow. It picks up in the last 40% and REALLY picks up in the last 25%. There were a lot of twists I didn’t see coming. So I settled at 3.5 stars between the two different parts. I was hoping for more creepiness and mystery in the first half and it was lacking. It felt very YA, probably mostly because it was about girls at college living next to a fraternity house.

I’m still a huge Stacy fan and can’t wait for her next one but this one a bit of a disappointment for me. 😕

I previously read A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham and really liked it, so I was looking forward to her latest psychological thriller. Unfortunately, this story did not live up to my expectations. While the book maintained the typical suspense novel set-up with short chapters, lots of suspects, and an unreliable narrator, I agree with others reviewers that this seemed more like a young adult version of a thriller and the character development was fairly limited.

The novel centers upon a freshman college student (Margot) who is reeling from the recent, unexpected/accidental death of her best friend. At college, she is invited to join and live with a new friend group of three young women, led by a "bad girl" ringleader (Lucy). When one of their male friends/neighbors is found dead and Lucy subsequently disappears, a police investigation commences, and the three remaining girls are potential suspects.

The book had a slower pace until the last quarter that left me a bit bored at times. Overall, most of the twists at the end were rather predictable, and I failed to become invested emotionally in the characters. I think this book could have been better, it just did not live up to its potential.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for an advanced copy of this audiobook to review.

Thank you NetGalley, McMillian and McMillian Audio for this ARC and ALC.

Stacy Willingham has a gift when it comes to integrating twists that the reader would not necessarily see coming. In her new release, Only If You're Lucky, she delivers yet another surprising twist that lovers of the thriller genre expect. Though the mood of this novel was at times reminiscient of young adult, a genre that is not one of my favorites, the true expertise of this author's plot construction comes at the end of the novel, where there are not one, but multiple twists. Bravo, Willingham.

This was a fun one. I enjoyed the small college setting and how very different the characters were. The codependency of the roommates was very realistic. The character development was strong - Willingham captures the impulsivity of young adults so well. Karissa Vacker narrates so I know I wanted to listen on audio as I find her audiobooks wonderful. She, as always, did a fabulous job so I highly recommend the audio for this one!

Ok ,great ending- I didn’t see that ending coming ! All my guesses were wrong — and for me that makes it a great book as it wasn’t predictable. I wonder what will happen to all the characters in the future( I always want to know these things ) — it could make an interesting sequel. This book is full of tension , great story building and intriguing characters — the story grabs you and holds you forcing you to devour it completely. I had the audiobook and listened to it over one day — the narrator was fantastic and really did a great job distinguishing between characters and helping to envelop the listener into the story. Full of twists and turns and slow reveal of information between two timelines — Before and after— is a finely crafted novel. Looking forward to exploring more by this author .

Thank you to Netgalley and Maximillian Audio for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Truly a thriller that you cant stop listening to! Stacy's writing brought me back to my college years and put me in Margots shoes. She takes you on this journey of two best friends growing apart and finding their true selves, at least for one of them. When Margot meets Lucy and finds that she is just like Eliza, she holds on to that new friendship to try and fill the void from losing Eliza. It isnt until later in their sophmore year that Margot is realizing Lucy is a little too much like Eliza. When a boy from Eliza and Margot's past comes back into her life, Margot starts to see the strange connections between Lucy and Eliza, as Lucy starts to be a little obsessed with him. When that boy is found dead, Margot cant seem to get past the fact that maybe it was Lucy who had something to do with it.

This book will take you on so many twists and turns, you'll start feeling dizzy, but in that fun, adrenaline filled tea-cup ride kind of way! This book will have you wanting to follow their lives even after the last page. Will definently go back and read Stacy Willingham's other books!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced Audio copy of this book

#NetGalley

I struggled so much with this one. I ended up having to quit 10% in. It felt very YA and there was just tooooooo much description. I wanted to get to the point so bad.