I listened to the audiobook version of this book but that doesn't change my opinion of it.

My new Stacy's favorite. It's one of those books that I hope they would do a screen version. Fast-paced-, with unexpected twists and kept me guessing the whole time. I liked the mixed timelines and absolutely loved the audiobook version.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the Advanced Audiobook Free Copy in exchange for an honest review.

"One day we were strangers and the next we were friends." - Stacy Willingham

Note: I both listened to and read this book. It's that good. Narrator Karrisa Vacker is wonderful as always. Her tone is perfect for Willinghams book. I felt like I was right there witnessing it all.

Having read Willingham prior to Only If You're Lucky, I knew she would take me on a wild ride, hence my eagerness to pick up and read her latest book.

Synopsis: Margot’s best friend, Eliza, dies suddenly and unexpectedly after high school graduation. Eliza was full of life and helped the shy and quiet Margot feel alive. Margot loved Eliza and her family, wishing she was part of that family instead of her own. So after she loses Eliza, she feels lost and hides in her dorm room freshman year not drawing too much attention to herself. Suddenly, along comes the charismatic Lucy asking her to become the 4th roommate off campus for sophomore year. They spend a fun summer together. Everything seems bright and new until someone winds up murdered at the fraternity next door.

The mystery of Only If You're Lucky leaves you guessing right up until the last few chapters. It's riveting and I could not, did not want to put it down until the last word was read. Everyone is hiding secrets, some not revealed until the very end.

Reader beware: this is not a heart-lifting book of survival, more a spine-chilling book of survival. It's a must read for anyone who enjoys mystery, suspense, or psychology.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this tale of friendship, belonging, jealousy, and obsession.

I went into this book thinking there was no way it could live up to All The Dangerous Things which I LOVED. As I started this one, I wasn't as drawn in as I would have liked to be. However, about mid-way through the twists I had hoped to read were there.

I get weary of thrillers that all seem to follow the same format: destructive event, looks for person responsible, red herrings everywhere, killer is the person you least expect but one close to the protagonist. I mean, they all do follow this, but Willingham finds a way to SHOCK her readers. And once again, consider me shocked.

The setting is at a small, liberal arts college, Rutledge, in CA. Our MC escaped her home in the Outer Banks after her best friend died an untimely death right after high school. Margot and Eliza were supposed to start the next phase of their lives together at Rutledge, so when the time comes for Margot to go alone, she struggles to make friends and face this new adventure alone. When Lucy comes along, one of the coolest girls at college, and asks Margot to move in with her and some friends in a home adjacent to one of the fraternities on campus, she agrees, hoping this will help her make a new start and a new life. However, like every thriller, what you see is not alway what you get. A murder, a missing girl, and a tight group of friends: the ingredients for a thriller, but add in the college life, and the setting just works.

SUCH a great story! Only If You're Lucky had me engaged from the moment I started the audiobook. I enjoyed the narration and the intensity of this story. So well done.

This is the first I’ve read from this author. It was good although I found it slow. Not necessarily bad but it was slow to build and unfold, not boring just trickling information. The reveals were good and I can say I didn’t expect them but because of the slow build they weren’t shocking either. I didn’t like the ending I’m not a fan of the villains or morally gray characters. I know others will love this book though.

Moody, atmospheric slow burn thriller.
Truthfully, I couldn't bring myself to connect with or enjoy the main character, Margot, and maybe for the sake of this story, I wasn't really supposed to. She kind of reminded me of the protagonist, Rosalind ('Ros'), from Genievere Scott's novel The Damages that I read last year-- desperate to fit in, insecure, easily 'malleable' and drawn to the magnetic personalities of others to make her feel seen. Margot is so unlikeable that the I felt a sense of unease while listening to her perspective, which worked because for me it contributed to the overall dark anticipatory mood of the story. An intentional genius on behalf of the author, perhaps?

I enjoyed the twists and the story development, but I wasn't blown away by the revelations in the end. I still think it's a great book to dive into, especially is twisty thrillers are your jam!

Karissa Vacker always does a brilliant job narrating stories, and this production is no different. She masters navigating through the characters and gives life to each of them.

Margot is a sidekick by nature and I am fascinated by Lucy Sharpe when she is invited to stay with her and her roommates. Lucy is a magnetic personality that draws everyone. Margot is still grieving the loss of her best friend and Lucy seems to make the world a better place. Lucy goes missing and someone is dead, nothing is what it seems like on the surface.

I was reading a thriller after a long time and I enjoy Stacy's writing style. The book was engaging and I flew through it. Several key plot points were predictable, some were a good twist. Overall a decent thriller that can be binged in one sitting.

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the complimentary audiobook.

Only If You're Lucky is a mystery thriller about a group of college students living in close proximity of each other. A group of girls live next to a fraternity house resulting in them sharing a lot of time with the guys in the fraternity. The story follows the friendship between Lucy and Margot. Margot is shy and a bit withdrawn due to the death of her high school friend before college began and Lucy is very outgoing and seems to be trying to prove to everyone that she is daring, mischievous, and a bit dangerous. There are other sets of friends among those two, but the story revolves around them and the mystery surrounding the death of Margot's HS friend and another death of a guy in the neighboring fraternity.

This was very slow for a mystery thriller. The story seemed to drag on forever and when the conclusion came, it was wrapped up very fast. I have liked this author's previous two novels and was excited to receive the ARC of this book, but this one fell flat for me. The book was 384 pages, but it seemed much longer. I would recommend if you like slow burn mysteries set on a college campus, but if you need something that's faster paced, I would not suggest this book.

**Thank you NetGalley, Macmillian Audio, and the author for the ALC of Only if You're Lucky in exchange for an honest review.**

Another solid thriller to kick off 2024! The mystery was a little drawn out but still kept me interested. I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong! I almost didn't listen to the audiobook because I usually don't like this narrator (Karissa Vacker) but I'm glad I did because she was good didn't whisper anything.

I'm always quick to pick up Willingham because she is a consistently good writer and her novels are always very different from each other. In true fashion, Only If You're Lucky is very well written and totally different from All the Dangerous Things (loved!) and A Flicker in the Dark (meh). While reading Only If You're Lucky, I kept seeing it play out as a Netflix limited series. I think it's written perfectly for the screen and may actually translate better that way for me.

This was an enjoyable read but felt familiar and a little drawn out for much of it. There were definitely twists toward the later third that I didn't see coming, but I was a little too checked out at that point for them to pack the punch I had needed earlier on. I didn't connect with the characters and didn't feel like Lucy's appeal was conveyed all that well so I had a hard time feeling any emotion.

I listened to this novel on audio which was great. The narrator - Karissa Vacker - was fantastic and added a really great element to the telling of the story. She did a great job with the pacing (which I often found slow, but the audio helped) and kept it just theatrical enough.

Overall, this was a decent read and if you've loved Willingham's prior novels, it's worth reading. I enjoyed it, but it probably won't stick with me.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the copy.

I'll start with this wasn't my fave from this author (mostly because I'm a bit over college girl drama) and it dragged a bit in the middle but I definitely did NOT see that ending coming so that helped redeem it a bit! Audio was solid but I did feel like the protagonist sounded a tad too young.... I mean, she is only like 19 or so but she sounded like a literal child sometimes!

Really enjoyed this one. It was a nice, twisty mystery with a lot of “surprises”. It felt like a YA novel with mature themes, maybe because they were college students. Overall a good thriller and I would recommend!

Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham is my 3rd novel I've read by this author. Although her debut was my favorite, this one is my next!

Margot has made it through her first year of college following the death of her high school best friend, Eliza. Margot and Eliza had plans to attend Rutledge College together but after Eliza's mysterious death, Margot is forced to experience college alone. Until one day Lucy, the total opposite of Margot (and very reminiscent of her past bff) spots her and invites her to join her and her friends and live with them in a rented house from the fraternity living next door. From there, although it is a slow burn we start to unravel secrets as we go back and forth between "before" and "after". One fraternity member has been found dead and Lucy is missing.

A few parts of the story were predictable. But I was glad to see at the end how a lot was tied up but we still have a few loose ends to make you wonder what might would happen next.
I really enjoyed this audio book and finished it in 2 days! It does seem more YA themed but I don't mind that type of read. I'll recommend this book to any psychological thriller lovers!

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced copy!

"If you knew you could get away with murder, would you do it?"

This sentence sums up the mindset of our complicated cast of characters in Only If You're Lucky. In this story, we follow Margot and her sorority sisters. Margot is hoping for a fresh start after losing her best friend, Eliza, the year before. She wants to fly under the radar, not planning on getting close to anyone, that is... until she meets Lucy.

Lucy is the opposite, filling every room she enters with her intoxicating energy. Margot is pulled into her orbit since she reminds her so Eliza. They become fast friends, moving in and spending most of their free time together. But how can you <I> really </I> get to know someone if both sides are keeping dark and sinister secrets?

What I loved:
I thought the characters were relatable and easy to visualize. I wouldn't call this book atmospheric, but it was easy to picture myself immersed at the college parties and in the dorm situations because we all knew someone like that one kid in the chapter.
I did not see the twist at the end coming, and I did think it was a creative turn. I enjoy when the mystery stumps me, but I like to think I was close to figuring it out. This was out of nowhere for me.

What could be better:
Part of why I preferred Willingham's other books, is because I felt I could connect to the mindset of the main character, as if they were narrating inside my own brain. I did not have that experience with this book. There was less plot, and a lot of backstory, with a quick conclusion. I liked the ending to A Flicker In The Dark better since we get to slowly unravel the twist over a few chapters. While I thought the twist of this book was great, it came out of nowhere, and then was quickly over. Like a flare.
Her previous two books were easily one-day-binge-reads for me, and with this one, I found myself reaching for other things. It didn't feel high stakes until the end.

Audio Narration:
I thought that Karissa Vacker did a great job narrating. Her voice was a good fit for the characters.

Final Rating:
I'm rounding my rating to a 4 because I do enjoy Willingham's writing style, and thought the story was very well developed. But it was my least favorite of her three books..

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the early audio-arc of one of my anticipated reads this year, in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

Another twisty thriller from Stacy Willingham! I was worried since it's college students that I wouldn't be as into it as some of her others but I was still invested for sure. Once again I tried to figure it out before the end, and as always, I was wrong lol.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Stacy Willingham for an advance copy of Only If You’re Lucky in exchange for an honest review. This story was another excellent suspense novel by the author. It focused on the power that female friendships can have in our lives. If you’re looking for secrets, lies, and dual timelines- look no further. I found myself rooting for Margot as she fell under Lucy’s spell. The ending was definitely not what I expected and I was very satisfied with it! The narrator, Karissa Vacker, did an amazing job bringing this story to life! She has a way that just draws the listener in! I can’t wait to see what this author does next. You can pick this one up on January 16th!

What a dark and chilling book. The first book I've read by Stacy Willingham and it was a great one. Lifelike characters.

Reeling from the death of her best friend Margot must attend college alone. During her first year she keeps to herself and continues to mourn the loss of her friend. When an opportunity to move into a house with the bold, magnetic Lucy and her two best friends Margot decides to take it. She is drawn to Lucy as most people are but is it because she reminds her of her friend? Why. Does Lucy want to be her friend? She embraces her new life with these girls and is able to get out of her comfort zone and begins to embrace the college life of parties, drinking and letting loose. Then one day one of the guys in the neighboring frat house is found murdered. At this point things begin to unravel. From then on the secrets, lies and deception begin to surface and left me reeling!!

This was a fast paced thriller that had me hooked from the beginning. Willngham is adept at transitioning between the past and present leaving a well paced story that reveals twists and keeps you reading late into the night.

The narration was great for the audiobook!

4.5 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

#NetGalley #StaceyWillingham #OnlyIfYou’reLucky

Wow wow! Stacy Willingham just gets better and better with every book. From the get-go, I loved this college setting and the Greek life aspect. I liked the flashbacks, but this was really like three timelines and I got a little confused here and there. I went between audio and physical and I think it would be Less confusing solely being physically read (and, tbh, I didn’t love the narration- there was a lot of whispering and the last word of the sentences tended to fall off so I felt like I was missing things… though the whispering really is a vibe for Margot as a character).
At its core, this is a story about friendship, found family, and coming-of-age during that last year of high school and first years of college. It’s not necessarily thrilling, but there’s certainly a mystery that I was very invested in. I could totally feel that college campus atmosphere and picture these devoting friendships between the girls.
I’d recommend for fraternity/sorority peeps, anyone who loves a campus setting, and a coming-of-age with some dark, twisty depth.

I knew this book was going to be good from the moment I picked it up. No, really, I called it a five star read on my Instagram when I was only at 6%done!!

I have really enjoyed Stacy Willingams books so far so I was pretty sure I would love this one - and it did not disappoint! The story follows 4 college roommates but specifically the MC Margot. Margots best friend from home passed away in their senior year, and now she is trying to find her own way in a world the friends ad planned out together. She moves in with Lucy and her friends, despite barely knowing more than just their names. Things seem great at first, until one of the sorority boys next door is murdered and Lucy is missing without a trace...

This book just hooked me in right away and I could not put it down. The author does a great job at being mysterious with the characters back story and slowly unravelling it throughout the plot. I just kept wanting to know more.

It also felt like there were frequent moments that I wasn't expecting, even though the synopsis for the book felt fairly straightforward.

This book and the characters are both mysterious and riveting. I can already tell that this one is definitely going to be a contender for my favs of the year! Please do yourself a flavor and check this one out if you are a fan of mystery/thriller/suspense books!

Trigger warnings to note: Death, Grief, Murder, Drug Use, Sexual Assault