My Rating - 3 stars

Margot is looking for a fresh start with the commencement of her her college life. She runs into Lucy who is a larger than life personality and bears uncanny resemblance in her mannerisms to Margot's childhood best friend Eliza. Eliza has been dead for a year now and there is still an air of mystery around the consequences leading to her death.

Margot takes on the opportunity to be friends and roommates with Lucy and as the their bond goes stronger Margot starts to realize that nothing is as it seems on the surface. In their sophomore year, a freshman boy with ties to Eliza is now dead and Lucy is missing.

This book is written in multiple timeline and POV formats and is pretty fast paced. I definitely found a bit of a YA vibe to story, with it being based in college life, lots of truth or dare, frat life etc. I did find it more interesting that Stacy Willingham's other novel - A Flicker in the Dark.
This book has a more Jekyll and Hyde underlying premise, and makes for a quick entertaining read.

The audiobook narration by Karissa Vacker is on the point and she is able to build an engaging environment.

I thank NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, Stacy Willingham for providing me with the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I did not really care for this. The narration was good but I could not get into the story line. Is Margot shy and timid? You are supposed to think so at the beginning. Not sure what happens along the way but that is not at all how she winds up being. All of the characters are unlikable with few, if any, redeeming qualities and I found the twists more confusing than exciting.

2.5 stars rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

This is exactly what I was looking for in a thriller. I liked how it melts you guessing from beginning to end. Thanks netgalley for my first advanced copy audiobook!

Wow, this audiobook captivated me right off the bat and kept me glued to my seat the whole entire time!

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐈𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐦
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐊𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐚 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟏𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for my #gifted copies of Only If You’re Lucky!

Wow! What a masterpiece! I enjoyed this book so much and I had no clue how it was going to end! This book is truly about friendship, secrets, and lies and I just found it to be flawless! I love how this book is told in dual timelines, and felt like it added so much to the storyline.

Margot, she and yet to come out of her shell, meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year. Lucy and Margot are complete opposites, with Lucy always being the center of attention and so bold. When Lucy asks Margot to room with her over the summer, she can’t say no. Together, Lucy and Margot live with Sloane and Nicole at an off-campus house next to a fraternity. On top of her new living situation, and trying to fit in, Lucy is grieving the loss of her best friend, who died shortly after graduating from high school. As Lucy and Margot start to become closer, it doesn’t take long for tragedy to strike. Levi, who lives next door, is murdered and Lucy is missing without a trace. Who killed Levi? And what happened to Lucy?

𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐈𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲
🔥Dual Timeline
🔥Psychological Thriller
🔥Dark Academia
🔥Slow Burn
🔥Twists and Turns

I alternated between the physical book and the audiobook. However, with Karissa Vacker as the narrator, I found myself gravitating mostly towards the audiobook. She has quickly become a favorite of mine and I just loved the way she brought Margot and the rest of the characters to life. If you haven’t listened to a book narrated by Vacker, do yourself a favor and have this one be your first! Her pacing was perfect and I just felt so drawn to this listening experience!

Posted on Goodreads on January 2, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around January 16, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on January 16, 2024
**-will post on designated date

This was my first book by Stacy Willingham and it will not be my last. The writing kept me engaged and I like the dual timeline, the Before sections provided information and a frame of reference for what was going on in the story. The re were twists that I never saw coming!

Margot has survived her first year of college on the fringe and didn't make any friends. It looked like next year would be more of the same until Lucy appears and draws Margot into her orbit. Now Lucy lives in an off-campus house attached to a fraternity and friends in Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole and is in the middle of everything. It is just what Margot needs after the tragic death of her best friend Eliza. All is perfect until Levi, Eliza's boyfriend shows up at the fraternity and Lucy starts to get close to him. Questions are asked and secrets are shared but are they shared with a person that can be trusted? When the fraternity and the girls are involved in a tragedy you wonder who can be trusted and what is really going on?

Stacy, you surprise me with every book you write. This was a fast paced novel of college students behaving badly. I could not get enough. Karissa Vacker is one of the best audiobook narrators around.

4 stars!

Stacy Willingham does it again! The way she's able to weave the story just giving you little nuggets at time willing you to figure it out for yourself is just perfect. Right when you think you're getting a handle on things, a new nugget of information is provided and you're knocked back a few pegs trying to figure out what you're still on the right path from and what you're on the wrong path from. As always, I feel like I came to the correct conclusion about 1/2 through the book, but also as always, I got some things right and some things VERY, VERY wrong.

Karissa Vacker is always a solid choice for audio narration and this was no different. I listen at 1.65x and her voice is almost better sped up because that vocal fry she sometimes gets is just perfect. Sexy when it needs to be, frantic when it calls for it or just youthful when needed.

I can't wait to see what Stacy comes up with next because I am never disappointed!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Stacy Willingham has done it again! "Only If You’re Lucky" is a bit of a slow burn that reads like a well developed YA novel, due to the college setting and quirky characters. This one is for fans of dark academia submerged in the Greek/Sorority life. It has dual timelines, enigmatic characters, secrets, lies, drama, and surprising twists. Stacy Willingham's writing is like a jack in the box, she builds tension and suspense while placing twists at just the right spot to shock and awe the reader.
I listened to the audiobook which really made for an immersive experience. This audiobook is narrated by the fabulous Karissa Vacker who always does an amazing job. The story and the characters truly come to life and have you invested until the very end. 4 stars!
Thank you Macmillan Audio via NetGalley for this ARC!

So many twists and turns! I love that this story kept me on the edge of my toes. While I found it to be a little bit unbelievable, I enjoyed escaping the world with this audiobook.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I will say the first two books by this author completely blew me away. This one wasn't in that category for me but I still enjoyed the story and highly recommend it! Super excited for this one to publish and for others to get to read it!

Thank you for allowing me to listen to this one and review it, the review will be posted to my instagram @manymerrybooks. This review has been added to storygraph, amazon, goodreads, and Barnes & Noble.

Only If You're Lucky was a slower paced mystery. It felt more YA to me and I struggled to enjoy the story or get into it. I have seen some great reviews so I might be the minority.

Very much enjoyed this college based story. Some aspects seemed completed unrelated but the author did a lovely job buttoning it all up.

I’m saddened to give such a low rating to a book by the same author who wrote A Flicker in the Dark. Ninety percent of the book was agonizingly boring until the very end where I feel everything is revealed. It read more like a new adult novel.
I had extremely high expectations and they were more definitely not met.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC! Stacey Willingham has become one of my go-to thriller authors and this is her best yet! This novel had me gooped and gagged. As someone who reads thriller regularly, I couldn’t predict the twists or ending. This felt fresh and different compared to other thrillers I’ve read and as usual Carissa Vacker killed the narration!

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillian Audio for an early audio copy. The following comments and review are my honest opinion. 3.5 Stars
Lies, deceit, obsession and murder are all included, but this story was a slow burn and I only kept listening because I have thoroughly enjoyed other books by this author. It did get better, but unfortunately not till at least 90% through.
The narrator, Karissa Vacker was very good and had just enough inflection in her voice to distinguish the characters.
Because of the author, Stacy Willingham, others may find this book to their liking. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me.

As a HUGE fan of Willingham's previous novels, I was THRILLED to receive early access to her latest, Only If You're Lucky. This ended up being a quick read (with lots of twists around the 75% mark), however, I'm realizing that the "college campus thriller" trope isn't my favorite. If you're a thriller lover, you'll probably like this one. It won't be the most memorable book for me, but I'll keep picking up this author's books to see what she does next. I did find the Author's Note to be really interesting!

This was a thriller that kept me guessing. I had a general idea of what might have happened and was proven wrong…several times. I think readers who enjoy guessing what’s next or who did what would enjoy Only If You’re Lucky. It’s a wild and enjoyable read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for giving me early access to Only If You’re Lucky on audio.

Only If You’re Lucky follows Margot, a college sophomore who moves into an apartment occupied by a trio of friends, Nicole, Sloan, and Lucy. Margot recently lost her best friend, Eliza, and is now navigating college alone. She’s reminded of her friend’s tragic passing when Margot runs into Eliza’s ex, Levi, who is Margot’s new neighbor. Slowly, the four girls find out more about Margot and their ring leader Lucy. As the girls finds out more about Lucy’s origins and who she really is, it’s clear to them that you can become anyone when you’re in college.

Out of all the girls, I didn’t get much of a sense of who Nicole was. Sloan was fiercely loyal and protective. Lucy was driven by insecurities and jealousy. Margot was understanding and caring….even if too much. But Nicole was somewhat of a mystery. The most unexpected part of this book was finding out EVERYTHING about Margot. She definitely is not who she claims to be.

This book spans over the course of a year and has time jumps to help readers understand the past and present of the group’s dynamics.

The only thing that kept this from being a 5-star read is lack of deeply defined characters in Sloan and Nicole, final punishment for Trevor, and redemption for Levi. And who finds Lucy after it’s revealed where she is.

But I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was fully engaged in figuring out the mystery of who Lucy is and where she went.

I am big fan of Stacy Willingham’s first two books so was elated to receive an ARC of her newest book ((Pub date: 1/16/24). I chose to listen to the audiobook which had great narration!

“You’re only young once, and only if you’re lucky.”

Eliza and Margot were best friends. The kind of friends that make life long plans. Then, Levi moves into their orbit and three becomes a crowd. Levi and Eliza have no room for Margot, but Margot is not willing to give up. As fate would have it, Eliza dies unexpectedly leaving Margot broken and alone and ready to start college. Margot is shy and broken and easily led. Once on campus she sees a young woman in Her dorm named Lucy who is flanked by two girls, Sloane and Nicole. According to Margot, those three have everything she has ever wanted. As the spring semester ends, Lucy approaches Margot with an opportunity to live with them and Margot accepts. This story of friendship, betrayal and belonging is painted to close to real life it is easy to under why this novel grabs you and holds you close. Bound by blood and lies ‘if one goes down,’ they all go down.