Margot is shy and recently lost her best friend to a tragic accident. The two were supposed to go off to a small college together after graduation, so Margot decides to go in memory of her friend. She meets Lucy, who reminds her so much of Eliza, and she’s instantly befriended. Margot moves in with Lucy and two other roommates and suddenly she’s found in a twisty situation that will leave readers guessing and gasping until the very end!

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham is a mystery thriller told in only Margot’s POV.
Margot loses her best friend Eliza, just after they graduate high school to a tragic accident. In college, Margot meets Lucy and moves into an apartment with her and two other girls, Sloane and Nicole. By the next year, there is a murder and Lucy goes missing. There’s a few twists and turns at the end.
This book is available January 16, 2024. This is my third book by Stacy Willingham and definitely won’t be my last.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Only If You’re Lucky follows Margot and a group of young college women after a shocking student death and their roommate’s disappearance, featuring alternating timelines showing their lives before these events.

After enjoying Stacy Willingham’s first two novels, I immediately wanted to read her third installment. I love Karissa Vacker’s performance more and more each time. She has great narration delivery changing voices to represent different characters and the ability to build tension throughout the book.

I liked the college setup and Autumnal atmosphere from the opening chapters. However, I expected a little bit more from the plot. Jumping between timelines and going back to the past seemed too repetitive and slow to build. It lacked the investigative aspect and thrill I enjoyed from previous books. The novel also skews a tad young - jealousy, obsession, mysterious secrets, and wanting to fit in - it was reminiscent of Pretty Little Liars.

Overall, it’s a pretty average slow burn book, slightly predictable with a large reveal towards the very end.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the gifted audiobook to review.

This was excellent on audio—several solid twists and an ending, that despite not having an epilogue, was still super satisfying.

I am such a huge fan of Stacy Willingham’s first two books, so it saddens me that this one didn’t work as well for me. One thing I love most about her writing, is her attention to pacing and ability to keep the reader engaged throughout the story. While I think this had a few really interesting elements, including the very atmospheric collegiate setting, ultimately, the pacing felt off and I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters. The reviews are a bit all over the place for this one, so definitely check it out if it sounds like a book you might enjoy.

Read if you like:
•dark academia
•slow burn
•large casts of characters
•more mystery than thriller

Thank you Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copies.

This is a review of the audiobook edition, narrated by Karissa Vacker. I loved both of Willingham's previous books, but this one fell a little flat for me. Like her other psychological thrillers, the plot is engaging, but this book takes place in a college setting and the tone felt very YA. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but I think this should be marketed as a YA thriller, which happens to be one of my least favorite genres. The story is a little slow to get started, more of a slow burn than a wild adrenaline-fueled ride, but the last 20% definitely makes up for the slow start. Margot is at the end of her freshman year of college when she meets charismatic Lucy and is invited into her circle of friends. Since it's a thriller, you can guess that some crazy sh*t goes down after that. As always, thrillers are best read without knowing too much, so I won't say any more about the plot. I do enjoy thrillers centered around friendship, and even though I guessed one of the big reveals very early on, I still liked all the small twists and turns the story took. Vacker does a great job inhabiting the character of Margot. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook edition.

This has a ton of potential and I really do love Willingham's ability to write such wonderful prose. Her writing is so artistic. I also loved her two previous books a lot.

I wish I were more interested in this one, however. I felt really bored for most of the story and just wish the storyline gripped me more. Thrillers are all blending in now, and it needs to feel fresh to be interesting and this felt on the bland side and could blend in with other thrillers that were written before and easily forgotten.

I hope her next books impact me like her first did! She's talented with words and I look forward to her next novel even though this one didn't work for me.

The audio narrator was great. She did a good job bringing the story to life with her various inflections.

✨ ARC Review ✨

Book: Only If You’re Lucky
Author: Stacy Willingham
Genre: thriller
Format: 🎧
Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @minotaur_books and @NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I want to state upfront that I did DNF this book at 47% after deciding I did not relate to the story and I did not care for the main character.

This book is about a shy college student that is chosen by an outgoing, boisterous girl that lives a lifestyle of danger and darkness. Upon entering her sophomore year of college and moving in with Lucy and her friends, Margot comes to realize her fame freshman year was nothing like the lifestyle of these girl and their frat boy neighbors. With a boy from her past entering the picture, Lucy has to grapple with the pain and heartache of losing her best friend just a year ago.

I have love Stacy Willingham’s previous books, so much so that she has become an auto buy author for me, so given the chance to read an ARC of her newest book, I jumped at the chance. I felt quite early on that the characters lacked depth and the main character ultimately made poor decisions and spent so much time reliving the past that she mostly just made by decisions in hopes of moving on. All the characters felt immature and cared only about themselves.

While this book was clearly not for me, I think late high school/early college readers will enjoy this book much more. It may also help if you haven’t read any of the author’s books before because you will not know that this body is work is a far cry from her excellent earlier books

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Special thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

'Only If You're Lucky,' is a page turning, sit on the edge of your seat thriller with lots of twists and turns. Definitely worth a read.

One of my very favorite narrators performed this one, so I was all in. Karissa Vacker has a unique way of performing a character yet not over doing it and detracting from the story. This is my third book by the author and she just keeps getting better! I did not see the big twist coming.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley and the author for an advance listening copy.

Was super excited to read this one! The description and the cover are spot on!

The story itself was good. A slow burn but ended well. The writing and the characters were great. Lots of descriptive narrative. Once the story got going it picked up the pace. The small college town was the perfect backdrop for this novel.

The narrator had a pleasant voice and smooth tone.. the dramatic parts were read with true inflection and I could differentiate all the characters. That being said, I wasn't crazy about her male character voices.

Overall, 4⭐️. A fun read!!

I am usually a fan of Stacy Willingham's books. Her books often get me hooked by the slow burn plot and the creepy atmospheric feel of Georgia, but I felt this book missed the mark until the ending. Most of the book was filled with stories about frat parties and the chronicles of drunk girls. Hearing about frat parties might be cool, but Margot or the other characters had no likable qualities and did not draw me in. Although I hated the college life plotline, the truth or dare aspect was entertaining. The plot was still very repetitive, and I was eagerly waiting for the twists to come. The ending made up for the whole book. There were a few moments I was not expecting that gave the end a very satisfying feel.

I had access to both the Kindle and audiobook versions, and Karissa Vacker was excellent as the narrator. She kept the story moving.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and to Macmillan Audio for giving me a copy of the book.

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

So asks the tagline of Stacy Willingham's new book about a group of college girls. The group consists of Margot, still reeling from the unexpected death of her best friend Eliza, and Margot's new obsession, Lucy, who reminds Margot so much of Eliza that she can't help but be drawn to her.

This book took far too long for me to get interested in it. I didn't really enjoy anything until about halfway through. Part of the trouble I had with this book was that I detested Margot. Sweet, innocent, vanilla Margot who doesn't know what beer pong is (???). And because I couldn't stand her, being in her head throughout this whole book was excruciating.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Karissa Vacker was a great narrator. Unfortunately, like many other reviewers I didn't like this book as much as Willingham's others.

I really enjoyed her first 2 books so I had high hopes for this one but this book was good just not as good. the very end was a bit much.. The mood was very tense as it was very well written but the characters aside from Nicole were not that likable and I didn't find the characters physical appearances described that well at any point.. I would still read anything by Stacy Willingham but his this is my least favourite of hers

Thank you to St Martins Press and MacMillan audiobook for review copies of Stacy Willingham's Only If You're Lucky. I know this will be popular among fans of this author and readers looking for a fairly quick mystery. My review is my own.

First, the narration for the audiobook is excellent, Karissa Vacker is one of my favorite voice actors and she did a standout job with the story. Second, this is an author who just does not work for me, I have tried her previous books and this time around though I liked this one more, I do love college settings, I finally realized what does not work: there is a lot of internal dialogue, and description and slow development of the plot, more a character study of characters I don't really think need that much study and who I don't want to spend a lot of time with. For a character filled with self reflection, Margot also lacked a lot of insight. That's just me... I like dialogue and while I love character driven stories, this one didn't have enough of a unique plot to hold my attention.. I would have liked more time with the secondary characters, who felt fairly one dimensional to me though important to the story. Third, some of the plot felt a bit too far fetched for me, blame this on me being well ensconced in college life and wondering about a few for me plot holes/leaps that probably won't bother other readers.

It's a slow race to a speedy resolution that I mostly saw coming. As is often the case with thrillers that don't quite work for me, the end feels like the best place to start an interesting plot.

I LOVED everything about this audiobook.

Let’s start with the narrator. She was phenomenal. I’ve heard her in a few books previously and she is my absolute favorite. She has range, easy to understand and portrays emotion perfectly. When she is talking for a male, it fits perfectly and isn’t super cringey. I’d seriously listen to her read the phone book.

Anyway so the book. Also loved! There were so many twists and turns. I loved the drama. Yes, this book was more geared towards YA, but it was suspenseful enough & twisty enough for any audience to enjoy.

The chapters are set in different points in time. “Before” and “The present”. The author masterfully leaves bread crumbs in each until they meet in the middle and you piece together what is going on. Where is Lucy? What happened to Levi? So many questions and so many breadcrumbs to meet in the middle perfectly.

I’d recommend this book to any one to read or listen to.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.
I have read all of Willingham's novels now, and I think this might be my new favorite. Only If You're Lucky is told in past and present timelines to keep the reader on the edge of their seats the entire time. Margot was a relatable character in wanting to fit in in college life and being drawn in by the enigmatic Lucy. They quickly become friends, but through the timelines we learn about how they become friends and what happens when Lucy becomes suspected of murder. With every cliff hanger, I just wanted to ignore everything and keep listening to this story because the suspense built here was so good. I did not know where this story was going, but I was riveted and had to find out. When the reveal came, I was completely shocked and the way she continued to slowly uncover all of the conclusion left me feeling satisfied.
Karissa Vacker is the best narrator for this type of story, and I was so engrossed in her performance. She always creates a perfect atmosphere when she narrates these kinds of books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

This is a book about college friendships and feeling the need to belong somewhere. Margot found a kinship with Lucy, Sloane, and Nicole, but everything is not as it seems. I really enjoyed the pacing of the reveals and twists. The timeline was also easy to follow.

Only If You’re Lucky started off really strong for me. I was super engaged and very interested in where it was going. I found by the 50% mark I was starting to lose interest. It felt a little repetitive and not a lot was actually happening. While this book is a thriller, the pace is a bit slower as there is more character development and less cliff hangers that make you want to keep reading.

I was surprised by the ending but did find I wasn’t super invested by the end and was just ready for it to wrap up. I would still recommend this book as I did mostly enjoy it. The narrator was really good and I’d definitely recommend the audiobook. It was overall a quick enjoyable read that I will probably forget by next week.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

2.5 stars rounded up. I actually stopped reading the e-book at 33% and it took me a month to pick it back up, and I only picked it back up because I received the audiobook. The audiobook/narrator helped keep me engaged enough to finish it. It didn't pick up for me until well over the 60% mark. I didn't feel like I was reading a thriller instead it felt like more like a study on a college girl and the grief she holds onto since her best friends death back home. There was nothing to pull me in and I was not invested in any of the characters. I most likely would not have finished this if it weren't for the audiobook that I could listen to in the background while doing other tasks.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.