Book Review: Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Hi everyone! It’s time for another book review! I was gifted an advanced reader copy (ARC) from Net Galley of “Only If You’re Lucky” by Stacy Willingham set for publication on January 16th, 2024. I wanted to share my review here in case this might be your next New Years Read!
My Review of Only If You’re Lucky:
Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Similar authors: Frieda McFadden, Mary Kubica, Rachel Hawkins
Triggers: Mention of rape/sexual violence (not in detail); drugs/alcohol
**Please note: I rarely give a book 5 stars – I reserve that rating for books that capture me from beginning to end, I can relate to and love the main characters, and it’s a book that truly sticks with me… that kind of book you read and literally go into a book slump for awhile because nothing compares to the book you just read. You laugh, you cry, and the book gives you true emotion! Those books are 5 stars! 🙂
Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can’t say no–something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious.
Synopsis from Target
And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It’s a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she’s been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered… and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace
This book definitely has twists and turns, maybe some predictable, but enough plot twists to keep you reading! I would put this book in the “quick and easy read – keeps you turning the pages”, so if you are fan of those types of books – this one is for you! As read in the synopsis above, the book is about several different young women just getting started in their college years with secrets to unravel and murders surrounding the main character. It’s a classic who-dun-it!
The pros and cons for the book are actually the same for me ironically! Because this book takes place in a college town, the main characters are all roommates in an off-campus house owned by a next-door fraternity with an access point to each fenced back yard via an old shed (allowing a cut through). If you read the acknowledgements at the end of the book, you’ll find the author chose this setting because she lived in a very similar house in her own college years – shed and all! The house also has a creepy crawl space underneath that was also a call out in the book.
Now you might ask – how is that a con in a mystery book? Well, the house itself isn’t, but because we have young women and young men in a fraternity living next door, it’s a party house 24/7. Lots of drinking, some drugs, parties, and general college life. Me being in my 40s and having also attended IU in Bloomington, I know how those parties go! But my current day old self doesn’t really want to read about it lol. This book would be probably best enjoyed by someone either in college or maybe late 20s with this lifestyle fresh on their mind.
Because of the side-partying and general wild lifestyle of the narrator and her friends is the reason I gave the book 3.75 stars. Surprisingly, there is very little reference to sex other than the couple of times it’s mentioned as part of a past memory or story by one of the women. So if you loved that crazy college lifestyle and also love a good mystery that’s a quick and easy read – this book is for you!
This book was my first read from author Stacy Willingham – she also has two other popular books out called All The Dangerous Things and A Flicker in the Dark – both with great ratings!
I hope this review helps you out with your next book choice! This book was gifted by Net Galley, but my review and opinions are all my own. Happy New Year friends!
