Book Review: Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham

Rating: 2.5⭐️

Margot and her best friend Eliza had big plans to embark on their college experience together, but Eliza’s tragic death after her high school graduation changed everything for Margot. After spending the first year of college in her shell, Margot meets the charismatic Lucy who convinces her to become her housemate with two other girls. The house was being rented out by one of the college fraternities and Margot is excited to be part of a more active social scene. But when a new student who has ties to Margot’s hometown and to Eliza enters the scene , Margot’s past trauma resurfaces, and she shares her story with Lucy and her housemates. Lucy expresses her concern for Margot and her intense interest in the events from Margot’s past. Lucy claims she wants to help her friend, but her weird mind games and somewhat obsessive behavior gradually reveal her dark streak which makes Margot more than a tad uncomfortable. As the narrative continues Margot, Lucy and their friends find themselves entangled in a web of lies, deception, secrets, and murder and not all of them will make it out alive.

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham revolves around an interesting premise and features an interesting cast of characters which is the only strength of this novel. Firstly, this novel should have been more concise. The author seamlessly weaves past and present timelines into a coherent narrative, but the pacing is inconsistent (and excruciatingly slow in parts) and I struggled to stay engaged. The story takes a long time to take off ( even after the 50% mark I was wondering where we were going) and had the novel not been so unnecessarily lengthy, I might have appreciated the final 25% more. The premise definitely had potential but failed to deliver. I could go on and on about how this novel didn’t work for me, but I’ll keep it short: I was bored!

Overall, I can’t really say that this was a satisfying experience. Many readers have enjoyed this book more and I‘d request you to read their reviews before you decide on picking this one up.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.