Only If You're Lucky: A Novel

A sharp and twisty exploration of female friendship from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things.

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.

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.

From the author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things comes a tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal—another gripping novel from an author quickly becoming the gold standard in psychological suspense.

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Published Jan 16, 2024

384 pages

Average rating: 6.98

142 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Andrea-The Shelf Life Books
Jul 03, 2025
6/10 stars
If you love a slow burn book, this one if for you. I loved Stacy’s other two thriller novels, but this one just didn’t quite live up to those and somewhat missed the mark for me. It was quite the build-up and slow burn and fizzled out. I have mixed feeling about the ending. Only If You’re Lucky is a bit different from Willingham’s two prior novels. Yes, it's a thriller, but it's more of a slower paced character driven novel than a faster paced plot centered read like her other books.

Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham will be available on January 16, 2024. A massive thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the gifted copy!
Anne-Marie Eberhardt
Jul 02, 2025
10/10 stars
And, she’s done it again! Nail biter:)
@thekimlewis
Jun 25, 2025
10/10 stars
Finished the book after shelving it for a bit and loved it. That ending though!!
thebooktroup
Jan 30, 2025
6/10 stars
Only if You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham had an intriguing premise, but overall, it felt a bit underwhelming. The story leaned more toward a YA vibe, with its focus on friendships and drama, which didn't quite align with my expectations for a darker, more mature thriller. That said, the setting evoked a strong sense of nostalgia, taking me back to my own university days at a liberal arts college in North Carolina. While it didn’t grip me as much as her previous works, there was something oddly comforting in revisiting that familiar academic world. Decent, but not as thrilling as I’d hoped.
Writer13
Dec 23, 2024
3/10 stars
**review coming soon**

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