Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham

There are few things in a young person’s life that affect them more than friendships, and if you are lucky enough to have one where that person or people knows everything about you, can finish your sentences, step in when you fall down, cover for you when you sneak out, and hold all your hair back when you’re sick and your secrets, then you have the ultimate friendship; you have a best friend. Margot had Eliza from kindergarten through just before their freshman year at Rutledge, when Eliza died at a party that Margot didn’t go to. And the last person to see her alive was Levi, who vied for Eliza’s attention from Margot.

Starting her freshman year alone, Margot, a forgettable sort who would rather stay in than attend functions, limped through the year with her roommate, Maggie, doing her best to keep Margot afloat. When the girl in the bikini outside their dorm catches Margot’s attention and suddenly befriends her, going so far as to ask her to be the fourth in a 4-bedroom off campus house, Margot is beside herself. Could things be looking up?

When Margot moves in with Lucy, the magnet who pulls everyone’s attention, Sloan and Nichole, she is bothered by Lucy’s peculiar behaviors that seem so familiar to Eliza’s; the same tics and mannerisms, the same pull on people. Margot chalks this up to her own overreach and falls headlong into the party life with her new roommates and the frat boys in the house next door. When freshman, Levi, pledges the frat house and becomes enthralled by Lucy, Margot is determined to prove he was responsible for Eliza’s death. But when a frat party goes very wrong, all bets are off as to what Margot thought was fact.

Stacey Wilkerson, while new on the scene with this being her third book, has knocked it out of the park. She completely nails that deep, intimate bond with friends and their way of feeling and thinking; including their insecurities, power struggles, secrets, and clicks within a group of besties. Only if You’re Lucky was unputtdownable and totally captivating. Just when you think you have it all figured out, Wilkerson adds another whammy.

If you weren’t a Stacey Wilkerson fan before, you will be after reading Only if You’re Lucky.

Thank you St. Martin’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. All opinions are mine alone. This review was uncompensated.