Only if You are Lucky – Book Review

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.

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.

I actually had high expectations for this book, as I read two previous books by the same author and which I enjoyed most. But this book didn’t live up to my expectations although it wasn’t bad as per-se

Margot is still trying to overcome the death of her best friend Eliza and attends Rutledge the college that she was planning to go with Eliza. While at the college, she meets Lucy Sharpe, whose personality reminded Margot of Eliza. So when Lucy who notices Margot asks her to be roommates with her and two other girls, Sloane and Nicole, Margot couldn’t really believe her luck. Their house is adjacent to the fraternity house. While at the party, Margot meets Levi, who was the last person to see Eliza alive. Margot hated Levi and then one night, while on the island, Levi was found dead. Lucy was last seen with Levi but then a few days later, Lucy also mysteriously disappeared.

Unlike her two previous books, this was actually slow burn and it was actually a bit boring to me at first. The audience for this book was also different, aimed towards college students. However, towards the end of the book, things started getting interesting and unputdownable which made me increase my rating from two stars to a three stars. We know that each of the characters are carrying a secret and Lucy Sharpe doesn’t seem to be who she is. The twist at the end was quiet unexpected.

Although I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I did with her two previous books, nevertheless, I cannot wait to read her fourth novel. Worth three stars.