I saw this meme on It’s All About Booksand thought, I like this!! So, I decided to do it once a month also. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!!
This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books are lovely and take you to places you would never get to. That includes places of fantasy, too!!
Bon Voyage!!
Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas.
Countries I visited the most:England, United States, Austria, Germany, Scotland, Italy
States I visited the most:Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, New York, Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey, California
Cities I visited the most:London, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles
Greece
United States
South Carolina (Rutledge)Wisconsin (Shaky Lake)Colorado (Golden), North Carolina (Tavistock)Texas (Hamchet)Illinois (Chicago)Wisconsin (Safe Haven)California (Los Angeles, San Marino), Texas (Houston)New Jersey (Princeton, Hoboken), New York (New York City), Puerto Rico (San Juan), Maryland (Baltimore), Illinois (Chicago)New York (Ridgewater, Syracuse)Colorado (Aspen), Illinois (Chicago)North Carolina (Rome)New Jersey (Middletown), Washington D.C.Illinois (Chicago)Oregon (Portland)California (Los Angeles)California (Los Angeles, Bel Air, Beverly Hills)
England
PentonLondon, NottinghamCambridgeBellehaven Bay, LondonKent, LondonDevon, London, CornwallLondon, GravesendSurrey, SolihullLondon, Whitechapel
Austria
St. Liesl, LeoburgVienna
Faerie Realms
Borderlands, Grunesauge, Court of Silva Lupi
Gorseland
Scotland
Isle of Skye
Chile
Cochamo Valley, Santiago
Ireland
Dublin
Wales
Brazil
Brasilia
France
Paris, Bordeaux
Norway
Oslo
Italy
Milan, Venice, Florence. AronaSicily (Becchina)
Spain
Xabia
Cambria
Oath, Southern Boroughs, Central Boroughs, Western Borough, Avalon Bluff
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.
First Line:
One day we were strangers and the next we were friends. That’s usually how it works with girls.
Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Important things you need to know about the book:
Pace: Only If You’re Lucky had a medium-fast pace.
POV:Only If You’re Lucky is told from Margot’s 1st person POV.
Trigger/Content Warning:Only If You’re Lucky has trigger and content warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:
Death
Grief
Murder
Toxic Friendship
Infidelity
Vomit
Alcohol
Drug Use
Stalking
Gaslighting
Animal Death
Domestic Abuse
Eating Disorder
Emotional Abuse
Misogyny
Rape
Toxic Relationship
Injury/Injury Detail
Mental Illness
Physical Abuse
Sexual Assault
Violence
Blood
Sexual Content: There is moderate sexual content in Only If You’re Lucky.
Language: here is moderate swearing in Only If You’re Lucky. There is also language used that might make some readers uncomfortable or offend them.
Setting:Only If You’re Lucky is set in and around the college town of Rutledge, South Carolina. There are also some scenes set in The Outer Banks.
Age Range: I recommend Only If You’re Lucky to anyone over 21.
Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):
When her best friend, Eliza, dies three weeks after graduation, Margot can barely function. She spends her freshman year hiding in her dorm, studying and playing it safe. That is until Lucy Sharpe bursts into Margot’s life. Loud, brash, and magnetic, Lucy demands attention wherever she goes. And for some reason, Lucy has honed in on Margot as a friend. Before she knows it, Margot starts coming out of her shell. Soon, she is best friends with Lucy and moves into the house Lucy rented with two other girls. But, things start to unravel when a member of the fraternity (who owns thehouse and shares a backyard) is murdered at the end of a week of pledging. Soon after, Lucy goes missing. What does Margot know? Why was the frat boy killed? Why did Lucy go missing? And who was Lucy?
Main Characters:
The main characters in Only If You’re Lucky are Margot and Lucy. I will offer advice about Margot (since thebook is told from her POV): She is a very unreliable narrator. I couldn’t tell, throughout the book, if she was holding back the truth on certain things or just lying. Her grief (and guilt) over Eliza’s death colored her view of certain events and people.
Lucy, on the other hand, was an enigma. She was a whirlwind of activity and seemed to have her hand in everything. I was surprised by her background when it was revealed. But, in a way, it did make sense.
My review:
Only If You’re Lucky is the second book I have read by Stacy Willingham, and it has cemented her as a favorite for me in this genre. I enjoyed reading this book and was utterly surprised at the twists (and yes, there are several) that the author reveals at the end of the book.
The main storyline centers around Margot, her grief over Eliza’s death, her flashbacks to the events leading up to Eliza’s death, Lucy, and the events leading up to and past Lucy’s disappearance. The storyline was well-written and did keep me on my feet. The layers that it had was excellent. Once I peeled back one layer, the author revealed another.
The thriller/suspense angle of Only If You’re Lucky was terrific. The author didn’t hesitate to throw Margot into the thick of things when she started living with Lucy. There was a point where I did think that maybe she was a little crazy (because of her intense dislike of Levi). Let’s remember the twists. Those twists made the book. I figured out one, but the others took me completely by surprise. Like, my mouth dropped, and me saying, “No freaking way,” surprised.
The author switches back and forth between the present day (during the police investigation into Lucy’s disappearance) and the events leading up to everything. I found it a whirlwind, but it worked. The author kept those two storylines apart until the end, when she merged them. And the way she combined them was pretty crafty.
The end of Only If You’re Lucky was terrific. I was surprised by the things that were revealed about Lucy and Margot. Things I didn’t even see coming and that I, like Margot, thought Levi did. I was also surprised at the very end events of the book, where the author explained Lucy’s disappearance. And that was the biggest surprise of them all.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley, and Stacy Willingham for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Only If You’re Lucky. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
If you enjoy reading books similar to Only If You’re Lucky, then you will enjoy these books:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (for Cover Scavenger Hunt 2023—a bird)—Finished 1-1-2023
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth(for The StoryGraph Onboarding Challenge—-Read a book with more pages than the longest book you read in 2022)—Finished 1-17-2023
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (for The StoryGraph Read the World—Argentina)—Finished 1-17-2023
The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill (for The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge—a contemporary or literary fiction novel with disability rep)—Finished 1-24-2023
The Reader by M.K. Harkins (for Beat the Backlist 2023—a backlist book)—Finished 1-24-2023
The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga (for Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge—Read the most recently added book to your TBR)—Finished 1-3-2023
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (for Scavenger Hunt—a book written by a woman using a male perspective)—Finished 1-19-2023
The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert (for Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023—a book you meant to read in 2022)—Finished 1-5-2023
Lost Soul by Adam J. Wright (for 2023 TBR Toppler—a TBR vet)—Finished 1-3-2023
In Our Blood by William J. Goyette (for 2023 Monthly Themes—books that make you feel cold)—Finished 1-10-2023
Before the Coffee Get Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (for 2023 Reading challenge—a translated work)—Finished 1-11-2023
All Hallows by Christopher Golden (for 2023 ABC Challenge—A)—Finished 1-19-2023
The Family Game by Catherine Steadman (for Romanceopoly 2023!—read a thriller or mystery where one of the main characters are a detective or private investigator)—Finished 1-3-2023
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center (for 2023 TBR Prompts—a 5-star prediction)—Finished 1-16-23
One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.
Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.
Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.
First Line:
Today is day three hundred and sixty-four. Three hundred and sixty-four days since my last night of sleep.
All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
As a mother, I was shaken when I read the blurb for this book. How could you not be? It is any parent’s worst nightmare to have a missing child. With that in mind (and knowing there could be triggers), I accepted the publisher’s invitation for this book. I am glad that I did because this book was a great read.
Isabelle hasn’t slept since Mason, her eighteen-month-old son, was taken from his room at night. She has been tirelessly searching for him and making the rounds of tv shows and conventions to state her case. What has suffered in this past year is her marriage. Her husband has moved on with a woman who is a dead ringer for her. The police consider her a prime suspect, and Isabelle is being pushed to her limits. So, it is no wonder she accepts a true-crime podcaster’s invitation. As she interviews for the podcast, memories of her childhood resurface and cause her to doubt everything her parents had told her. What happened to Mason? Did Isabelle do something to him? Or was he kidnapped? What happened to Isabelle when she was a child?
All the Dangerous Things is a slow-starting book that takes place almost entirely in Georgia. The pace does pick up in the middle of the book. But, towards the end, is when the book picks up steam, and it doesn’t slow down until the explosive ending.
The author well wrote all of the characters in All the Dangerous Things. I loved how the author kept me guessing about the main and secondary characters.
Isabelle—The plotline pulled me in two different directions with Isabelle. In one direction, I wanted to believe her, but in the other direction, I figured she did kill Mason. With her being such an unreliable narrator, it was up in the air until the end of the book.
Ben—He was such a sleazeball. I didn’t like him and thought Isabelle could have done better. When Isabelle was thinking about how they met and when he told her he was married, I was yelling (yes, yelling), “Stay away.” And the night of Ben’s wife’s wake, what they did outside the funeral home, blah. Again, sleazeball and my dislike of him grew as the book continued.
Isabelle’s mother, father, and younger sister—-I am lumping them all into one category because together, they are a whole main character (if that makes sense). Something very traumatic happens that involves all three of them and Isabelle. It made sense why they weren’t in the present-day story much. I can’t go much into what I just wrote because of spoilers.
As with any well-written book, the secondary characters did add extra depth to this book. But I wish I could have seen them from another angle (like maybe the police). It would have given me a fresh perspective on the story.
All the Dangerous Things fit perfectly with the mystery, suspense, and thriller genres. The author did a great job of keeping everything under wrap until the end of the book. I couldn’t put the book down; I needed to know what happened to Mason and when Isabelle was younger.
The main storyline with Isabelle, Mason’s kidnapping, and the investigation tore at my heartstrings. I felt Isabelle’s pain over Mason not being there. I felt her frustration over what she saw as the police doing nothing but pointing fingers at her. I even got her frustration with her sleepwalking habit. But she never once let any of those get to her. She harassed the police almost daily (even when they told her theyconsidered her a suspect). She had insomnia because of the trauma of Mason being kidnapped. But, at the same time, she was unreliable. She made me question her because of her blackouts and sleepwalking. Plus, her not sleeping was messing with her head too.
The other storyline with Isabelle, her younger sister, and her parents was heartbreaking. It did detail Isabelle’s struggles with sleepwalking (even at seven years old). But there was something more important going on in the background. Something that I almost missed. Something that did contribute to her sister’s death and Isabelle being blamed for it. When I realized what that was, a lightbulb went off in my head. I felt so bad for everyone involved but mainly for Isabelle.
There are going to be trigger warnings in this book. The most obvious one is kidnapping. But there also is postpartum psychosis, the death of a child, and cheating. If those trigger you, I highly suggest not reading this book.
The end of All the Dangerous Things was one of the best I have read this year. I loved how Isabelle pieced everything together. I felt somewhat vindicated for her. But the author did have a few plot twists that even had me going, “What the heck?” Let’s say that I did not pity who went to jail!!
Three Things I Liked About All the Dangerous Things:
Isabelle’s determination to find Mason.
Isabelle’s relationship with her sister.
How she figured everything out.
Three Things I Disliked About All The Dangerous Things:
What happened to Isabelle when she was younger (and her being blamed too)
Ben. He was such a sleazeball.
The police. They were useless in this book.
I would recommend All the Dangerous Things to anyone over 21. There is language, violence, and no sex. Also see my trigger warnings.
If you enjoyed reading All the Dangerous Things, you will enjoy reading these books:
