Every time Liv Reese wakes up, she forgets everything that has happened in the last two years. Her instincts tell her that someone is after her and that she shouldn’t trust anyone. When there is a murder, all the signs point to her being the killer so Liv has to try to figure out the truth and start over every time she wakes up.
This is a thriller version of Groundhog Day. We get the clues and information a piece at a time and only ever know slightly more than the protagonist. Fans of the Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle will like this book.

Silly premise, but this book was so fun I didn’t even mind. Tightly written, and I finished it in three nights. Fun little thriller!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of Stay Awake in exchange for an honest review.

Stay Awake sounds like other books you’ve read and movies you’ve seen. Liv Reece keeps waking up in unfamiliar surroundings, with no memories of anything since answering a phone call over two years ago. She’s written cryptic messages like STAY AWAKE to herself on her body. And she seems to be a person of interest—maybe even the prime suspect—in a murder, which would be impossible to believe except for the bloodied knife she’s carrying ….

So Stay Awake may start off feeling familiar, but rest assured that it is much better than most of those other books and movies (except maybe Memento, which is also pretty great). Liv’s first-person perspective as she tries to make sense of what’s happening around her each time she wakes up is unsettling, absorbing, and left me genuinely scared for her. The flashback technique, overused in so many psychological thrillers now, works perfectly here as the reader slowly learns what happened to Liv two years ago after answering that phone call and what happened moments before the book’s opening scene. The portions of the story told from the perspective of the two detectives, Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle, also help move the story, and their characters manage to avoid the ‘new detective/grizzled vet’ cliché they could have fallen into.

Will you guess what happened to Liv, then and now? Parts of both, probably, but only after making lots of other incorrect guesses. The answers to the mysteries are of course eventually revealed to the reader, to the detectives, and to Liv, though at different times and not necessarily in that order. However, those revelations only add to the novel’s thriller/suspense finale. The plotting and pacing are very well done, creating a truly suspenseful story that you’ll stay awake to finish reading (pun intended 😀).

I really liked and recommend Ms. Goldin’s earlier novels, The Escape Room and The Night Swim. But she has taken the strongest elements of each of those novels and combined them in Stay Awake to create her best novel yet. This is the one I won’t just recommend, but will rave about. Highly recommended.

FINALLY! a thriller with a million pieces that keeps you fully engaged and turning pages with haste. that's what i'm looking for in a book and this delivered!

if you like a little bit of cop procedural along with your thriller, this story will speak to you. while we're getting liv's past POV and current POV - slowly learning her memories with her and trying to figure out what's going on - we're also seeing detective's working a murder case. i love those types of books, so this was a welcome piece for me and a great way to gather information from a variety of characters without having them directly interact with liv.

i didn't figure out any of the twists or big reveals (staying vague here to avoid spoilers!), but i do wish that we had gotten a bit more explanation on the motivation behind everything. overall, i'll definitely be recommending! it's going to be a perfect late summer read.

Liv Reese is completely confused! When she awakens, at any time, her hands are covered in messages in pen demanding that she. "STAY AWAKE".

Do you remember Memento? I have very fond memories of that movie. This book is in the similar vein and equally thrilling.
Through flashbacks we learn more about Liv who was living a very good life two years ago in NY. Something terrible happened however, and caused her to move as far away from NYC as possible. When she awakens next, we realize she is back in NY and her life is in danger. There are a series of deaths that may be tied to her either implicating her or putting her in further danger. Can Live finally remember? Only if she STAYS AWAKE!
If you loved Memento, thrilling twisty novels or just want to read another great Megan Golding book, grab #StayAwake
#stmartinspress #netgalley #netgalleyreads

This was my first time reading Megan Goldin and I can definitely say that I will certainly be reading more of her work., I devoured this book in two sittings. I loved both POVs told in this book and I thought the dual timelines were also done very well.Sometimes a dual timeline can feel a bit jumpy, but that was not the case with this one. I found this book to be very well crafted, expertly plotted, with lots of suspense and twists. I had thought I had the ending figured out, but was very happy that I was wrong with my suspicions. I.m ready for more of Megan Goodwin, so I will be checking out her previous titles to see what I can read next, Thank you to NetGalley and to St. Martins Press for the ARC, I’m very appreciative,

📚 Book Review 📚 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

**Book will be available in August**

Liv arrives home with no memory only to find other people live there, her hands are covered in words like STAY AWAKE and she has a bloody knife! Did she kill someone, why can’t she remember the past 2 years and what is going on?!

Wowzers this was a thrilling story…. Think 50 First Dates (movie) but add murder, mystery and a thrilling ride! Love how we get nuggets of information at just the right time. The story bounces between current and past along with detectives working the case! Don’t go to sleep or you might miss it!! 😉

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Megan Goldin Author for the ARC! #elizabethreviewsbooks #NetGalley #StMartinsPress #MeganGoldin #BookReview

4.5/5 An absolutely stellar thriller! One of the best I've read recently. Every character, every strange factoid, and every twist leading up to a delicious ending.

When I first started reading I was a little skeptical of the "amnesia" bit. I'm tired of the "unreliable woman narrator who can't be trusted because she drinks too much" (like Girl on the Train and Woman in the Window, you know the drill). But Liz Reese! What a different sort of character! She's got two whole years she doesn't remember due to a traumatic event, and has to do her best to STAY AWAKE so she doesn't forget anything that happened.

The multiple timelines were really well written--I like that they're separate enough that I could figure out what was going on without having to flip back and forth, but they flow smoothly so readers can connect the dots.

Loved that it was more than a simple "whodunit," and the amnesia aspect also put a lot of (good) pressure on the situation. Had my heart racing in some spots, and I had to STAY AWAKE past my bedtime to read just a few more chapters.

Guys! @megangoldinauthor has completely hit it out of the park with her new thriller. I finished this a few days ago and am still riding the high from this crazy ride! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers—a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. Has she committed murder? Is someone out to get her? Why does she have to stay awake?

There are 3 things that make this thriller so outstanding. First, the plot line! It's so unique, well thought through, and perfectly executed. Second, the narration! It switches between Liv in present, Liv in past, and the detective investigating the murder. That takes skill folks and somehow Megan completely nailed it while propelling the story and keeping the reader at the edge of their seat. And finally, the characters. I loved all of them and was so invested. It felt like I knew them in real life!

If you've read either of her prior books or love thrillers, mark your calendars for August 9! Thanks so much to @netgalley @stmartinspress and the author for the #arc 🤗 🎉

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Goldin, and St. Martin’s Press for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of this year, so when I was approved for an ARC I was SO excited! I loved Megan Goldin’s other book “The Night Swim” and could not wait to dig into this! She kept me on the edge of my seat the entire way through the book (which I never doubted!) and I definitely had a hard time putting this book down!

I thought the plot of Liv losing her memory every time she woke up was very unique. Megan Goldin did a fantastic job of putting you in Liv’s shoes and I felt panicked right along with her when she’d wake up and have no idea where she was or what was going on. I love books with multiple viewpoints, especially when the main character is an unreliable narrator, and Liv was definitely that! I also loved the chapters with the detective’s perspectives. I love crime documentaries so the chapters with their investigation process was so interesting to me! I will say it did feel a little repetitive when she’d wake up and forget everything and would basically relive the same day from two years before, and I did feel like the end was a bit rushed after so much build up, but it didn’t change my opinion of this book at all. I highly recommend reading this if you like twisty thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat, with a very unreliable narrator! I will definitely be grabbing this one on release day to keep on my shelves!

Thank you again NetGalley, Megan Goldin and St. Martin’s Press!!

This was another amazing book by Goldin. My first book by Goldin, The Escape Room, was a book I couldn't put down... and this was no different. I read it in two sittings! Stay Awake is the story of a woman who forgets everything that happened in the past two years every time she falls asleep. She's paranoid... but maybe she has a reason to be? And then a man dies, and a note is written in blood on the window... and that same message is written on her. What does it mean? Did she kill a man?
Such a great book! I will be buying a copy for my mom to read when it comes out in August. Thanks so much for the opportunity to review another great book by Megan Goldin!

I feel like Megan Goldin is carving out a niche for herself doing the equivalent of slasher films (with ridiculous premises) but in literary form. And somehow the ridiculous premise works better this way. Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch an implausible thriller, but I feel more invested in Megan Goldin’s take. I guess because she goes through the trouble of fleshing out the characters.

It shouldn’t work but it does. It’s just downright fun.

However, in this particular case, I was frustrated by the incomplete ending. You get the whodunit but without the whydunit. And it doesn’t really make much sense. It feels like there’s some stuff that’s left out. Or the who was picked at random and she never went back to connect the dots?

After a really fun story, it was kind of a let down.

Wow! I know it sounds cheesy, but I stayed awake way too late at night to finish this book. It was fast-paced and I kept telling myself "one more chapter" until it was the middle of the night and I finished the book. I love the writer's writing style and the plot twists kept me constantly surprised. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological thrillers. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

So many characters, Liv doesn’t know who to trust especially when the past two years of memory are wiped away every time she sleeps. There’s murders.

We alternate between two years ago and now; alternate between Liv and the detectives; alternate between New York and London.

A fun fast paced thriller that will have you speeding through this read. I am loving everything that Megan Goldin writes and Stay Awake is no different.

What would you do if you woke up and had no memories from the past two years only to find out that a killer is after you? That is what Liv Reese must deal with. She is on the run from a killer and is also wanted for murder. She is on the run and each time she falls asleep her memory resets.

Will Liv be able to piece together the pieces of her memory to remember who murdered her best friend and ex-boyfriend or will she be a victim of the person she has been running from.

This is a fast paced read that I thouroughly enjoyed.

This was a fun read! I've read Goldin's earlier book, The Night Swim and, while I enjoyed it, I think this is a stronger story. In The Night Swim, readers see events unfolding as a podcaster-turned-detective tries to piece together clues from the outside observer's POV. In Stay Awake, we get to see events unfolding through the eyes of someone actively involved in them. But! This someone suffers from amnesia that causes her to forget all events of her life from 2 years ago up until the present day. Her amnesia resets every time she falls asleep, so as she figures out clues, she struggles to stay awake, knowing once she falls asleep she'll forget everything. She tries writing herself notes and clues for when she inevitably does fall asleep and forget everything.

The premise was fascinating! I've never read a book quite like this one. I eventually gave up on trying to figure things out and just enjoyed the story. There was such a sense of foreboding to the writing; I felt like Liv was always one step away from inadvertently wandering into danger. I felt her confusion and fear right along with her. The detective characters added an extra set of eyes to events, letting readers see things unfolding from both the inside and the outside. I know this was an eARC, but to me it read almost as a finished copy, it was so well-written and tightly plotted. Recommended to anyone who loves thrillers but is hoping to find something a bit outside the norm!

I received a free eARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I loved the Night Swim and was looking forward to reading this. However, this book really fell flat for me. It was extremely slow and I felt like not much happened. There was also a lot of repeating things. A couple of times I had to look back because I swore “I had just read this already”.

Liv Reese wakes up in the backseat of a cab in New York with no recollection of how she got there. She arrives at her apartment only to find two strangers living in her home, and no sign of her ever having lived there. She is unable to reach her roommate and best friend Amy, or her boyfriend Marco. She seems to have lost her purse, phone and wallet. All she is carrying is a wad of cash and a bloodied knife wrapped in a t-shirt. She has little messages “Stay Awake”,”Don’t Sleep”,“Don’t Trust Anyone” scrawled across her hands and arms with a ballpoint pen. The last thing Liv remembers is answering her desk phone at work.

Meanwhile, Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavalle are called in to investigate the homicide of an unidentified man in an apartment building. The victim was stabbed and the murder weapon is missing. The words "Wake Up" have been written in blood on the window of the apartment.

Stay Awake was incredibly hard to follow. Centered around a main character, Liv, who suffers from reoccurring amnesia, the book takes place over a 2 year period. During that time, Liv’s story is told and retold numerous times with different pieces being added each time. And every time Liv falls asleep, she forgets everything for the past two years. Overall, it was a unique story but, very confusing. Neither Amy nor Marco were very likeable, but Liv was a character you couldn't help but like and feel sorry for. Thank you Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! This is one of the best psychological thrillers I have read in awhile. Liv has a rare form of amnesia so that when she falls asleep she doesn’t remember anything that’s happened in her life. This book is told in dual timelines and from two different points of view. The author does this flawlessly. I could not put this book down. One of my all time favorites!

This book really drew me in from the beginning and kept my attention all the way through. I will say the writing did get repetitive and it felt like it slowed down the plot at times. I also felt Liv was annoying sometimes with how quickly she ran away from getting answers to her questions when she didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t see it coming who the killer was going to be until it was revealed either. Overall, I did enjoy this thriller! Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review!