I received a copy of Stay Awake by Megan Goldin from NetGalley. This was a fun and quick thriller. I thought it was pretty obvious from the beginning who the "bad guy" was but it didn't take away any of my enjoyment with the book. Great beach read and will take your mind off whatever stresses you have at the moment because the main character has more stress than any of us!

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a cab with no recollection of how she got there. In fact, she doesn’t remember the last two years but she doesn’t quite know that. ⁣
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Confused and not sure where to turn Liv heads to her apartment that she shares with her friend, Amy, only to find a strange couple she doesn’t recognize living there. The couple is a hostile and adamant Liv and Amy no longer live there so she tries to go back to the place she last remembers, her work.⁣
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Things continue to confuse Liv and soon she finds herself plastered across the news wanted for murder. Is she really a killer? Will her memory come back?⁣
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𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 is unique and kept my attention the entire way through. I highly recommend reading this one!

Stay Awake by Meg Goldin is a truly gripping thriller about a woman with amnesia who is suspected of a brutal murder.
The construct is so interesting, as Liv, the protagonist, tries to ‘stay awake’ because when she falls asleep, she wakes up with no memory of her life of the past two years. The author cleverly lets the details of Liv’s life and activities unfold bit by bit, all in the context of this unusual form of amnesia. Liv observes, “I don’t know how I became an interloper in my own life,” as she voices her confusion and distress at her present circumstances.
This is also an excellent police procedural, in which Detective Darcy Halliday, of NYPD homicide squad, is investigating the murder. While suspicious of Liv’s involvement, Halliday is astute enough to realize there are unexplained gaps in the timeline of Liv’s life.
No spoilers here. This is a fast-paced story with enough twists to keep me reading and guessing well into the night!
I highly recommend this to readers who enjoy edge of your seat suspense and a relatable protagonist.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

Review

Thank you to #St.Martin’sPress and #NetGallery for giving me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest.

Swipe for Synopsis from Goodreads.

Lord knows that I love me a good clutch your pearls, triple lock your doors and sleep with one eye open type of thriller. This book didn’t do all of that lol, but it did hold my interest, nonetheless.  This book gets going from the first page, sucking you right in, leaving you wondering what is going on, with Liv? It also does a good job with the unreliable narrator trope. I found myself more interested in the detective’s point of view and their piecing together the crime. Mainly because the MC was so clueless (even before she lost her memory) that it made her so annoying.

Overall, this was a good page turner thriller. There was a plot that felt unresolved, but other than that it was a solid book.

My review ⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5

An interesting premise, written fine but not great. I was able to overlook some of the confounding actions of the characters (just write better notes to yourself, for heaven's sake!) to enjoy seeing where the plot went. It was a fun read.

The Megan Goldin I know and enjoy is back! I really enjoyed this book and this read. It was really engrossing and I did not want to put it down! I've been recommending it to a lot of my thriller loving friends! Cannot wait to read the next book by Goldin!

Every time Liv falls asleep she forgets everything from the past two years. I loved that it told in dual story line of the past and the present as we try to put together the events that caused her to forget. You knew it had to be pretty bad for you to forget like that and as we learn is was bad. As Liv tried to remember what happened, I really enjoyed following along as she tries to piece it all together as she stays awake and the detectives try to piece together another murder. I really enjoyed Megan Goldin's writing that kept me invested even when somethings with the amnesia were a little repetitive. It all came together so nicely, it was a twist I wasn't expecting.
3.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for my review copy. #smpinfluencers

I was so excited to read this since I really enjoyed The Night Swim by the same author.
The multiple timelines necessary to build the story, plus the back and forth timelines of the “present” time made this story really hard to follow. I did enjoy the plot overall and didn’t know who the killer was until it was revealed, but overall I spent the last 30% of the book trying to keep all the times, apartments and memory lapses straight.

This book was very gripping and suspenseful. This book will pull you in from the very beginning and will keep you hooked until the very end. I liked how everything came together in the end. Thanks to the publisher and NetGally for the opportunity to read this book and provide my unbiased opinion.

This is an intriguing concept for a thriller, but by its nature was kind of repetitive. I was really looking forward to this book after The Night Swim blew me away, but unfortunately Stay Awake was just okay.

—s t a y a w a k e—⁣
Are you a good sleeper? Do you fall and stay asleep easily?⁣
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Stay Awake by Megan Goldin follows Liv who wakes up with no memory of what has happened to her and with STAY AWAKE written on her hands. Told in dual timelines alternating between now and two years ago, the last memories that Liv has, there is a murder and so much more for her to unravel. ⁣
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The pacing is excellent and this book hooked me in quickly and kept me interested. It definitely reminded me of Momento and while the ending was a bit predictable, there were plenty of twists and surprises. The characters were underwhelming in terms of development but the story works so well, I didn’t totally mind. ⁣
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This one is out now! Thanks @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the chance to read it. ⁣
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#bookreview #bookreviewsneedlovetoo #bookstagram #stayawake #netgalley #booksbooksbooks #booksaremagic #littlebooknook📚

This was an entertaining book, though not one, I think, that will stick with me for very long. I am usually not a fan of amnesia plot lines, but this was one did sound unique. For the most part the story was engaging, but after a while, it started to feel quite repetitive and the ending rushed and not terribly satisfying. Overall, an okay read for me, but not as clever or gripping as I hoped it might be. I've just been in a bit of a thriller rut, though, so I probably need to try a different genre.

Hmm. Not sure how I feel about this one. I LOVED this authors previous work. I was so stoked to get my hands on this copy. It starts off soooo strong. I just wish it had been just one pov.. the detectives story and Liv’s were just too different. I wish it was just Liv! Even though she was a really annoying MC, I still preferred her chapters.

I think my biggest complaint is that it was a little boring… it literally put me to sleep, which sucks since it’s called “stay awake”

Imagine forgetting the last two years of your life every time you fall asleep. That is the story of Liv's life recently. She falls asleep and wakes up find a bloody knife in her cardigan pocket. She doesn't know how it got there. Did she hurt someone? Was someone trying to hurt her?

I really liked this one! It gave me Blindspot feels (the tv show.) I found some parts to be repetitive, but I supposed that is expected when you have a character who forgets everything when she falls asleep! There was mystery and suspense, I loved the shorter chapters. I had to keep reading to figure out what happened to Liv to cause her to lose her memory when she sleeps, and I had to know if she killed the man in the apartment! Megan Goldin did a nice job keeping me guessing! It had high energy and I kept praying for Liv to just fall asleep- maybe rest would actually help her reset!

1. Way too much gaslighting.
2. More telling than showing.
3. Pretty unbelievable that everything got figured out by the cops in one day.

I really wanted to love this book and I was intrigued enough to keep reading but it was too easy to know what was coming next. I never felt really sucked in to the story as everything that happened felt like it was being told to Mr more than experienced. I'll still be checking out other things by Megan Goldin, this just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgallery for the Advanced Readers Copy

Okay so this was AMAZING. It's been a long, long time since I've read a thriller this good or this engaging! When I think of "thriller," I'm looking for something that throws you into the action and doesn't stop until you've unraveled all the pieces. And that's EXACTLY what this was. It seems like it's hard, these days, to find a thriller that ISN'T slow burn so I'm really glad that this one wasn't.

This was one of those books that sucks you right in just because you're so disoriented and have no idea what's happening. I truly wish I hadn't started this in the middle of such a busy week because I would've loved nothing more than to just drop everything and devour this in one go. But since I did read it while I was busy, I was upset every time I had to put it down and couldn't wait to get back to it.

The way this story unraveled was so interesting and I really felt for the main character. It must have been terrifying to keep waking up and having no idea what was happening. And I think that added an extra layer to this story? I wanted to just protect her and help her and the sense of helplessness that I felt while reading and just waiting to see if everything would turn out okay, is what made this such a good thriller.

So. I can't really say more without spoilers but I REALLY enjoyed this and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read it! This is exactly what I'm looking for in a thriller and I can't recommend it more highly!! It's so, so good!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!

The premise of this book was absolutely too good to resist! The idea of waking up with writing all over you, a bloody knife, and your life completely unrecognizable - all of it combined to have me instantly intrigued. I just had to know what was happening to Liv and what had happened in the past to cause all of this. And for the most part this book was completely up my alley. It was a page turner that had me guessing the entire time. And it was so fast paced! I had a hard time setting this one down thanks to the short chapters that had me reading as fast as I could. The one thing that didn't work for me fully was the storyline featuring the detectives investigating a murder (sorry not trying to share too many specifics here so I don't spoil anything). I usually love police procedurals and detective fiction but there was just something about this storyline that didn't quite work for me - it was almost a lack of believability at times I guess is the best way to put it. It wasn't enough to truly detract from my overall reading experience, but I felt it was worth mentioning as it pulled me out of the story a few times at first. But then I hit a sweet spot and COULD NOT put this book down. I blew through the latter half of the book unwilling to stop reading because I just had to know how it would all end. Overall, this book has left me so excited to read more by this author. I've only got one of her books left to catch up on (The Night Swim), and I definitely hope to read it really soon!

Readers who enjoy a fast-paced and suspenseful read, those who enjoy a unique premise to their books, and those readers who just want a book that they cannot stop reading should pick this book up. It's an easy one for me to recommend!

CW - Stalking

Disclosure - I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher. Honest thoughts are my own.

I liked this book much more than I expected to! Hopefully, that doesn't come off wrong. Megan Goldin is a solid author and a thriller writer. I read her first novel, THE NIGHT SWIM (3 stars), with my book club and everyone greatly enjoyed it.
What gives me pause is when the "thriller" aspect is centered around an unreliable (aka crazy) heroine.
But this story was extremely creative and quite an unusual situation! The memory loss added a different element to the book. I greatly applaud Goldin as I thought the repetitive timeline (waking up and having no memory) would get old, but she kept the story moving!

This is a perfect quick and spooky fall read!

I am now a forever fan of Megan Goldin! I absolutely loved The Night Swim by her and this one also did NOT disappoint. Although this was only a 4 star read for me, it was so entertaining and the "high-stakes" were incredible the whole way through. I really enjoy the amnesia trope in my thrillers and so I was already expecting to like this one going into it, but it really lived up to the expectations for me. Highly recommend!

A thrilling page turner that I could not put down! I loved the way this book was written. Alternating between the present and two years prior, I felt like I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to see what was going on! I had some theories throughout, one of which turned out to be right, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story at all. I still thought the conclusion was pretty great!

I think the premise for the story was really cool. Main character Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. Then on the local news, she's horrified to find out she might just have something to do with a recent, local murder. Turns out she suffers from memory issues following a traumatic incident. Now everytime she falls asleep, she loses all memory of the past two years, waking up to a world that she doesn't understand at all. So it brings up the question, if you have no idea what has happened in your past, how you even got to where you are or even what happened yesterday, how can you possibly know who to trust?

Unreliable narrator, shady secondary characters, dual timelines, a fast pace and so many seemingly unanswerable questions...these are the makings of a great read that I really enjoyed! Definitely recommend!