This book deserves the whole 5 stars! It was electrifying, thrilling, and suspenseful. I could not put it down I was hooked! This book proves that memory can be deadly! You do not want to miss this one! Add it to your list now!

4 stars! This was a great book. It’s about Liv, a woman who wakes up in a cab in front of her apartment with no memory of how she got there. She has strange warnings and notes written all over her hands. The story flips back and forth between perspectives and timelines filling in all the blanks of Liv’s memory. The only reason I didn’t give this five stars was because I did figure out “whodunnit” pretty early on and I usually never figure it out. It was fun reading the why behind everything and the rest of the story leading up to the reveal. I will definitely be recommending this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

4.5 STARS

I have enjoyed every book by this author and this one was no exception!

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of taxi with no memory of how she got there and where she was heading. She has STAY AWAKE scribbled on her hand and when she reaches for her phone, she finds a bloody knife wrapped in a t shirt. Liv is desperate to stay awake because every time she falls asleep, she cannot remember anything from the past two years.

I’m not a huge fan of the amnesia trope, but I thought this one was well done. The first chapter starts off with a bang and the suspense never lets up until the very end. Liv is the perfect unreliable narrator, and you can’t help but feel sorry for her and the unimageable horror she is going through of having no memory. The author does a great job of instilling dread in you as you read about every time Liv wakes up and can’t remember anything. I loved Detective Darcy’s character! She was such a bad ass! I couldn’t wait to finish this book, I HAD to know what happened to Liv!

I predict this book will be flying off the bookshelves come pub day.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my eARC.

This review will be posted to my Instagram @cabingirlreads before the release date as well as the FB group, Thriller Book Lovers where I am an admin.

I am struggling to find the words for how much I loved this book. The storyline was so well crafted that I could not put it down. I had to know what was going to happen next. This is my first book by Megan Goldin, and I cannot wait to read her others. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a creative thriller.

A love a good psychological thriller, especially one that puts me into the mind of the unreliable narrator. Stay Awake had all the makings for a good thriller, but the execution wasn't there. The plot had several holes and ended up becoming repetitive and it took away from the thriller factor. I liked how the story was told from multiple perspectives, but it became confusing when multiple timelines were thrown in. Overall, I think there was too much going on and the execution wasn't there.

3.5 stars

This is my second Megan Goldin book, I loved The Night Swim and eagerly awaited this her new book.

This book sounded familiar as soon as I started reading it with reminders of Before I Go to Sleep, fingers crossed the plot was not similar. This was both an audio and a digital read for me. I was very thankful to have the audio and managed to polish it off in just over a day.

Liv wakes up in a taxi and when arriving home finds it’s 2 years later. Where has she been all this time? That’s the million dollars question.

Stay Awake is told from Liv’s pov as well as a detective. Though I couldn’t connect with Liv this was an intense read. Taking place over a one day period there were glimpses to the past to bring this story full circle. It was part repetitive not just with the 'stay awake' and other messages written on her hand but in other aspects also which took away from the mystery and intrigue.

The ending was okay and actually I didn't see it coming but it did lack some parts to make it feel authentic. All in all an fun read.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for advanced copies in exchange for a honest review.

Brief Synopsis:
Liv wakes up in a taxi and doesn’t know why. She gets dropped off where she thinks she lives only to find out that someone else lives there. She has writing all over her arms that say stay awake and don’t trust anyone… what is happening and why can’t Liv remember anything


My thoughts:
- short chapters that make the book a quick read.
- Everytime Liv fell asleep she forgot everything. Therefore the book felt very repetitive for me especially the first half.
- although the book was somewhat predictable the last third of the book definitely keep me wanting to read more to see how it ended
-Overall read if you enjoy a unique psychological thriller with dual timelines check this one out!

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s press for the eArc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC, this was the first Megan Goldin book that I read and I wasn’t disappointed!
Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a cab and the last thing she remembers was from 2 years ago. She tries going to her old house, her old work, and contacting her friends. The writing on her arms tells her that every time she falls asleep she awakes and remembers nothing. She then sees on the news that she’s wanted for murder, but whose murder and why doesn’t she remember anything?
This book was enjoyable, there were some slow parts but the clues thrown in got my attention right back. I enjoyed the multiple points of view, we learned about the 2 police officers investigating as well as Liv. Overall great introduction to Megan Goldin!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Megan Goldin, and St. Martin's Press for giving me an eARC in exchange for review!

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller! It kept a great pace the entire way through, had interesting and dynamic characters, and switched perspectives clearly and flawlessly throughout the story. This is my first introduction into Megan Goldin, and I am really looking forward to delving into more of her work. I also found the character experiencing amnesia and repeatedly forgetting everything was done incredibly well, I felt sucked into her brain and almost as if I was forgetting the previous chapters based on the reset. However, I had the luxury of being able to go back and find little puzzle pieces along the way.

I took off a star because I found the ending was a tad lackluster, the "twist" and "whodunnit" felt a little disappointing after such a great build up, even though I did not guess the whodunnit! However, that was such a short portion of the book it barely took away from my enjoyment. That being said, I wish the climax of the book had been a tad more climatic.

I enjoyed The Escape Room by Megan Goldin, and The Night Swim is one of the most well-written thrillers I've ever read.

I did like this upcoming release of hers, but not quite as much as I liked her other books. The premise was interesting, and her writing is as strong as ever! However, the time jumps were a bit hard to follow, and I found the plot to be slightly predictable. Also, I was hoping for a more detailed explanation for the main character's memory loss in the end.

Read this if you liked Before I Go to Sleep or The Escape Room.

I absolutely loved STAY AWAKE!

I love unreliable narrators but am sometimes annoyed when them being "unreliable" is just them conveniently leaving out information in their dialog with the reader. However, this is a PERFECT use of an unreliable narrator. Our main character, Liv, has a form of amnesia that prevents her from remembering anything after she falls asleep. She wakes up and finds herself two years into the future from her last memory.

This book was twisty, fast paced, and I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted eARC!

I loved the dual-timeline of this book and the way the past timeline informs the future one - I found this woven together just beautifully and as questions would arise I would have them answered. I found the police investigation heavy but I enjoy '48 hours' so this didn't take away for me, and I enjoyed seeing how that entire investigation took place.
I found this book very shocking SEVERAL TIMES where I had to pause while I took I what I hadn't yet realized was happening, or the direction I hadn't realized we were heading in.
My 4 star versus 5 star is largely because I'm being picky: I found some sections a little awkward and didn't really like where this story ended up.

Megan Goldin said take 50 First Dates and make it a thriller!

Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi with no recollection of how she got there so gives the taxi driver her home address. When she gets there, she discovers two people living in her apartment. They force her out and act like she is crazy for showing up yet again to their place. She’s starting to think she’s crazy herself and then she notices ink-writing all over her hands – STAY AWAKE. Soon after, that same saying is written in blood at a murder scene. Did she commit murder last night and not remember?

It is a page turning, cannot stop reading type of book just to figure out what the heck is going on which may not be some people’s cup of tea, but for me it was such a different and unique thriller. I did like the dual timelines and the added perspective from the detectives because too much repeating the same thing over again every time Liv woke up would probably have been much too tedious. Since you yourself don’t know what is going on and who to trust, it makes for a speedy and enticing read. Highly recommend this book and will always be a fan of Megan Goldin! 4.5 stars!

Out Aug. 9th!
Special thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for my copy of Stay Awake!

Imagine every time you wake up, you only remember your life from two years ago and have to fight to stay awake. This is Liv Reese’s reality.

I liked the idea but the execution, not so much. It’s not the most original or anything either but I still thought Goldin could pull it off. I expected this to be fast paced and at first - it was. Then as you continue reading, it becomes so repetitive. We get it!!! Everything is literally explained to us 50 times every page.

On top the that, Liv is boring and whiney. She has no personality and is not someone you want to read as a main character. I also felt like she was kind of dumb and if she suffered so much from memory loss, I feel like there were better steps she could have taken to jog her memory. I don’t think she was doing enough to try to stay alive so like if she died, who am I to feel bad??? Why should we feel sad?? I felt like there were some plot holes too and it started to get obvious too.

The potential was there and I tried so hard to love this but I couldn’t. Thank you to St. martin's press and macmillan audio for advance copies of the e-book and audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

A murder she doesn’t remember committing. A killer she doesn’t remember. Our memories can — or not — be deadly.

A good mystery/thriller novel. I liked the characters. There were many. Chapters kept going backwards in time & current time. Hard to keep focused on the year you were reading about. Much tension.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

This book certainly kept me up at night and on the edge of my seat! This story goes back and forth from present day back to what happened 2 years ago because Liv can't remember what happened in the last two years. She goes to her apartment and someone else lives there and it is all different. Her former work place has also changed and the co-workers that do recognize her mention that she has been to London, but she does not know why. Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Levelle do some great detective work as a team to try and figure who murdered a young man in an AirB&B which all ties in with Liv. The book started a little slow but really took off quickly and I was hooked.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very riveting book.

Trust No One

A uniquely suspenseful thriller with so many twists, it will keep the reader guessing right up till the very end! No spoilers in this review! Snag your own copy of this page turner and be prepared to stay awake...



**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

This had me so damn stressed from beginning to end. 😭 I'm usually not a super huge fan of the unreliable narrators in mystery-thrillers, but I thought Liv, who has lapses in memory every time she falls asleep, as a narrator was a pretty interesting twist on the trope. It was entertaining, albeit extremely stressful at times, to discover her memories along with her. The alternating chapters from the detectives working on solving a murder case Liv is suspected to be involved in really made me feel like the walls were closing in and had my heart racing. I thought this was a fun read, but I'm docking off some stars because I think some of the peripheral characters either didn't have fleshed out backgrounds and made me feel confused why they would make the choices they did, or they didn't have much of their background explained at all.

4 stars

This one was a twisty (and kind of creepy) thriller. It jumped around a bit between different characters and time periods without being confusing, and although some parts of the basic premise weren’t wholly unique, I’m a bit of a sucker for the type of suspense that builds up when there’s dramatic irony from the protagonist having memory issues and, therefore, being a bit of an unreliable narrator. As usual, I don’t love cop-centric narratives, and once again, I didn’t fully realize that a homicide detective was one of the main characters in this one (I really need to screen more effectively when I’m choosing my thriller-mystery-suspense reads); all that being said, I didn’t hate all parts of her perspective, and her scenes did complement the protagonist’s at many times. I did figure out who was likely the main villain before the end, but I still wasn’t disappointed with the reveal. Ultimately, this was a book I’d been thinking about and looking forward to for a while, and it didn’t let me down.

a fascinating concept that was bafflingly dismal in its execution 😭 this was one of the most disappointing thrillers i've read all year.

i have a great track record with megan goldin's writing. the night swim stirred up so many intense and mournful emotions in me, while the escape room was a highly entertaining and vindictive - if predictable - mystery. so when i saw stay awake available on netgalley, you can bet i smashed that request button!

unfortunately, this just wasn't the book for me.

the premise was immediately intriguing. liv reese awakens to find herself in a taxi with no memory of how she got there; in fact, the last thing she recalls is picking up a phone call on a gorgeous summer day in her NYC office... which turns out to have been two years ago. what happened in the intervening time? why can't liv remember? why are cryptic phrases scrawled all over her hands - one of which matches a bloody message painted at the scene of a recent murder? while liv goes on the run from the NYPD, grappling with severe memory loss, she must delve deep into her murky past to survive the present.

again, i'm just so disappointed. i feel like the book was so fixated on the concept, that the plot (and characters and overall stakes) took a far backseat - and stay awake was all the worse for it. the story really suffered from repetitiveness and over-explanation of technical details, including overwrought logistics behind the police work (e.g., handwriting analysis) and, particularly, the reason behind liv's memory loss. the writing in this book was bland and passive - and felt all the more haphazard with the transitions between character POVs, as liv's chapters are narrated in first-person present-tense, while detectives halliday and lavelle are in third-person past-tense. (maybe this is a function of the advance copy i read, and the final publication will read as more polished?)

moreover, none of the characters were compelling to me. nothing about liv stood out to me as individual or interesting; the two detectives were straight out of central casting, with zero distinguishing quirks to set them apart from the dozens other homicide detectives i've watched on tv / read about; and the side characters were barely fleshed out. in fact, the paltry cast made the book very predictable, as there is only one reasonable person who could be the perpetrator.

in all, stay awake was a really underwhelming reading experience. however, though this wasn't the book for me, i'm still looking forward to what megan goldin cooks up next!



many thanks to netgalley and st. martin's press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.