This audio was so good. I honestly couldn't put it down; I think I finished it in a day. Goldin really knows how to write a twisty little book and I am here for it!!

This book was such a fun, high-tension thriller. The premise sort of plays out like Groundhog Day meets Memento - if Liv falls asleep, she will wake with no memories. The story splits its time between Liv and Detective Halliday, and the mixed timelines help to keep the pace and pressure going strong throughout the book. This was an excellently paced thriller that’s sure to keep the reader turning pages, perfect for a quick summer read.

I was able to read this for free thanks to Net Galley, although that does not affect my opinion of the actual book. I have read the previous books written by Megan Goldin and loved them, which means I was so excited when I was approved to read her next book before it was officially published. I’m sad to say that I just couldn’t get into this book. I kept trying, but just found myself bored as I read it.

Imagine waking up every day not know where you are, what you have been doing and who you can trust? Now imagine being thrown into a crime scene and trying to to piece together not only your life but convincing people you didnt do this crime. Megan Goldin is a master at tense and roller coaster rides of emotion in her storytelling. An edge of your seat thriller is no doubt going to be a bestseller!

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

Liv Reese wakes up in a cab with no memory of how she got there and in her pocket finds a knife streaked with blood. Every time Liv falls asleep she forgets what happened the day before. Meanwhile, Detective Darcy Halliday is trying to solve the murder of a man stabbed in an apartment. On the wall "stay awake" is written in his own blood, the same phrase written on Liv's arm. Running between these two timelines are flashbacks to before Liv started losing her memory.
I have read Megan Goldin's last few books and this is my favorite book of hers that I have read. She easily navigates what could become a very complex and unwieldy plot and keeps the tension high throughout. The characters were fleshed out well, with a lot of chapters giving good insight into their backgrounds and personality so you care about them more as the book moves into its dramatic conclusion. If you've read Before I Go To Sleep, its the same kind of memory loss experienced by the protagonist, but Goldin does some exciting things with it that makes it unique enough compared to that book. There were a lot of twists and Goldin does a fantastic job of holding off on revealing information to ratchet up the tension. A great thriller that I highly recommend to thriller fans.

Read this!! This book is so good it has everything you would want from the thriller and keeps you guessing the whole time. I didn’t figure out the end till the last 30 pages and I wasn’t expecting it. This has quickly become an autobuy author for me.
Thank you #netgalley for the ARC copy

After Megan Goldin’s previous release being my favorite book of last year, this book was definitely my most anticipated of the entire year. Unfortunately I did not love this one like I loved her other book

I loved Stay Awake! I really don’t want to spoil anything, because this one keeps you guessing the entire time. Megan Goldin does a great job feeding the reader information on a mixed timeline, so the story really develops at such a steady pace. I enjoyed the writing, the characters, the chaos, all of it! Another thing I loved, as I always do for thrillers, are short chapters that shift perspectives. So fun! Can’t wait to read more from Megan Goldin!

I will be posting a review to Instagram, linked below, closer to the pub date!

June 12, 2022
I applied for an ARC from netgalley, and was excited to be approved because I enjoyed “The Night Swim”. However, I felt this book was just too unrealistic. The main character forgets everything that happened and resets when ever she falls asleep. Kind of a thriller version of the movie Groundhog Day. I just found the premise too unrealistic, the characters too 2D and the plot to draggy to recommend this one.

Really enjoyed this book. Very interesting story line, very different ! Lots of complex characters. Lots of twists! I assure you if you think you have it figured out before you get almost to the end, you are going to be wrong ! Hard to put down, just like the rest of her books ! Highly recommend !

REVIEW - 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 🌟

Genre hopping is kind of my thing. This spring/beginning of summer has been about the beach reads and contemporary romance. So, I was ready for a good creepy, edge of your seat thriller and Stay Awake was just the ticket!

The book begins when Liv wakes up in a taxi with a bloody knife wrapped in a T shirt. She has no idea how she got there. As a matter of fact, she has no memories at all for the last two years. What she does have is warnings written on her hands and arms and most prominently among them, the words STAY AWAKE!

As she watches the news, she sees that there has been a murder, and the words stay awake were found at the scene in the victims blood. How is she involved? Why can’t she remember? Who can she trust?

Told in two voices, Liv’s and Detective Halliday’s, this book features alternating timelines moving between the day of the murder and the past - both two years ago and in the recent weeks.

I loved the tension every time she would doze off! You just KNEW she would be starting again at ground zero. It was like the movies Fifty First Dates and The Fugitive had a baby, dark and twisty and so compelling that I couldn’t put it down. I hope there is another book featuring Halliday. I would like to see more of her character.

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Goldin and St. Martin’s Press for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The plot was like a trail of breadcrumbs, had to keep following it till the end, it definitely was intriguing.

I loved the book's premise of falling asleep and waking with no memories. It instantly drew me in and kept me guessing throughout.

The story is told in dual timelines, with Liv splitting her narrative between past and present and Detective Halliday’s perspective in the present day. I found both timelines to be easy to follow. Usually, with dual timelines, I prefer one timeline over the other, but not here. I equally enjoyed both and felt the author did a great job moving the plot along and keeping me hooked.

I connected to Liv and Detective Halliday and was rooting for them both. The length of the story was spot on. There was no excess fluff to slow down the story. And no unnecessary excess characters to keep track of.

I devoured this book in almost one sitting and was sad when it came to a close. The ending wrapped up really well.

I can’t wait to see what this author has in store for us next.

If you’re looking for you’re next page-turner, or beach read, look no further.

Liv Reese forgets everything from the past two years every time she falls asleep and now she is somehow connected to a murder she has no memory of.

I enjoyed this book and it kept me guessing through most of it. There were plenty of clues and red herrings to keep it interesting and keep my attention. A quick, easy read for thriller/mystery fans.

Megan Goldin’s latest is filled with vivid descriptions and takes place at a breakneck speed. The protagonist loses her memory every time that she falls asleep, making it impossible for her to solve the mystery of who killed her two friends. The imagery was evocative to the point of making me feel claustrophobic at times. It was like living a literal nightmare over and over and Goldin portrays the franticness and anxiety so well. Unfortunately I feel like this plot line has been done a few times before so I wasn’t as enthusiastic about this as I could’ve been. It is definitely well-written and will appeal to fans looking for a fast-paced and intense psychological thriller.

Ok, I definitely didn’t think this book was perfect, but I enjoyed it’s wild ride a lot. The premise was very interesting and while yes there have been stories with similar aspects but what story can claim to have anything completely new? The main character Liv is stuck in a weird kind of amnesia where when she goes to sleep she forgets everything from that day and when she wakes up she believes it’s a summer day when she was headed to work. I didn’t think Liv made all the right choices, but what would you do if you didn’t remember the last two years of your life? Unfortunately the events that caused this particular amnesia mean that Liv’s life is in danger and if she can’t figure out what happened and who was responsible she may not survive. And beyond that Liv appears to be being set up for a murder she is sure she did not commit even if she can’t remember anything.

In this book we follow Liv, she’s had some bad trauma and every time she falls asleep she forgets everything that happened in the last two years.

Megan Goldins writing style is compelling and fascinating. This book was really unputdownable. From the first second I was hooked into the story and Livs world. I was wondering what happened to her, what she did and why she was losing her memory again and again and again.

I’m normally not a fan of unreliable main characters, but in this case this gave the whole story a very nice turn and I enjoyed reading about Liv very much. Even though I was at times frustrated with her and the decisions she made, I think she was often clever.

I liked the whole concept and the story behind the crimes that happened. Not only were we discovering what happened to Liv two years prior to the plot, but also what happened on that fateful night we start the story.

It was my first book by Megan Goldin and I’ll definitely will readmore by her.

Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget—permanently.

4 stars

After really enjoying Goldin's _The Night Swim_, I was thrilled to get my hands on Goldin's latest, and my incoming high expectations were met.

Liv, the m.c., has a disturbing situation happening. Every time she falls asleep, she forgets...EVERYTHING. The "STAY AWAKE" note she has written on herself only works for so long, and she participates in this note taking and clue collecting behavior nonstop. As anyone can imagine, it's incredibly frustrating for Liv - though, to Goldin's credit, compelling instead for readers - that Liv is existing in a losing game of more chutes than ladders. Goldin keeps what could have been a really repetitive and frustrating convention fresh by dipping in and out of multiple timelines: the present and two years ago, which is just exactly when Liv thinks she's existing each time she awakens with a reset.

Some thrillers are so out there that it's hard to connect to any of the characters, and while fortunately Liv's predicament isn't exactly common, Goldin writes this situation in a way that makes Liv seem extremely relatable and sympathetic. Even if she is a monster, she has no memory of it. Couldn't any of us find ourselves in this exact spot? As one character suggests in a spoiler-free way at some stage, we mostly think people don't seem like killers...until they kill. There's a lot of good content like this that helps readers stay interested and keep guessing.

One of the parts of Goldin's last novel that I loved most is the freshness of the material. While I did find myself a little frustrated by the unavoidable comparisons to aspects of _Memento_ at times here, I really enjoyed this overall and expect that most lovers of thrillers/mysteries will enjoy this read, too.

did I stay up until 2am to finish this because it physically pained me to put it down without knowing all the answers?

yes, reader, I did.

am I regretting how tired I am at work this morning?

yes, reader, I am (but it was so worth it).

and I seriously loved every second of this suspenseful crazy thriller!! 🤭 while I feel like the amnesia unreliable narrator trope is so overdone in thrillers, this one managed to do it SO WELL I’m pleasantly surprised

megan goldin’s writing and pacing throughout any of her stories is capturing and thrilling to the point where I was seriously stressed if I didn’t finish it all in one go

and while I did guess the major plot twist of the whodunnit murder mystery super early on, I didn’t even care (I know who am I?! 😨) because I was DESPERATE to see how this all played out.

this book will physically stick to your hands until you finish it - I AM WARNING YOU NOW!!

this is by far my favorite of megan goldin’s so far, and I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

thank you to netgalley and st martin’s press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! if you haven’t pre-ordered this release in august yet, this is your sign!! 🤌🏼

rating: 4.5 stars
wine pairing: rioja red blend