I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review....
Poppy's husband goes for his morning run and is murdered.
Poppy wishes she had run with him, worries about their past arguments, and her wish for a baby, and then she suffers a breakdown - disappearing, confused, hard to tell real or imagining things.
To top that off she feels as if someone is following her.
Is she getting closer to discovering who killed her husband Jack?
And are her friends really her friends?
Grab this book - you won't be disappointed.

Summary:

Poppy lost her husband a year ago.  It was called a random act of violence- he was beaten to death in a park during a morning run.  There are no suspects, no one to blame.  No closure.  Is it any wonder she had a nervous breakdown?

Going through the motions of life in a drug-induced haze, she knows she isn't getting anywhere.  She hasn't even unpacked her apartment- it isn't healthy.  Then there's the hooded man.  He's everywhere, following her.  Slowly things seem to be coming back from the lost time right after the funeral.... but with the amount of medication, grief and mental illness can she rely on any of it?

Could Poppy be holding the keys to understanding Jack's death?  What price would you pay for the truth?

My thoughts:

Lisa Unger has been one of my go-to authors for years.  Every time I see her name on an ARC I pray that I will get it even as I am preordering the book because I simply cannot wait.  (Hardback copy coming in, two book buds already on a waiting list).

She has a flair for the slightly dramatic and deranged that lends itself well to psychological thrillers.  While this one was not my favorite of hers, it's still one of the better thrillers I have read this year.  I think I have just grown to expect more from Unger, the way I do Patterson.

As with her other books, it starts a bit slow- there's a lot of foundation to lay here- but quickly picks up and sweeps you into the grief riddled mind of our main character.  I feel for Poppy even as I wanted to strangle her.  Some of her choices drove  me absolutely crazy, but given what she was dealing with and her mental state they seemed legitimate.  I will say I loved and hated the Poppy/Layla relationship.  Part of me loved how close they were, the love they shared.  Part of me felt that the amount of controlling behavior was pretty toxic.  Still with Poppy's recent past and the abuse Layla watched as a kid.... it, too, made a deranged sort of sense.

The writing style was a bit choppy in the best way- playing well with the state of our main character without being too overly chaotic.  I loved it for the genre.   There was good character development and some great character growth.    I was fenced as far as Noah for a long time, a romantic interest seeming bad timing; but I feel like he was pivotal to Poppy's growth through the book.  Plus, I just kinda loved him!  For me, this is a four and a half star book.

On the adult content scale there was a lot of language, substance abuse, violence and very light sexual content.  This one is definitely geared toward adults.  I give it a seven.

I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Park Row in exchange for an honest review.  My thanks!

I was scared reading this book, fearing for a cop out ending that the reader couldn't have seen coming and couldn't believe. Thankfully that isn't the case. Sure there was some confusion, with Poppy having dreams (hallucinations?), over medicating herself, and the various time lines. But this gives the reader the same feeling Poppy had while trying to deal with her husband's murder, her own breakdown, and the possibility that she was being stalked. While I didn't need the epilogue ending that tied everything up in a nice little bow, the ending was a good balance between surprise and well laid clues.

What if the nightmares are actually memories?

It's been a year since Poppy's husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattan's Riverside Park.

Poppy is involved in despair and pain, after her husband the funeral disappears for three days and when she returns she does not remember anything of what happened at that time, Hospitalized manages to improve but still without memory of what happened in those three days.

The plot of the story goes to the past and present without any clarification, which makes it confusing and difficult to follow. At first, you can not identify what really happened and what is not ... and later in the plot, everything begins to fall into place.

Poppy is having difficult times trying to identify what is real and what has only been a dream. At this point, Lisa manages to capture that confusion of Poppy in such a real way that the reader comes to feel the despair that she is feeling.

Poppy determined to find the truth about her husband's murder, struggle with her reality until she found what she was looking for.

Although the book is extremely confusing to the point of becoming an exasperating reading, Unger manages to capture you and you do not want to stop reading until the end. My suggestion for a more pleasant reading is to make notes since I started to write down key moments in the plot I began to understand better and I was able to identify what was real and what was a dream.

It is a non-traditional suspense book, the plot does not lead you to suspect anyone so the ending is surprising.

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley who provided me with an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. #UnderMySkin #Netgalley

Talk about an unreliable narrator! But it's not really her fault. Poppy's grief over the violent and unexpected murder of her husband Jack led her down the rabbit hole. She lost days. Now a year later, she's trying to wean herself off her meds and rebuilt her life except that things keep happening and she's not sure what's real. This is, admittedly, one that you might enjoy more in hard copy vice kindle because it is easier to flip back and forth in the former, which you might want to do, especially in the first half of the book. It can be confusing but trust me- it will all come together. You will feel every up and down with Poppy. As always, Unger has a way with the psychological thriller. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a page turner.

Poppy's husband was murdered a year earlier, his killer never found, and now she is having dreams that may actually be memories that may lead to his killer. One thing I didn't like about this book is that often the dream sequences would start off seeming like it was really happening, which was really confusing at first. Eventually it became obvious that you couldn't really trust what was going and I guess it was supposed to be disorienting to the reader in the way the dreams were for Poppy, but I didn't care for that. I did eventually get more into the book, but the was a character early on that I thought if that person had something to do with Jack's death, I would be annoyed, and sure enough, that person did. So overall, only 2 stars for this one.

3.5 ⭐️‘s. Haunting suspense with a touch of paranormal! Poppy narrates the story, alternating between past, present, dreams and memories—sometimes unexpectedly. At times I wasn’t sure which of these I was reading, and felt as confused as Poppy! I would have given it a higher rating if some of the transitions were easier to follow. However, when I wasn’t confused, I was totally enthralled by Lisa’s storytelling.

Poppy tells us about her husband’s unsolved murder and the guilt she feels. She keeps reliving that day—thinking about all the “what ifs”. She can’t let go of Jack. She sees him in her dreams and when she’s awake.

She’s still running the business they started together, but she’s never bothered unpacking his belongings after moving into the new apartment. The boxes, with his name on them, are just another reminder of everything she’s lost.

Her best friend—Layla—helped her setup a profile on a dating site and she’s starting to date again...well she wouldn’t exactly call it dating...more like sleeping around.

Her life is a mess...the blackouts and time she can’t account for. There are so many missing pieces—lost days after her breakdown. The vivid dreams that feel like memories—she wakes up confused, in the bathroom of a club, wearing a red dress. Is it real or imagined? She’s not sure what’s happening to her—daydreams, flashbacks or hallucinations—but she keeps seeing Jack, a mystery woman and a hooded stranger following her.

Her nightmares are getting worse. She’s self-medicating with more than just her prescribed sleeping pills...mixing it all with alcohol. She knows it’s getting out of hand, but she longs for dreamless sleep and escape. She’s a wreck and no longer recognizes the woman staring back at her in the mirror.

Thank you NetGalley and Park Row for this ARC, in exchange for my honest review!
#UnderMySkin #NetGalley

UNDER MY SKIN by Lisa Unger is a gripping psychological suspense novel. I have loved every single one of Unger's novels, and this one is just as good. Keeps you reading late into the night, that is for sure.

This novel is about a woman whose husband was killed while out on a morning job in New York about a year previously. She begins to feel as if she is being followed by a hooded figure, and she has dreams that she is uncertain are just that or actual memories. Dreams start to bleed into her every day life, and she experiences blackouts and time loss. She wonders what is real and tries to find out what happened during the few days after her husband was killed when she has a memory gap.

The story is a bit disjointed sometimes, mirroring the confusion of Poppy’s mind, addled by pills and alcohol. The book is engaging. There are no huge twists or turns, but it is an entertaining ride.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for the ARC! Review posted on Goodreads 9/20/18.

Page turner from the beginning. Very interesting, exciting book. Who can you really trust? How well do you really know someone? Sometimes the answer is different that you think...... Really good book and I recommend to anyone that likes an exciting mystery with plenty of twists and turns. I received an advance reader copy of this book but that had no bearing on my review of this book in any way whatsoever.

I'm usually a huge fan of anything Lisa Unger writes, but Under My Skin was surprisingly unoriginal and it really dragged on. Poppy's husband Jack was beaten to death during his morning run a year prior. After his funeral, Poppy disappears for four days, only to wake up in the hospital, with no memory of the time she was away. A year later, Poppy is slowly starting to piece together those four days and we get glimpses into her married life. A married life that seems both happy and unhappy. The question the reader faces, is how reliable is Poppy and her returning "memories" that arrive in the form of hallucinations and nightmares?

To help guide Poppy through her recovery, in addition to her shrink Dr. Nash, is her best friend since childhood, Layla. Layla appears to live the perfect life but comes from a past filled with abuse. Poppy helped Layla escape the abuse and heal and Layla is more than happy to return the favor now that Poppy is in need.

Ms. Unger's writing is, as usual, solid, but the plot seems drawn out in Part I and the conclusion in the last few pages of Part II feels hastened. Because Poppy was unreliable, I didn't form a connection to the character, or any character. Poppy actually annoyed me throughout a good portion of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nearly a year ago, Poppy Lang’s husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattan’s Riverside Park. The police have not found his killer and, given that Jack didn't have any known enemies, are investigating the case as a random attack.

Immediately after Jack's funeral, Poppy suffered a psychotic break brought on by grief and despair. She disappeared for several days before turning up wearing an uncharacteristically tight red dress. She was confused and did not remember the time she was gone, with her memories of the days leading up to Jack's death sketchy, at best.

Poppy is trying to move on with her life, but is haunted by those lost days. She's been self-medicating -- numbing her grief and pain with alcohol and nondescript pills supplied by her best friend, Layla. Not to mention the sleeping pills that her therapist has prescribed. Poppy is having nightmares and experiencing blackouts. She can't distinguish between reality and her imagination, unsure if she is hallucinating or finally recalling events that her mind suppressed in order to protect her. Now she thinks a strange man in a hooded sweatshirt is following her, although she's not completely convinced he is real.

Poppy's need to know the truth about her life with Jack and his death propel her manic search for information. As the story opens, she is barely functioning, running the business she and Jack founded by day, but retreating most nights to the home of her friends Layla and Mac where she accepts the pills that Layla supplies and mixes them with wine before taking a sleeping pill and passing out. She can barely stand to spend any time in the posh apartment she and Jack purchased but did not move into prior to his death. Now unpacked boxes are the main decor. She has begun dating -- at Layla's urging -- but she is clearly not ready to let go of her marriage to Jack and begin a new relationship.

Layla and Poppy have been best friends since childhood. Layla comes from a dysfunctional family characterized by abuse. Indeed, when the girls were 16, Poppy and her father rescued Layla and from her abusive father and Layla mostly lived with Poppy and her parents. Layla has expressed a determination to break the cycle of abuse and, by all appearances, has succeeded. She is fabulously wealthy, thanks to having married Mac, a successful hedge fund manager, and given up her career to raise their two children. Layla is fiercely protective of Poppy to the point of being controlling.

Bits and pieces of memories seem to be returning to Poppy. Or are they episodes of hypnogogia (the transitional phase between sleep and wakefulness, or between wakefulness and sleep) caused by sleep deprivation and stress. Her mental state make her a compelling but wholly unreliable narrator. She is empathetic -- after all, she lost her husband in the most horrifically imaginable way -- although less so as Unger reveals details about the state of Jack and Poppy's marriage. Unger takes readers on a heartbreaking but believable journey into Poppy's splintered psyche. No marriage is perfect, including Jack and Poppy's, but were their forces actively threatening its survival? Were those pressures coming from outside the marriage or within it? Had Poppy made different decisions that fateful morning, she is convinced that she could have saved Jack, but must understand and acknowledge the way life works. One split second, a different course of action can result in a different outcome, but we must live with the choices we made at the time.

The overriding question presented is: What if Poppy's nightmares are actually memories being gradually restored to her? And if so, what do they mean? Will they bring her the answers she needs about what happened to Jack in order to regain her ability to function without the aid of drugs and alcohol, and enable her to finally let go of Jack and forge a future for herself.

The story moves at an unrelenting pace as Unger makes nearly every supporting character a potential suspect. But what were their motives? And how are they connected to the one valuable lead Detective Grayson, a dedicated NYC cop who is determined to keep Jack's case from languishing among thousands of cold cases, has uncovered thus far?

Under My Skin is Unger at her best. She takes readers down an emotional rabbit hole with Poppy as she reveals clues to what is real and what is not at deftly-timed intervals that demand continued reading. Thus, Under My Skin is un-put-down-able. Her insights into Poppy's emotional struggles resonate and may well inspire readers to question their own choices, how their lives might have been different. And Unger provides an action-packed, but emotionally satisfying conclusion to Poppy's story making Under My Skin one of the best books of 2018.

I have been a fan of Lisa Unger for quite a while and was really excited when I got access to an advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

Under My Skin is the story of Poppy who loses her husband after he gets killed while out jogging in the early morning in New York. She literally loses her mind in the days following the accident/murder and after she disappears for 3 days after the funeral with no memory of where she has been or what has happened, she is admitted for a couple of days and starts on antidepressants, sleeping pills and whatever her friend gives her.

While stoned on booze and pills, she decides to find out what really happened to her husband. During flashbacks and dreams we learn some of the background story and while the marriage sometimes seems perfect, at other times she is convinced that either she or her husband had an affair.

The dreams and flashbacks can be a little confusing but since it’s a very fast paced book you easily catch on. The ending came as a total shock to me not just finding what happened to Jack but also what was going on with her friend.

All in all I loved this book as I have loved previous books by Lisa Unger and I highly recommend it. An easy 5 stars and thanks to NetGalley and Lisa Unger for letting me read this advance copy.

This book had me completely spellbound and captivated with the need to know whodunit.

This story had so many layers woven within it to keep you guessing almost until the bitter end. There were so many names rattling around in my head of who I thought could have done it, but boy was I in for a surprise.

Poppy's husband Jack was brutally beaten and murdered a year ago and Poppy is still as lost as she was in the days after his funeral when she disappeared and has no recollection of that time but now fragments of memories or is it only dreams are invading her mind and she can't shut it off. Poppy has been self medicating and drowning the pills in booze to try to escape what she sees in her mind. What if they are really memories and what if it will lead to Jack's killer?

Poppy needs to get her head clear in order to see the web of lies and deceit her life has become entangled in.

For me this was my first read by this author and it was such a high caliber psychological thriller that I know I will be checking out her other works.

**Received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Although the writing is good I found that the story dragged on for too long. That never ending grief was repetitive. Also, I did not find the story very original or exciting. This one really did not work for me. I was really disappointed.

This was one of the first Lisa Unger books that I have read and it did not disappoint. I found the characters to be very believable and the plot to have a satisfying amount of twists and turns. One of my favorite parts of this book was that I could not figure out what was going to happen next, it kept me in suspense and wanting to continue reading, often well into the night. I highly recommend this book for mystery lovers.

What a surprise this author is! I have not read any of her previous books, but I’d love to now that I have been so completely caught up in the maze this story is. It seems like books such as this have become so popular that many authors are scrambling to come up with stories. Some start off strong, but quickly lose steam and then have a boring ending that anyone could see coming. Not this one.

In the prologue, I sympathized with the female who obviously had something added to her drink, but there wasn’t an answer to whether the mysterious man who appeared was there to help her or join the first one in hurting her. And who was she? From the first chapter, we see that the main character, Poppy, is obviously in a world of pain. She’s stumbling through her days fueled by liquor and pills after her husband is killed, blaming herself because just maybe, if she had gone running with him, he would still be alive. Then the book continues to add new twists, turns and lots of unanswered questions that kept me glued to the pages.

The characterization is superb. I had a real sense of what Poppy was going through and how unbalanced she appeared to be. Other descriptions of people and places were carefully done. I could have lived in this book! By the end, everything is wrapped up in a way that I didn’t expect. I really thought someone else was behind the bad things that happened.

This is a psychological thriller at it’s best.

This book was so good! I love reading this type of mystery, murder, complicated relationship story. It centres around the murder of jack, while he takes an early morning run. He is visciously attacked and there are no leads to what actually happened a year after the murder. His wife is spiraling out of control since his passing, and is consumed with figuring out what happened to her husband. This one actually took a different turn then what I was expecting. I would reccomend this title and look forward to reading future books by this author.

Under My Skin was interesting, surprising and frustrating all at once. I love a good thriller, and this one had so many good points, the few mis-steps were jarring. The main character, Poppy, was so thoroughly devastated by her husband's murder, she blacked out and lost three days. A year on, and she still isn't sure if she wants those days back. This is where things got a bit muddled. The dreams/flashbacks/hallucinations were so confusing. I understand this was intentional, the flashes of her lost time were supposed to create tension, keep the reader and the protagonist interested in finding out what had happened during those missing days. So much hinged on her remembering, it was almost a disappointment when she (spoiler) finally does.

I really felt that some of the supporting characters were thrown in there for red herrings. They didn't offer much in the way of development for either the plot or the main character. The central mystery was interesting, but the way Unger doled out the information was too disjointed, too abrupt in places. All that being said, I enjoyed reading this book. It kept my interest and the eventual reveal of who-done-it was satisfying. I'd recommend!

Under My Skin by Lisa Unger was a mind-tripping thriller. Poppy is a widow who has come to rely on prescription medication to help her sleep and to quell the vivid dreams brought on in her grief and regret. Some of Poppy’s choices were frustrating, but I found them to be believable under the circumstances. As she becomes obsessed with finding out why her husband was murdered and by whom, dreams and reality overlap so that the reader is slightly off balance throughout. I love the friendships in this novel. The long-standing “women-supporting-women” friendship Poppy and Layla Have is enviable, if at times overbearing. The friendship between Jack and Alvaro was sweet. Finally, the relationship between Poppy and a would-be suitor has some really great moments. I couldn’t wait to find out whodunnit and why! This novel was a fun one I would recommend to anyone who likes thrillers!
Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin, and especially Lisa Unger for the advanced ecopy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.