This was a crazy roller coaster of a ride from the beginning. The main character, Poppy was unreliable but you absolutely wanted to believe her. It’s not until the very end you do understand. I not once felt that I had it figured out.

It has been a year since Poppy's husband, Jack, was brutally murdered and she is still barely holding it together. In the days after his murder Poppy spiraled down a hole of grief and basically into a psychotic break She disappeared for a week and to this day she still doesn't remember anything from those days. And Jack's murder is still unsolved. A year later Poppy's grief is not quite as debilitating now as it was then, but it still haunts her both awake and asleep. Her sleep is haunted by vivid dreams from before and after Jack's death. Her family and best friend feel helpless watching Poppy slip away into prescribed medication and the dreams plaguing her sleep. They are trying to protect her from those memories, whatever they may be. With the help of a guy, she met on the internet Poppy starts to piece those missing days together and as she weens herself off of the drugs she starts to remember. And realizes that she is closer to the truth than she realizes.

Under My Skin was an intense psychological thriller centered around a grieving woman. Grief can be such an intensely private emotion that many just do not understand. Poppy's grief, even a year later, was palpable. I loved how Poppy's friend, Layla, looked after her. I loved how they were more family than friends. Poppy fit in with Layla's family like a cherished auntie. I was just as skeptical of Noah as Layla was, there was just something about him that triggered my spidey senses. The whole book was fast-paced, but it seemed like the ending was upon us before I knew it. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom Line - Lisa Unger is such a great author. She knows how to weave a tale that takes the reader on a wild, mind-bending ride. Set aside sometime when you start Under My Skin, you will want to devour it in one sitting.

Details:



Under My Skin by Lisa Unger
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Pages: 368
Publisher: Parkrow Books
Publication Date: 10/2/2018
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This is the first book I have read by Unger and I found myself enjoying it. As the story opens it has been a year since Poppy's husband was murdered while jogging in the park. She remembers nothing about the year, except a feeling that she is being followed. The story is set in the first person and it was often hard to decipher whether Poppy was, drunk, dreaming, or if this was reality.

Decent suspense with loads of character development and a murder mystery peppered in there. It read fast and made for a good beach read. I just wished the suspense would have been more intense at times. I think maybe the plot took too much of a back seat to the character development, so it dragged for me sometimes. This was my first book by this author, and I would for sure read more from her. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advance copy.

Under My Skin is a twisty turning thriller that kept me guessing what really happened to Poppy. In fact, the first half of the book I was really confused, trying to figure out what was real and what was imaginary. I think this was partly the author’s intent, making the reader feel fully engaged in the book, and relating to Poppy.

Thank you to Park Row Books and NetGalley for letting me read this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
This book started out slow for me. I did like the story overall but for a thriller, some parts were a little too unbelievable. It was more towards the end before it really grabbed my attention. I would overall recommend this, it just took a little longer than usual for me to get through.

Yes this book was amazing! I really could not put down. Very fast paced! I loved the suspense of this book!

Under my Skin was one of my most favorite reads of 2018! It was brilliantly written! I can't say enough about the writing genius Lisa Unger is.

Our main character is Poppy who is loaded under the immense grief of her husband's violent death a year previous. She is so lost, confused, and sad. She can't move on. She turns to drugs and alcohol to help her, and you might know where this is leading... The substances she takes in for relief put her in a haze, and therefore the reader too. She doesn't know reality from dreams and dreams from memories and it's a big, confusing mess. What is real? What really Happened to Jack? But oh how much emotion did I feel when reading! I could almost feel my own chest hurting under the weight of Poppy's sadness and disorientation. This was such an emotional page turner for me! I have read through other reviews, and it seems I may be in the minority. It makes me sad to know that not everyone had the wonderful experience I did reading it. I truly did want to know what happened to Jack too and wanted to decipher Poppy's dreams and memories. I can't wait to read more of Lisa Unger. Everything I have read has been exceptional, this one particularly so for me.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Books, & Lisa Unger for a copy to read and honestly review!!

I really enjoyed this book. While it was a thriller, it encompassed so much more. I loved Poppy and Layla. Their friendship was so strong and played in perfectly to what Poppy had to go through. This book kept me engaged and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. Highly recommend. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this title.

I thought this book was a little confusing in the beginning. However, by the end, everything became clear and I really enjoyed it. A lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming, which is unusual for me when reading a thriller. Very surprised by the ending!

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book as I've read several thrillers with an aspect of dreaming/memory loss over the last few years - some good and some not-so-much. I'd heard good things about this author, so I was excited to see what direction she took the book in! 

If I'm being honest, I did find parts of the book a little hard to follow. There were several times I had to flip back to see if a specific part of the book was set in the current timeline, in the past, or if it was a dream/memory, which did make the book a little tricky in certain points. Personally, I feel that these sections of the book could have been made more clear, and probably would have resulted in a higher rating from me. What did work well was the confusion around the dreams/lost memories - the reader was totally in the dark about what was real and what wasn't, as was the main character. This resulted in the reader really feeling the same sense of confusion and instability that Poppy was experiencing, which lent well to the "unreliable narrator" aspect of the book, as well as the overall creep factor.

I liked the ending of the book for the most part - I had an idea pretty early on around what happened, and wasn't far off track. There were a few loose ends that weren't tied up, and I would have liked some answers for those things. Overall, I did enjoy the book, despite the hangups I had that I mentioned above. I found myself engrossed in the story and had a hard time putting it down, so I got through it pretty quickly. If you like books that have unreliable narrators, plots involving lost memories or dream sequences that blend with reality, this will be a good choice for you. I'd like to thank Park Row Press for my copy of the book. It was my pleasure to share an honest review.

I liked this one. Complex characters and a very unreliable narrator. I have to say I thought Noah was a but creepy though. A decent number of twists. Would recommend. 3.5 stars.

Imagine being trapped in a state of twilight stuck between wakefulness and sleep not knowing if what you perceive is happening is a nightmare, a dream, a hallucination. Is it a result of some sort of psychoses or just stress from sleep deprivation? In this novel, <b>Under My Skin</b>, the lead character Poppy suffers hypnagogia - a condition where you lose time while you are experiencing dreams during your wake cycle. These dreams are so vivid that you cannot conceive of them as being part of a fantasy. They feel so real and therefore you have trouble differentiating between what is real and what is imagined. In Poppy's case she suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder as the result of her husband being brutally murdered a year earlier in what appears to be a random mugging. During the time shortly after his death she experienced such grief that fell into a nervous breakdown. When she recovered she had no memory of the days shortly before and after his death. So now that she is in this state of heightened anxiety where she suffers from insomnia, is self medicating with pills and alcohol and engaging in risky behaviors, Poppy is having more of a difficult time trying to sort out these episodes. Not just discerning whether it is reality or not, but determining if is it part of her lost memory. Is she gaining that time back? How does she put this pieces together to solve her husband's murder?

At the beginning of the novel it is a bit confusing as you are unsure which dreams are memory and how to put the puzzle pieces together. Unger makes very good use of the unreliable narrator in this case with the dream-like haze underpinning the mystery. I also like the way that Lisa Unger has woven Greek mythology into her story in particular the God of Dreams, Morpheus. In the novel the club Morpheus plays a critical role. Poppy's name is also derived from the Greek as well, symbolizing confusion and oblivion. Good writing, intriguing story, Greek mythology --- <b>Under My Skin</b> was a suspenseful ride that kept me guessing to the end.

When we meet Poppy, she's mourning the death of her vivacious young husband Jack. While out for a run, he was brutally beaten to death. Unable to come to grips with her grief, and using various drugs to help her cope, Poppy is the ultimate unreliable narrator, and that could be said about just about every character here. I love that they are all well-developed as people with their own issues, which is no small feat since it's a relatively large cast for a book like this. This book is a whirlwind of fear, distrust, frustration, and excitement. This is my first book by Lisa Unger, but I'm certainly adding her backlist to my TBR pile!

I received this book for free for review from Netgalley. Another great read by Lisa Unger. Poppy's husband passed away a year ago and she tries to put the pieces together to figure out why he was murdered and by who. Great twists which kept the pages turning quickly.

I've read several books by Ms. Unger, and enjoyed them very much. This was not my favorite. I felt like the plot was trying to hard to be like many of the great psychological thrillers we have had over the last several years, and it never really got under my skin.

What a wild and twisty ride!!! At times, "Under My Skin" was a little hard to follow along with, especially towards the first half as well as the dream sequences. Overall, this was a good psychological thriller that kept me guessing. This was the first book that I have read by Lisa Unger but it will definitely not be the last.

*I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "Under My Skin"
by Lisa Unger. A slow burn mystery/thriller. Poppy is a successful woman whose husband, Jack was murdered a year ago. The story shows Poppy dealing with his death as well as trying to find out who killed Jack and why. While the book had some really exciting parts to it, it was a little too slow for my liking. The climax was very interesting and unexpected. The ending was not what I was expecting, I suppose I was just hoping for a different ending for her.

This will likely be the last book I finish in 2018, and what a story to end on. This was a wild and twisty ride, and I was hooked. It kept me guessing until the end, and constantly trying to figure out, is this real or just a dream?

I would definitely suggest this book to my friends!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Poppy Lang is grief stricken. Her husband, Jack, was beaten to death during his run in Riverside Park. Poppy has a nervous breakdown. The couple ran a photography agency together, so it appears that Jack’s murder was random. A detective on the police force is still trying to solve the murder after a year. Poppy has a new apartment, a therapist, employees and maybe the start of a romance. Her best friend Layla helps Poppy. She is the one she turns to when it’s all too much. Poppy disappeared for several days after Jack’s funeral.. she can’t remember where she went or what she did. She has nightmares but wonders if they are memories. Layla worries about Poppy as she keeps disappearing and not remembering. As she searches for the truth of Jack’s murder, she starts to wonder about her own judgement of the people around her.

In this novel the author builds suspense by blurring the dreams and reality of life. I liked that it made me wonder how well we know anyone in our life — even our closest partner. What hidden secrets does one have? This is an excellent psychological thriller.