“The eye, the memory—they’re the trickiest liars. Only the camera lens captures the truth, and just for a moment. Because that’s what the truth is: a ghost.”

Lisa Unger’s latest domestic suspense thriller follows recently widowed Poppy as she deals with the aftermath of her husband’s murder the year before. Poppy as a narrator is incredibly unreliable as suffers from memory loss from a possible psychotic break and her overuse of alcohol and sleep aids. You never really know what is real and what is not or even when in time it is. The author did this very well and it is emotionally exhausting to try to figure it all out along with Poppy. I enjoyed the author’s insights into life, time, and human nature that are peppered throughout the book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin-Hanover Square Press, and the author Lisa Unger for an electronic review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin - Hanover Square Press for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Poppy's husband Jack is beaten to death on his morning run. Poppy is having a hard time dealing with this loss and to make matters worse her dreams are becoming confused with reality.

This, for me, was a really hard book to like. The convoluted memories and dreams had me frustrated. In spite of that the book was good at keeping you winding through to the end. Lisa Unger did do a really good job of so thoroughly intertwining the real from the imagined that you had no idea what was really happening till the end. At times I felt as dazed and confused as I am sure Poppy was. The twisty story had me guessing and ended in a very unexpected way.

Poppy walks around in a fog, partially mental and partially chemically induced by the pills she is prescribed and alcohol, in the horrific year since her husband, Jack, was brutally murdered while jogging in the park one morning. No one has ever been found to be connected to the crime. Under pressure by her mother, sister and brother-in-law, Poppy is dating occasionally, but only halfheartedly. No-one compares to Jack. She also dutifully visits her therapist, which she isn't finding helpful. She's trying to hold the company they ran together in check, but finds herself less present, less attentive as time goes on. Now, she's seeing a large, hooded figure, who turns up in random places, appearing to be stalking her. She chases him but he always manages to elude her. Poppy's mind runs over the last months of their marriage......recalls Jack up late one night looking at the picture of a beautiful young woman who has been killed, someone he knows from college he says. Poppy's sister tries to manage her chaos while hiding her own, and Poppy starts learning new things about all of the people that she thought that she knew. But the killer......the killer is much closer than she thinks.

Unreliable narrators have become incredibly popular since the explosive success of “Gone Girl.” Poppy, the narrator in Lisa Unger’s Under My Skin might be the most unreliable narrator of all, or so it seems. She has more than a “lost weekend” after her husband’s murder. She has a breakdown, disappearing and showing up days later with no memory of where she went or what she did. As it approaches a year since his death, she might be remembering things, but then again, she could be hallucinating or dreaming. She’s not sure what is and is not reality.

However, she’s pretty sure someone is following her. She knows her husband’s murder is unsolved, and she thinks there might be answers in those lost days. As a reader, you can’t be sure either. For example, Poppy has a conversation with an old friend and neighbor who gives her something, possibly a clue, but when she can’t find it later, she’s told the woman died months earlier. So, was that a dream, a hallucination, was her neighbor alive and the person telling her was lying, or was it the kind of normal paranormal that Unger has made so compelling in her other books. Maybe it’s all the side effects of the sleeping pills and other things she’s been taking to manage her trauma from losing her husband.


This is a good thriller. There is a sense of constant menace that ratchets up slowly, but surely. Poppy is smart, most of the time, when she is not paralyzed by questioning her sanity. She has agency and asserts herself when she’s pushed around by a well-meaning, but overweening, friend. The clues are put in place so there is reason to suspect the guilty party – along with a few other people. It’s fair, which is what I think is required. The only bit of “unfairness” is when the facts are known after a trip to a bank, but they are not shared immediately. The only huge obstacle for me was Poppy not calling the cops when she’s driving to confront the killer because it’s a fairly long drive, the cops knew who was guilty so would believe her, and she had a cell phone. She’s not that dumb, so why did she do that?

I enjoyed Under My Skin for what it is, an engaging mystery with a hint of romance, though of course, with someone who is a natural suspect. There’s enough complication to be engaging. It is not, however, the kind of atmospheric and risk-taking thriller that Unger’s Ink and Bone made me hope to find.

I received an e-galley of Under My Skin from the publisher through NetGalley.

Under My Skin at Harlequin
Lisa Unger author site
Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger review

At first, I thought, Oh, for goodness sake! Here we go again with another mystery involving a female, suffering from repressed memories and an addiction to sleeping pills and liquor. Add to that she is also suffering from Hypnagogia and some sort of amnesia and you've got yourself one unreliable narrator. the likes your may have seen in The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Girl on the Train. Her name is Poppy and understandably she's in a state as her husband, Jack, was murdered while out for a jog. The murderer was never found and she feels if only she could piece together the fabric of her memory she would discover who it was that changed her life forever, ruined her hopes and dreams. For better or worse, she is surrounded by a support group of old and new friends who may or may not be all that helpful to her. Who may or may not be the murderer.
What separates Poppy from all the other self-inflicted victims of literary renown is the author, Lisa Unger. Somehow, she enables me to sympathize with Poppy and care about her well being. The reader wants Poppy to find the answers even though they could lead her to herself.
A well written who done it which puts Unger on my must read list. 3.5/5
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin - Hanover Square Press for the opportunity to read and review this selection.

I loved the unreliable narrator of this book as she struggles with the loss of her husband, substance abuse, and the blurring of lines between her dreams and memories. I was definitely kept in the dark a lot of the time, which I love in a thriller. However, at times this book seemed a bit repetitive with the protagonist spiralling out of control and then remembering things. There were times where The same memory would come up and all of a sudden it was a revelation but no new information had actually surfaced. Glad I read it, but I wouldn’t read it again.

Such a sad yet compelling read. A tale of murder, intrigue, mental health issues, betrayal, love, new friendships and more. She was happily married, or so she thought, He was brutally murdered. She lost 4 days. Who murdered him and where was she on her “lost” days? Who is her new friend? Did she know him from her lost days? Lovingly told, giving hope to us all, she does indeed remember and solve the mystery of why and who killed her husband. A bit long, it did seem to slow down in the middle, yet offered a satisfying conclusion.

3.5/5 stars - rounded up for rating

Thanks to Netgalley for the free ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve only read one other book by Lisa Unger and I loved it! So I was very anxious to see what she had in store for us next. UNDER MY SKIN is another well-written and intricate suspense novel that pulls the readers into the mind of a woman dealing with the loss of her husband.

Poppy’s husband is murdered while he out jogging one day, and that puts Poppy in a downward spiral. There was a period of time that she completely lost and still hasn’t the slightest idea as to what happened. A year later, Poppy is beginning to get her life back together but that longing for normalcy is disrupted by her recurring nightmares and blackouts. Are these just nightmares? Are they actually memories returning to her from those days she can’t account for? Who is this mysterious person that keeps following her?

Unger does a great job setting the scene for us and building the paranoia and suspense. There were some parts that got a little confusing for me, but with an unreliable narrator dealing with a blurred reality, that can sometimes happen! You never truly know who to trust, what’s reality and what’s fiction, and the pacing is consistent to pull you through the chapters.

For Lisa Unger fans, I would definitely recommend this one. If you’re looking for an unreliable narrator and some amped up paranoia, then this is one to have on your fall TBR.

It was a good light read. I like Lisa Unger's books if you want an enjoyable suspense book.. This book was like an old fashioned movie where the heroine is not sure if what she is experiencing is real. At first, I was disappointed in the book because it reminded me of a previous book of Lisa Unger's that I read -Black Out. However, in the middle of the book, the story both improves and becomes different from Unger's previous novel Black Out.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

This book has a really interesting premise.

After her husband is brutally murdered, Poppy starts having nightmares.
But her nightmares are crossing into her reality, which begs the question, are these nightmares? Or memories?

I liked the authors writing style and the book kept me hooked.
It was just missing something, it was missing a shock.

When all the secrets come out it was very anticlimactic ... it was a 'oh, ok' and not a huge surprise.
The book has some twists, but not that big twist that will make a book stand out in this particular genre.

Poppy's husband was murdered while he was out for a run, and a year later, Poppy still cannot remember what happened during a span of several days after his death. Disjointed images come to her in dreams (or are they memories?), but given all the sleeping pills and other mysterious substances she has been using to self-medicate, how can she know what to believe? Yes, this is one of those books with a female protagonist who may or may not be seeing things', who is definitely on various medications, and who tries to investigate a crime that may or may not have been targeted. Fortunately, Lisa Unger writes convincingly enough about all the relationships among her characters--particularly between mothers and daughters--that you end up getting drawn in instead of irritated by the trendiness of the unreliable protagonist. There is a Hitchcockian flavor to the story and to Poppy's determined pursuit of answers in spite of her own confusion. Given the small cast of characters, there aren't that many possible outcomes, so the ending is not a huge surprise, but with Under My Skin you are in for a suspenseful ride in the hands of an accomplished writer.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
It has been a year since her husband was murdered while on his morning jog, and Poppy is struggling to make sense of it. She is determined to get answers. As she dreams/has nightmares she can't seem to reconcile if they are actually "memories" of events that could be helpful in solving his murder.

This unsettling page turner is highly recommended for anyone who likes a good psychological thriller.

This is the story of Poppy whose husband Jack is beaten to death while out on a run. After the funeral she freaks out and loses four days of time only to wake up in a hospital with no memory of what she has done or where she has been. Now, many years later, Poppy is a mess. She drinks and takes pills and is still very depressed. Needless to say, she is not stable. This current day story is told from Poppy's point of view which is very hard to follow, confusing and a little crazy. Someone may be following her but she is not sure....who it is or why? She thinks she might have a lead on Jack's murderer but not totally clear. Interesting, unpredictable story with lots of twists throughout some which are obvious and some more subtle. Definitely worth reading because Poppy, although a little nutty, draws the reader into her unstable world and on her slow, painful path to healing.

Poppy's husband, Jack, was brutally murdered a year ago. Despite the efforts of lead detective Grayson, who has now become more of a friend to Poppy, the case has gone cold, believed by most to be a random mugging. But to Poppy and even Detective Grayson, something doesn't add up. Poppy suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after the murder causing a gap in her memory. Now she's relying more and more on medication to help her sleep causing strangely vivid dreams...or are they her lost memories coming back?
This book was really creepy with Poppy's stalker and her dreams/memories. What's real and what's just a side effect of the pills? I like the close relationship Poppy has with her childhood best friend Layla. She was really there for Poppy no matter how crazy she seemed. I like how the book addressed the domestic violence issue. Sometimes, no matter how close you are to the person, the abuse stays hidden until it's too late. The friend she thought she knew became a violent stranger. This book kept me guessing until the end. Great story!!
I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

A year has passed since Poppy's husband Jack was murdered during his morning run. Poppy has been in a severe depression and cannot move on - the murder is still unsolved. Poppy continually has nightmares - or is it reality? She can no longer tell the difference.
This book was full of twists and turns and kept me reading until I devoured it! It was fast paced and I enjoyed the characters and story line.
Thank you to Lisa Unger, Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC of this fantastic book!

Poppy's husband Jack has been murdered, it has not been solved in months, there do not appear to be any leads on the case, which makes it look more and more like a case of wrong place, wrong time. However, we know this is probably not true, otherwise there would not be a need for this book, right? Right. In trying to figure out what happened as well as deal with her grief, Poppy is a sleep-deprived mess, moving between her dreams and reality (while she is awake mind you), oftentimes not knowing the difference, a state otherwise known as hypnogogia. This is not helped by her current use of pills and alcohol as she tries to hide her pain of loss. Also, she is sleep deprived, which is causing memories to resurface from the week leading up to when he died. I should also mention she may have a new potential love interest that has a past.

Confused yet? I was a little, especially during the dream state scenes moving into reality. Not that they weren't great, it was just hard to keep them straight at times. Otherwise I really enjoyed this book and thought it was solid, and the ending was great, I did not see it coming, although you do start to get a general idea of where it is going. This was my first Lisa Unger book, and I liked it enough that it will not be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley for the electronic ARC to review. All opinions above are my own.

“He’s a charmer in a sea of snakes”. If for no other reason one can enjoy this book, relish the thoughts and twisted vision of her current world through the eyes of Poppy, the grieving, denying, a one-night-stand-having drug-abusing train-wreck mess of a widow. She and her deceased husband Jack had a very prosperous photography contracting business until the morning she rolled over to sleep a bit more and he ran to the park into the hands of someone who brutally murdered him.
Thanks to her assistant Ben, her responsibilities at work are kept up to speed while Poppy flounders through various self-destructive states of severe depression. Her counselor, Dr. Nash, is calming and supportive, yet not quite sharp enough to detect Poppy’s alcohol and drug abuse, made easily available by her well-meaning but enabling friend Layla. She trusts her investigator Grayson, but at times even he can’t keep her on track and off the street.
I thoroughly loved living vicariously through Poppy’s addled state. Part dreams (or more appropriately, nightmares), part reality, where does the line lie? She has no regard for safety, as though she invites death, maybe to be with Jack again? She dates carelessly, no regard for her own well being. Yet through it all, the fog, the lies, the “friends” who have ulterior motives, she begins to formulate a possible answer to the question that will forever haunt her. If she had simply gotten up and stayed by Jack’s side during his last morning run, would he still be here today?
The answer is complicated, of course, but oh, so good.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Harlequin – Hanover Square Press for making it available.)

There was a lot of repetition in the book. It felt like the entire story could have been told in half of the time that it actually took. Didn’t keep me engaged as many other psychological thrillers that I have read. I was ready for the book to end when I stepped into the ending, it was actually the most engaging with a twist.

More like 2.5 stars.
The ending of this book was SO much better than the first 3/4. I honestly almost gave up. It was so incredibly convoluted, with Poppy's "is she or isn't she awake/dreaming" over and over again. Once she got her head clear, the story moved forward much better and resolved well. It's not a particularly compelling mystery, Unger has most definitely written better stories, but things tied up satisfactorily in the end. I tried to listen to this on audio but it was so slow and confusing I had to switch to the written book so I could keep straight what was going on, this is a book that needs to be read rather than listened to unless you are able to concentrate fully.

Lisa Unger is one of my go to author's when I want a intriguing mystery/thriller. She did not disappoint with Under My Skin.
This is the story of recently widowed Poppy and the search for the truth behind her husband, Jack's murder.
Told in present, past and dreams/hallucinations it is confusing at times leaving the reader wondering what is reality and what is a dream. It all gets sorted out in the end giving us a very satisfying conclusion.
Well-written and riveting!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Park Row for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.