Imagine waking up every day and not knowing what the heck is going on. You know who you are, but you have no idea how where you are, what day it is, anything. That’s how it’s been for Liv Reese for the past 2 years. Except she doesn’t realize it’s been two years. The last thing she remembers is picking up her phone at work, which she thought was yesterday.
. She has notes all over her hands: ‘stay awake’, ‘don’t trust anyone’, ‘don’t trust the police’, etc. What the heck is going on? And now someone is dead and the prime suspect all over the news is her. But she wouldn’t hurt a fly, would she? And why can’t she get a hold of her best friend or her boyfriend?
This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was so so good. The plot was unlike anything that I have ever read. HIGHLY RECOMMEND you take the time to read this book. You will NOT be disappointed.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

As you curl up to enjoy this book, imagine being terrified to fall asleep mid chapter and not understanding why.. Sleep is often something we take for granted but the idea of loosing all memory each time you doze of would be torturous . Liv Reese, unknowingly, finds herself in a ‘Groundhog Day’ life with the police tracking her for a murder that she may or may not have committed.. Stay Awake is a fast paced page turner that you won’t put down until the case is solved.
Thank You to St Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and author, Megan Goldin, for the opportunity to read this ARC.
3.5/5 rounded up to 4.

Overall I really enjoyed this! I was kept guessing until the very end, which doesn’t happen very often for me. The multiple perspectives and timelines were really enjoyable, but I did feel like there was a little bit of a disconnect linking the actual killer to Liv and the “why” behind their actions. I definitely didn’t see the ending coming though, and I would recommend this to friends!

I throughly enjoyed this book. It had POV from Liv and Liv 2 years earlier and it was so cool to see flashes from the past to describe where she’s at in the present.
This book kept me on the tips of my toes the entire time. I was confused most of the time which I love I didn’t guess anything. It was a blast.

Overall I really enjoyed this one but didn’t like the ending. I loved the suspense in trying to figure out who was messing with Liv. That’s why I was disappointed in how the story ended. There were holes in the plot and questions that were never answered. We never find out why Liv’s stalker started messing with her? He literally had no motive to go after her. The amnesia plot also confused me because we never find out how she gets to NYC and how she even gets an apartment! These little details bothered me but overall I did enjoy the book and hope to read more from this author.

Liv is suffering from memory blackouts, where her memory resets every time she falls asleep. This would be terrifying enough for the average person, but even more so for Liv, who knows she is in danger. If only she could remember why and from who…

When Liv starts finding signs she was involved in a recent murder, she doesn’t know who to trust or what to believe.

Wow this one was a wild ride! The dual timelines of the present day and two years ago really created a sense of urgency throughout the book as we got a better sense of what Liv had gone through. Although the premise of the story may be slightly unrealistic, it creates such a creepy context for the story. It’s hard to not imagine yourself as Liv, waking up each day and not knowing where you live, who to trust, and what happened to you.

This was the ultimate psychological thriller. Despite not being overtly violent, the description of what happened to Liv two years ago was terrifying, as well as the suspense in the present day as we discovered Liv’s memories along with her.

I couldn’t put this down and would highly recommend for anyone looking for a psychological thriller that will have you thinking about it for days!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reading copy.

Stay Awake grabbed my attention from the first chapter and kept me hooked through the very end. This book had such a unique take on the unreliable narrator trope, and Megan Goldin did a great job with it.

The book was fast paced with dual timelines and short chapters that kept me engaged and made me want to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen next. The multiple POVs did a great job at helping to progress the story and added to the unputdownable feeling I had while reading this book.

This is definitely one of the best thrillers I've read this year!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Megan Goldin for the eARC in exchange for a review.

One thing I love about books is ~ what works for one reader, may not work for another ~ but there is a book for everyone. That’s this book for me - there are lots of great reviews for this one and wow, I really loved this author’s last book, The Night Swim - but this one didn’t work for me.🤷🏻‍♀️

Stay Awake was perfectly explained in another review as the “50 First Dates movie but thriller addition”. Every time Liv goes to sleep, she can’t remember anything from the previous two years. She wakes up and has to start again - trying to remember where she is, why she is there and why she has a bloody knife on her and writing all over her hands. She can feel that there is something or someone causing her danger but she doesn’t know what it is. When she learns that she is wanted for murder, she starts running out of time to understand what has happened to her and why.🤔

As Liv is waking up each day with no memory, there is a lot of repetition as she awakes after every sleep. Overall, although I wanted to see how it ended - I just didn’t love it, the characters and the plot just didn’t work for me. ⭐️⭐️

Special thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for an advanced review copy. This book will be available August 2022.

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While I loved her other books “The Night Swim” more, this book is more of a “try to think and remember and guess what’s next" kind of story.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi, no idea where she is and how she got there. She remembers where she lives only to find a couple of strangers that actually live in her apartment. After being forced out from the apartment, she notices that her hands are covered in a black pen, a message that says: STAY AWAKE.

I thought the author was quite a genius in writing the entire plot in this book. Even though I was quite careful in paying attention to all the details of the story and how I tried to remember the sequence of events experienced by the main character, I still failed to guess "who is behind all this"

To be honest, I don't really like the back and forth storyline. Besides making me confused, sometimes it makes me frustrated reading it. But Megan Goldin managed to write the story into a very, very interesting to follow and made me even more curious.
The police procedure section was also quite interesting, because it was written carefully and I can understand how the detectives work in solving quite complicated cases. Especially in the case of Liv Reese.

A must read if you are a fan of thriller/mystery reading. If you've never read Megan Goldin's work before, trust me, this book will keep you "STAY AWAKE" (you won't stop reading it until you find answers from Liv Reese's past memories).

Thank you St. Martin Press and NetGalley for the digital copy of this book.

4.5 ⭐️

I love this authors writing and how it sucks you in and keeps you turning. This story was very different but I was on Livs side the whole time. How confusing would it be if you couldn’t remember anything?!! Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of this book. I will definitely be writing some good reviews and recommending to everyone. 5 stars.

Gripping from the first page to the last. I couldn’t put this thriller down.
Stay Awake tells the story of Liv Reese trying to make sense of what is happening around her while trying to understand why she can’t remember certain events. The book starts with Liv waking up in a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. We follow Liv as she tries to make sense of what is happening and put the fragments of her life back together. She doesn’t know who she can trust or what to make of the writing on her hands.
The timeline is split between the current day and Liv’s past. This works well to draw the reader in to try and figure out what has lead Liv to where she is In the current day.
Cancel your evening plans before you pick this book up because once you start, you won’t be able to put it down.

I am a big fan of this author and I have to say that this book had me hooked. I desperately needed to know what was going on with Liv Reese. Her situation fascinated me but after awhile, I did feel a bit tired of the constant explaining to Liv the reason she doesn’t remember things and that she is in danger. I will give a shout out to Detective Darcy Halliday who is one of my favorite characters in this book.

You go to sleep and wake up and remember absolutely nothing from the day or weeks before. Confused, lost and not knowing anyone or anything. That is the story of Liv's life one day when she wakes up and has no idea what in the world is going on when she arrives at her apartment and finds that her roommate no longer lives there and that there is another occupant living in their place. When she tries to call for help, her phone is missing and she finds a bloody knife wrapped in a white t-shirt in her jacket. How in the world did this all happen. Where did this come from, and why can she not remember anything. Something tragic happened to Liv two years ago and she has not remembered anything since that tragic day. But someone who does remember is taking advantage of that information and is trying to track Liv down before her memory returns and potentially ruins their life. Great book, fast paced and absolutely loved the story line. Something different and for sure kept me guessing right up to the end. Thank you to #Netgalley and #St.MartinsPress for the ARC. Watch for the release of this one on August 23rd.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC!

I'm just going to come right out and say it. I have mixed feelings about this book. The description immediately caught my eye. With Memento being one of my husband's favorite movies, I was intrigued to see how Megan Goldin would tie that inspiration into Stay Awake. I will start with the things that I liked. First, I personally enjoy Megan Goldin's writing. I like the way she takes time to allow the story to unfold. I enjoyed how the story was told in multiple time periods and from multiple points of view. I was excited to read Stay Awake after enjoying The Night Swim, and I appreciate that Goldin once again seemed to tackle issues regarding violence against women. (This also seems like a good time to include that there are definite trigger warnings in this book regarding stalking in particular.) The story started out strong, and I was intrigued to see where it would go. But unfortunately, I feel that it began to fizzle. The book did get a little repetitive from Liv's point of view. I understand that when you wake up and find your memory reset, it might get a little repetitive, but still. I feel like my biggest qualm is that I felt there were some plot threads that were left somewhat unresolved.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
There was this whole story line about Liv being stalked and about Liv going to this positively chilling pop up art exhibit, but by the end of the book, I was a little unsure about how all of that tied into the overall murder story line? Maybe that's just me, but that's where my struggle lies.

Ultimately, I wanted to love this book, but I felt it fell a little flat. I would still recommend it to fans of thrillers and of Goldin's previous work, but some parts of it just didn't work for me.

A mysterious traumatic event. A rare form of amnesia that causes Liv, the MC, to forget everything that has happened the past two years every time she falls asleep. She appears to now be on the run and has no idea who she can trust. Dual timelines, dual POVs. This was a fun thriller! It was fast paced, hard to put down and kept me guessing until the end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks so much to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary ebook!

Pub date 8/9/22

I really liked The Night Swim, so I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, I didn't like it. The story and writing was repetitive. Entire sentences would be repeated several times, sometimes within the same chapter. The detectives were ok characters, but I don't understand why we needed their perspectives. It should have just been told through Liv's perspective, even though she was a terribly written character and constantly contradicted herself, before and after the memory loss.

Yes, yes, yes! I am a lover of suspense thrillers. I read them quite frequently. And I was so elated for this one, one that finally hit the mark, one that made my heart pound harder with each turn of the page. I couldn’t stop reading.

Liv is a writer living in New York and working for a successful magazine writing mostly food reviews. She’s enjoying life with her boyfriend and best friend. Well, that’s the basics anyway. The plot provides a lot of mystery so I don’t want to give too much away. There’s murder, amnesia, fear. There are alternating timelines and multiple viewpoints, all which are laid out perfectly and not at all confusing. Liv is a likable character. I wanted so badly to be able to jump in and help her figure it all out.

I’ve read other books by this author, and they were good. I would recommend them for sure. But this one takes the cake. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book in this genre that I’ve had this many positive feelings about.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this advanced copy.

The premise of this book is along the lines of “Groundhog’s Day.” The main character Liv forgets everything if she falls asleep, and while she doesn’t relive the same day repeatedly, she can’t recall anything in her life for the past two years.

The story begins with the confusion Liv is experiencing after waking up alone in a cab heading for the apartment she shares with her roommate. She’s unaware of how she got there and even where she had been that evening. This confusion continues throughout the book every time she falls asleep and turns into paranoia as she soon becomes the main suspect in a murder.
With no recollection of events prior to her waking up, she finds herself questioning her actions leading up to the present day and begins to search for answers, all while trying to “stay awake.”

While this novel had promise, it lacked substance for me. I was expecting a few more twists and turns. Written very well to keep me engaged in the plot; I enjoyed it until the last chapter. Sadly, I wasn’t surprised at the end of the book and was let down a bit, especially reading reviews stating how shocked everyone was at the turn of events.

Otherwise a good read, and I would suggest this book to others.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hot on the heels of her wildly successful novel, The Night Swim, Megan Goldin hits another home run with Stay Awake. I give this book a solid 4 star rating. While the topic of memory loss has been covered numerous times in novels, and the ending is slightly predictable, Goldin has created a main character who is bound to earn the sympathy and support of readers.
Imagine finding out your life, as you perceive it, no longer exists. This is Liv Reese’s reality when she awakens in the back of a taxi with no idea how she got there.
Goldin grabbed my attention from the start as Liv is thrust into a world she does not remember, one where she must stay awake, or face the consequences. She keeps the tension building as she alternates between the past and the present, weaving a story that leaves the reader needing to know what happened: why does Liv lose the memories of the past two years every time she falls asleep, what happened to her life as she knew it, and how did she become the number one suspect in the murder of a man she thinks she doesn’t know?
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller and I am thankful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Two thumbs up! I really enjoyed every bit of this book. I'm not generally a fan of throw back scenes or jumping back and forth in time but this book was very well written and I enjoyed every bit of it. I found that I stayed up reading way longer than I should have several nights and couldn't wait until everything was finally out in the open. The author unfolded the story masterfully bit by bit. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery/thriller.