Thank you so much for the chance to read this novel! I apologize I was a little late to the game on this one! But, finally had the chance to enjoy some winter reading and devoured this novel! We will be selecting this title for our Winter subscription boxes and we are now hand-selling like crazy at our store! Can't wait to read Megan's new release this year!

Synopsis: When Liv struggles to stay awake she is faced with not remembering what happens when she falls asleep and before. She does everything she can to leave reminders and to stay awake so that she doesnt have to face the terrors of what happens when she falls asleep.

Thoughts:This book kept me awake for sure. I was hooked from the very beginning and highly suggest this for those who love thrillers. I think the author did a great job with the character of Liv and I felt that I connected with her. I think that the story line kept me intrigued. Definitely pick this book up if you are looking for something to keep you awake in a good way!

This was an ok thriller with elements similar to Memento. Although I will say this did not fully work for me. I loved The Night Swim when I read it, but so expected a little more from this one. I went in hoping for a high octane, page flipping thrill ride. It was good, but needed more thrill.

I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was very fast paced and really held my attention. I was not able to put it down once I started and read it all in one sitting. The character development was good and I loved the plot.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a cab, confused and disoriented, and finds herself in a nightmare. There is also a bloody knife wrapped in a t-shirt in her jacket pocket. Her last memory is of picking up the phone in her office at a tony magazine, in a life where she lived with her roommate, also her best friend, and was happily engaged to be married. It is now over two years later, and she has fallen victim to a rare and bizarre condition in which every time she falls asleep, her memory resets itself to that earlier, happier time.

Over the course of Stay Awake, we follow Liv through the next day in her quest to find out what happened the previous night, during which a man was killed and in whose murder she is the chief suspect. The book shifts between her present perspective, her memories of the past, and the perspective of the two detectives investigating the murder, Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle.

While this book was an easy read and I enjoyed it, there were some things that kept me from getting completely immersed in it. Maybe it was inherent in the nature of Liv’s character and her own confusion, but I found it hard to get emotionally involved with her. It also seemed unbelievable that all of these events, including more than one forensic analysis, could be squeezed into less than 24 hours, which I found a bit distracting. I did appreciate the relationship between Halliday and Lavelle; it was refreshing to find a pair of detectives who weren’t either at each other’s throats, wrestling with unresolved sexual tension, or both, but whose skills and strengths complemented each other and who treated one another with respect. I would not mind seeing them again in a future book; my only beef is that the female combat veteran who becomes a cop seems to be becoming a severely overused trope. I also failed to finger the real murderer, which I consider to be a plus.

Overall, this is a book that many people will enjoy but my view of it is ambivalent at best.

I received a copy of Stay Awake from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stay Awake is the second book I have read from this author. Just like Night Swim, this thriller is intense and nerve wracking. Liv Reese loses her short term memory every time she goes to sleep. I totally was getting Memento and Before I Go to Sleep vibes. The premise drew me in and I was intrigued by Liv and her constant state of confusion and bewilderment. The middle of the book unfortunately seemed repetitive and my interest began to wane. I can’t say I disliked this compelling thriller, but I definitely didn’t love it either. All in all it was an okay read. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my copy.

After DNF’ing my last book, I knew I wanted to read a more fast paced thriller. I couldn’t have done a better job by picking up this one! 🙌

By chapter 5 I was totally hooked on this multiple POV, action packed story. I love an unreliable narrator, and thought the added layer of amnesia and sleep deprivation made this story all the more interesting.

I know I say this a lot at this point when a book is good, but I genuinely did not want to put this one down! The beginning to middle of the story had me dying to find out how things would come together in the end.

What kept this from 5 stars for me was partially the pacing, as it felt like it was kind of rushed at the end, but ultimately the ending in general. It just didn’t compare to the build up and suspense that was presented in the beginning of the novel, and I guess I was hoping for a little bit more.

Overall I will definitely be checking out more work by this author! This was a great read! Thank you to the author and Netgalley for my e-copy to read and honestly review.

Mind. Blown.
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for review.

Megan Goldin has become a favorite author of mine. This one did not disappoint. The main character loses memory every time she falls asleep. I mean, every time she wakes up, she has no idea where she is. It’s wild. While the chapters go back and forth between the main character’s unreliable narrative, and the head detectives on the case, as well as different time lines.. you would think it’d get messy. But it just intrigued me even more. I was totally hooked and couldn’t put it down. Check this one out of you like a good mystery with unexpected twists and turns!

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Stay Awake by Megan Goldin in exchange for an honest review. Wow! This was a very exciting, psychological thriller that kept me guessing the whole book through. Having an unreliable narrator can make the book very interesting and it definitely did this time. I really enjoyed this book, what a ride!

The twists, turns, misdirects we’re incredible. I did not see any of the twists coming. A perfect suspenseful thriller.

While I was excited about the premise of this book, I was disappointed by the execution. The idea was strong and compelling. The side characters added to the story. However, the main character let me down. She ran away from solutions and made frustrating decisions.

It was a quick, fun read, but not one that I will revisit.

I will fully admit I requested this one for myself, rather than to recommend to my students. And I'm glad I did! I loved the "Memento"-like feel this novel had, and how unreliable the narrator truly was. It was fun to be able to read this before it was published, and to then watch all the rave reviews pour in for this phenomenal book!

"Stay Awake" might be the most suspenseful thriller I have ever read. The tension crackled off the page, and there was no point where I felt sure I knew what was going to happen next. Megan Goldin did an unbelievable job, not only of making Liv's condition feel real but of drawing readers into her world of uncertainty and paranoia.

S-T-A-Y A-W-A-K-E. Liv Reese wakes in the back of a New York City taxi to find this message scrawled across her knuckles. She finds she has no phone, no purse, no understanding of where she's coming from or where she's going, and no idea what time warp she's entered that has sprung her into midwinter when the last thing she remembers is answering her office phone on a warm, summer's day. As Liv tries to reconcile what she can remember, living in a Brooklyn brownstone with her much-loved roommate, Amy, dating a new guy who might just be "the one", Marco, and scoring a well-deserved promotion at trendy magazine, Cultura, with the waking nightmare she finds herself trapped inside: where messages like the ones scrawled over her hands are found written in blood at a crime scene.

Although she can't remember where she's been and she's not sure where she's going, Liv knows she isn't a killer. Time for her to prove it, to both herself and the police, is running short as she begins receiving messages from the only other person who seems to know what happened to Liv in the past 24 hours. The only problem is that Liv gets the feeling they might want to shut her up, permanently.

Goldin has given us one of the best thrillers in recent memory with "Stay Awake." The tension, the confusion, and the paranoia swirling around Liv are palpable. Readers will be racing towards the finish, unable to walk away from Liv's story, forcing themselves to stay awake just to reach the thrilling conclusion. An absolute must-read for fans of Lisa Jewell, Simone St. James, and Alice Feeney. Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "Stay Awake" in exchange for an honest review.

My first book by Megan Goldin. I love the unreliable narrator trope (one of my favs!) and this was a fun twist on it. I wasn't able to figure out the who-dunnit until near the end, so I enjoyed that about this one, as usually I can guess the plot pretty early. There was one add-in that I didn't understand why it was mentioned as much as it was, but not a huge deal.

I definitely recommend this one to any thriller lover! Will be checking out more of Goldin's books. Thanks, St. Martin's!

Another unputdownable story full of suspense to the very end! I did have some suspicions that were proven by the end but loved how everything came together in the end.

Every time Liv falls asleep, she wakes up forgetting everything from the last two years ago. She has a rare form of amnesia that makes her very vulnerable to something from her past when she has absolutely no memory of it. The story is definitely packed with tension, suspense, and drama.

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my gifted copy of Stay Awake, by Megan Goldin! This exciting thriller is out now, and you definitely need to block out some solid time to read it because you won’t be able to put it down.

I LOVED this one. I loved everything about it:
- The dual points of view
- The unreliable narrator
- Solving the murder
- How I couldn’t put it down for hours

If you’re looking for a great thriller, this one will definitely fit the bill.

Thank you Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press for the gifted book.

Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea how she got there. And when she goes to her apartment, evidently she doesn't live there anymore. Then she realizes she's missing her phone and in it's place is a bloody knife, and there is writing on her skin that says "stay awake." New York doesn't feel like the city she knows, but she can't place why it feels so off. Then she gets a glimpse at the news reporting a bloody murder where there was a message left at the scene, the same that's on her arms, "stay awake".

I will start off my review by saying one of my least favorite tropes in books is the groundhog day trope. And while this book doesn't exactly follow the premise of that trope, it is close enough that it definitely taints how I feel about it. But once I got past the repetitive nature of this book, the premise is interesting and the twists and turns were enough to keep me engaged from beginning to end. I also appreciated that I did not peg the bad guy correctly and the police officers in the book seemed mostly realistic.

No spoilers
I honestly hated this book. The characters were either flat or annoying. The sypnosis was so so promising but the book didn’t deliver enough for me honestly. There was also a lottttt of unanswered questions that were actually very important for the comprehension of the story and book.
Disappointed.

I had fun with the suspense (and even shared a few cups of coffee with Liv along the way).

My Review: This story had me interested from the first chapter which is always a win. I very quickly became invested in Liv’s story. The chapters flipped through timelines and perspectives very smoothly. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost with this type of approach, but the author did a really good job so the reader was never lost. This type of storyline has definitely been done before; it wasn’t the most original plot, but it was well delivered nonetheless. I would recommend for people who enjoy suspense without it being “keep you up at night” scary.

Keywords: amnesia, caffeine, murder

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

A new twist on amnesia where it was caused by a severe traumatic incident and resets every time Liv wakes up so she is trying to stay awake. While the book could be confusing with the way it jumps between POVs and time lines, it is very well done and feels as if you, the reader, are dealing with the amnesia as well. Who can you trust? The police are after you. Are you the killer? Or is the killer chasing you, too?

Quite a thriller! Very engaging.