After Night Swim and Escape Room, I trust Goldin with all of my crime loving heart to deliver explosive thrillers!! I was right to trust Goldin because she did it again with Stay Awake—an edge of the seat fast paced thriller with dual timeline where our MC wakes up with cryptic writing on her arm. To figure it out and find clues to piece it together, she must Stay Awake. Goldin is good at writing strong, empathetic and sometimes unreliable female MCs. This story’s MC Liv is also one such character. You will be guessing and yelling along with this character till the final turn out!! Highly recommended if you like to read high stakes thrillers and psychological thrillers.

Thank you St.Martin’s Press for the arc via Netgalley

I loved this! It kept me guessing to the very end. I also loved the way it was written with different point of views and time periods!

This book had me hooked from the very beginning!! Waking up in the back of a cab with no memory covered in your own notes written on your body?! WOW! Sure, some moments weren’t always believe and Liz was so infuriating at times but overall this book was one of the most insane psychological thrillers I have ever had the pleasure of reading!! My jaw didn’t totally drop at the twist but it was still incredibly satisfying and if you’re new to thrillers, this one is for sureeeeee a hit!

*Imagine waking up and not recognizing where you are. Your last memory is a sunny day, a phone ringing at work, you picking it up...and that's it. Now it's fall, over two years later, and you have no memory of what has happened in those two years. You've written things like "STAY AWAKE" all over your hands and arms. But you can only stay awake so long before your body gives out on you. That's Liz's reality, She tracks down coworkers and they reference something bad having happened but unsure as to what.

We do go back in time to learn what led up to her last memory two years ago but then...nothing...after Liz picks up the phone at work. All she remembers of the last two years is what has happened since she last woke up. She's all alone, she can't trust anyone. And she knows someone has been watching.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

I've read and loved Megan Goldin's first two books, and she doesn't let up with Stay Awake! I loved the cinematic structure of this book, which alternates between police investigating a homicide, and Liv's experience waking up near that homicide and trying to figure out if she's somehow connected. She can't remember the last two years of her life and only remembers being in her office. When she tries to go to her apartment, someone new lives there! Then she starts getting phone calls from some creepy guy and has writing on her arms telling her not to fall asleep or trust anyone. My brain was going all over the place with the author's red herrings and I couldn't stop turning the pages of this thriller banger. Would especially recommend to fans of Lisa Unger's Under My Skin, which also deals with murder and memory loss.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review. I could not put this book down. I had to find out why Liv would forget everything after she went to sleep. This book had so many twists and turns and definitely had me biting my nails. I was happy with the ending, was not entirely expecting the outcome even though I had a general idea of where it may lead. Definitely a great writer of twisty turns.

Wow! This was a crazy ride. While it did keep me interested I felt that Meg was the typical character in a psychological thriller. I mean this in that there were so many points in the story where she could have gotten help but ultimately went running. To the point where the reader becomes impatient and frustrated.

But… the story is twisty and turns and beyond bizarre. Overall even with the character redundancy I enjoyed the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for a copy to review.

"There's no such thing as being an observer. Doing nothing is doing something."

What if every time you fell asleep, when you woke up you couldn't remember the last two years of your life? Liv Resse wakes up in the back of a taxi and she can't remember how she got there. When she gets home she discovers someone else now lives in her apartment. Confused and disoriented, Liv finds STAY AWAKE written on the back of her hand. The life Liv remembers seems to have vanished and now she is is stuck trying to figure out the missing pieces.

Stay Awake starts off with a bang and rarely lets up on the gas. Megan Goldin spins a fabulous mystery full of intrigue, suspense and drama. Told from alternating timelines, this had plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the very end.

So grab a cup, or 7, of coffee and be prepared to stay awake long into the night to finish this one~

A very solid 3.5/3.75 stars. Thrilling and hard to put down, but the overall reveal was quite underwhelming and I was expecting more from this author.

A woman who loses her memory every time she wakes up is seemingly tied to a murder that occurred - and she doesn’t even realize it.

The premise for this book is so clever and compelling. I was intrigued from the moment I read the description.

I will say, it took me a long time to really dig in and want to finish reading it. That’s hard for me with a thriller because I usually just want to power through them to figure out what’s happening, but the first 35-40% I read sporadically over months - picking it up and reading maybe a handful of pages and then just not being sucked into it. At around 40% of the way through I was finally hooked enough to want to finish it right then and there and unravel this crazy story.

I think the beginning is just a little slow for me, but overall I really enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to others!

This is more of a 3.5 than it is a 3 star. I read this book in basically one sitting so I can definitely vouch for it being entertaining and a page-turner. There was nothing wrong with it but, as someone who reads a lot of mysteries, I guessed everything that was happening fairly early on. That usually doesn’t bother me and honestly I usually don’t have many thoughts about what’s going on and am along for the ride, but I felt this one was a bit too obvious. Still enjoyed it and would recommend if you like mysteries.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

Liv awakens in a taxi, and has no memory of the past two years. Someone else lives in her apartment, “stay awake” is written on her hands, and she’s in possession of a bloody knife. She soon finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing.

Stay Awake is told using multiple points of view and timelines. The timelines are present day and two years earlier. The POVs are Liv and the detective investigating the murder. Liv is trying to figure out what has happened to her. The detective is trying to solve a case. Both viewpoints are interesting and add to the story.

Stay Awake is a fast-paced thriller with an intriguing plot. Recommended for fans of suspenseful thrillers and crime.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

No Rest for the Wicked


There is a good reason why Megan Goldin is one of my favorite thriller writers. I think that THE ESCAPE ROOM is still one of my all-time-favorites books and one that stands out from the rest, but her latest book is not far behind. It only took a few pages into STAY AWAKE to find myself utterly absorbed by the shattered reality that has become Liv’s life.

I love thrillers that rely strongly on the doubt cast on the main protagonist’s mental state. Liv, a traumatized woman who forgets everything that has happened to her as soon as she falls asleep, is a perfect candidate to star in that category of unreliable narrators. With every plot twist, I admired the author for being able to create such an intricate, multi-layered and challenging novel without ever losing credibility.

Every time I was briefly concerned that a thread would be left hanging or would stretch credibility too far, I was soon reassured by the background detail that made it all perfectly plausible and tied things up nicely in the end. A highlight for me was the authors ablity to show Liv as she wakes up, completely confused and then start trying to go home or to work, only to realize that she has been asleep longer than she thought and that things have changed. Toward the end she tries to stay awake long enough to untangle all the clues of her current circumstances. The only downfall I had with the story is the constant need to be reminded that Liv is forgetful. I enjoyed this very much and will continue to be a fan of Megan Goldin moving forward. 4 STARS in other words this book is totally # All-Nighter Worthy

*rating 4.25*

***a woman who wakes up in a taxi with no memory and a bloodstained knife in her pocket***

Megan’s thrillers always hit! This was a fast paced thriller that was so addicting. It definitely grasped my attention from jump but once I really got into it I could. not. put. it. down. I was thinking of so many different scenarios in my head to try and put the pieces together and still didn’t figure it out.

I love this book! Psychological thrillers are my favorite subgenre and Stay Awake does not disappoint. Liv wakes up, unsure of who she is or what has happened - but she has been accused of murder. As the story unfolds, we learn she is suffering from amnesia brought on by past trauma. All she knows is she has to stay awake, and trust no one.

I can't imagine something like this happening to me - I rely so much on my brain and memory. Goldin does a fantastic job of helping the reader feel the fear of amnesia and we walk right alongside Liv as she tries to figure out what is going on.

This is a book you won't want to put down!

I devoured The Night Swim so I had high hopes for this one. This was a wildly interesting premise of a story, and it sucked me in right away. The author did an amazing job at taking what should have been a very confusing situation (all the times that Liv woke back up and didn’t know what was going on) and made it easy for the reader to understand. In fact, it felt like every time Liv woke up, she was confused, but the reader figured out a new detail. Another thing the author is really good at is introducing us to the antagonist early on, and then making us forget about them without making their motive seem weak when they’re brought back into the story. The ending had me staying up late and waking up early so I could finish it while my kids were sleeping, but the middle felt like it dragged on a bit.

A woman, whose memory is wiped clean of the last two years every time she wakes up, finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation, despite having zero recollection of the victim or crime.
This was pretty good, as far as thrillers/mysteries go, even though the “who-done-it” part was blazingly obvious the whole time.
The way the timeline jumped around made it a little hard to follow at times, but I suspect the back and forth helped cover up slight inconsistencies in the story, especially regarding what our protagonist was able to remember, and when.
It had a bit of a Scooby Doo ending, with the villain laying out the reasons for all of their evil-doings, just in case the audience is too dense to figure it out. Never a good thing in storytelling. Seriously. Just trust your reader.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this #arc of #stayawake by Megan Goldin in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Megan Goldin and The Night Swim, so I was excited to receive a copy of Stay Awake. This one is a bit of a twisted take on Groundhog Day in which one of our MCs knows she needs to stay awake, and she should not trust anyone. Told in dual perspectives between the aforementioned Liv Reese and the detective on the case, Darcy Halliday, Golden takes readers on a wild ride.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This was so crazy good. I can’t believe I haven’t heard more people talking about it! I really liked The Night Swim so I expected to enjoy it but I was literally obsessed. I love an unreliable narrator and this took it to the next level with a narrator who forgets everything every time they fall asleep. The different timelines and povs were perfectly done and equally interesting, which is a feat in itself. I was looking forward to every single sentence! I think Megan Goldin just earned herself a spot on my auto-buy list!

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.