Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of Stay Awake. I loved The Night Swim by this author, so I was super excited to read her newest novel and it did not disappoint! Stay Awake is a fast paced, psychological thriller that reminded me of an episode of Law and Order: SVU. The novel follows Liv Reese, a woman that lives in NYC with her best friend, with a job and a boyfriend that she loves. However, she wakes up one day with no memory of the last two years and cryptic messages written on her hands that she doesn’t understand. The story takes place across 24 hours with flashbacks to her life two years prior.

I loved how the story unfolded. The reader is kept a bit off kilter for the start of the book as Liv (and the reader) try to understand what’s happening, what happened to her memory, and who can she trust? I think the “whodunnit” aspect was easy to figure out early on, but I was still along for the ride and couldn’t wait to see how it would all be revealed. My only small gripe is that I don’t feel like we ever got a true confession from the killer and why they did what they did. I would have liked a little more closure there. I would still highly recommend this read, especially if you like to be creeped out! I would read this before bed and found myself hesitant to walk down the dark hallway in my house. I think that’s a sign of a great story!

I STAYED AWAKE FINISHING THIS ONE LAST NIGHT!

From the author of The Night Swim and The Escape Room, comes an unputdownable, fast paced, psychological thriller that plays with memory and murder. This one is hands down, my favorite from @megangoldinauthor thus far.

This one comes out August 9, 2022 so make sure you snag a copy immediately!

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy. This one blew me away!

4 stars! This was my first Megan Goldin book and will definitely not be my last! I really enjoyed the dual perspective/multiple time lines and thought it was done seamlessly. It kept me guessing throughout, I would highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to negalley for advanced reader copy. I really enjoyed this book! The writing pulled me in and I couldn’t put it down. There were great twists I didn’t see coming. I would continue to read books from this author, and look forward to doing so.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the e-arc!

Megan Goldin did a phenomenal job with her newest thriller STAY AWAKE! Goldin writes in dual POVs, multiple timelines and murder!

Liv wakes up in the back of a car at her Brooklyn home. She knocks trying to get in, when a bloody knife drops from her possession and she realises that strangers are in her apartment. She doesn’t know how she got here or what is going on.

I absolutely loved the fast pace and short chapters. Goldin wrote in a way that kept me hooked and trying to figure out who-dun-it! Can’t wait to read more of Megan’s thrillers in the future!

If I’m ever in trouble someone please call Detective Halliday because she is one of the smartest detectives I’ve encountered in a book! Her tenacity and drive make her a strong detective but her empathy and ability to think for herself made her unstoppable!!

I loved that both of the female leads were strong capable women!

I cannot even imagine not remembering details of my life whenever I fall asleep, it’s terrifying.

I found Stay Awake fast paced, filled to the brim with twists, and overall just a great read. Every single time I read a book by @megangoldinauthor I love her more!! Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my digital copy to review!!

Stay Awake published on Tuesday so grab your copy today!!!

Thrillers aren’t my preferred genre. I want to like them, but I usually find them to be predictable, thus defeating the purpose of being… thrilling. I’ve been determined not to give up. To find the thriller that I can finally say I couldn’t put down. And friends, here it is… I’ve finally found it. This thriller truly thrilled me. What a fun, suspenseful, twisty ride. I was hooked from the beginning, staying up late to read more. It’s like if 50 First Dates (the movie) wasn’t a rom com but a murder thriller story. A delight. I did find the ending ultimately somewhat predictable, and I kind of wanted more. But the story held my attention enough that I didn’t care that I knew how it would end.
I’ll definitely be checking out other books by Megan Goldin.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no memory of where she's been. She arrives at her apartment to find someone else lives there and there's a knife in her pocket. She comes to realize that she has lost 2 years of her life and nothing is as she remembers - further every time she falls asleep her mind resets to 2 years prior and it all starts over. As she is running around trying to make sense of her life, she is also the primary suspect in a murder. Is she a murderer or a victim? This is a fast paced ride and was hard to put down until I was finished.

4.25/5 (rounded down)

Megan Goldin quickly became an autobuy author for me after I read The Escape Room (I still need to read her debut The Girl in Kellers Way), so it really isn't a surprise to me that I loved Stay Awake. I saw a lot of reviews that mentioned repetition, but I didn't have that issue, and it is my thought that you are going to have some of that anyway when you have an amnesia story. I was completely GLUED to this book, and I didn't put it down once after I started it. The book alternates between Liv's viewpoint both in past and present as well as Darcy Halliday who is on a temporary transfer to the homicide department of the NYPD. Technically her viewpoint isn't always her since at times we had another detective in there, but for the most part, it was her and I loved her character. Series spinoff anyone??

I also think that the preferred way of reading Stay Awake should be listening to the audiobook since it was amazing. It had 2 of my favorites, Imogen Church & January LaVoy, and they definitely killed it (no pun intended). They are brilliant narrators, and I was exceedingly happy to have 2 narrators for the 2 different main viewpoints. I haven't listened to them narrate a book together before and let's just say I really hope they do it again someday. I thought the pacing moved really quickly, and the viewpoints along with the dual time periods for Liv helped keep me engaged even more. I honestly wanted more out of Darcy's viewpoint since she added a nice procedural feel to the story, but since this was really about Liv, I understand why she had a smaller part. I am going to be holding onto the copy of Stay Awake that I purchased and will definitely be doing a reread in the future! Read this if you like the amnesia trope, want a quick read, and a story that will keep you guessing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

WOW What a page turner!
While this book started out slow for me, once I got into it, I couldn't read it fast enough.
Besides it being a twisty, thrilling emotionally charged read, I for once did not figure out the ending until I got there.
My second 5 start review read from this Author. Can't wait to catch up on some of her other books.
Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martins press and the Author, Megan Goldin for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @stmartinspress & @netgalley for the eARC to read and review !

One thing I love about Megan Goldin is how different each of her books are. One thing they all have in common for me is a fresh take on a trope, which always makes for a great read!

In Stay Awake, Goldin gives us an amnesia thriller with a twist- something I wasn’t sure was possible at this stage in the game.

Liv wakes up in a cab with no idea where she is or how she got there. Her only clue is the phrase STAY AWAKE written on her skin. It’s a totally different year than she remembers and everything and everyone around her has changed.

This is such a fun and entertaining read!

The concept of falling asleep and forgetting everything that’s happened makes for great tension. It’s real enough to make you think it could happen to you, which is the scariest (and most fun!) kind of of thing to read.

I loved the memory flashbacks and trying to piece everything together. Just call me detective Arianna 🕵🏻‍♀️. While I did figure out the twist, I had a great time piecing it together!

After reading all of Megan Goldin’s books to date, I can officially say she’s an auto-read author for me forever 💕

This story goes back and forth from the present to the past. We are trying to piece together the story as is the main character Liv. She wakes up in a park and it’s two years later and she doesn’t know what’s happened in between. Gripping story detailing her memory loss and a persons mission to find out what happened to her friends.

I really liked this book! I found it to be a great thriller that kept me guessing the whole time. I never really thought I knew the ending, and I was definitely surprised! You won’t be disappointed!

This book was kind of a slow start for me, but once it started I didn't want to put it down. Could you imagine waking up and looking in the mirror and not recognizing yourself. You go to your office just to find out that 2 years have passed and its not even your office anymore. This book for me had everything in it that I want a thriller book to have. I enjoy when there are different views to how the story plays out and in the end they all come together.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin was dark and twisty! I finished this mystery in a day after staying up way too late to finish it. Image forgetting everything of your life for the last two years every time you go to sleep and finding out your friends were murdered and you might be next. It’s a reason to never sleep again. But you keep waking up and having to piece everything together.

Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi not remembering much. She returns home to find strangers living in her home and a bloody knife in the place of her phone and the words STAY AWAKE on her hand.
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This starts her on a loop where every time she falls asleep she cannot remember anything and she realizes she is missing two years of her life and she may or may not be guilty of murder. This gave me a bit of The Flight Attendant vibes as she tried to unravel what’s real and what happened to her the last two years. This is a wild ride.
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Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

It was a slow go at first. The start didn’t keep my attention for too long. By the end I couldn’t put it down! There is a twist what I didn’t expect. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

What a captivating read. I always enjoy Megan Goldin's stories but what I love most is that they're all so different. Even the voice of the characters is different from each book to the next.

Stay Awake is a story of a woman who is living her personal "groundhog day." Time isn't actually frozen but every time Liv Reese falls asleep she wakes up with no memory of the past 2 years and 3 months. She wakes up and her last memory is of answering a phone call at her work desk. It's a summer day and she needs to get home to see Amy, her roommate. What seems like a nondescript day to be stuck on, it's actually quite a monumental day. She witnessed a horrific murder and came close to dying herself.

After the attempt on her life, she couldn't remember anything about what had happened but tried to move on. Liv has been haunted by this unsolved murder though and it seems her subconscious is going to trap her in this day until she can figure out exactly what she can't remember.

Goldin has such a creative mind, the stories she creates are unique and engaging. This one is no different. It'll keep you guessing and on your toes until you finally come to the plot's close.

This story is told between two different points-of-view. Liv Reese and Detective Darcy Halliday. Liv has woken up in the back of a cab in NYC and doesn't have the slightest clue of how she got there. In fact, she can't even remember anything from the last 2 years of her life but doesn't know that. As far as her mind is concerned, she's living two years in the past. She discovers her hands covered in her own handwriting telling her things like 'stay awake'. And most alarmingly, she discovers she's in possession of a bloody knife and that a local man has been found murdered. The woman leaving the murder scene looks an awful lot like Liv. She's now racing against time to figure out what happened in the time frame her mind has seemingly erased!

Stay Awake was fast paced, tension filled and suspenseful. Lots of twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Definitely recommend.

I loved the premise of Stay Awake, but as I started reading I started getting bored, I don’t know if it was the story or just the writing. The repetitiveness also didn’t help. The reveal of who the killer was wasn’t really surprising and I didn’t really care. I loved the short chapters I just wish it was a big more fast paced.