Chilling and terrifying. Did it really happen? Why wont people believe her? Couldn't put it down!

One of those rare books that is well written, enthralling and original. It would make a good adaptation to screen, too.

Alex is abducted after her shift as a doctor at the local hospital. She wakes to find herself strapped to a surgical table by a masked man who appears to be a doctor using old medical equipment. If she wants to live she has to give the right answer.
She wakes up unharmed and no one believes her story, most preferring to believe she imagined it or having some sort of breakdown.
Detective Inspector Greg Turner is the police officer tasked with investigating her claims. He starts to believe her story and finds his feelings growing for her.
Laura is a career police officer who doesn’t believe Alex is telling the truth.
Will the police catch a deranged, ruthless and extraordinary serial killer before its too late?
I absolutely loved how this novel started. It grabbed my attention, made me shiver with anticipation and kept me guessing. The only part I didn’t enjoy was the one involving Dylan the pet rat.
This is a psychological thriller ending with a big impact. Grab hold of your seat and make sure you hang on for some nail biting scenes.

Suspenseful was how this book could be summed up. Lots of twists and turns. Keeps you on the edge of your seat. You will not figure out the bad guy!
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes suspense.

What a great premise for a psychological thriller! This was definitely a breath of fresh air from all the thrillers I've read lately. The main critique I have is the character development wasn't a bit lacking.

This book was hard to get into and didn't keep my attention at all. Wouldn't recommend this.

While I enjoyed the book; it also seemed to drag a bit for me. It was hard for me to stay interested till the end. However, I did like the story itself.

Being abducted has to be on everyone's list of terrorizing events, but what if you woke up and no one believed you? When she wakes up with someone threatening to do awful things to her she is put back under only to wake up and be completely unharmed. Other things start happening around her and all lead to her guilt and demise. She is certain she will be believed when she's taken for a second time, but again, she's unharmed when she awakens so even she starts to wonder if she's losing her mind.
Her friends and co-workers do what they can to be supportive, but as an OR nurse, they need her to be fully alert and trustworthy to stay on the job.
What do you do when no one believes you but other people are suffering and you have no way to prove your innocence?

You are screaming all the way through this book believe her. You can just imagine how she feels. Exceptionally well written and even when you know who dunnit you think you're wrong. Could not put it down

Ah! It's been so long since I read a good murder-mystery book! God I missed reading!!!!!!!
I was just looking for a casual read this weekend and I chanced upon Don't Wake Up. The synopsis itself got me hooked.
Honestly, I loved everything about this book. Yes,it was a bit graphic at times but I couldn't have asked for more.
The protagonist, Alex wakes up tied to an operating table , helpless and is faced with the prospect of either death or heeding the demand of her kidnapper and so she does.Next moment she opens her eyes only to be told that she had had a concussion and it was all untrue. Unable to distinguish whether what was happened was real or her mind is simply playing tricks on her, the incidents that happen later only confirm her beliefs that someone is out there to harm her.
As a protagonist, I loved Alex. I could feel the resentment she felt towards not being believed. I was as desperate as her to bring the truth out in the open. I also liked Nathan and came to like her like Alex did. Same goes for Greg. The rest of the lot was shitty and I personally wanted to shake the hell out of Laura Best! That insensitive little....! Anyways, most of the characters were not likeable which to be frank was totally fine by me.
The book had me guessing all along. Actually,I was pretty sure I had it all figured out. Like from the start. But yes, I had it all quite wrong. That was an amazing plot twist and I loved the ending. Though I wouldn't have minded a 100 pages more.
Overall, I was glued to the book and even though the story is not everybody's cup of tea, I loved this book. Great job by Liza Lawler!
Thank you Net Galley for providing me an ARC.

There is an abundance of psychological thrillers out there with the emphasis on police procedures, so Don't Wake Up was something so completely different as it was set in a hospital. I was not surprised to learn that Liz Lawler had a long-standing career as a nurse as this was so procedurally accurate that I felt as if I was in the hospital at times.

Alex is a popular doctor in a busy A&E department, but one evening as she leaves work to meet her boyfriend she finds herself on an operating table. With her legs in stirrups she feels violated but then next thing she knows she is found fully dressed in the car park so nobody believes her story. When another apparent victim appears in casualty, Alex knows she didn't imagine what happened to her but more and more evidence seems to point at Alex being unhinged and dangerous. Something happened in Alex's past that she doesn't like to talk about but it might just hold the key as to the identity of the person who has set out to destroy Alex.

Don't Wake Up is a really enjoyable, fast-paced medical thriller. Alex is a character that you can see falling apart in front of your eyes and, as a reader, you are helpless to stop it. I wanted to shout: 'I believe you, Alex!' as she felt so very alone. I could have given her boyfriend, Patrick, a good slap as he doesn't even hide the fact that he doesn't believe her. What a detestable man - as a vet, I do hope he was kinder to animals than he was to someone he was supposed to love. It just shows what great characters Liz Lawler has created to make me display such feelings.

If you're looking for a different thriller, I'd definitely recommend Don't Wake Up, although I definitely wouldn't give it to somebody to read whilst in hospital.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

An interesting and different story however I must admit towards the end i found myself rushing to finish it.

I read this book in one sitting as I just had to find out what happened to Alex and why. Great plotting and extremely good writing made this book a pleasure to read and a easy one to recommend. I particularly loved the red herrings and suspense dangling moments. All the characters were well drawn and totally believable.

Dark, mysterious and every woman's nightmare. It sounds like Alex is losing her mind - twisty and a little chilling - I found this a CPID but sense that if I had it might have been a much less intense read.

A good debut novel, 4*, and a little graphic in places!

What a thrilling ride! Dr. Alex Taylor knows that something is wrong when she awakens and realizes she is in a surgical theater, with a paper gown on. She has no memory of what has happened to her and why she needs surgery. The person who is there watching over her will not answer her questions but only stares at her. She must answer a question, "What does NO mean?"

When she awakens in her own ER, everyone around her is worried, but they do not believe her story. Her collegues, her friend, her fiance, the police, no one believes her. She is a doctor, she knows what happened to her and she couldn't have made this up, could she?

My heart was racing reading the first chapter. Liz Lawler did an amazing job of keeping me guessing and all the while keeping the thrill level way up high. Dr. Taylor felt as if she was going crazy, why did no one believe her. Everything was just falling into place to make it look like she herself was doing this. Overall fantastic read, yet there were a few lulls in the storyline. If I am being completely honest the how/why got a bit out there. There is a bit of medical terms and let's just say slightly gruesome descriptions that gave me a few chills. Wonderful debut novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

As a doctor myself, I found this story chilling and horrifying. Alex Taylor, an emergency room doctor, slowly wakes up to find herself naked and strapped onto the operation table with her legs in stirrups, and her private parts exposed. She is threatened with hints of rape and getting her lips stapled by a doctor in surgery garbs, and slowly gets anaesthetised by rudimentary anaesthesia (horrors...).
When she wakes up the second time she finds herself in her own department trolley as a patient. She screams holy terror and gets all the tests done, everything is normal. Everyone starts doubting her story as the impersonator has left no clue, so was that an hallucination. Did a previous episode on Alex a year back trigger her brain into psychosis? As another patient comes to the emergency room in a critical state, Alex begins to see the connection. Is that real or imaginary? Is Alex going mad??
This is a debut novel by author Liz Lawler and I can assure you that she has gone all out on this story. The events happen as a roller coaster ride, there is no slowing down. There are murders and botched up procedure, there are threats by unknown assailants and doubts by the colleagues and police. There is a boyfriend who is a know-it-all and arrogant, and there is a could-be-boyfriend colleague who is shunned.
There is jealousy and envy, friends who are not friends, the not so friendly become friends, boyfriend becomes persona non grata and the shunned colleague becomes a possibility. The police who should help become the one ganging up, therapists sit passively, there is disbelief all round... Liz has included all emotions in this spine thrilling suspense.
The author has written the story well. Each sentence is filled with adrenaline, and the thrill doesn't stop till the last page. Liz Lawler took me on a ride along with Alex. As a doctor, I wanted to stand by her and fight for her. There are times I wanted to jump into the page and tell all the characters to believe Alex, that all that she says really happened. Alex's despair is acutely felt throughout the story, her desperation and her turning to medications and alcohol feels like a personal let down. The book does not stop pace and everytime it slows down there is a murder happening... Exciting...
There are, but of course, a few niggles
Alex is an emergency room doctor, where she has to make split second decisions to a save a patient's life yet she comes to work drunk and on medication, yet can save lives zonked out...?? Not possible
The police who investigate, do more thinking than investigation, even the officer who gangs up on Alex, thinks and thinks and thinks... weird theories without a base. How about doing some actual police work and getting evidence.....??
The things happening around Alex are too far fetched, Alex at times comes as a ditsy airhead, instead of being a doctor with the highest qualification who does everything extremely well, including flying a helicopter but yet drinks and self medicates, and does not report an earlier attack. All emergency room doctors are friendly to police yet Alex knows no one... How is this an intelligence of an emergency room doctor??
There are characters there are actions and there are emotions but they don't match... Each character says something, does something else... Yet Alex believes them, in her insecurity???
Alex could have been written as a stronger woman, playing the victim card gets on the nerves, a victim who takes control of her life would have made this book fabulous.
Inspite of these, the book does not fail to thrill, it reads fast, it makes the heart beat fast, it makes the real world disappear till the Alex's reality is revealed...
I enjoyed it thoroughly and would recommend it to readers who enjoy medical suspense as there are quite a few medical words and procedures.

If the rest of the book had lived up to the chillingly suspenceful start I would have been giving a five star review. Unfortunately though it really didn't and the unlikely way in which the professionals in the story behaved made it just too unbelievable for me to enjoy it.
I will give credit to the research the author must have done to sound so knowledgable about some of the medical procedures.

Wow!!!what a ride!!!!! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! Medical thrillers are my top fav!!! And let's just talk about that first chapter?!?!? WOW!!!!

This book kept me on the edge of my seat. It was a real nail biter. I enjoyed the story immensely. Congratulations, Liz Lawler, on weaving a spellbinding tale.