LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5. Cleo enters her childhood home to have dinner with her semi-estranged mother, to find dinner on fire, and a puddle of blood with her mother missing. Cleo must out together the pieces of her mothers past to try to find her. This was a good thriller, with short addictive chapters, and a dual POV. There were twists that I expected, and ones that I did not. It was going to be a 4⭐️ for me, except I felt like a few loose ends never got tied. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5/
"In other words, she is the exact person you want in an emergency. Too bad she's not here. My mom would be so good at finding herself."

This was a very quick, enthralling read. I read this in under 24 hours and definitely was very invested. The dual timelines of pre and post incident were awesome and made the story work so well. I anticipated a few of the seemingly minor twists and could tell things were off with a few characters, but I was certainly surprised by the final reveal. The commentary on motherhood and childhood also added a lot to the overall story. This was one of my favorite thrillers I've read in quite a while. Highly recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the eARC! Publishing 7/30!

Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight is a gripping and suspenseful thriller that is a perfect fit for readers who enjoy domestic suspense, family drama, and mystery, particularly those who appreciate complex relationships between mothers and daughters and are drawn to stories that explore the darker side of human nature.

This one kept me guessing! Complicated characters, a mother with a painful past, a daughter who can‘t see past her own misery, a father who is lazy and self absorbed. When there is a disappearance, the daughter struggles to find the truth is all the lies and omissions. Perfectly paced, this thriller was compelling and a great summer read. Out July 29th.

This was an intriguing read for my first by the author.
I liked the characters, they were very unreliable and flawed and sometimes that’s what makes me enjoy a story even more. The twists were pretty much predictable for me but that didn’t stop me keeping up and seeing where everything ends.

Kat and Cleo have a ton of secrets, but like many mothers and daughters their secrets often revolve around protection. Kat goes missing and Cleo must unravel Kat’s past and present to find her. This book takes the reader on several twists and turns while creating several red herrings.

Like Mother, Like Daughter, by Kimberly McCreight is a new favorite! This story is so engaging and kept my attention riveted the entire time. The pacing is smooth, not slowing in its momentum or steadily building tension. The plot is intelligent and complex, while still being understandable, and is clever in its execution and planning. The characters are also interesting and fully fleshed out with intriguing histories.

The story revolves around a mother and a college-age daughter and the natural tension and angst that often occurs in such relationships. Katrina, the rather strict mother with an overly cautious nature, has invited her semi-estranged daughter Cleo to dinner to discuss something from her past as a means of caution, but also to connect with her. But when Cleo arrives, her mother is nowhere to be found and Cleo discovers a pool of blood left behind. Who would do such a thing to a seemingly dull, methodical patent attorney? Her husband, whom she is separated from, doesn’t seem to show the appropriate level of concern and this bothers Cleo and the police for several reasons. As Cleo begins to unearth information and inadvertently find tidbits that raise some concerning questions, she can’t help but follow the clues. With dual POV’s leading up to the event, and the investigation after the event, we get two gripping sides to the story that seamlessly come together to complete the story in the most satisfying way.

Like Mother, Like Daughter has layer upon layer, countless potential suspects and red herrings interwoven into the plot, and so much more that lies beneath the surface, reminiscent of real life. Muddied motivations, secrets from the past we’d rather keep hidden, misunderstandings and occasional poor choices…life is complicated, and this thriller showcases that in a very authentic way. Like Mother, Like Daughter has compelling, credible characters with a depth that makes them people you can’t help but feel for, all embedded within a suspenseful, enthralling plot. I loved it, thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book, and look forward to more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for this advance copy. I loved this author’s previous novels, but this one was not a favorite. The alternating timeline usually works for me, but here it pulled me out of the story and made it difficult to follow. I just never felt like the story got into a good rhythm. Even though this was a miss for me, I will still try whatever McCreight writes next.

I so loved this one! I will be posting on TikTok soon but wanted to express my sincere gratitude for getting the opportunity to read this! I will say that Cleo drove me crazy in a way that all teens drive us crazy in books! Such a page turner and the twist at the end was amazing! Loved it!

Overall a solid thriller but a lot of plot points going on,

Same as with The Good Marriage, it kind of took some time to get into and get invested in the story and it to all start to really hook me and get me into it.

This book did such a great job of making every single person look SO guilty. While I did see some plot twists coming, there were others I did NOT anticipate.

This also pulled on SO many heart strings- mother/daughter relationships are never simple. They are beautiful, hard, complex, painful, and everything in between.

Since this is an uncorrected proof I have no doubts that my two minor notes will be resolved with the last round of editing. There was an instance where one of the female characters is said to set something down and in the next paragraph she was holding it again, but I sadly did not remember to highlight that instance.
Beyond that I am SO pleased with this read.

Finishing this book left me wanting to hug my mom for a really really long time.

3.5 stars
Thank you Knopf for the early review copy of Like Mother, Like Daughter. The strongest part for me was the focus on Cleo as college age, a time in which there is a lot of awakening for many in terms of learning about their parents as flawed and complex characters and how learning about Kat's secrets let Cleo come to terms with parts of her own life.

Overall, I liked this one but it fell a little flat for me in terms of some of the character behaviors and styles. I felt a little alienated by the mother's parenting behaviors and struggled to understand some of how the pieces of the plot and themes explored all came together and how they were all necessary to the plot. That being said, I was still drawn into the mystery, wanted to explore how McCreight would develop the plot and lead to a conclusion. I did enjoy learning about the fixer part of the plot and seeing how the mother/daughter themes were developed.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.*

NYU student Cleo arrives home for dinner with her mother to find an empty kitchen, a bloody shoe and no sign of her mother.

As she attempts to figure out what has happened, she discovers details of her mother's complicated past, as well as the crumbling ruins of her parents' marriage.

A solid thriller with just enough twists and intrigue to keep you turning pages late into the night.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

NYU student Cleo goes home to Brooklyn to visit her mom, but all she finds is a burning dinner, broken glass, and… is that blood?!? As Cleo plays detective, Kat’s story starts to unfold, coming together almost seamlessly by the end of the book. As you read, it quickly becomes evident that there’s more to both Kat and Cleo - neither is as perfect as they seem, and their past transgressions may now be catching up to them.

Even though I guessed the major twist very early, there was enough other stuff going on to keep my interest. Lots of suspicious folks on the periphery, and any one could be the key to finding out what happened to Kat. Aside from a few small plot holes and an ending that felt a bit rushed, I enjoyed this one and finished it pretty quickly. There are a lot of puzzle pieces to keep track of. If you don’t read tons of these, you may not catch the misdirects and that will likely make the book even more satisfying.

This was a pretty solid read, if a bit complicated to follow at times. I enjoyed getting pieces of the story from different points of view, and it had a good twist that I didn’t guess. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cleo is an entitled rich daughter who is coming home from college to have dinner with her overprotective and overbearing mom Kat. However Cleo quickly changes her tune when instead of finding her mom she finds burned food, and a bloody shoe in the house, but her mom is nowhere to be found. What follows is the mystery of where Kat is and what happened to her. The story is told in dual POV between Kat in the past, and Cleo in the present with texts and lawyer proceedings and documents sprinkled in. As the story progresses Cleo comes to realize that there is so much she didn’t know about her mom. The story was pretty fast paced, with some interesting twists and turns and character growth, but the multiple POV’s and jumping around in time made the story a bit confusing at times. An interesting fast paced thriller. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

3.5⭐️

After months of ignoring her mother, Cleo arrived home from college to find food burning on the stove, no sign of her mother, Kat, and a bloody shoe that was clearly her mother's. This starts a chain of events that lead to Cleo investigating her mother's disappearance and she discovers that her mother had been lying. Her job, about her childhood, about her relationship with Cleo's dad, none of it was true. And now it seemed that her past was coming back to haunt her.

I'm going to premise this review with the fact that I hate overbearing mothers, no matter how justified it is (hi mommy issues). So I really did not like the character of Kat. There were a lot of her actions that just seemed so over the top and almost unbelievable even if she was a "fixer." I did appreciate that she had this whole secret life and how she'd been able to hide so much from her family. Trying to figure out what was true and what wasn't made for nice tension.

I did really like the character of Cleo and how she immediately dove in to try to find her mother. Everyone in her and her mother's orbit seemed suspicious and I was a bit worried that she wasn't asking enough questions. It really showed how much her mother had sheltered her to protect her from how hard Kat's own childhood was and that Cleo didn't automatically assume the worse in everyone. The twist of how Cleo and Kat were like mother, like daughter was really well done and unexpected.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf publishing for providing this ARC to me!

Kimberly McCreight delivers another well-written emotional suspense novel in her soon to be published (July 30, 2024) novel entitled "Like Mother, Like Daughter."

Intertwined with all of the twists and turns and false leads inherent in any suspense thriller is an engaging study of the trials, tribulations, joys, and heartbreaks whose name is mother-daughter relationships! In this, McCreight's writing sparkles with astute observations and depictions of the love/hate dynamic at the core of the relationship. Unconditional love does not come without some cost to both women.

I am grateful to the author for her craft, the publisher for their support, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book prior to its release.

#LikeMother,LikeDaughter
#KimberlyMcCreight
#NetGalley

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book before publication! The review will be live on my blog on 7/11/24. I will also feature the review on Instagram that same day and post my review to Goodreads, The Storygraph, Fable, and retail sites.

Review:
Several years ago, I read (and loved) Kimberly McCreight's "Reconstructing Amelia." I have (but have yet to read) her other novels, but when I saw this on NetGalley, I scooped it up after reading the very intriguing synopsis, and I wasn't disappointed.

In this book, Cleo, an NYU student, agrees to meet her lawyer mother, Kat, for dinner. The two have had a very rocky relationship, and Cleo isn't exactly excited about it. When she arrives at her mother's Manhattan home, she finds the door ajar, a bloody shoe on the ground, smashed glass everywhere, and her mother missing. Cleo knows that she should let the police do their job, but after finding some questionable clues on her mother's laptop, she decides to do some investigating of her own. Soon, she will discover things about her mother that she never could have guessed were possible.

Kat wasn't just a high-powered lawyer - she was a fixer for the firm - saving people's reputations and companies through whatever means necessary. But when Kat begins to receive threatening messages from an unknown number, telling her that they will expose a deadly secret from her past unless she pays a hefty sum, she may need to pull in a few favors from her connections. The problem is that Kat doesn't know where the threats are coming from. Are they from the pharmaceutical company that may be behind the death of one of Kat's acquaintances? Is it someone from her past? Is it the temperamental client Kat has been working with, or is it her estranged husband? Who was threatening Kat, and are they behind her disappearance?

McCreight's writing is fast-paced and gripping. It pulls you in from the very first page and doesn't let go until the shocking conclusion. What I especially loved about this book is that there weren't a bunch of red herrings and ridiculous twists, just a few misdirections that eventually came together. A lot happens between these pages, but it all comes together nicely in the end. It was also nice that I didn't figure out who was behind everything until a few chapters before the reveal, which made it all the more exciting.

The characters in the book are not just real and complex but also remarkably relatable. Cleo, with her reckless behavior and overflowing emotions, is a stark contrast to her seemingly perfect mother, Kat. As Cleo delves deeper into her mother's hidden world, she uncovers a web of deception, threats, and long-buried secrets that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Cleo always thought she and her mother were polar opposites, but the further she digs, the more the reader sees how similar they are - especially in their tenacity to discover the truth. What helps is that we get alternating viewpoints from both characters' points of view, hearing from Kat in the days leading up to her disappearance and from Cleo as she searches for her mother. Peppered amongst the narrative are text strings, journal entries, and a few court documents that help flesh out the story.

At its core, this is a gripping mystery with well-drawn characters and a compelling storyline. It reminded me of how much I enjoy Kimberly McCreight's writing. She doesn't rely on gimmicks or far-fetched twists, focusing instead on crafting an intricate story with depth and believable characters. If you are a mystery lover, definitely check this one out. You won't be disappointed.

Told in a dual POV format, mother in the past and daughter in the future, plus some intermixed interviews, diary entries, and news articles, this book was a solid thriller. Cleo comes home to visit her mother, Kat, and stumbles on food burning in the oven, a bloody shoe, and her mother nowhere to be found. This starts her POV as she investigates what happened to her mother. Meanwhile, the mother's POV focuses on her past, her relationship with her daughter, and what led to her disappearance. There was a lot to this story. Much of the focus was on the mother/daughter relationship, but there also was a lot of focus on the mother's past and how that relates to her current job as a lawyer. and fixer I feel like the author wanted to include a lot of moving pieces to the story so at times it was difficult to follow how everything tied together. Overall, I would recommend checking this book out.

Thank you to Knopf for the opportunity to read and review.

Cleo, a student at NYU, goes home to Park Slope to have dinner with her mother, Kat, and is shocked to find dinner burning and her mother nowhere to be found. But there is broken glass, and blood in the kitchen. Cleo decides she has to try to find her mother. She feels guilty that she’s rejected her mother recently for being tightly wound and over-protective. After all, Cleo has done some things for her mother to worry about, like being in a relationship with a drug dealer. But Cleo keeps finding more and more things about her mother—past and present—that could have put her in danger. Her mother spent several years in an orphanage that was later the subject of an exposé, and it looks like she might have done something terrible there herself. And in the present, Cleo learns that Kat isn’t a patent lawyer; she’s a fixer, and maybe has come up against some dangerous people in connection with her work. Then there is Cleo’s dad, Aidan, who is separated from Kat, and had some issues with her.

The story is told in dual first-person chapters by Cleo and Kat. Kat’s story covers several days before her disappearance, while Cleo’s run from the time she arrived in Park Slope. There are also some interspersed texts between undesignated persons, some transcripts of therapy sessions, some legal documents. All the jumping around can get a little confusing at times, but overall this is a fast-paced thriller with enough complexity to the plot to keep the reader guessing until the last chapter.