Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an ARC.

This book is gorgeous, I could not put it down. There is a list of characters at the beginning, that seemed so complicated. I couldn’t figure out how they could all be stitched together, but in the end, what a wonderfully drawn set of characters. This is a story of families and intergenerational friendships and secrets. The ending was a tiny bit not satisfying, but not because the secrets weren’t revealed—because maybe it tied up a bit too neatly given the messiness of the secret. But it definitely didn’t leave me wanting.

Readers who loved books like Hello Beautiful and Commonwealth will love this also.

Like Mother, Like Mother is the story of three generations of women and how they survive the struggles of their lives. Lila Pereira's mother is institutionalized when Lila is only two years old, and dies without ever seeing her children again. Lila becomes the focus of her abusive father's beatings after her mother is gone, and Lila accepts that role to protect her brother & sister. Once she goes away to college, she escapes her father, meets her husband and starts a family. Her role as a mother is not traditional, and she lets her husband, Joe Maier, know that he will have to carry most of the weight for child rearing if he wants children. Their three daughters grow up rarely seeing Lila, who eventually works her way up to being the executive editor of The Washington Globe newspaper, and work consumes her hours. Her youngest daughter, Grace, resents being "abandoned" by her mother, and writes a novel that is a thinly veiled story of her family. Grace is also decides to find out if her grandmother, Zelda Pereira, really died in the institution, or ran away from her abusive husband and leaving her three children. The writing is excellent, the story funny & poignant. The world in which these characters live is well drawn. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for an advance reader copy to review.

3.5 stars
Story of three generations of women and how mothers (and their children's perceptions of them) shape their children's lives. Family drama, overcoming trauma, finding your own path despite the pressures of family and society. The themes of what makes a good mother and what a woman owes her family were thought provoking. I think I would have enjoyed it more except that I didn't much like some of the main characters.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

4 out of 5. I really enjoyed this family drama and the three generations history was very well done. All the women were interesting, flawed and very well developed and so were their relationship, even though Grace was very annoying she was well developed.. I also loved the political side of it. I just felt the end kind of happened. There was so much turmoil during the book that the end didn’t feel like and ending, I was expecting a couple more chapters

'Like Mother, Like Mother' by Susan Rieger is an interesting, intergenerational look at how parents shape not only their children, but generations to come. I thought Rieger's portrayal of the various parental relationships in the book was nuanced, and felt that she created complex characters. The strong female characters chose to face adversity differently, and the male partners in their lives have varying impacts.

I found Rieger's discussion of gender and religion to be intriguing. If one has an interest in attachment theory, this book makes interesting reading.

Thank you to Susan Rieger and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Like Mother, Like Mother is a story focused on mother daughter relationships. When Lila was two years old her father had her mother committed to an insane asylum and Lila never saw her again. Thirty years later Lila is now the mother to three daughters and also the executive editor of the Washington Globe. Her youngest daughter, Grace, feels her mother should be more present at home and not focus on her career.

This book was hard for me to finish because I just could not engage with the characters or writing style. I found myself putting it down to come back to it days later, which did not help me keep up with the story. The older I get the less I want to waste time reading books that don't interest me within the first chapter or two at most. The characters felt flat and I did not connect with any of them. And throwing in almost quotes or direct quotes from other sources took me out of the story as I tried to figure out where I had heard that before. The author either needs to come up with her own material or do a better job of attributing these to their sources.

I am sure this book will find the right audience, but it was not for me. Maybe it was because I read it during the 2024 election and the book also gets political so it was all too much. Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

I love family sagas so I was expecting to love this a whole lot more than I did. I appreciate how the author showed how our families of origin affect us and impact our relationships. I also can relate to the fraught emotions related to discovering old family secrets via DNA; my family discovered my great-grandparents had given up their oldest daughter for adoption when she was around 9-10 yrs old in the 1930s when one of us matched with her granddaughter. I’d give anything to know the story there.

I had a hard time connecting to the story and a lot of that was due to the dialogue which felt kind of pretentious and artificial. I truly do not know a soul who speaks like all these people do. I thought the narrative was a bit choppy and jumped around quite a bit, which normally doesn’t bother me but here I just felt disconnected.

With echoes of a similar writing style to Hello, Beautiful, this book was a five-star read. I loved following the main characters’ stories and was invested from the first page. I am a sucker for multi-generational familial fiction, and this book delivered. Some reviewers have complained about the quotes pulled from other sources – but they didn’t bother me at all. This story was a delight, and I enjoyed every part of it!

Quick recap without spoilers:
Lila Pereira grows up with an abusive father and no mother. When Lila marries an incredibly kind man, Joe, it only seems fitting that he cares for the children. At the end of her career as the executive editor of The Washington Globe, Lila never regrets her choices, as Joe receives credit for raising their three daughters. While the older two don’t seem to mind, the youngest, Grace, resents her mother and feels abandoned. Eventually publishing a book loosely based on her family story, Grace sets out to solve the mystery of Lila’s mother, even though Lila always claimed she died in an asylum. The story seeks to answer the question: is it possible to know who you are without knowing where you came from?

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy. I'll shout my love for this story on my page!

Like Mother, Like Mother is an intergenerational story focused on women who are headstrong, independent, and willing to do whatever it takes. But sometimes that means leaving the mothering up to others, which can have a lasting effect from one generation to another. This story follows the lives of Lila, her daughter Grace, and to a smaller extent her mother Zelda. Their stories are full of strength and grit, but also generational trauma.

The supporting characters in this story truly make it shine. Joe is steadfast and easy-going; he’s around to make up for Lila being gone. Ruth is sure of herself, hard-working, and measured where Grace is rebellious and meandering. When the main characters are making you shake your head, the supporting characters are pulling them through to better days.

Overall, this book is for you if you like intergenerational stories about the nuances of motherhood!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, The Dial Press, and Susan Rieger for this ARC!

LOVED this sharply written, clever, insightful and engaging story of women throughout the generations of the Perera family. I truly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to recommend it at our store!

I really liked this book. A family saga about three generations of women and the secrets that shaped their lives.
One of my favorite things about this book, which I miss in so many others, was that the chapters had titles. I wish authors would go back to that. It just make reading so much more enjoyable for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for a honest opinion.
4⭐️

Three women, Lila, whose mother supposedly died in a mental hospital when she was two, her daughter Grace, mostly raised by her father while her mother rose up the news ladder and Lila's mother, all cut from the same cloth, so alike in many ways. The three women have to navigate their lives and their emotions. They have loving but yet cold relationships. They are all no-nonsense and it can be off-putting at times but it works for all of them and for the story.

All of the characters are fully formed and they all meld together perfectly. Motherhood with all it's ups and downs. Some are cut out for it and others are not. Does that mean that Grace will be as cool as her mother? Nurture or Nature? I think that is the main question here.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for a copy for review.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

This book was a mixed bag for me. It took about 40% of the book for me to finally get into it and be intrigued. There were so many characters that it was difficult to keep them all straight…there was a reference guide at the beginning.

I finally found the plot interesting and enjoyed the journey most of the characters went on, but it was also very grim and I haven’t completely decided if I cared for it overall.

Susan Rieger's novel LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER delves into the intricate tapestry of mother-daughter relationships, exploring the themes of abandonment, survival, and the enduring impact of familial bonds. The story follows Lila, a successful media executive who, despite her professional triumphs, grapples with the shadows of her past and the choices she makes as a mother.

Lila's journey is a poignant reflection of the sacrifices and decisions made in the name of survival and ambition. Her character, though flawed, is portrayed with a depth that invites readers to ponder the societal expectations of motherhood. Rieger's portrayal of Lila challenges the conventional narrative, presenting a woman whose approach to motherhood is unorthodox and unrepentant, yet undeniably human.

The novel's pace and structure allow readers to immerse themselves in the multigenerational saga, with each character's imperfections adding to the richness of the narrative. Rieger's skilful writing ensures that the characters' hardships resonate with authenticity, particularly in the depiction of domestic abuse. The author handles these sensitive topics with care, bringing them to the forefront and compelling readers to confront the harsh realities faced by the characters.

One of the most captivating aspects of the book is the mystery surrounding Lila's mother. This element serves as a subtle yet persistent force driving the narrative forward, culminating in a conclusion that, while not providing all the answers, mirrors the often-unresolved nature of real-life family dynamics.

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER reflects the complexity of human relationships and the resilience of the spirit. Its narrative invites introspection, asking readers to consider the multifaceted nature of motherhood and the indelible marks it leaves on both the giver and the receiver of that profound love. Rieger's novel is a compelling read for anyone interested in the nuanced portrayal of family, identity, and the enduring question of what it means to truly understand one another.

Lila was raised by an abusive father who put her mother in a mental hospital. Lisa marries Joe who is an A+ husband–he agrees to raise the kids while she follows her career as a journalist to eventually become the editor of a major newspaper. She has three kids; the youngest Grace is the image of her dad but the personality of her mother. She writes a book that is not flattering. Her mom dies at 65 and leaves her daughter a letter asking her to find out what happened to her mother, Zelda. Grace finds out that Zelda ran out of the home, changed her name, moved and eventually remarried and had two more kids. They connect thru a genealogy website. Like her mother, Grace has a skyrocketing career as a journalist, marries a wonderful man and has a child at the end. There’s lots of stray threads that could easily have been omitted–the Jewish traditions, her roommate Ruth's “progeniture” both are distractions. I also don’t know the rush to kill off Lila since she dominates the story, beginning to end. The other lose end is the lack of development of the men–Joe is a lawyer but that’s about all we know. Grace interviews Aldo, her grandfather and he is as nasty as Lila described him. I liked the book despite the transgressions. It shows that nature wins over nurture as Zelda, Lila, and Grace are all fiercely independent, motivated, and non-nurturing women who leave the children to be raised by their fathers in a gender swapping role. I don’t know if it will be any different with Grace. Her ending feelings are that her mother and grandmother did what they had to do–not much closure there since both ended up and should have been happy.

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger is a captivating novel that delves into the complexities of mother-daughter relationships across generations. Rieger’s sharp wit and keen observations make for a compelling read as the story unfolds through multiple perspectives. The characters are well-drawn and deeply relatable, with their struggles and secrets adding layers to the narrative.

3.5 Stars

This novel touches on several themes: family, marriage, ambition, motherhood, and mother-daughter relationships.

When Lila Pereira is two years old in 1960, her father Aldo has his wife Zelda committed to a mental institution. Lila never sees her mother again as she is told that she died. An ambitious woman, Lila eventually becomes executive editor of a major newspaper. Though she has three daughters, Lila prioritizes her career, leaving her husband Joe to raise the girls. Grace, the youngest child, feels abandoned by her mother though she becomes a successful reporter. Whereas Lila never questioned her father’s version of events, Grace has her doubts about Aldo’s story, refuses to live with ambiguity, and sets out to confirm what happened to her grandmother: Did Zelda really die while in the psychiatric facility?

Zelda, Lila, and Grace are the central women; each is the focus of one of the novel’s three sections. Strong-willed, ambitious, and intelligent, they have similar personalities. One difference is that Zelda and Lila look forward into the future, not back into the past, while Grace wants to uncover her grandmother’s past. Though she is certainly flawed, I liked Lila. She is open and honest from the beginning about her career ambitions and about not wanting to be a conventional mother. I found Grace annoying; she is selfish and resentful and desperate for attention. Instead of appreciating what she has – a truly privileged life – she takes petty revenge on Lila by writing a book about her. Her father tells her she’s self-absorbed, “’stuck in adolescence,’” and her aunt tells her, “’You’ve got to grow up.’”

There is a large cast of characters, but I never found myself confused because they are sufficiently differentiated. (There is a chart at the beginning to help if needed.) An issue, however, is that some of these characters (Joe, Frances, Ruth, Kathy and Richard Goldsmith) are almost too good to be true. And as soon as Nicholas and Alexander were introduced, I guessed what roles they would be given. The ending is also a bit too much like that of a fairy tale: everyone finds true love, and has a successful career with financial stability.

The novel jumps back and forth in time and from one character’s point of view to that of another. My issue was that this approach sometimes led to repetition. An event is mentioned and then detailed later. The pace is also slower because of this.

I was confused by the political rants. Real political figures are mentioned (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden) but then there’s a fictional president, Charles Webb, who is definitely modeled on Donald Trump. Webb is portrayed as a villain so the author’s political views are obvious. Though I agree with her, I found some of these rants out of place since they are not relevant to the book’s themes.

The book is entertaining and inspires thought about the complexities of families, marriages, and parenthood and about how the past informs the present.

Interesting characters but I didn’t really love any of them except the Grandmother Frances. The story started out strong for me and then I found it hard to keep my interest. I liked the resolution in the end but overall I couldn’t understand or embrace the mother/father/husband dynamic.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I struggled to connect with this book at first. Lots of name and lots of self-important, big words. The legend of 20+ characters to memorize at the beginning really didn’t help.

But overall, it’s a lovely generational story of strong women. If you enjoy family sagas, this one might be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy.

3.5 stars rounded up

Like Mother, Like Daughter by Susan Rieger is a compelling exploration of family dynamics, secrets, and the complexity of mother-daughter relationships. The story follows the lives of a mother and daughter who are bound by both love and tension, navigating their differing views on life, relationships, and identity. Rieger’s writing is sharp and insightful, drawing readers into a world where loyalty and misunderstandings clash. While the pacing can feel a bit slow at times, the emotional depth and character development keep you invested. A thought-provoking read for anyone interested in nuanced family dramas!

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGally in exchange for my honest review