Getting this finished today, publication day. Multi generational story told through a mother, and then her daughter. Most of the men are too good to be true, except for the original monster of a father, Aldo.
The theme of abandoned daughters, whether real or just emotionally abandoned is heartbreaking. How children deal with the trauma is shown very well.
Lila escapes from her father, and believes that her mother has died. Her brother Polo, who was five when the mother was sent to an asylum deals with it in one way, while sister Clara remains somewhat unscathed.
Lila's daughter Grace is too much like her mother and grows up emotionally starved for her mother, but feeling very loved by her father, Joe.
There is a large cast of interesting characters who interact throughout the book, and many more instances of children abandoned one way or another.
DNA testing is a big plot point in several of the stories to the good or to the bad, just like in real life.
There is a surprisingly happy ending, which did in fact make me happy.
I may have had a more personal reaction to this book than some. Being Jewish, having a father I disliked, having lived in Florida, D. C. And LA, all settings in the book all combined to increase my interest.
I do think this will make a very good book club book and will engender many interesting conversations.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the EARC. The opinions are my honest reactions to this book.

I loved this book - from the beautiful cover (wish I could frame it) to the compelling storytelling about 3 generations of women, Zelda, Lila, and Grace, . The book had a unique voice, almost old-fashioned, and I really liked it. Something in the story almost reminiscent of Hello Beautiful, but with a distinct voice. I'll be seeking out this author's backlist for more.

Three generations of mothers and daughters and readers wrestling with the definition of a 'good mother'. Zelda, Lila and Grace - not perfect but each doing what they thought was best. The relationships are smart and tough and complicated and there is lots of room for debate about the actions each chooses to take. This book is well written and interesting. There are lots of characters, as to be expected in a multi-generation book - however, they all tied well to the three main women so that I did not find the story confusing. I loved Lila's character and could have used more of her in the latter parts of the book.

'He said he tempered her steel. She said she raised his ruckus.'

'Stella and Ava had their mother's looks, but like most copies, they were dimmer.'

'They did what they had to. They did what they could.'

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this novel about three generations of women in the Pereira family. It was well written and the characters were all interesting and well developed. You understood the motivations and behaviors of Lila and Grace. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

This story spans decades following three generations of very hard nosed and complex women and I really, really enjoyed it.

I am a HUGE fan of family sagas and stories that are heavily character driven. This story has that with splashes of sarcasm and humor and a bit of mystery. One of the women, Lila, who I think was also my favorite character, is a newspaper editor and I really, really enjoyed that part of her storyline.

“People surprise you, always ask.”

I also love stories that make me think more deeply, that are thought-provoking and vulnerable and this story made me think so much about my own mom and my grandmother. It made me see my mom more clearly and made me want to ask her all sorts of questions about her life. I already told she needs to read this as soon as possible so we can talk about it.

I also really, really loved that these women are tough.

“You are the hero of your own life.”

This book will definitely be one that I will think about for a long time and one that I think everyone should read.

As mentioned elsewhere, uneven. Despite a strong start and promising setup, this saga of mothers and daughters did not follow through. Part of the problem was that the women were treated much better and with clearer definition, but the men just seemed to be placeholders. I also was impatient with the romantic entanglements that brought the forward motion to a screaming stop.

I picked this book up based on the mother-daughter/multi-generational family saga vibe. I was expecting a Kirsten Miller-type read (The Change, Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books) filled with a story with great topics and cast of interesting characters. And this story had both aspects and then some.

Like Mother, Like Mother is told in three parts and follows three generations of women - Lila, her daughter Grace and Lila's mother, Zelda who went missing decades before. With its huge cast (take advantage of the character listing!), this book tackles important topics affecting women, relationships and the impact of trauma.

The strongest part of the book for me was Lila's story. Lila will be a polarizing character. She was an absolute force; she made many mistakes and accomplished many successes (in parts of her life) and didn't apologize for any of it. She knew who she was, and I found her fascinating despite her shortcomings as a wife and mother. She was a complex character who wasn't likeable, but I understood how she developed into the woman/mother/wife/sister she became.

The second part that focuses on Grace was much less riveting with its strong focus on US politics (timely with their election and with a Trump-like character t'boot) but this section dragged for me. It felt like more attention was given to Grace's university roommate Ruth. I didn't connect with Grace, or her story and I found myself skimming part of Grace's section.

The final section goes back to the original mystery of what happened to Zelda, Lila's mother who was committed to an asylum and then vanished. The idea of this mystery is what kept me reading and, in the end, it was a decent conclusion.

This is a character-driven story filled with important topics - gender stereotypes in parenting, misogyny, and the impact of intergenerational trauma and abuse - which gives great fodder to book clubs. But while I appreciate the topics raised, the slow pacing and dialogue-heavy writing style were a miss for me.

Final Thoughts:
Liked: social topics, strong female characters, mystery of Zelda
Okay: character-driven story
Nope: pacing and dialogue-heavy style of writing, US politics

Disclaimer: Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary digital copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

Is it just me, or is intergenerational trauma the new black? With a small handful of exceptions, it’s been the driver of almost every book I’ve read since July (and not just the obvious ones, like Madwoman. Even a book like The Ministry of Time, which is basically Bill and Ted meets Mission Impossible, has the fingerprints of intergenerational trauma all over it). To be clear, this is not a complaint—it’s just interesting how I keep reaching for these books, most of the time without even realizing the thematic throughline that connects them.

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger explores this theme in a very direct way, focusing as it does on young writer Grace Maier’s attempts to understand her unknowable, distant mother, Lila Pereira, by uncovering the truth about Zelda, the long-dead (or is she? Lila and Grace disagree on this crucial point) grandmother Grace never met, whose disappearance when Lila was young shapes everything that follows.

Though Lila dies on the very first page (in the very first line, in fact) her snap, crackle, and pop dialogue and non-conformity made me want to stay with her, which is no small accomplishment (it’s more challenging to muster concern for a character when you know—or at least think you do—their whole story at the outset). But Rieger made it easy to get invested (asked to get her boss a coffee on her second day on the job as an obituary writer, Lila grabs her purse and starts walking out. “I’m a reporter…If you want a waitress, repost the job.” #Bless).

Lila’s career soars and she finds herself at the top of her field, celebrated and feared/disliked in equal measure. But her childhood was the stuff of nightmares (left with father, Lila and her siblings suffer endless abuse), and career success isn’t the magic eraser of childhood trauma, making Lila as decisive about not wanting kids as she is about not fetching coffee. Understandable, no?

But what happens when a woman who doesn’t want children loves a man who does? Is it a crime to choose to hold onto that love by becoming a mother in, essentially, name only? To have children, but then not behave in a mother-y way?

Spoiler alert: Grace sure seems to think so, and I suspect some readers will too.

When I pick up a book, I'm interested in things like the quality of the line level writing and how compelling the story is. My enjoyment of it isn’t based on whether I agree with the choices the protagonist makes and how they behave, except insofor as these things are relevant to the story and plausible based on what the author has shown us about them. I have yet to read any reviews of this one, but I’m predicting that when I do, much will be made of Lila’s likeability (or, more accurately, lack thereof) based on the choices she's made in her life.
And when that happens, I am going to be (as I am every time this issue comes up) very annoyed about some readers’ inability to muster up a shred of empathy for characters who’ve been through things they themselves will (with luck) never have to experience. Particularly given that it's precisely those choices of Lila's that make the story compelling and create the opportunity for Rieger to give her some (maybe even most) of the book's best lines (it's really too bad Katherine Hepburn isn't still around to play her in the adaptation).

One last prediction: I see Like Mother, Like Mother making for some lively book club discussion once it makes its way into readers’ hands.

This book was a letdown for me. I struggled to connect to any of the characters. The dialogue all seemed stiff and unrealistic. The plot dragged out. I kept going because I wanted to know what happened, but it never paid off.

Thank you @netgalley and @thedialpress for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I flew through this one! Like Mother, Like Mother is a character-driven multigenerational family story with intricate relationships. The author captures the complexities of the relationships beautifully. Well written. The book jumps around different timelines but the transitions were flawless.

I loved this story. I’m going to miss the characters! I ‘d recommend this to anyone who enjoys character-driven novels and reading about mother/daughter relationships.

4.5 stars!! ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you @thedialpress for the ARC of Like Mother, Like Mother by @susanriegerauthor. As usual with me, I didn't exactly know what this book was going into it, but, well, I tend to judge books by their covers and this looked great!

I was so surprised and happy to see that the family is a Jewish family! It's great to feel represented in a book and Ms. Rieger really nailed it - although there was one item that seems factually incorrect but maybe it's part of her tradition??.

Anyways, back to the plot. The story starts with the matriarch of the family dying and the subsequent search for what really happened to the matriarch's mother. Ms. Reiger digs into all the different ways a mother might "mother" and how some men are willing to fill in the gaps that occur when a mother takes less of a traditional motherly role. I also like how she counters the narrative of how a mother should be when Grace's college friend Ruth suggests that the same behavior from her mom wouldn't be thought anything of if it were her father. Also enjoyed her comparison and contrast of family histories and attitudes through the use of Ruth and her interest in journalism.

A great saga and then in the last 20ish% of the book - buckle your seat belts because it really takes off!

Great story - kudos!

#LikeMotherLikeMother #NetGalley

Although the novel opens with the untimely death of Lila Pereira, Lila — who was toasted at her retirement as “indomitable, unstoppable, incomparable, unforgettable” — is a vibrant character who fortunately occupies all of the succeeding pages. Lila’s father, Aldo, was a violent and abusive man, who detested Lila because he couldn’t beat her into submission. Aldo had committed Lila’s mother, Zelda, to an asylum when Lila was only two. Lila and her older siblings, Polo and Clara, never saw their mother again. Bubbe, Aldo’s immigrant mother, ran the house for her only child. When Lila was ten, Aldo told his children that Zelda had died.

Lila recounted that the only good thing in her childhood, other than her siblings, were the movies. Nonetheless, she ruthlessly managed her journalistic career, rising to the pinnacle of American media as The Washington Globe’s executive editor. In 2018, Lila exposed the corrupt President’s pay-to-play scheme — where he sold the ambassadorships to all the embassies in Western Europe — and brought him and his two hapless sons down.

Lila’s spiky and seductive Globe personality contrasted with her nonchalant and intermittent mothering. Lila relied on her husband Joe Maier, a successful lawyer who met Lila in 1976 when she was a college freshman, nannies, and au pairs to raise her three daughters, Stella, Ava, and Grace. Lila claimed that they didn’t need a mother because they had Joe. “They need me not to harm them.” After thirty years of marriage, and with their elder daughters at Stanford law school and Grace at the University of Chicago, Joe asked Lia for a divorce. Joe would no longer tolerate how Lila had repeatedly let he and their daughters down. Although Joe refused to continue to play second fiddle to Lila’s career, they remained devoted to one another until Lila’s untimely death.

The next section of the book hones in on Grace who, along with her wealthy and wise paternal grandmother, Frances, recounts the family history for Grace’s college roommate, brilliant scholarship student, Ruth McGowan. Grace, a successful reporter who breaks the story of a college admissions scandal, writes a roman a clef, “The Lost Mother,” about her family, and embarks on various relationships, including a serious romance with Ruth’s husband’s twin brother. In the final section of the novel, Ruth honors her mother’s dying wish that she explore what happened to Zelda.

Rieger has crafted a highly entertaining novel that showcases several remarkable women. Although her novel tackles some dark themes, including complex parental relationships and inherited trauma, Rieger doesn't let the darker parts of her story detract from her robust storytelling, which features satiric, yet astute, observations on culture and politics. Thank you Will Lyman at Dial Press and Net Galley for an advance copy of this vibrant portrait of a modern family.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Dial Press for gifting me a digital ARC of this novel by Susan Rieger. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

IN 1960, Lila Pereira is just 2 years old, with an older brother and sister, when their abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum in 1960. Lila never sees her mother again; years later, he tells the children that she died there. Decades later, she is at the peak of her career as executive editor of The Washington Post. She prioritized her career, leaving childcare to her husband, Joe. Grace, their youngest, feels abandoned and wishes for a different type of mother. Grace becomes a reporter and writes a book about her childhood and becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Zelda, Lila's mother.

This is a wonderful character study and domestic drama wrapped into one highly-readable book. It would be a good book club pick, with so much to discuss - motherhood, parenthood, marriage, ambition, and past trauma. This book explores how their upbringing affected three women of different generations. It's an exploration of how things have changed between men and women, yet how many things have remained the same. When Lila works nonstop and leaves childrearing to her husband, it's scandalous, yet it's the norm when reversed. Grace feels compelled to find out what happened to her grandmother, thinking that she can't know who she is unless she knows where she came from. But will that knowledge bring her peace or closure? Great book!

Like Mother, Like Mother is a captivating multigenerational family drama featuring three strong women: Lila, an indomitable newspaper editor, her daughter Grace, and her mother Zelda. Lila’s father committed Zelda to a mental institution when Lila was a toddler. Lila never sees her mother again, and her father claims Zelda died by suicide. Lila overcomes a childhood full of trauma and abuse to rise through the ranks of an elite journalism career. She marries Joe and they have three daughters, but Lila is not particularly motherly or attached, and youngest daughter Grace feels neglected and resentful. As Grace embarks on her own career as a reporter, she feels compelled to dig into the history of Zelda’s story and what really happened after she was committed to the asylum.

I loved this character-driven and compelling story! There’s a large cast of characters and many interwoven plot threads spanning many years, but I found it easy to keep track of everyone. The characters are complex and each of the FMCs is unlikeable in her own way, but as a working mother myself, I often found Lila relatable even when I didn’t like her. There’s so much thought-provoking material here, including themes of what makes a mother, gender roles and societal expectations, generational trauma, and nature vs. nurture. This book would be perfect for book clubs because it offers so much to discuss! Also a great fit for fans of Ann Napolitano and Claire Lombardo.

Many thanks to NetGalley and The Dial Press for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This is a sweeping family story that unravels elegantly. It keeps you hooked on the characters from the first page. It is such a lovely family story. This would be a wonderful book club book.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for a copy of this novel. It is out today!

I recently read Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger. This is a story about families. Specifically, we follow Zelda, Lila and Grace. Zelda is the grandmother who has an abusive husband. We learn about Zelda's past, including that her husband has had Zelda hauled off to an asylum. He tells their children the difficult news, later following up with the fact that she has died there. We also encounter Zelda's daughter, Lila, grown up and a woman with power. She runs a major newspaper in Washington. Married to her work, Lila's children and husband suffer. Finally, we follow Lila's daughter Grace. Grace resents her mother's career and the attention that it stole from her. There is a bit of a mystery that, once answered, really emphasizes the practices and traits that are passed down. Are those actions repeated from generation to generation or purposefully changed?

I read books of all kinds but primarily thrillers. Sadly, although my favorite to purchase and read, thriller stories become hard for me to remember. Ultimately, most years my favorite book is not a thriller but something far more character driven. Like Mother, Like Mother may be my favorite for the year. The writing is wonderful, telling the story fully but without dwelling on the unnecessary. The characters, well, I don't think I'll ever forget them. If you can finish this book without shedding sad and happy tears, then you have far more control than I do. Enthralling from beginning to end, I loved every second.

Many, MANY, thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. You made my reading year!

What makes one a Good Mother? Spanning many decades, each part of Like Mother, Like Mother explores this central question, highlighting a different woman from the Pereira family as they navigate this messy thing called life.

While Like Mother, Like Mother is about family, love and loss, secrets and lies, it is primarily character-driven. I prefer books with a more active plot. When each section switched to a new POV, I thought it felt like a different book. The novel does an excellent job exploring themes of motherhood, careers and generational trauma. Is each mother a hero or a villain? What are mothers expected to sacrifice for the next generation? What makes them selfish? I enjoyed the smart and thoughtful discussions I had about the book more than my actual reading experience. I wish the author had spent more time delving into the backstory of certain main characters (there is one story rushed through toward the end because it is the big mystery of the book) rather than as much prime time given to side characters that I didn't find necessary. Still, it definitely would make a wonderful selection for book club discussions because there is so much to talk about!

One thing about me is that I love a multigenerational story, and I especially love it when it focuses on mothers and daughters and their relationships. i try to not make it a huge part of my personality, but as an eldest daughter of an eldest daughter of an eldest daughter, the synopsis of this was right up my alley.
I will say that this was very weirdly engaging at first with how realistic it was - i do think, however, that the writing style and dialogue feels more dated than how it’s meant to be read - Lila grows up in the 60’s and she still talks like she’s in the 60’s, if not older, if that makes sense. all the talk about the presidential elections threw me off but I digress, lol. speaking of lila, I didn’t find her particularly engaging or likable, but she was incredibly realistic. She is very much a career woman and is a powerful, power-driven woman who puts motherhood on the very very very back burner. She was abandoned by her own mother so now, of course, it’s her turn to do the same to her daughter.
Grace feels scorned and abandoned, so she makes the most out of falling under her mother’s shadow - she becomes a reporter, a writer, playing into the likes of her own mother. Her whole life centers around Lila, except her life isn’t particularly interesting. Unfortunate, because the majority of the book follows her - I found Lila much more engaging despite how unlikable literally everyone in this book was.
Personally very weird timing to read this with how political it got (and how politically-motivated the author seems to be? Like obviously that’s Lila’s whole career so of course there’s a ton of politics talk, but it feels very intentional), I didn’t really relate to any of the characters so I wasn’t super engaged with the story despite the premise having elements that really intrigued me, and I found this very dialogue-heavy, which I would usually love and enjoy, but I feel like it made this feel much more dense than it needed to be. I’m not mad at this book, and I do think it has some compelling parts to it, but it wasn’t really what I was hoping for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC.

Like Mother, Like Mother drew me in with the idea that the content would be about mother daughter relationships. Susan Rieger did not disappoint. Really well done.

This was my favorite read of the fall and has thrown me into a reading slump because I expect every book to have excellent characterization and dialogue like this novel. I will be doing a better review this weekend, but this is a must read especially if you enjoy dysfunctional family dramas.