I suppose I finished this book to find out Zelda's story. The characters never felt real to me, they were jumpy and obtuse. As for Zelda, well that ending finally was presented and I could only feel disappointed.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like Mother, Like Mother follows three generations of complicated women - Zelda, the mother who disappeared, Lila, the mother who just wasn’t there, and Grace, who tries to make sense of both of them.

The novel is divided into three sections, each ostensibly focusing on one of the women above, but really centred around Grace. Grace is deeply dissatisfied with Lila as a mother, despite acknowledging the similarities between them, in temperament if not in appearance. Grace follows in her mothers footsteps to first become a successful journalist, and eventually the author of a bestselling novel loosely based on her mother’s life. In the book, Grace speculates about what may have happened to Lila’s mother, Zelda - is she really dead? Lila understands that Grace is trying to make sense of her past, and in a final letter before her death, sends Grace on a quest to find out the truth about what really happened to Zelda.

Like Mother, Like Mother is a twisting family drama, exactly the kind of novel that usually draws me in. While I enjoyed it, I found some of the characters a little too “on the nose.” Zelda was a deeply depressed and repressed wife and mother. Lila is an independent, career-focused woman without a motherly bone in her body. Grace is resentful, willful, and has a chip on her shoulder. Joe, Frances, Ruth, and Xander stand by to rescue and support Lila and Grace - they are almost too good to be true.

Despite Grace’s placement as the central character, I found myself mainly engrossed in the stories of Lila and Zelda. Lila’s badassery and the possibility of finding out what happened to Zelda kept me reading until the end. 3 stars for this one!

My thanks to Net Galley and Random House publishing for this arc but dnf. Wasn't for me. Too many characters, too much going on, heavy subject matter. Could not connect or focus.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters were great. The story was so real. Loved all the different parts and storylines and how they came together.

Like Mother, Like Mother is a multi-generation novel about three generations of women and how each generation is impacted by the other. While I love a good multi-generation novel, I struggled a bit with this one. It took me a while to get into it and a while to be able to keep the generations straight. That might just have been me and I did enjoy the story, so I'm rounding my 3.5 up to 4 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

An enthralling novel about three generations of strong-willed women, unknowingly shaped by the secrets buried in their family’s past.

Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Lila fights hard in her life to overcome the loss of her mother and the violent life with her abusive Father. She becomes a highly successful editor of The Washington Globe newspaper. She has also married into a very rich and powerful family, and she and her husband Joe have three daughters of their own. Having never learned what a mother was like, she leaves the raising of the girls to Joe. The youngest of the girls, Grace, feels her Mother's abandonment equally as much as Lila did with hers. The older she gets, the more resentful she gets. After becoming a reporter, she then writes a book about her Mother and Grandmother's story. The book kicks off a real desire for the truth and Grace digs in to find out what really happened to her Grandmother.

The story spans several decades with richly developed, memorable characters. It's a real look into family, marriage, abandonment, loss and the power of long buried secrets. I loved watching it unfold and find out what really happened. Put this one on your Fall reading list for sure!

Thank you to @netgalley, @randomhousepublishing and @dialpress for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Publishes October 29, 2024.

This was an incredible yet difficult novel. It’s a multi-generational story that involves domestic violence, abuse as well as grief and loss. Several characters were amazing, strong and resilient females.
This well-written story enlightened me and kept me thinking throughout.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this book! I love multigenerational family sagas, and books starring complex female characters, so I knew LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER would be a definite hit for me, and I was right. The characters weren't necessarily likable all the time, but that just made them all the more fascinating to read about! Zelda, Lila, and Grace all felt like such vivid, fleshed-out characters, and Susan Rieger did a fantastic job of developing the mother-daughter relationships that truly lay at the heart of the story. I also loved the Jewish rep woven throughout! I will say that the writing/transitions felt a little choppy at times, mostly because the story spans multiple generations and covers so many different points in time, so it could sometimes feel jarring to go from one time period to another. But overall, that didn't take away from my investment in and enjoyment of the story! Highly recommend this one, especially for readers who love family sagas and stories about strong, complicated women. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and The Dial Press for the ARC.

I tend to love a generational story, especially about women but something did not connect here. The dialogue was choppy and too quick, and a lot of the time I felt confused and dumb. I enjoyed the self half a lot more, and am glad I stuck with it but probably won’t recommend to customers so that’s a bummer.

Generational trauma and all its ugliness is the thread that binds the mother-mother-daughter relationships in this novel. I typically love stories like these because many of us, me included, have this type of passed-down trauma in our lives. Hopefully we work in adulthood to treat the trauma and break that pattern for the next generation. Generational trauma is such a rich plot thread for a novel with nuances and complexities of character possible. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. The characters felt one-dimensional and pigeon-holed into a stereotype of a trauma survivor. I also didn't sympathize much with the characters because they didn't have the complexity to draw me in. The novel had so much to work with and, I felt, took the easy way out and over-simplified characters. Bummer. I'm grateful to the publisher for the gifted copy.

I am still not sure how I feel about this book. It was well written, good character development, interesting story, well presented in 3 sections each supposedly featuring one woman from each generation but really always about all three of them and the generational trauma passed down. But, I think I was not in the right place to appreciate this book and enjoy it as much as I should have. Does that make sense? Objectively I would still recommend this book to myself to read, but it somehow did not solidly click with me and my reading at the time. Not fluffy enough? Which is weird because I am generally not a fluff kind of person. So, I am giving it 4 stars because I do believe it is a really good read, it just wasn't for me and this particular time. Makes me wish I re-read books because I think I would enjoy it more if I were in a different head space. Honestly, it's me not you dear book!

To be completely honest, I want to give this book 2 stars. I did not enjoy the storyline or the writing at all. The concept of following and learning of the lives of three generations of women should always be a win in my book, but there was nothing for me to latch on to with these characters. Zelda, Lila and Grace are so much alike. Seems normal right, since they are grandmother, mother and daughter, but they did not grow up directly influenced by each other. Still, all three are very cold and unloving. They are like the feral animals that will come around to socialize but at a distance and always untrusting.
There were many other lovely characters in the book that provided unwavering support to these women. They essentially kept the story afloat for me.
The writing was choppy at best. There were so many abrupt transitions that I contantly felt like I had whiplash.
I many be the minority with this book, but I truly struggled getting through this one.

Like Mother Like Mother by Susan Rieger tells the story of 3 generations of women. First is Lila, the top executive at The Washington Globe. Next is her daughter’s story Grace then Zelda, the grandmother. Each character tells her own story told. Very interesting characters and the relationships between mothers and daughters. What keeps you reading is how Zelda ties all of this together.

It was a bit confusing to start the story. The writing was a bit choppy, switching from past and present situations. It was interesting to read this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have a penchant for multigenerational stories but this one felt a bit uneven. The writing style wasn’t bad, but wasn’t for me.

Longer review to come.

Like Mother, Like Mother follows the women in three generations of a family and looks at mothers and the effects that they have on their children and on future generations.

Zelda lived in an abusive relationship in the 1960s and one day she just disappeared. Lila, 2 years old, was told that her mother was in an institution and later was told that her mother had died. Her father, a hateful person, took his abuse out on Lila and she often took the punishments for her siblings. When Lila graduates from college she has decided that she wants to be a news reporter. She goes way beyond her original goal and ends up as the powerful executive editor of The Washington Globe. As she was working her way up the ladder, she married Joe, a very rich man, and they had three children. Lila never prioritized her children in her life. Her job was more important than anything else and she left her three daughters to mainly be raised by Joe and nannies. The oldest two daughters understood why their mother put her job first and accepted their life as it was. The youngest, Grace, wanted a real mom - one who came to PTA meetings and teacher conferences. She is so resentful of her mother that she tells her dad that she hates her mom. Grace's feelings don't really bother Lila. There's always another story to chase or scandal to uncover. Grace becomes a reporter and writes a thinly veiled book about her mother. As she writes the book, Grace realizes how little she knows about her family especially her grandparents. She doesn't really believe that Zelda is dead and plans to talk to her grandfather to see if she can find out more information about her grandmother. How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?

This well written book is full of interesting characters. At times, it's difficult to like Lila but then when you look at her past, you realize why she lives her life like she does. Joe, her husband is a real saint and takes complete responsibility for raising their three girls. Grace was very resentful but at the same time very understanding of her mother. She is the only one in the family who wants to find out about her grandparents and to learn more about the family's past.

This book looks at three generations of women - Zelda who disappeared from her family, Lila who never learned how to parent and throws herself into her work and Grace who just wants to understand her mother. It's is a portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, love and forgiveness and looks at why people become what they believe they are meant to be.

This was a deliciously satisfying story about three generations of women in a family.
Lila is the centerpiece - a fascinating well drawn character who lost her mother at a young age and had an abusive father. Her relationship with her husband Joe was compelling to follow.
Her daughter Grace is unhappy with her mother’s lack of maternal devotion. She is a successful reporter who always feels overshadowed by her mother who is larger than life professionally . She also longs to know about the fate of her maternal grandmother.
Her mother Zelda was put in a mental asylum and her fate was lost to Lila.
The writing was excellent and I found the unveiling of all there stories to be a really great read.
The ending had quite a twist that made it very satisfying. Three strong women and how they became themselves.
This would make a wonderful movie/series.
I think the book highlights that women often to make choices for themselves and can do this alongside successfully raising children.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to read and review! Looking to read more by this author!

Thank you NetGalley, Dial Press and Susan Rieger for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Luke Mother, Like Mother.
This is an interesting story about ambitious women who get stuck in their past, yet are quite successful in certain ways but are filled with self doubt. The characters are very three dimensional.
I liked the characters and storyline but felt the pacing was a stumbling block for me. Some parts were so repetitive but then sped up so fast I was confused and couldn’t keep events and characters straight. Especially when I took a break, I needed to reread the previous section in order to continue. I did this multiple times which was not enjoyable and why it felt so repetitive. Could just be my focus and I would like to give this author another try.

This book gave me everything I wanted.

As the title has hinted, it explores the theme of motherhood. It also talks about other topics that might be considered heavy, such as child abuse, so beware of this before you start the book.

I loved almost every character in the book. Lila and Grace are so similar and so different, and I sympathize with both of them. There is no way to describe Zelda without spoiling some part of the story, so every reader has to make their own conclusion on how to feel about this particular character.

If there is one thing I dislike about the book, it is the parts about politics. I mostly skimmed these long paragraphs about the story's fictional politics because I do not see how it adds to the main story about Lila, Grace and Zelda. I understand how important it is to give a little context to Lila's job, but I feel that a little context is all that is needed. Readers do not need too much explanation of what is going on in the fictional world unless it affects the story.

Like Mother, Like Mother is a journey of Lila and Grace navigating their careers and personal lives, with the ghost of Zelda always haunting their choices and decisions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Glass Castle meets Nobody Will Tell You This But Me with a little bit of Gone Girl.

Well developed characters, thought provoking, entertaining, well paced, and I personally loved the DC connection. But beware, this novel is similar to Gone Girl for the obvious reason but more importantly because Lila and Grace are very unlikable, similarly to Gillian Flynn’s protagonists.

I really enjoyed this novel even though the characters are unlikable at times. I think Rieger did a great job of making the characters fleshed out and realistic. It had me captivated for the whole book.