Stella is an archivist in the Boston area now, but she lives under the cloud of witnessing her mother's murder when she was a young child living in a cultish commune in Vermont. Because the murder was never solved, Stella has changed her identity so that the murderer won't find her. However, when she is outed on social media, she feels threatened acutely and sets off to Vermont in an attempt to come to peace with her past. As she gets closer to the scene both physically and emotionally, events become increasingly sinister, with the action and number of suspects escalating, resolving in an ending that was unpredictable and satisfying for me.

Who doesn't love a book that involves a cult? Sign me up! I was excited to receive this as an ARC.

What a great thriller! A lot of the choices made by main characters had me shaking my head; however, the explanations later on in the story helped me to understand. I really enjoyed getting to read from multiple characters POV. I did not see that ending coming!

Rating: 3.5/5
A Mother Always Knows has all the vibes of a suspense thriller with underlying tones of the paranormal woven through. From the beginning, readers step right into a scene setting the tone for the rest of the story—and it woke me up! Author Sarah Strohmeyer tells the story through different characters, though Stella is the main character. Stella’s past trauma comes back as she has to face the cult leader who quite possibly was involved with her mother’s shmurder. And it plays a role in who she can and can’t trust. Readers get an idea of what the cult life was like and Stella’s mother. It was sometimes a bit challenging to read with the various characters. I thought it impacted the flow of the story. There were some twists, and the simple ending contrasts nicely with the rest of the plot.

Absolutely loooove this! This book had me forgetting my own name I was so engrossed into the story. Sarah killed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Perennial for the advanced reader's copy of A Mother Always Knows.

A Mother Always Knows by Sarah Strohmeyer is the kind of thriller that pulls you in with its atmosphere and keeps you turning pages with its suspense. I absolutely loved this book. It’s got lots of layers, was emotionally sharp, and filled with just the right amount of tension.

It’s also the perfect read for fall. The mood, the mystery, and the twists all hit differently when the weather starts to turn. If you’re looking for a smart, engaging thriller to curl up with as the leaves change, this one is it. Highly recommend!

A Mother Always Knows by Sarah Strohmeyer

Thank you to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and NetGalley for the digital copy!

Stella O’Neill has spent years hiding from her past, but when a viral post exposes her true identity, she’s forced to return to the Vermont commune where her mother was murdered. Armed with nothing but her instincts and a supernatural gift, she’s determined to uncover the truth before the killer finds her first.

This book definitely held my attention from start to finish. The multiple points of view and timelines kept the pace moving, and the cult vibes added such an eerie layer. I loved the tension, the mystery, and that hint of the supernatural. It was the kind of story that had me constantly questioning who to trust- and totally pulled me in.

This book is a suspenseful look at cults and the effects that they can have on people. It is a dual time line story that looks at the main character when she was young and part of a cult with her mother and in current times when she felt that she had to live under an assumed name to hide from the cult.

Stella lived in a cult that her mom, Rose, had joined when Stella was a toddler. Rose enjoyed her time in the cult but was beginning to get disillusioned. When Stella was 10, she saw her mom murdered and her dad (not part of the cult), took her home to his normal life. For years, Stella has lived under an assumed name. She knew that the cult leaders wanted to kill her. They knew that she knew who killed her mom and wanted to make sure that she never remembered the truth. When her real identity is revealed on a podcast, Stella knows that she and her family are in trouble. She has people following her almost as soon as her name became public and when her father got hurt in a car accident, she knew that their lives were in danger. The plot moves quickly and the suspense ramps up making this book a real page turner. The ending was a surprise that I didn't see coming but was very satisfying.

My main problem with this book is that I don't enjoy books with supernatural events as part of the story line so this really wasn't a good match for me. The reviews by people who enjoy supernatural suspense are very good so give it a try if you like this genre.

This one was INCREDIBLY twisty and I loved the setting of the cult in a remote area of Vermont. While I did have to suspend a bit of disbelief over Stella’s actions in some cases, I was able to fully immerse myself in the story and get sucked in. I couldn’t put this one down as I NEEDED to get to the bottom of things.

With multiple timelines and POVs (Stella in one and her murdered mother in another,) I appreciated the shreds of information that were received as a reader. And even knowing from page one that Stella’s mom was dead - I was rooting for her POV the entire book as if that would change her outcome.

The characters in this book are so easy to buy into and I appreciated Strohmeyer’s dissection of how seemingly “normal” and “well-balanced” people can fall victim to charismatic leaders like Radcliffe MacBeath.

My husband hiked the AT a few years ago and I first learned about the Yellow Deli cult when visiting him near Killington, VT. There were a lot of similarities in this book to the way they operate and I thought that was extra fascinating!!

Check this one out if you love horror, thrillers, multiple timelines/POVs done really well, and cults!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the eARC of this amazing title!**

I can’t decide exactly how to describe this story. On one had it’s dark and creepy (anything with cults to me is creepy) and on the other hand there are these supernatural vibes and hints of magical realism. This story had more of a slower burn for me but I was hooked pretty early on with Stella and Rose’s story.

I thought the premise was really interesting but I’ll be honest - most of the characters aren’t that like-able…but they have layers to them that really kept me invested. I really liked the use of dual timelines and multiple POVs. There are some surprising humorous moments that I really enjoyed as well as the overall murder mystery.

There are some good twists and reveals leading up to the end - I think most readers will be surprised by who the big bad is at the end! If you like stories with cults and a sprinkle of magical realism, I would give this a read!

This was 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4.0

✨ What To Expect:
💚 Psychological Thriller
👻 Supernatural Vibes
⁉️ Suspense
🔍Murder Mystery
☠️ Cults
🎭 Hidden Identity
🎙️ True Crime Podcast
🔪 Revenge
🌪️ Twists & Secrets
⏰ Dual Timelines

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really, really enjoyed this book. The story follows Stella, who leads a fairly normal life now - but was raised in a commune in Vermont where she witnessed the brutal aftermath of her mother's murder. But when her name and location are posted on the internet, she must go on the run - to escape crime-obsessed fanatics, the cult, and her mother's killer.

This read kept me on the edge of my seat, with so many shady characters that I kept going back and forth on who I thought did it. It was a great blend of dark cults with a female main character with plenty of spunk and humor. I was rooting for Stella the entire time, even when she was making poor decisions.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The plot grabbed me from the get-g0 - I mean, cults are always interesting to me - but the lack of character development and the writing was pretty juvenile at times.

I think I am very much over cult books in general but I did like this one. It was twisty and somewhat unique. The characters were all interesting and kept my attention.

I was instantly drawn to A Mother Always Knows, that cover with the horned deity in the woods had me screeching with excitement. I’m a sucker for cult-themed stories, so I dove in headfirst, totally ready for something dark and strange.

The book ended up being an okay read for me. The mystery surrounding the murder of the almost-runaway mom felt uneven. There were too many red herrings thrown in at once, which made the reveal less impactful. I did eventually guess the killer, after a couple wrong guesses

What really kept me invested were the cult elements, the slow buildup, Stella’s strange abilities, and Genivieve’s role. The backstory added some much needed emotional weight, and I found myself more interested in those layers than the central mystery itself.

Overall, while the concept had promise, the writing style didn’t click with me, and the side plots actually felt stronger than the main narrative. It was a decent read, but not one I’d return to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was pretty fun… until the last few chapters. I won’t say any spoilers but i wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending. I loved the cult-y vibes. The various POVs and mother relationships were interesting. It all had me turning the page but after finishing the book I’m left feeling underwhelmed. I love a good twist and I can even appreciate what the author was trying to do. I just never fully loved the characters and some of the reveals had me side eyeing the book because why.
After saying all that, I would still really like to pick up other books by this author.

While it didn’t fully work for me, I did enjoy some of it and I do think a lot of others could still enjoy this one as well. If you love a good thriller with cult vibes then it might just be for you.

Was this a good read? I don't really know. I do know that I couldn't put it down but I was a bit nonplussed by the ending. Stella is a quiet librarian who has a tragic past. Her mother was killed in a cult like place and because no one was ever caught for the murder true crime aficionados are all over the case. When they find out who Stella really is (she's been living under an assumed name for her privacy), she is in great danger. It was good enough to read.

This book had such potential but I felt the ending faltered a little bit. I thought the story was slightly more complicated than it needed to be because it had multiple crimes and timelines happening throughout. I would have preferred sticking to the main storyline and leaving out the side plots.

This psychological suspense novel had me…for most of it. The cult vibes, the tightly woven tension, and the mother-daughter dynamics were so well done. I was hooked, racing through chapters and thinking this might be a new favorite.

But then the ending happened.

Without spoiling anything, it felt like all that tension unraveled into something rushed and unsatisfying. I’m all for unexpected twists, but this one left me frustrated and in a bit of a slump. If you love domestic thrillers with strong build-up, this is worth picking up… just maybe temper your expectations for the final stretch.

This book was so dark and creepy. It was a fascinating dive into a cult, and uses the readers preconceptions about them to its advantage.

When Stella was ten, and living in a commune with her mother, her mother was murdered. She changed her name, lives with her dad, and left that life behind. But after her and her dad are doxxed, people from the cult start showing up. She has to find out who was behind her mom’s murder, for her and her dad to be safe.

Throw in a dual timeline, and some very interesting characters, and you’ve got a solid thriller. I enjoyed the POVs, and watching the mystery unfold. I will say the pacing was a bit off in the end. I actually thought my book was missing pages because of how it jumped from a crucial scene to nothing. But it’s all explained, albeit in a rushed fashion. Overall, a really good book that had me on the edge of my seat with no clue what was going to happen!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Edgy, menacing, and dark!

A Mother Always Knows is a taut, menacing tale that takes you into the life of Stella O’Neill, a young woman who, suddenly finds her life turned upside down when someone will do whatever they have to, even murder, to keep what went on at the commune she spent time at as a little girl a secret, including the details surrounding her mother’s death.

The prose is suspenseful and tight. The characters are vulnerable, secretive, and damaged. And the plot unfolds and unravels quickly into an ominous tale of lies, deception, indoctrination, depravity, jealousy, manipulation, red herrings, shocking revelations, violence, and murder.

Overall, A Mother Always Knows is an intense, sinister, gritty tale by Strohmeyer that left me satisfied, entertained, and more than a little intrigued to read whatever disturbingly twisty story she manages to come up with next.

I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.