Maeve started her life in a cult although to her it was just normal. When she fled, it was to prevent another child from abuse but it exposed the cult and brought it down. The main thing Maeve regretted was losing track of her best friend and cousin, Andrea. Maeve was lucky enough to be adopted quickly and grew up in a middle class life. These days, she is in New York City, using her education to work in the publishing industry as an editor.

Periodically she tried to find Andrea. When she used one of the DNA companies, Andrea found her and they got together. Andrea has done well. She is an entrepreneur who is running a multimillion dollar company and she and her husband have just bought a mansion in upstate New York. Maeve is embarrassed as her job is low paying, she lives in a tiny apartment and her main romantic interest is a guy she has just been sleeping with no strings attached.

Andrea asks her to come up for a weekend. Maeve agrees and rides up with Andrea's right hand help, Emily. The company specializes in lifelike dolls and support for mothers from conception to grieving if necessary. Maeve is a bit put off but glad to be back in Andrea's life. When she returns to find that she has lost her job followed by a personal loss, she moves in with Andrea. At first she is glad but as time goes on she suspects that things aren't as good as they see.

Anne Heltzel is known for her horror writing. Like Maeve, she works in the publishing industry and like Andrea has moved to upstate New York in an old mansion. In this book, the horror builds slowly as the reader tries to determine if Maeve is just unlucky or if there is malign purpose behind her issues. The truth about the original cult is slowly revealed. This book is recommended for horror readers.

Love suspenseful reads that involve cults or elements of cults. This one is a hum dinger for a cause! Two sisters escape their childhood home after enduring physical and psychological abuse at the hands of "Mother". They are then separated and do not see each other again until they are both adults. One sister has greatly struggled to recover from the abuse, while the other seems to have beaten her demons and thrived as a successful businesswoman, wife and mother. She invites her more troubled sister to visit. A wonderful reunion or a sinister ulterior motive?

Content Warning: Rape, Imprisonment, Abuse, Gratuitous Sex Scenes

Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel is marketed as a horror novel and is centered around two cousins who were in a "mother worshiping" cult together and escaped but went their separate ways. When the women are reunited, things get weird.

I was unable to finish this book. There was so much going on that I wasn't interested in reading - things that weren't obvious from the description of the book online. I am not interested in reading about rape, graphic sex scenes, etc. I know that this book is for some because of the high ratings I saw, but it wasn't for me. Since I have to star rate it even though I didn't finish it, I will give it a 1 star.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was absolutely chilling and addictive. Such a page turner. I loved guessing the mystery as it unraveled. Kept me up all night trying to find out what happens next!

This book is VERY creepy. It also has all the motherhood (and other) triggers, so please go into this one knowing it’s a rough read at times.

You know I love a cult story and this one DELIVERS. If you’ve ever wondered, how do people become cult members, this book gives a storyline that shows how it can happen. It also shows how quickly it can spiral out of control.

I can’t say I found any of the twists particularly surprising, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t say WTF…out loud…on the train…several times. If you like a dark thriller/horror novel and cults, Just Like Mother might be for you. It’s out now!

Thank you so much for this ARC! I just finished listening to the audio of this book.

If you love cults, this is for you. Super creepy and interesting - I loved it! There is something so intriguing about cults, especially a cult about women and motherhood. I would have enjoyed learning more about the actual group dynamics, not just the outside, but that definitely didn't impact my rating of this book.

The characters were great and it made for an awesome audio book. I definitely felt eerie and uncertain throughout. The strange coincidences made it a bit predictable. As with all thrillers, when things seem too good to be true, they probably are not! The ending was fantastic.

Hold on... a book about a cult you say? Sign me up! This horror/thriller was so freaking creepy and intense and unsettling. It made me feel super uncomfortable and I LOVED IT!

Creepy cover, creepy book. I had a great time. The book kept me on my toes until the very end, but I felt satisfied knowing I could figure out some of the story on my own. While cult stories have been having a moment, this felt like a fairly unique take on cults.

You know that unstartling feeling you get when you feel that there are eyes watching you somewhere, but you can't seem to find where they're coming from? This is how I felt while reading this book! There are definitive parts of this book that creeped me out, which is very rare for me given that horror is one of my favorite genre's to read. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look for more from Anne Heltzel!

I was hoping to like this book more than what I did. I guessed some of this book and the ending so it made it a little bit, boring in that way. It was well written and a little scary and I did like that. Overall, it was a okay read for me. I thought character raised in a cult would be a good book idea. When Maeve's cousin reappears, I looking forward to what happens next. But I wanted the author to pull me into the story a bit more. *This book was given to me for free at my request from NetGalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

This cover is eeeek for me. So this one did make me a bit nervous to finally read.

The descriptions itself also gave me a bit of pause. While I love a good thriller, creepy stuff really freaks me out. And this book did that!

The whole part of the two girls in the woods and the one going crazy was ahhh! Bloody Mary was a scary and creepy game from my childhood and definitely brought back memories.

I liked the cult aspect as well. And then getting the grown up version of the girls in the story then.

The pacing of the book is great and ending left my jaw on the floor. Such a creepy and interesting thriller.

I'm a sucker for a creepy cult book. I thought this was particularly eerie and satisfying. Of course, the whole time I was reading, I was thinking "Maeve, don't you see what is happening here?" The seemingly happy ending results in the ultimate shock factor. I enjoyed this book.

From my blog: Always With a Book

I’m not going to lie…what first attracted me to this book is the cover! It’s just so dang creepy that I couldn’t resist! And then to find out it’s about cults and motherhood! Yes, please!!!

This book is all kinds of weird…but in a way that you just can’t stop reading. Once I started, I was hooked and had to see how it was all going to play out and boy was it good! This is another horror novel that pleasantly surprised me, so while there aren’t a ton of twists, like I am used to with my thrillers, I still found myself on edge with the sense of dread that builds ever so slowly. I loved that way the story is told, moving back and forth in time from the present to the past as it helped to fill in some of the pieces to the story.

There are some interesting themes that are brought up in the story which would make it a good bookclub book if you bookclub can handle this type of book. Themes surrounding motherhood in general, and then going even deeper such as whether we have the right to choose if we want to have children are woven into the story and I found it to definitely give me pause as I was reading.

This book really took me by surprise by how much I ended up liking it.

Just Like Mother was an interesting read for me, on one hand I was intrigued by the theme of the matriarchal cult, but due to the story not really explaining the old cult and the new version of the cult and how it came to be, I was left slightly dissatisfied. This is the second book I have read that revolves around a cult and the last one did the same thing. barley explained how the cult came into existence or how it fully functions, so if this is normal for the subgenre then I don't know if it for me.

Maeve escaping the cult she was raised in only to end back in a new one that was set up by her 'cousin' had a very intriguing appeal but the lack of depth put into the cult was really what killed the overall story for me. Andrea shows back up which is kind of instantly made clear a few chapters later that it was a calculated move but takes Maeve forever to figure out. Followed by a series of events that all clearly pointed back to Andrea because they all magically started happening right after Maeve turned down Andrea's request. I will admit that some of the events that did happen were horrific and left me going "oh no that did not happen". But in the end I didn't know what Andrea's end goal was with re-establishing the cult that it ultimately made the story fall flat.

Its well written, easy to follow along with and I was able to get through it really fast it wasn't terrible but it wasn't mind-blowing either.. Also the ending was.....something. I don't know, it honestly kind of irritated me.

Anne Heltzel’s creepy suspense mystery psychological thriller, “Just Like Mother,” is diabolically weird like “Rosemary’s Baby” from beginning to end, and will keep you guessing, as well as looking over your shoulder, to the very final page question. “Mother” will leave you questioning “who can you REALLY TRUST? That’s the horror of this twilight zone mind-game.

The story follows two female cousins, so close in age and appearance, that they are often mistaken for each other. Although, both are blonde and green-eyed, Andrea is the elder, and considered, The Chosen One, by all in her extended family. Maeve, her childhood sidekick and assigned companion, is more tender-hearted and sensitive than Andrea, who glows with self-confidence, arrogance and selflessness. As kids, the girls live on a remote woman-only run farm.

Unknown to Andrea and Maeve, the female-only enclave where they live (with exception of one toddler boy) is actually a notorious cult, The Mother Collective—with deadly concealed secrets. One night, Maeve, only eight, discovers a terrifying “monster” on the property and runs away with Boy in the compounds’ car that results in a deadly highway collision. This consequently brings law enforcement raiding the Mothers’ farm and uncovering evidence of shocking crimes.

Decades later, the long separated cousins, Andrea and Maeve find each other through a Family DNA database, and agree to meet for lunch in NYC. Successful Andrea is married to a former Silicon Valley AI Techie and she’s a life couch for their successful startup, NewLife.

Maeve is in her groove as well. She loves her job working with a publisher, editing fiction novels—although it could pay more. Her hot bartender boyfriend is a mixologist in more ways than one, and she’s content.

It’s Maeve’s birthday weekend on the horizon, and shockingly, Andrea remembers. She won’t take no for an answer. Maeve is coming to spend her birthday with her, her husband, as well as another couple that work in NewLife —who will give her a ride up to the Catskills and back. P-A-R-T-Y!

Well, if Maeve had a lick of sense she would have turned tail and grabbed the first bicycle, hay truck or whatever available transport back to NYC after she suffered through the first prank played on her, and then blocked Andrea’s number—or better yet—moved to Chile and bought a new phone. This story will definitely haunt you long after you’ve read it. For anyone with TRUST ISSUES BE WARNED.

The creepy doll face on Anne Heltzel's Just Like Mother tells you all you need to know about what's inside these pages. This is a disturbing, spine-chilling story for the most part, but falls flat in some places.

Maeve and Andrea are close cousins who grew up in a cult run by "mothers." After Maeve escapes, she is adopted by a loving family and tries to have a normal life. She always wonders, however, what happened to her cousin. When they're both adults, Maeve is happy when Andrea finally contacts her. Andrea is a wealthy woman who made her money in the fertility industry. But childhood memories run deep -- this book doesn't have the aforementioned creepy doll face on the cover for no reason.

While the story itself was horror personified, I felt it didn't go deeply enough into the cult aspect. Who were the mothers? What was the purpose of Boy? There were a lot of questions that left me wondering.

That being said, it's been a long time since I actually gasped while reading a book, but Just Like Mother made me do so in many places. It's scary, and above all, one could see a story like this happening in real life (but let's hope not).

MY RATING - 3

This was my first book by this author and I definitely want to go and check out more books by her in the future.

This book was so creepy at times and was full of twists! There were a couple things that ended up giving me shivers. I love when a thriller book is able to creep me out so much. The suspense built throughout the story which just seemed to add to the creep factor.

This was actually better than I was expecting!! I feel like so parts were a little drawn out but the ending was wild! There were so many twists that blew my mind. The underlying eerie sense of the book was done very well.

So, I'm a little iffy about Just Like Mother. The first half of it was kind of slow to me but the second half of it is great. I'm not fully sure if I consider this horror though. I guess I have a different perspective on what I actually think is horror compared to most readers. Granted it does have some horror-like tendencies.

Just Like Mother is a great thriller/horror novel by Anne Heltzel. It’s the perfect fall / Halloween Read. What makes this book stand out for me is that it’s not incredibly scary by ANY stretch of the imagination but it’s so atmospheric, super eerie and crazy unsettling. I couldn’t listen to this one fast enough.

If you love a creepy and twisted tale this book is for YOU!!! Please note there are some triggers I think it’s worth mentioning as this book deals with infertility, child lose and rape. Just Like Mother is the author’s 3rd book but the very first book I’ve picked up by her. Such creative writing style that is simply haunting. A disturbingly DARK dive into both femininity and reproduction. You’ve been warned.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Nightfire and Macmillan Audio for a listening copy in exchange for my honest review. I HIGHLY recommend. Happy Reading / Listening!!