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. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blond hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does.

But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents’ dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?

Spanning generations, and populated by complex, unforgettable characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell to become the people we believe we’re meant to be.


My Thoughts:

From the very first pages of Like Mother, Like Mother, I was captivated by the characters. They felt real and as if they could walk right into the rooms they inhabited. Their interactions with their friends and colleagues kept me turning the pages, wondering what they would do next.

The story spans the past and the present, including very up-to-the minute events, like COVID.

I kept hoping to be a part of their lives as I read about them. Then, as our youngest protagonist, Grace, begins a diligent search, we start to find answers. Five stars.

***

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ An engaging family story by @susanriegerwrites about three generations of mothers. We start with Zelda in an abusive relationship and marriage in 1960’s Michigan. Lila is two when she loses her mother, Zelda, and is left with her terrible father Aldo. Lila grows up fiercely independent, marries the Jewish elite of Detroit, and then Lila and Joe move to Washington DC. They have two daughters, but Lila leaves the parenting to Joe and several nannies. She spends most of her time as a workaholic reporter, reporting on politics and intrigue through a lengthy career. Lila‘s daughter, Grace, is also a writer. She writes a fictionalized memoir, called the lost mother. The book does very well and is quite popular, her publishers are worried that Lila will sue, but of course she doesn’t. Grace knows that Lila won’t take this personally. She very much owns her life and is unapologetic about her choices.

This was a riveting story, from start to finish. There is so much witty dialogue, the stories that we inherit, and how we change those stories over time. As mothers, we are all doing the best that we possibly can. We are willing to let our husbands and our children think of us as the villain, even though we probably aren’t. Three generations of brave, wonderful women.

If you like women’s book club fiction, historical fiction, and generational family stories, you will love this book. Although Grace seems to think that Lila wasn’t a good mother, throughout the book, there are many pieces of advice that Lila gave her daughters that have shaped them Completely. Perfect for fans of blue sisters and Long Island compromise and any of Claire Lombardo‘s books. No romance at all in this one, the male characters are genuinely usually flawed but kind people. It’s just that the story centers around the women.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @randomhouse for the ARC. Book to be published October 29, 2024.

#booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booklover #arcreview #booktok #netgalley #bookrecommendations #LikeMotherLikeMother

Upon reading this book, I was struck at how much this reminded me of a couple of books by Ann Napolitano, an author whom I tend to appreciate. Very family oriented, but female based. Close ties with their frayed edges. As with real life families, there are generational intrigues that show overlaps and similarities, yet differences with their own outcomes. Like Mother, Like Mother attempts to do so, but I sometimes got lost with all of the different tangents of bits and pieces of the various characters' lives.

All of the scenes take place in different locations across the USA. A good part of it takes place in Washington, DC which is an area that I'm well familiar and had me invested, partly due to my personal ties with the area. As the story jumps around between the various locations, I found that interesting, but then got tired of all of the jumping around. Same with the different characters and subplots. As I read on, I eventually realized that I really didn't care about most of them. Not all that sure why other than that I ended up not even liking some of them. Most likely because I got bored with the story as a whole. I just wanted to go home and move on to another world between the pages.

Other than being somewhat scattered, the story itself is okay. Just not my cup of tea. Without giving away anything, I think I may have preferred it if it started with the culmination at the end rather than making us wait until then to figure out what all this was leading up to. Either way, it just didn't set well with me. No doubt, some others will find this a fascinating read. For me, there were too many unnecessary interactions between some of the characters that never really had anything at all to do with the main plot of the book. In some of those situations, those storylines kept me hanging. Others finally made more sense later on. Ultimately, I found this book to be a bit of a scattered mess that had the seeds of quite an interesting story that never achieved what I felt that it had the potential to portray.

I’m on the fence about this one. I think the general plot and the character dynamics were very interesting, but there was so much filler and it was so slow. The writing reminded me a bit of Laurie Frankel, but I found this less compelling.

I also found the politics in this books to be unnecessary and a little strange. I’m not sure why there were so many real politician’s names and events, but then they would be followed by fictional politicians. I can completely understand not wanting write about a certain president (one I also don’t want to read about), but what is the point when it’s obvious who the fictional president elected after Obama is supposed to be??

As dry as it was, I still think it was well written, and I found myself really wanting to find out more about the Zelda mystery. Those aspects were fascinating and made me want to keep reading, but the rest just dragged.

I wouldn’t surprised if this becomes really popular and is loved by other people, but this was just okay for me. Thank you to Netgalley and Dial Press for the ARC!

Having grown up in Detroit, I connected with the setting. Well written, this kept me engaged from the first page with these complex characters and vivid descriptions. Spanning three generations, it begins with Lila who is the youngest of three siblings with an abusive father and whose mother was committed to an asylum and never seen again. Lila became a famous journalist and ran The Globe, married generous and kind Joe, and had children although she truly did not mother them as her career came first. Her youngest daughter Grace felt neglected and unwanted by her mother, although she was very much like her mother. Knowing her mother's history and fascinated by it, she secretly believed that her grandmother was alive. Following in her mother's footsteps, Grace was also an investigative writer and authored a book called The Lost Mother about her mother's life, which had a very much "Mommie Dearest" vibe. Later, Grace regrets this andmakes it her mission to make amends and to discover what really happened to her grandmother. And so the mystery continues. Many thanks to #netgalley #likemotherlikemother #susanrieger for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A multigenerational saga of three very interesting women. Lila never knew her mother Zelda; her abusive father committed Zelda to an asylum when Lila was only two. Lila grew up taking the brunt of her father's anger and abuse, trying to save her older siblings from his beatings. Rieger explores what kind of woman would emerge from a childhood like that, creating a strong, dynamic, and fascinating adult Lila who herself is uninterested in mothering her own three children. Luckily, Lila's husband is absolutely fantastic and does the bulk of the parenting work. But of course Lila's absenteeism - she's a workaholic editor of a Washington paper - leaves its scars on her own children, and the rest of the book focuses on her youngest daughter, Grace, and then eventually on Grace's quest to find the truth behind what really happened to Zelda. I wanted even more Lila, definitely more Zelda, and a little less Grace in this story, but the novel was a very strong examination and dissection of the mother-daughter relationship, and it left me feeling very grateful for my own loving, nurturing mother. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House | The Dial Press for a digital review copy.

The turn on the mother-daughter dynamic was interesting. The relationship between the mothers and daughters was more complex than a simple case of nurture vs. nature. The mothers may have been absent in different ways, but their presence manifested in their children's actions, outlook, and wellbeing all the same. Even with all the tension of the narrative, the dialogue can be sharp-witted and funny. The reader will not be overwhelmed by that tension. I recommend this novel for anyone interested in family relationships, especially across generations. Is our fate determined by the actions of the parents and grandparents that came before us? Is there an invisible thread that controls the path we take in life? Or are we in total control? Read the book and decide.

When was the last time you wanted to sit around a table with the characters in a book and break bread with them? I was totally captivated by Susan Rieger’s newest novel - “Like Mother, Like Mother” and am very grateful to be introduced to this new to me author.

The book description had me at the first word - Detroit. I am unabashedly a mitten state fan. Then, the opportunity to delve into a story about a strong woman who was a successful editor of a major newspaper was even more tempting. I’m hooked, thinking it is a Katherine Graham (a heroine in my book) type of character.

All in all, however, the novel completely exceeded my expectations. I cared about the characters - the depth and breadth of them. I appreciated the development of the youngest generation; they were smart, perceptive, and so empathetic. I felt as though I was sitting next to them in a cafe, eavesdropping on thoughtful yet honest discussions. I related to the business acumen of the newspaper editor; she reminded me of my business savvy aunt who built her business from the ground up and was a fantastic mentor and role model. There are so many solid parenting examples and wonderful sibling support storylines that the reader feels enveloped in the love of family.

I hoped for a story that I could relate to on a basic level and I was rewarded with a much deeper connection. The result was an engaging and meaningful reading experience. I will recommend the book to friends - including non-Michigander book friends.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of Like Mother, Like Mother in exchange for my honest review.

Multigenerational family saga focusing on mothers and daughters: three fascinating and fiercely intelligent women, each from a different generation of the same family, each of whom devotes scads of time and energy to understanding the actions and beliefs of her own mother.

Loved the story line and the writing! A novel centered around the lives of three women over 3 generations. Lila, in the middle, was raised by an abusive father and became a very successful journalist but a not-so-usual mother. Her youngest daughter, Grace fictionalizes Lila's abandonment by her mother (Zelda) and their family life in her first novel, and has always wondered if Zelda was truly dead, as Lila's father maintained, or had simly escaped her marriage. There's a bit of that mystery, set among well developed characters amid a unique and interesting family. Highly recommend.

Like Mother, Like Mother began with a bit of a rough start for me. I am glad I stuck with all of the background story in order to understand where the author was going. Most family dynamics are complicated we often do not know why or how we got to the current state. Grace wanted to unravel the mystery of her grandmother, but first Rieger needed us to understand what happened before. The story changing the old narrative of a strong male figure working like a dog to support the family, instead giving that role to Lila made you think just a bit more. No one would think twice if a man was doing what she did. She loved her family, but sometimes you think she loved her work more because it was able to be controlled. No one could leave or disappoint her there. Her family helps her unravel her past after she is gone only to find even more secrets meant to be buried deep.

Thank you Penguin Random House for the unexpected great read/recommendation. This one is a can't miss read when published on October 29, 2024.

Took me longer than I usually like to get into this one. But once I was in I just couldn't believe how beautiful the story and how connected the generations of women were, and not just Grace Lila and Zelda. Really beautiful

🗞️ Wow, what a novel. This is a beautifully crafted piece of literature that I will think about for a long time to come. Thank you to @thedialpress for my early peek. This is out 10/29. I hope I can do it some justice here in my review but TL;DR— add this to your TBR!

🗞️ Am I allowed to say this is a character driven novel… with a plot? Oftentimes, character driven novels can be tough for me but in this one: A) I absolutely loved the characters and B) It had just enough of a plot to keep me intrigued.

🗞️ The structure was so brilliant to me. It’s crafted in three parts— each of them focused on a female member from a different generation of the same family. But, all the characters are intertwined into each section because of course they impact each other greatly.

🗞️ These females are fierce. They are strong. And they break societal norms. I loved how they were each unapologetically themselves, and in some cases, how they fought to survive their circumstances. The character development is brilliant here. A character I thought would be the villain in the beginning, was actually massively adored and admired by her family— even though it took some time to get there. A theme explored here is whether someone was really wrong, or if they just didn’t live up to YOUR expectation which I love.

🗞️ Read this if you love…
- strong female characters with depth
- characters who make unique choices, and how that impacts those around them
- exploring society’s expectations of motherhood
- strong journalism

🗞️ I could talk about the intricacies of this book all day but I also don’t want to spoil it so if you’ve read it, or after you read it, and want to jump in my DM’s, please do! I also just want to manifest that I could see this being a miniseries (probably starring Nicole Kidman).

Wow! This novel was just exquisite and I devoured it within a day.
A generational family saga, part historical fiction, part contemporary fiction, reflecting the real complexities of families across generations.

Lile Pereira has risen to power, as the executive editor of the Washington Globe. She prioritises her career, leaving her husband Joe to care for her three daughters. As the synopsis notes, he doesn't mind, until he does.
Her youngest daughter, Grace, feels abandoned and wishes her mother had been there for her. She also finds success as a reporter and then publishing a book about her mother. It is also when she realises how little she knows about her. Did her grandmother really die in the mental asylum she was committed to by their father?

This novel was memorable, both for the characters and the writing. The characters were so relatable and the final message really resonated with me.
This would definitely be a good book club read, as there is a lot to unpack and it would provoke interesting discussion.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this gifted review copy.

Smart, tough, and complicated mother-daughter relationships are at the heart of this novel. Told from the point of view of three different women, the reader gets to connect with these women and what they went through.

Lila grew up without a mother and with an abusive father. She takes the brunt of the beatings to save her older brother and sister. She goes on to become an important person who is super successful and has an amazing husband but in the long run she is similar to her absent mother. Her daughter Grace resents the fact that her mother was never around. It is difficult because the two are so similar. The story looks at their relationships but also we get to know the people around them and how they shape their lives.

This book is filled with great characters who are unique and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and all of the intricate relationships. There is also a mystery element to the novel as the reader tries to figure out what really happened in their family. I really enjoyed reading about this family and look forward to reading more books by this author.

Thank you to The Dial Press/Random House and NetGalley for this Arc.

Love! Love! Love! One of the best books I’ve read all year. The characters. The family dynamic! The family history that led to the family dynamic! There are not words to describe how much I enjoyed this one.

This novel explores the lives of three women from different generations: Zelda (the grandmother), Lila (the mother) and Grace (the daughter), but focuses on Lila — who comes from a home with an abusive father and a mother who died when she was very young but who goes on to become the celebrated executive news editor of the Washington Globe. The story was an intriguing one that interested me through to the end (especially to try to discover what had really happened to Zelda), but the dialogue of the characters — which makes up the bulk of the novel — seemed strange much of the time and was somewhat off-putting. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this multi-generational novel and found it to be a good read.

Like Mother, Like Mother tells Lila’s life story from the presumed death of her mother at a young age, until her own passing. The book explores Lila’s journey to succeed in her career while managing her family. The book also relates the story of Lila’s youngest daughter, Grace, who struggles to understand her mother while also trying to make her own way in the world. Grace believes her grandmother is still alive and wants Lila to confront her past, but Lila has no interest in the past and just wants to move forward.

The writing and story flow well, and Rieger does an excellent job exploring how children both mimic and clash with their parents. She also stresses acceptance of non-conforming parental roles in a completely non-judgmental and non-preachy way.

Like Mother, Like Mother did not get five stars from me because of the “Cast of Characters” listing at the start of the book. Without meeting the characters organically, it is difficult to remember who they are when they enter the story.

One of the best, most nuanced books I've read this year. I could not put it down, and found myself thinking about how even though it may not seem like someone is giving the best, it's the best they can do and it's better than the generation before them. Loved it.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
I really enjoyed this family saga. It was emotional, raw, heartfelt, and really made me feel so many feelings. I especially loved all the strong FMCs and the realistic aspects on motherhood. The characters were so well developed and their stories were so entertaining to read. My only minor complaint…I wanted more of Lila!There was a bit of a political perspective that I really liked, but I know some people like to stay away from political books. I did not feel that it was overbearing in anyway and it was just a minor detail in the overall plot of the book. If you are in the mood for an emotional yet funny family drama, definitely pick this one up! Bonus points to Susan Rieger for having a page dedicated to the description of the cast of characters.

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
📖Multigenerational story
💪🏻Strong women
❎Flawed complex characters
🎭Family drama
🤰🏻Motherhood
🤐Secrets and lies
📈Character driven
💙Jewish representation
3️⃣Told in 3 Parts

⚠️ 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: domestic abuse, child abuse.

🤰🏻𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾🤰🏻
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

💕Q U O T E: "𝐻𝒶𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝒷𝒶𝒷𝓎 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓈. 𝐿𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑒𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑜𝓈𝓈."

🙏 Thank you NetGalley, The Dial Press, and Susan Rieger for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. 💕