Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

Such a good mom combines an unflinching look at new motherhood with a twisty, conspiracy-fueled thriller. What's the worst thing that could happen to an exhausted, overwhelmed new mother? Her husband accused of a murder is probably towards the top of the list. This makes for a unique story with twists and turns the reader doesn't seem coming, culminating in the reveal of a very unlikely perpetrator which begs the question - how far will a mother go for her child?

Thank you to Julia Spiro, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for this arc of Such A Good Mom, out April 29, 2025!

📜Quick Summary: What bad can happen on an island as beautiful as Martha’s Vineyard? Brynn is a new mom, exhausted and pushed to the brink. Her husband Ross is continuing to live his life uninterrupted, which Brynn is starting to despise. The journey of motherhood so far weighs on Brynn deeply, and when her husband is accused of murder, Brynn carries even more on her plate. Brynn knows she has to find out who killed this friend of a family, while also living through life deliriously tired, exhausted, and struggling at her own writing job.

❣️Initial Feels: Only 4% in, and I can relate to Brynn so much. Not only from the emergent c-section, but from the overwhelming feelings that happen almost immediately postpartum. You no longer care for yourself, but this new human being.

👀Trigger Warnings: postpartum depression

📖Read if you want: mystery, romance, thrills, Martha’s Vineyard backdrop, postpartum motherhood

🙋🏼‍♀️Moving Character: This author made Brynn so likeable and relatable from the start, it’s hard not to want to root for her…or as I did, say “Me,too!” many times throughout the novel. Her devotion to her husband, even though she questioned him and really didn’t know what she would find, was admirable. Her brutal honesty about motherhood was raw and truthful. The growth she showed throughout this book hits the mark.

🗨️Touching Words: “The days are long, but the years are short.”

💡Final Sentiments: I can tell this book will be hit or miss with people. Any mothers (new or old) that deal with postpartum or just the raw feelings of becoming a mom will instantly bond with Brynn. The resentment she feels toward her husband, who lives in his world, is one that is all too similar for other women. The way she described a mother’s mental load was spot on, and it’s all those behind the scene “items” on a checklist that weigh a mother down. If you’re looking for a true thriller, this isn’t it. The mystery portion is great, and I did enjoy the bread crumbs that were left, but you may be able to pinpoint the killer at some point.

🌟Overall Rating: 4 stars

This novel was provided by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Such a Good Mom by Julia Spiro was an interesting read. Unfortunately, I had a hard time relating to main character Brynn. I am guessing author was trying to develop a relatable mom and how one would feel if they had postpartum. Brynn wound up getting on my nerves. Overall, when I accepted, I wasn't going to change my thoughts on Brynn, the overall story was interesting and did want to see how the story ended. I like how author revisits the relationship between Brynn and her mother.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC.

This couldn't quite be a thriller because of the introspective rambles about motherhood and women's roles, but there are too many mystery-novel reveals to feel like a thoughtful literary novel either, Two genres I like, but this made a strange mashup for me.

This was a good (if slightly predictable) mystery. It focuses on new moms, postpartum struggles with a death thrown in. I thought the storyline was good & the characters well thought out even though I could fairly easily guess who did it. Overall, a solid 3.75 to 4.25 star mystery in my opinion & worth a read.

Such A Good Mom is a mystery set on the elegant paradise of Martha’s Vineyard where appearances mean everything. Brynn is the main character who has everything she could have ever dreamed of, including a new baby. This book focuses heavily on postpartum depression and the struggles Brynn has as a result and could use a trigger warning. Since Martha’s Vineyard is such a lovely summer destination, an influx of visitors arrive during the summer. When a body is found, at first it appears like another accident. Soon Brynn’s husband becomes a suspect and is arrested. Through her difficulties with PPD, Brynn tries to determine who the real killer is and uncovers deep family secrets in the process. The story was complex, detailed, and well written. However, I felt like the focus should have been more on the actual mystery itself rather than Brynn’s PPD. All in all a good read!

“Such a Good Mom” by Julia Spiro is a mystery book, but for a majority of the book that is an underlying part of the plot. Most of this book discusses new Mom, Brynn, dealing with postpartum depression in, at times, rather detailed detail. I don’t have an issue with someone suffering from postpartum, but at times the information became repetitive and, honestly, distracted from the mystery. I never felt that the book, like the book summary says, “brings the real and layered Martha’s Vineyard to life” - for me, this book could have been based nearly anywhere and it would’ve worked fine. Getting back to the mystery, once the mystery started rolling, I felt the book became more interesting - though it took to nearly the 85% mark for it to really get underway. Was I surprised by the final who-done-it? No, as it wasn’t shocking or surprising, but I think it was an okay to good mystery. I do think this book needs some editing (at one point Brynn says the baby looks like her and a few paragraphs later, she states the baby looks like her husband) along with trigger warnings. I’m also a bit confused as to when this book took place - it’s being published in 2025 yet the baby was born during the time of COVID restrictions (so, 2020 or 2021) and is only a few months old at the beginning of the book. For me, this book was an okay idea, but I wish that either there had been more focus on the mystery OR that the mystery wasn’t part of the book; instead this book seemed to bridge both that, for me, didn’t quite work as well as I hoped.. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this arc of the book.

Murder?
New baby?
Postpartum depression?
This book covers a lot. The plot was good. But definitely felt overwritten.
When someone close to the new mom is accused of murder she decides to investigate it. She’s figuring out post partum and all the emotions that go with it.

Overall, a good read just not a favorite.

This was a tough read as I am in my own post partum period. I definitely identified with the protagonist’s post partum thoughts. Definitely need some trigger warnings on this one! Overall, was enjoyable and loved the setting.

The premise of this book was interesting and I really thought I was going to enjoy it, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. It needed more polished editing. I found it hard to relate with the story, but I did appreciate the author tackling motherhood and postpartum depression.

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

The author seemingly could not decide if she was writing a mystery or a book about post partum depression. The new mother (also the main female protagonist) cannot stop commenting about her new life with an infant in ways that I found annoyingly repetitive. She refuses help from a group of clearly very close female friends, determined to be “such a good mom”. I found it difficult to sympathize. Her relationship with her husband is now strained but they don't seem to talk about their issues with each other. Now comes the murder. No spoilers so I will say only that the accused person is clearly going to be shown to be innocent. How it all unravels is fairly interesting. The ending is just too pat and predictable.
Sorry but this is a miss, not a hit for me.

Spiro has done an excellent job of showing the frightening side of post partum depression. The book is a good story, I felt compassion for Brynn because she is overwhelmed and now with her husband in jail she is alone. I was good read and I enjoyed the mystery of who killed Cecelia.
This book was interesting and i enjoyed it enough to read more by Julia Spiro.


Thank you NetGalley for the Electronic advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

The main character was very relatable as someone who recently went through the throws of the postpartum period. That, mixed with some mystery and suspense, and it really had my attention.

Thank you @minatourbooks and @netgalley for this advance ebook. Such an interesting story - part thriller, part literary character development.

With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. But Brynn is struggling. Her husband, Ross, grows more distant by the day, and the challenges and exhaustion of postpartum make Brynn feel like she’s slowly losing pieces of herself to motherhood. Pieces that she might never get back.

But it’s summer on the Vineyard, a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. Except for locals, like Brynn, who know all too well that tragedy can strike at any point. And this time, it hits close to home when a friend of the family is found washed ashore. Dead. And Brynn’s already hectic life is turned upside down when Ross is arrested for the crime.

Left reeling with more questions than answers, Brynn’s only path forward is to find out who really killed Cecelia Buckley, even if it means it was her husband. She’s not sure who she’s able to trust anymore. And with dizzying, endless cycle of sleepless nights, diapers, and bottles, Brynn’s not even sure she can trust herself. She’s not sure of anything anymore, but she won’t stop until she finds the truth.

LOVED! This was so good and really captured that early exhausting blur of postpartum days- where things feel like you’re living in a sort of dream state and you can’t totally be sure of what is and isn’t real because you’re so tired and overwhelmed. That captured element was perfect addition to this book. I really loved the ride along the way and the ending was *chefs kiss*

Starts off with an intriguing plot - new mom caught in murder mystery - but very quickly got super boring with no suspense.
It tried to be a thriller but focused way too much on motherhood which was not interesting. The PPD could have been handled much better but instead was just used as a device to make the narrator unreliable.
Super repetitive at times and had so much backstory and detail that didn’t matter.
I heavily skimmed the last half of the book just to find out whodunnit. Would not recommend.
Only finished and reviewed for NetGalley stats.

Fast paced, beautifully written book about the realities of dealing with a newborn, post partum depression, and her husband’s arrest. Brynn lives on a picturesque island and should have a perfect life. She has a close circle of friends, a beautiful healthy baby, but lacks proper support from her husband, who unbeknownst to her is dealing with his own dangerous drama. This is the first book I have read by this author, but I will definitely be reading her prior novels.

I didn’t enjoy this book and I had to force myself to finish it.
This read like a B movie scripted by a goth teenager who just discovered angst and adjectives.
All of the characters are one-dimensional.
The main character is self absorbed, selfish and exhausting. Are we supposed to believe that at one point this hot mess was a strong, independent woman? I saw zero evidence of that.
The flow of the story was constantly interrupted by inconsistencies and contradictions-one character is noted for the truck he drives, then two paragraphs later, it’s a car. Brynn laments that no one would mistake her for the babysitter because she and Lucas look alike, but one the same page, the author states that Lucas looks like ROSS and Brynn can find no trace of herself in him. In another scene, Brynn walks into her in-laws’ house and finds them seated in club chairs flanking the fireplace. But her father-in-law then gets up from the COUCH. 🤦🏻‍♀️
The ending somewhat redeemed the narrative arc-the story progressed more smoothly when there was dialogue. But there was too much melodrama and handwringing and not enough payoff. Details were very few and there was no build up. Everything concluded with a whimper, not a bang.
Also, I have to say, as a mother of 8, I am all too familiar with the thankless nature of motherhood. Sometimes it’s a grind and a lot of times it’s exhausting, frustrating and mind-numbing. And birth traumas and postpartum depression are definitely real. This novel does nothing to address any of that. It’s just a long list of complaints.

A compelling synopsis, but everything about this fell flat for me; I found it painfully predictable and dull, and the culmination of the story is over the top implausible.



Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the DRC