Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC audiobook.

This was a miss for me. A woman dealing with postpartum deals with her husband being main suspect in murder. The premise sounded amazing, but missed the mark for me to be a great thriller.

#ad many thanks to StMartins Press for my advance copy & @netgalley for the ALC

Umm. Hmm. Okay. I liked? This book - the mystery intrigued me, the writing was great, and so were the characters. But most of this book is focused on postpartum, gender roles, chapped nipples and being a new mom.

The book would have been fantastic if it didn’t keep going on and on about these issues. I’d say the book is 75% about being a new mom - which was relatable - while the other 25% focuses on the mystery. Seriously I must have read/heard the word “nipples” at least 5000 times.

You might enjoy this one more if you’re looking for more of a women’s lit type of book with a light murder mystery. If you’re expecting a mystery/thriller well, you will get that too but you’ll also get a bunch of repeating troubles on motherhood.

I don’t even know how to rate this book. There’s so much that’s great about it but also a lot that isn’t.

Will def check out future books by this author however because I enjoyed her writing. The audio was perfect however and the narrators really did a great job.

If you are looking for a story that is about a mother struggling with postpartum depression (and maybe even anxiety) this is the book for you. The struggles of postpartum motherhood and mental health challenges are well depicted. But that is pretty much all the book is about. The FMC is struggling with postpartum when her husband is arrested for murder. She struggles with her feelings towards him and motherhood. She is resistant to help and trusts very few people. The book was more about her struggles than the murder, which I was not expecting. I wanted a little more from the murder aspect of the story, which was fine, but predictable and not the main focus. I think if you want a story about mental health challenges, especially as a new mother, this book will check all of your boxes. It was just not what I was looking for and became repetitive and frustrating to me (not the depression, but the constant descriptions of her challenges.)

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

I liked the premise of this book.

New Mom Brynn lives on Martha's vineyard with her husband. She's a successful woman with a busy life, but she is now suffering from post-partum depression.

When her husband is accused of murder, she is stunned - he wouldn't do that, would he? She decides she needs to find out who the real murder is, but she's barely functional.

I struggled a little with the book, as it's not really a mystery, and is more women's fiction. It is certainly not a beach read, as it brings up a lot of difficult situations. Brynn is unable to really bond with her baby and regrets having given birth at times. There is a lot of information about caring for a newborn, and it's repeated several times. I think women who have struggled with depression like this would appreciate this book, but for me it dragged.

I listened to the book and I think the narrator did a good job with the places and people. She sounded very sympathetic of Brynn's situations.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. I did want Brynn to resolve her issues of postpartum depression, anxiety around motherhood, and being somewhat estranged from her parents, and all that took some time!

The story is set on Martha’s Vineyard. Brynn’s husband Ross is part of a family construction business and his father, mother, and brother are somewhat overpowering and definitely have insinuated themselves in Brynn’s life, especially his mother Margo. A murder occurs on the island shortly after Brynn and Ross become parents, and Ross is arrested for the crime. The author did a good job of setting up that mystery and I was in the dark until shortly before the reveal.

The narration was really top notch! I loved the audiobook and highly recommend it. Motherhood changes women, some more than others, and I could identify with Brynn on several levels.

Four sparkling stars! I enjoyed the book.

I received a copy of the digital ALC via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

Collen Chi-Girl on GR
3 STARS
Pub Date Apr 29 2025
Macmillan Audio
Author: Julia Spiro; Narrator: Abigail Reno

I love a good audiobook and enjoyed most of this one. I'm not sure if it's really a beach read or a mystery/thriller, but what Julia Spiro nails is suffering in young motherhood with postpartum depression. The FMC Brynn grew up on Martha's Vineyard, but without the moneyed family like many of the islanders. Her parents are hardworking teachers who eventually had to leave the island in order to retire on the nearby mainland and they don't seem to emotionally support her.

Brynn is married to a local man, Ross, who comes from the very wealthy families we hear about. She is a new mother and going through severe postpartum depression. It's so bad that she should've sought help, but how often do we care for others and not for our own very serious problems and needs. Because of her severe PPD and feeling abandoned by her sweet but unhelpful husband, Brynn's world is pretty tough and therefore, we readers live through it too through her POV. Her constant self-doubt, complaining, imagined and real reasons for negativity and depression, are hard to listen to during the entire novel. Nothing about this is a beach read because of this, so I'd highly suggest the publisher relabel this.

Brynn must have been an amazing person at one time because she has THE BEST AND KINDEST pack of friends anyone could imagine. They're supportive and wonderful in every way, and one of them is a mom of 3 who obviously floats through young motherhood with positivity and delight. Brynn and her husband barely speak to each other, but when they do, Ross is always complementary and loving, however, he isn't a true partner who sees what his wife is going through and joins in at home to take part in his baby and wife's lives. He does offer on occasion "to help her" by unloading the dishwasher, or watching his baby so Brynn can shower and feels like he did amazing things. For this generation on a hip island, Ross has a very 1950s viewpoint of fatherhood. He does enlist the help of his Mom, which gives Brynn much needed breaks by watching their baby. Brynn just can't seem to pull it together with the help of her friends and MIL, and is very angry with Ross without communicating to him what her expectations of this family journey are and what she needs from him. This became spiraling, repetitive, depressing, and annoying, because I expected a mystery or thriller, and also because like many other mothers, I raised my child without my parents, in-law's, or adult siblings nearby, while all my friends had their own busy lives and children. BUT, I didn't suffer from PPD (just sheer exhaustion), and I had a husband who jumped in whenever he was home. Motherhood isn't easy as we all know.


Eventually the story switches to a mystery when a local woman is found drowned, and of all people, her husband, Ross, is charged with her murder. Could things get worse for Brynn!? She begins doubting how well she knows her husband and her imagination of what he did/does is pretty awful. . Her fragile mental state is core to ongoing feelings and her lack of reality. I think I would've enjoyed this story just as a female literature story of this time period in a young mother's life, even without the mystery. But I hung in there and used some suspending disbelief as the ending unfolded.

Thank you to Macmilliam Audio and NetGalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

3.5 stars

I picked up this book because of my familiarity with the setting of Martha’s Vineyard and found a compelling mystery. It’s the story of a new mother struggling with postpartum depression with a thriller wrapped in.

Brynn has been struggling with motherhood, with the connection with her baby, the sleep depravation, and feeling like enough. She resents her husbands ability to be a part time parent while he works but when a young woman is found dead at the beach and her husband is arrested for the murder she doesn’t believe he did it and wants to prove it.

I thought the mystery was very compelling, although their marriage has been difficult after the birth of her baby Brynn doesn’t believe he did it.

The representation of postpartum depression was well written, you could feel the struggle and difficulty through the page. The book went into detail about the intrusive thoughts and the struggle that mothers feel. I wish there was more of an emphasis on the mystery and less on the struggle. This book was advertised as a beach read and I think the heavy subject matter wouldn’t fit in the category of beach read.

I felt like the narrator did a great job with her tone and pacing but my biggest issue came with the location pronunciations. I am from the area and it was jarring to hear the narrator mispronounce various places.

This was a great mystery that dealt with some difficult subject matter.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan audio for the ALC.

Let me start off saying that my feelings for this character are not a reflection on how I feel about Postpartum Depression. It is real, and women's feeling while going through it are valid and should be understood and heard more. I have been through it, twice, and I have had friends who have had it. each of us had various degrees of it, some had it lightly, and some had it horribly, so I want to again say, I do not discredit anyones time dealing with PPD.

SO. Such A Good Mom dealt heavily with PPD, new mother Brynn Nelson had just had a baby and suffered heavily with it. Her and her husband live on Marthas Vineyard, and like most of the permanent residences there, they have no worries about money. A friend of the family is found washed up on the shore, and to make matters worse for Brynn her husband is arrested for the murder.

Sounds good right? But the story lost me before I got to the half way part. First if all with all the struggles she has with her baby and PPD she sets out to clear her husbands name and find the really killer. I did find that a bit of a stretch, but that isn't where the book lost me, what lost me was the thriller part of the book, it seemed to get lost right along with me. The main concentration seemed to me her being a mother, which honestly just did not hold my attention. I was wanting to read a thriller, that was what I signed up for. Brynn was constantly whining about the baby, which yes can happen when you are faced with PPD, but girl, you are wealthy , you have every means to get help, help that many women have absolutely have no access to. There was no reason for her to suffer or solve a murder for godsake.

I lost all concern for her, and at this point wasn't even fond of her. I also felt that the writer overused the PPD to make Brynn look unreliable to the reader. I just think the entire PPD situation could have been better handled. I did finish Such A Good Mom, but have to admit, I did fast forward here and there just so I could fin out who the killer was.

Such A Good Mom had great potential, I just wished we had less motherhood and more thriller.

Such a Good Mom is a book appropriately categorized as Women's Fiction, with a description that reads as a Thriller. I felt like this genre mashup was going to be excellent. Unfortunately, the blend isn't nearly as seamless as it should have been. I felt like I was pulled between two different books, not in a good way.

The book follows the story of new mom Brynn who's struggling with PPD. Much of the book is heavily focused on her experience readjusting to life with a newborn, which would have been great representation of an overlooked topic had it not felt so surface-level. You hear a lot about breastfeeding struggles, exhaustion from not sleeping through the night, and the loneliness that comes from feeling like you're doing everything on your own. As a mom, I could connect with much of what was said, but it didn't have the depth or punch to make it read as believable.

The thriller side of this book felt forced and underwhelming. A wealthy family full of secrets, a twist I immediately predicted, and too many cliches to count. And in the middle of this scandal, you continuously hear all about how much Brynn is struggling with motherhood.

The story felt disorganized and disjointed. It wanted to be great, but it majorly missed the mark.

Abigail Reno's 5-star narration made the story tolerable, I think this would have been a DNF had I read it.

Pub Date: April 29, 2025

2.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the ALC of this book!

When new mom Brynn Nelson is forced to confront the possibility that her husband is responsible for the death of a local girl, she finds that looking for the truth will crack her husband's family secrets wide open and destroy their reputation as one of the elite families on Martha's Vineyard. Struggling through postpartum and questioning everything she thought she knew, Brynn is determined to know what has been hidden from her, whether or not that means finding out her husband is a murderer.

"Such a Good Mom" had family issues, postpartum struggles, mystery, and suspense all rolled into one storyline. It featured a lot of rich, awful people with a lot of dirty secrets, so full of themselves they didn't notice Brynn struggling, despite her having married into this dysfunctional family that deemed themselves holier than the rest of the local residents. I found the twists to be semi-predictable, but the writing style kept me in it the whole time. I would definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy family dysfunction and mystery.

Abigail Reno did a fabulous job of narrating this story, making me feel so much compassion for Brynn - she was a very relatable character. She spoke with excellent clarity and pacing that made this read hard to put down. Surprisingly, this was my first book from Reno's narrating, but I would look forward to listening to her again!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audio copy of this book! I look forward to reading more from Spiro.

Oh this is such a good book! I really enjoyed the narrator as well! the story has so many twists and turns throughout. I highly recommend the book!

So much potential…

I appreciated the close look at how, upon giving birth, women are expected to automatically turn into nurturing mothers.The content tries to address postpartum depression, the fear of doing things wrong, and the absolute exhaustion of catering to a newborn while recovering from childbirth. But what we get is a repetitive cycle without a lot of depth.

Our wealthy white mother doesn’t seek help for her postpartum depression because she’s afraid the state will take away her baby if she tells her doctor how she feels. I mean, seriously, that’s just dumb.

In general, the story is about a lot of rich people behaving badly, interfering in one another’s lives, while doing nothing about the fact that Brynn is clearly suffering. It all felt shallow, despite the complex topic.

The murder mystery aspect is thin, and the twists predictable.

Read SUCH A GOOD MOM if you want a close but not necessarily expansive look at postpartum depression. Don’t read it if you’re looking for a good mystery.

I listened to the audiobook. Abigail Reno did a fantastic job with the narration, which is what got me through the book.

*I received a free audiobook download from Macmillan Audio.*

excellent audiobook. i really enjoyed this narration. this book highlights the struggles of the 4th trimester. highly recommend!!!!

I really enjoyed this audio. The narration was really well done and the voice was great. The story and characters were very likable and I enjoyed myself.

Such a Good Mom was so much more than I was expecting, but could also have been a lot more than it was. And I want to point out here at the beginning of this review, this book deals with postpartum depression and is a domestic thriller. I don't want to give any more away- but if you have delt with ppd, like I have, this was actually a healing book in a way for me. But, I know that some may find it a difficult subject to deal with, and I don't want people going into this book blind.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I dove right into this book. I like to start off not knowing much about what I am reading. I think it gives much more mystery and intrigue to a book. So I wasn't quite sure if this was going to be more of a mystery-thriller, or more of a mystery-historical fiction type of a storyline.

I think there was so much to this book that it didn't quite know what it really wanted to be. There were parts of this that were written like an incredible novel; it pulled me into such rich character development and insight. But later, it moved so quickly I remembered that I was listening to a thriller where there was a lot more going on that what the mother was experiencing and trying to process.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it is possible for a book to possess both the qualities of literature and a great thriller, at the same time. However, I think it needs be done in a certain way to be carried off perfectly, and this just missed it.

All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed Such a Good Mom because it was different and talked about things that women don't often feel comfortable talking about, and I think this book does an excellent job of bringing certain things to the surface that are often difficult to talk about even if many of us feel the same way.

I am very thankful I had the chance to read this book. I hope that others give it a chance.

Boy, does this book hit hard on the early days of being a first-time mom. 🥺 This book could be a struggle for one going or recently gone through PPD... but it could also be healing.

I loved the murder mystery along with the heavy mom stuff. I somewhat guessed the twist but only about 25%. It's definitely a great read!


Thank you to Macmillan Audio & Netgalley for an advanced audio copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audiobook.

This book was raw. I might be 5 years out of post partum, but the feelings of PPD are ones I can't forget. This book brought it all back up for me. I think that unfortunately those feelings tainted by overall experience with this book because I struggled to get through it. The narrator was enjoyable and Julia Spiro truly struck a chord with me.

When a well liked local server, Celia, washes ashore dead, the small town of Martha's Vineyard is shocked. Brynn Nelson, confused and drawn to speak to her husband, goes to his family business office. While there, he tries to tell her what's really going on but the police arrest him for murder.

What will Brynn do? She knows her husband is innocent but is also in the depths of possible post partum depression while carrying for her newborn son.

This is a great read!

Thanks @netgalley for the opportunity!

This story captivated me from the start with Brynn in the throws of motherhood and struggling with postpartum depression. He husband, Ross, does not seem to be helping as much as she needs but that are starting to communicate a little better when he is arrested for the death of a young woman who is a friend of the family. He tells Brynn a cryptic message to try to clear his name, but all the evidence points to Ross being guilty.

I really enjoyed Brynn's story and her struggles are something that I have recently felt as well being a new, first-time mom. Although I did not struggle the way Brynn did, its easy to see why she did. I knew what the ending was pretty early on just because of how the characters were so I was not shocked but I was waiting to see how it all played out. Overall, a pretty good read.

This book is about being a new mother and all that it encompesses. Postpartum depression is a big theme here and dealing with a newborn. The mystery is there and interesting but not a big chunk of the book. I did not mind that though. I felt this book was interesting and relatable and covered many different topics. The narration was pretty good too. I give it 3.5 stars.