Like Mother, Like Daughter is a well written thriller by an author I haven’t read before but will be looking out for in the future.
Cleo is a college student at NYU, her mother, Kat is a lawyer and they are total opposites. Cleo is volatile and totally unpredictable while Kat is calm, in control and basically perfect or is she? Cleo comes home after a call from her mother to find a pan on the hob boiling dry, no Kat and a bloody shoe on the floor. The police in Cleo’s eyes are slow to react so she starts to do her own investigating and discovers a side to her mother she knew nothing about. The deeper she delves the more she finds.
This was a dual POV timeline which in my eyes worked well bouncing from eight days prior to the disappearance and from the day of the disappearance. The book did slow a little around the middle part but did get back on track for the ending. This book will particularly resonate with you if you have a child and how much you would do to protect them and stop anything from happening to them.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin General UK, Fig Tree fro this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Tense and well plotted, it kept me turning pages and on the edge. Good style of writing and character development
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Firstly a big thank you to the publishers for my opportunity to read and review .
This is a new author for me .
Really enjoyed this book which is non stop action and tension .
Written in dual narratives and timelines which helps keep the flow of the story alive and engaging.
Packed with suspense and no clue where the storyline was going throughout !

I recently finished “Like Mother, Like Daughter” by Kimberly McCreight, and I have to say, it left me with a lot to think about. From the very beginning, I was drawn into the tense, layered story of Cleo and her mother, Kat—a stark contrast in personality and life. Cleo is rebellious, unpredictable, and emotionally volatile, while Kat is the epitome of perfection—successful, polished, and seemingly in control. Their relationship felt so raw and authentic, especially as secrets started to unravel.
The plot kicks off when Cleo, a college student at NYU, comes home after a call from her mother, only to find her house in chaos—dinner burning, a bloody shoe under the sofa, and Kat mysteriously missing. The suspense ramps up quickly as Cleo begins her own investigation, uncovering a side of her mother she never knew existed. I appreciated how McCreight kept me guessing with the dual timeline—one starting on the day of the disappearance and the other flashing back eight days prior. This storytelling technique kept me hooked, trying to piece together what really happened.
However, I have to admit that as the story progressed, I felt it became a bit slow and overly layered. There were so many twists and secrets that I started to lose track of the main storyline, which made the pacing feel uneven at times. Despite that, the emotional depth and complexity of the mother-daughter relationship kept me invested. McCreight does an excellent job exploring themes like generational trauma, the masks we wear, and how far one would go to protect loved ones.
What really resonated with me was the portrayal of Kat—her past, her secrets, and her attempts to shield her daughter from her own mistakes. It made me think about the lengths parents go to in the name of protection and how those actions can sometimes backfire. Cleo’s fiery personality and her struggle with feeling like the problem versus her desire to understand her mother added a compelling dynamic to the story.
Overall, “Like Mother, Like Daughter” is a gripping, emotionally charged thriller that delves deep into family secrets and the complexities of love and loyalty. While it wasn’t perfect and some parts felt a bit slow, I still found it to be a thought-provoking and intense read. If you enjoy domestic suspense with well-drawn characters and a layered plot, I think you’ll find this book quite engaging.

Written from TWo points of view, mother & daughter but this added to the story for me. Quickly pulled me in and had me hooked.
Thank you Net Galley & K McCreight

Like mother, like daughter by Kimberley McCreight is a story about a complex relationship between mother and daughter. Kat is a lawyer and an overbearing mother who wants to look after her daughter Cleo. After herself having a troubled childhood, she wants to do right by her daughter. But Cleo rebels.
One day Cleo an NYU student, gets a call from her mother asking her to come home to Brooklyn. But when she gets there is has gone missing, but all her stuff is still there and there is blood on the floor. She calls the Police, and they say they will be in touch if they hear anything. But Cleo starts investigating herself of the disappearance of her mother. To find out that her perfect mother, is not as perfect as she thought and has a secret life of her own.
When I started this, I thought this was going to be a really good thriller. But unfortunately, the author went way off the main object of the storyline, and I found it to be really slow. There is so many layers to this story that it was hard keeping up with it all that I started losing interest. 3 stars from me.

Kimberly McCreight clearly has a talent for crafting complex family dynamics and tension! Fans of character driven family drama will be into this.

A good, solid read.

The mothers employment and the daughters lifestyle choices continually leave the reader wondering what has led to the lawyers disappearance. Then add the infuriating husband / father ...

Loved this! Sometimes when there are multiple threads and storylines, things can get confusing. McCreight however keeps readers on the right path with clear characterisation and writing that gives you just enough leeway to keep guessing right to the very end!

I don’t mind a dual POV but there seemed to be a lot of separate storylines and characters in this book and so I did disengage with the story quite early on and the ending wasn’t really much of a payoff.

Thanks to netgalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like Mother, Like Daughter is an emotionally charged thriller dealing with the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, generational trauma, and the devastating consequences of secrets kept too long. I have enjoyed Kimberley McCreight novels since reading her first one ‘Reconstructing Amelia’.

Cleo, a passionate and emotionally volatile NYU student, arrives home late for dinner to find her mother Kat missing. There are signs of a violent struggle. What starts as a simple worry quickly becomes a chilling mystery when Cleo finds Kat’s bloody shoe hidden under the sofa.
As Cleo begins to investigate, she uncovers a very different side of her mother. Kat isn’t just the polished, high-powered lawyer she seemed, she’s the firm’s go-to fixer, with a past she’s carefully concealed and enemies she’s made along the way. With Cleo’s own life spiralling through dangerous entanglements and Kat’s secrets surfacing fast, mother and daughter are hurtling toward a deadly convergence.

The story is told over two timescales starting with the day of the disappearance, when Cleo arrives home and Kat’s chapters begin eight days prior to her disappearance. This is so well written and kept me guessing.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Penguin UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

wow this book had me in an emotional tight hold. full of suspense and tension we truly gt involved and particularly because of our characters being mother and daughter. you can feeeeel the relationship there, you can feel how things worked between them too and you are instantly involved. you care now. you're in.
i could not put this book down. but that was no hard thing :D
student Cleo is bought back to dinner by her mum. shes at NYU and couldn't be more different from her mother Kat. so there is almost always something between them and not in the good ways. but she's her mum and this time she feels something in her need to go to her mum.
when she arrives though she is faced with questions and fears start to rise. there is food burning or ready to be made. there is no sign of her mother. there is though her mothers bloody shoe under the sofa. the skin prickles for us all...
but this is Kat, her mum and her totally opposite. Cleo is the messy one right? her mum has it tight, buttoned, perfect and together....right? but it turns out there is a lot more to Kat than Cleo could have imagined. alot more.
Kat isn't a lawyer. she is the firms fixer and a great one at that. but seems Kt found out some major thing before she vanished. threats, a cover up and ex;s all bring this murky story to full throttle fear mode. with added venom lead messages to boot.
we are given both pov for this novel which adds such great rounding to the story. being lead by both woman was a brilliant move. because we are given what is happening now, but also how it came to be. this was one of my favourite parts about the book and another perfect detail to Kimberley and her writing skills.]
this is so much more than a suspense family drama and Kimberley is plays a masterclass in this book of writing this mother daughter dynamic. my whole heart went into their story and their relationship.
loved this book so much. it was just so so good!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book , lots of twists and turns and fast paced . Nice twist at the ending. A good writing of the mother -daughter relationship

I loved this book, faced paced and very gripping. I am not normally a fan of a time jump split narrative, but it worked really well for this story, to hear Katrina as the mother and Cleo as the daughter’s perspectives. In fact it just made me want to read faster. Whilst being flawed, I cared about the characters, and as I learnt more about Katrina’s childhood, I only cared more about them both. I looked forward to reading it, raced through it, a really great read!

Mother-daughter interactions can often be fraught, and Cleo's relationship with her hyper organized lawyer mother Kat is no exception. But when her mother suddenly disappears, leaving behind probable evidence of a violent altercation of some sort, Cleo begins to deeply regret the shortcomings in their communication.

Because while she is searching for Kat, Cleo becomes increasingly aware of just how many secrets about her past her mother has kept to herself over the decades.

And what Cleo also doesn't know is that her mother will do anything to protect her, however high the cost of doing so. And Kat might have to do just that...

Kimberly McCreight is a fantastic writer, and she proves it yet again in this story. I loved it and recommend it highly.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and the journey it took you on. There were some hard hitting relationship elements along with the mystery of what has happened. A nice surprising twist to the ending.

Unfortunately this story was poorly written with a lot of spelling errors from the start leaving me unable to understand what the actual story was. Such a shame as the blurb seemed really interesting- hopefully when the story is released it is proof read again to correct all errors.

A very enjoyable novel. The premise was enough to grip me and the sheer beauty of the story kept me engaged.

I really enjoyed the narrative of the difficulties of motherhood and the skilful way the author made me feel as if I knew these people.

Finally this is a masterclass in pacing, there’s not a moment to spare and you will feel that too.

This is a fast paced, who done it, mystery thriller that has you hooked from the get go!!

The story is read between 2 POV and helps you dive in each character and get invested in the story! With a troubled past and a troubled relationship between mother and daughter this story keeps you on your toes until the very end!!

Thank you so much for the ARC!

A gripping read with lots of twists and high tension focussing on motherhood and the complexities of familial relationships.
Cleo and Kat were both compelling characters and the story is well told, although in this proof copy there were spelling mistakes and missing words that took away from the reading flow. In a final proofread copy it is a great story waiting to be discovered!