Love, Mom (Standard Edition): A Fast-Paced Psychological Thriller with Several Twists

From #1 bestselling author Iliana Xander comes a twisty, fast-paced psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Freida McFadden.

Mackenzie Casper is a brilliant student. But she is best known for her mother, a best-selling author whose dark, twisted thrillers have a dedicated worldwide fanbase. When her mother dies in an accident, fans across the world are left grieving, and the investigators are asking: Was that really an accident?

The day of the memorial service, Mackenzie gets the first mysterious envelope, signed,

From #1 fan. XOXO.

Inside are the pages of her mother's diary that start with the lines:

Want to know a secret?

Love, Mom.

What Mackenzie reads leaves her in shock.

Then comes the second letter.

And the third...

Mackenzie starts her own investigation and stumbles upon secrets that her family has lived with for years.

Quickly, she realizes that her mother's path to stardom was etched with sinister lies that might have caught up with her.

Sometimes fame is worth a murder. Or worse.

Soon, Mackenzie will come to find out that there are worse things than murder...

ADD TO MY SHELVES

Recommend book

BUY THE BOOK

Published Sep 2, 2025

368 pages

Average rating: 7.86

582 RATINGS

Join a book club that is reading Love, Mom (Standard Edition): A Fast-Paced Psychological Thriller with Several Twists!

Lost In A BookClub

If you’re looking to read and connect with likeminded people? You’ve found your club! Thank you for joining ❤️

Learn More

Community Reviews

Write a review...

cbell9626

Mar 15, 2026

10/10 stars

What a page turner! Kept my eyes glued to its pages. So many twists and turns, by far, the best thriller I’ve read. This one trumps them all!

StoryStride Raleigh

Mar 09, 2026

7/10 stars

I flew through Love, Mom. The premise pulled me in right away a bestselling thriller author dies under suspicious circumstances and her daughter starts receiving eerie letters from a “#1 fan” along with pages from her mother’s diary. It had all the ingredients I love in a domestic mystery: secrets, family drama, and the question of how well we really know the people closest to us. Even though I did find parts of the plot predictable, I still genuinely enjoyed the reading experience. The pacing was quick, the tension was there, and the diary entries were a fun device that kept me turning pages to see what would be revealed next. My biggest critique is the ending. Lately I’ve noticed a trend in thrillers where everything gets wrapped up a little too neatly, and this one fell into that category for me. I tend to prefer messier, more unsettling conclusions that linger after the final page, and this one tied things up a bit too cleanly. Overall, this was an engaging and easy binge read that I finished quickly. If you like family-secret thrillers with a meta publishing-world angle and don’t mind a more polished ending, this is definitely worth picking up.

NYBeauty212

Mar 04, 2026

7/10 stars

Easy to read, definitely had me sitting on the edge of my seat wondering if she was killed or not

Bree F

Feb 23, 2026

5/10 stars

It was good and then the ending was weird.

lvpxoxo

Dec 22, 2025

9/10 stars

Talk about jumping right into the mystery and guessing who is who. The years of secrets, betrayal and mental abuse. Ben and “Elizabeth” played their role a little too well, him being a mommas boy afraid of anything and everything. Poor Mackenzie who never got to experience the love of her mother. Every clue she found pulling her closer to the truth felt like a heartbreak. Wish we got a pov on Lizzy on her years being captured and encounters with everyone who knew exactly what they were doing. I would give it an 8.5 instead.