Love, Mom: A fast-paced psychological thriller with several twists

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.

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

It was good and then the ending was weird.

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.

Just an okay read overall, and definitely didn’t live up to the hype for me. The book starts off slow—almost too slow—but it does eventually build momentum. I’d say the last third is where it truly becomes a page-turner. The short chapters help; they make the book easy to digest and offer plenty of stopping points when the first two-thirds start to drag. On the flip side, those same quick chapters make it tempting to say “just one more” once the story finally picks up. The twists in the final stretch are genuinely great and catch you off guard in the best way. Well written and easy to follow, but uneven in pacing Trigger warning: involves sexual assault