I gave this book a 4 star rating.

I have to admit that this story started a bit slow for me. It wasn't that the first part was bad, just seemed to take a while for the story to really get good-and good it got. (Is that the proper way to say that? ;) )

So the story starts with Lauren giving birth to her twin boys, which are name Morgan and Riley. While in the hospital, a "woman" comes into her room and says that she wants to swap her twins for Lauren's twin. Of course Lauren freaks out and ends up calling the cops.

I don't want to say too much and give anything away, but this is one story where you don't know what it real and what isn't. Lauren sees the woman from the hospital stalking her house, but everyone tells her that no one is there and you can slowly see her lose her grasp on reality.

I really did not like her husband, Patrick. To me he is a total jerk when the babies first come home. He goes to sleep in the spare bedroom so he can get sleep without being woke up by the twins because he can't function without his sleep. Then later he demands that Lauren get out of the house and have play dates even though Lauren doesn't feel ready for it.

Joanne Harper is from the police department and tries to figure out the whole attempted abduction of the twins. The only part I really didn't like her was that she basically thought she could do whatever she wanted without her supervisor's permission. It almost felt like she thought everyone would just bend over backwards for her.

Overall I really enjoyed the whole changeling part of the story. It really kept you guessing the whole second half of the book and I would recommend it to people who enjoy a kidnapping story with a slight paranormal feel to it.

4 Stars!

Little Darlings is a a page-turning thriller about Lauren Tranter, a new mom of twin boys. While she’s in the hospital, she encounters a woman trying to steal her twin babies. After that, she’s sure she sees the woman, following her, showing up at her house… but does she really?

As a mother of young children, this book was very relatable. I felt connected to Lauren, and I shared many of her frustrations (especially with her husband - he drove me nuts!) Her paranoia is understandable to me, but I was always wondering if what she was experiencing was real or if it was just in her head. The author did a great job keeping me in suspense!

There are some supernatural aspects to the story, and I personally loved it. I’ve heard many stories about changelings and how they were “handled” in history, so the snippets of changeling lore really added to the experience. Don’t be turned away if you aren’t into supernatural things— the story is great and while there is a supernatural spin to the story, it is still grounded in reality.

I highly recommend it!

Lauren Tranter has just given birth to twin boys, Morgan and Riley, after a difficult birth. She’s completely exhausted. When a strange, threatening woman comes to her hospital room carrying a basket with her own two weird babies and tries to convince Lauren to exchange babies, no one believes Lauren. They think she’s imagining things. But Lauren is convinced that this filthy woman is trying to steal her babies, leaving her “changelings” in their place. When Lauren gets out of the hospital, she hides away at home, leaving her husband baffled. When she finally ventures outside with the babies a month later, she falls asleep in the park, awakening to find her babies are gone. They’re soon discovered but Lauren is sure that these are not her babies.

Goodness, this one had my spine perpetually in chills throughout its reading. It was so realistic and frightening but I couldn’t look away. It completely held me in its spell. I don’t often given thrillers 5 stars but this one was a step above the usual. I could completely relate to Lauren and suffered her fears right alongside her. As horrifying as it was to believe her babies were going to be stolen and not having anyone believe her and then finally having them taken, how much more horrifying for her to believe that these were not her babies but rather the creatures left by the scary woman. This just escalates in suspense. And there are plenty of twists that have you wondering whether Lauren is correct in her convictions or not which really leave you on the edge of your seat.

What I absolutely loved, too, is that the author included snippets of fairy tales/poems throughout her book, such as from “The Stolen Child” by Yeats and from several poems from different authors called “The Changeling”. This added to the overall darkness of this compelling book. This fact that this is the author’s debut is quite surprising.

Most highly recommended.

When Lauren Tranter gives birth to her baby twins, an incident severely shakes her: a woman went into her room and tried to swap the children. Since neither the nurses nor the rest of the hospital staff saw anybody enter or leave, Lauren’s statement is dismissed as a hallucination by an exhausted mother. Life with Morgan and Riley is hard for her after she has returned home. Her husband more or less leaves her alone and with twins who cry and want to be fed 24 hours a day, Lauren feels dead-tired and hardly leaves the bed anymore. When one afternoon she finally finds the strength to meet some friends in a park, the worst case happens: her baby boys are abducted. Luckily, they are quickly returned, but Lauren is sure: these are not her boys, the evil woman has exchanged them.

Melanie Golding’s thriller plays with the most awful thing that could happen: the abduction of your children. Having two little precious peas whom you would kill for endangered is surely the worst that could happen to a mother. Yet, all though the novel, there is some nagging since you can never be absolutely sure if you should trust Lauren or if she actually is suffering from some mental disorder.

What I liked especially about the novel is the combination of some dark fairy tales with hallucinations or mental disorders. Everybody knows that tales are not true and the magic that happens there is just an invention. Nevertheless, they are fascinating also for adults and even against better knowledge, you sometimes wish for them to become real. Yet, there is this tradition of the gloomy tales that mainly frighten you, even as an adult, and I always wondered where those stories come from and why they outlived generations even though they are hard to endure. “Little Darlings” cleverly rewrites this tradition but does not provide a finite answer to some big questions. You conclude the novel with a slight thrill – wonderfully done.

A beautifully creepy albeit sad mystery/thriller. Golding incorporates aspects of magical realism, shock and awe, and folklore ( the Welsh fairy tale A Brewery of Eggshells) into her story about Lauren Tranter, who had just given birth to twin boys. The story comes down to this: have Lauren's newborn twin babies been swapped with changelings or is she suffering some form of postpartum psychosis? The read to find out will have you flipping pages as quickly as possible!

I’m feeling really ambivalent about this book, hence no stars. The concept of the story is absolutely fascinating, and the details are well done. Trigger warnings abound here with abductions and child endangerment. I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters. They’re pretty darn unlikable, and so it was hard to keep going at points.

Ugh! I’m still super conflicted. I don’t think I liked this one, but I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. Read at your own risk, LOL.

Such a twisty, creepy, wonderful book! I also really appreciated the accurate representation of postpartum depression and anxiety. I felt like I was reading my own thoughts on paper!

I dnf’d this at 7% and I’m so sad about that. The 7% I read was just so graphic, with the process of childbirth, post-birth bleeding, and ripping stitches described in explicit detail. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all, it’s just not something I can push myself to read through at this point in time.

Having said that, this book still intrigues me greatly and I hopefully will come back to it another time in the future and read it in full.

Little Darlings successfully combines two entwined stories. New mom Lauren knows she was threatened in the hospital, by a scary woman who threatened to take away Lauren's newborn twins. And then--the twins are taken, and though they are soon found, they're...different. And only one police officer seems to think her story has any merit. Little Darlings meshes the stories of the mother and the officer, and the twisty path to a satisfying, bittersweet resolution makes for quite a page-turner. One of the big themes here is that nothing is necessarily what it seems, and that goes for the entire conceit of this changeling narrative.

„Little Darlings“ is a creepy read. It keeps you guessing whether Lauren has mental issues or is haunted by a kind of gruesome fairy.

Lauren just gave birth to twin sons. While in hospital and still overwhelmed with the birth experience and feeding two hungry babies she has a weird experience. She sees a woman with twins who offers her a deal. She wants to swap one of the babies. If Lauren refuses she will take both of her sons. But nobody saw that women and so nobody believes her. But this encounter leaves Lauren terribly scared. After returning home she refuses to leave the house. When her not very helpful husband and some friends are growing more and more concerned about her mental state she finally manages to get to the nearby lake for a walk with her babies. But there something happened that seems to fulfill Lauren’s greatest fears.

At first I was a bit concerned if this book would turn out to be a good one for me. The birth and the aftermath of it were described very detailed. Also there was a lot about breastfeeding twins and caring for them. This went on for quite a while because Lauren does not much else. The pace is slow and the tension is not very strong. After the accident at the lake it gets a bit more interesting because the author manages to keep you guessing what happend. Is there something sinister and supernatural happening or is it just Lauren’s imagination?

The book is an easy read. I found it a bit slow because of all the maternal problems which are described extensively. But I liked how it kept me guessing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC of this book.

I did not want to but this book down. I was hooked from beginning to end. The pacing was consistent throughout. The atmosphere of the book gave me the creeps in the best way. It leaves you wondering if the mother has post partum psychosis or if there is some other more sinister thing going on. I can see how some will not agree with the use of a new mother and her mental health but that is the point of the storyline.

I would recommend this is you are in to horror thrillers. I was great!

This was a very good book. It leaves one wondering about the sanity of the main character. Was what I read real or was she crazy? It was an intriguing read and at times downright creepy.

Set in present-day England, and spanning the first five weeks following a traumatic childbirth, Lauren Tranter’s hopes and dreams of being a new mom are shattered when she encounters a mother’s worst nightmare—someone is threatening to take her twins if she leaves them alone. The novel ranges from the stark loneliness of returning home after birth to the confines of a psychiatric unit, as the reader is forced to question if Lauren is mad, or does she know something we don’t?

"Changeling- a child believed to have been secretly substituted by fairies for the parents' real child in infancy."


The story starts towards the end of Lauren's long labor which heralds the arrival of twin babies Morgan and Riley. Lauren spends several days in the hospital with them, wondering when her "love" for her babies will appear. Lauren is exhausted, inexperienced, and gets no real support from her husband Patrick, at any time in the story. I dare say that Patrick turns out to be a right awful prick who for even one moment in time had he took the time to actually understand what his wife was experiencing, perhaps the events that happened would have not transpired.

This story actually follows two distinct characters: Lauren Tranter, and Detective Sergeant Joanna Harper. It is Harper who we not only meet in the beginning of the book, but follow to the end of the book as she tries to piece together what is really happening to Lauren, and whether or not she experiences a phenomenon called puerperal psychosis or if there is something supernatural at play here. How else would you explain the behavior of Lauren from the moment she gives birth to twins Riley and Morgan, and later believes that someone is attempting to steal her babies and replace them with changelings?

Terrified for her babies, Lauren spends her days locked away in the house with them, until her increasingly annoyed and utterly useless husband insists that she take them out for some fresh air. That day as poor sleep deprived Lauren dozed off for a minute, someone snatched her babies. Lauren no longer her babies but someone else's. Someone else who has been stalking her since Lauren overheard her singing to her own twins in the recovery room and demanded that they switch babies.

As someone who has never, to my shame, had children, it is hard for me to understand what postpartum depression really is and how it affects the life of a new mother. In several ways, this book is rather disturbing. It also becomes a mystery or sorts to puzzle out the facts from the paranormal. Plus, the ending is rather strange in that it really doesn't the question as to whether or not Lauren experienced what she did, or was a psychosis?

This novel BLEW MY MIND.

As I was reading I didn’t know who to trust or who to believe. I had all these theories about what happened. I could not figure it out.

I went back and forth thinking the Lake Lady was real or made up in her mind. But then there was all the evidence and I felt crazy!

Overall, this is also a very good depiction of what PPD/PPA looks like. As someone who suffers with both, I just felt for her. In those moments you are so scared for your baby you just believe everything is real and you can’t shake the feeling the ball will drop and something bad will happen.

I usually don’t read horror, and this book reminded me why. I had such screwed up dreams. I could only read it during the day.

I loved this novel. I loved the ending. I have recommended it again and again for our book club and Book Battle!

Growing up I always loved scary stories and darker fairy tales. This book brings in elements of the Grimms’ style of fairy tale and ends up being a suspenseful thriller that will have you questioning whether or not the main character is actually crazy or sane until the very end. I definitely recommend “Little Darlings” by Melanie Golding. I can’t believe this is her first novel and I look forward to anything she may write in the future.

This was a very intriguing story. When a mother goes into the hospital to give birth to her twins strange things start happening. Though no one believes anything she is saying and they end up putting her in a mental hospital she never gives up the fact that she knows there is something wrong with her babies. This book really had me on the edge of my seat a few times. The writing is fantastic and I loved every minute of this story.

What a wonderfully creepy book! I can remember when my children were newborns and being exhausted by being a new mother and having a new baby. The fear of anything small happening when I was sleeping or when I wasn't with them. This book definitely resonated with me and I connected with the main character on that level. It had me flying through chapters and wondering if the main character was having mental health issues or if this was really happening to her. VERY reminiscent of a Grimm's fairytale..(which are some of my fave fairytales). I would definitely recommend this book!

A far greater book than I had imagined, Little Darlings, takes us on a modern-day "Grimm" fairy tale. Lauren has just given birth to her twin boys and is immediately haunted by a treacherous demon that wants to kidnap her twin boys. Fully empathizing with the main character, I can wholeheartedly remember the daze of the first few months with all three of my kids. The lack of sleep, questioning your awareness and then add horror into the mix and that would definitely make you feel and appear to be crazy to everyone around you.

Characters are well developed and support their roles and each other through out the story. I didn't much care for the supporting character of Amy, the journalist, but I suppose you can't like them all. She was flamboyant, overly flirtatious, and just an annoying woman over all. The husband makes me very angry with his treatment of his wife through the first few months of their babies being born. All he wants is his own personal time and this too I know exists because I experienced something very similar as well! haha

All in all this was an excellent read and I cannot wait to tell everyone how much they'll enjoy it as well!

I’ve been a fan of Grimm Fairytales since my birth. My mom used to read stories to me and when I was able to read, I’d gladly pick up a copy of Grimm and read for myself. Although Grimm Fairytales were horrifyingly gruesome stories, there was always a lesson to be learned, and Little Darlings definitely demonstrated that well.

Lauren and Patrick Tranter were pregnant with twins. Morgan and Riley were born just mere minutes apart. Giving birth is hard enough, but it was double for poor Lauren. To say she was exhausted was truly an understatement. She fell in love with her boys from the moment they were introduced to her. She never knew there was a love you could feel so strongly until her sons were born.

One night while lying comfortably with her twins under each arm, an intruder found her way into the maternity ward and threatened to take Lauren’s twins from her. What in the world is going on here? How did this woman get into her room? Where was hospital security? Why did this woman wrap her grimy hands around her wrist and try to get Lauren to listen to what she had to say? She’d gladly take Morgan and Riley off her hands and swap them for her twin boys. What planet was this woman from? Why would Lauren give up her sons to this horrible woman. Somehow, Lauren managed to get away from the woman and lock herself in the bathroom. She called the police and needless to say, the hospital was up in arms trying to figure out how this woman got into Mrs. Tranter’s room.

Eventually, Patrick came to take Lauren and his boys home. Lauren was so tired. She needed to sleep, but that wasn’t to come right away. She had two small babies that needed her. Every time she wanted to rest, the twins began crying and she started breastfeeding. At this time, the police investigation chocked up the fiasco at the hospital as a figment of Lauren’s imagination, or was it? The CCTV certainly captured something on video, so why is it Lauren knew something happened, but not one person believed her—that is, until she met the detective that originally answered her first call at the hospital.

Something happened at the hospital alright, but what? Lauren was placed in a mental facility to help her get better, and the better Lauren was supposed to get, the stranger the story got.

This was one of the most sick and twisted stories I’ve read in quite a long time. I gobbled this story up like a Thanksgiving meal. I couldn’t get enough! How much did I love this story you ask? I sacrificed my work sleep to finish it. There was so much excitement and mystery, I just had to find out what the hell was going on? And that, folks, is where things went south for me. Shocking, eh, you might say? Yes, the ending left me asking more questions and didn’t satisfy all the buildup of the story. How can a book be this damn good and then leave me hanging in the end?

Sadly, this book brought back a bad bitter taste of a story I read a few years ago called Gone Girl. I read that book in two days, only to get to the end and I literally threw my Kindle across the room. I was close to doing that with this book. I mulled over this story through the night to the point I couldn’t sleep because I had no idea how I should feel about this story? So, I went with my gut. The frustration I felt last night was still lingering early this morning, so what I’m writing now, is how I still feel. Outstanding book with a sort of let-down ending. Umm, I was not happy at all. Anyhoo, I reread the last six pages to make absolutely sure I didn’t miss anything in my hunger for reading last night, and um, nope, I missed nothing!

Ok, so, this is a damn good book, readers, that you could potentially read in a day or two and gobble up the words, and then the last six pages may leave you scratching one’s head. Hmm?

“She hadn’t loved them immediately, but she loved them after a spell. It seeped into her. Slowly. Like the love was something she’d been sipping at. Intoxicating. Accumulating. Snowballing. Slowly, quietly but unstoppably until she was quite drunk with it, and it was all she did. She loved them, it was her calling. Every instant was devoted to it, every thought, every action, every reaction. All her plans, all her dreams were about them, through them, for them, because of them, because of this love, that had not been there immediately but came upon her slowly, inexorably, irreversibly. That was why it was such a shock when it disappeared, the love: just like that, click your fingers, gone. She’d looked at those creatures in the stroller and the love was not there, not for them. It existed in her as a painful yearning, a missing part, reaching out to her real babies, wherever they were now, wherever that revolting woman had taken them. Under the water, somewhere. It didn’t matter, she’d find them. Because she was their mother, and that was her job.”

........

Psychotic break? Postpartum? Grimm fairy tale? Real life?!

Lauren gives birth to twins and while in the maternity ward has a traumatic experience when a woman tries to abduct her babies. But, was the woman real or is something else going on?

I was on the edge of my seat this whole book and kept myself up at night thinking of Lauren, the babies, the woman from the river...

Though aspects of the story line could be considered “played out” lately - i.e., the tireless police investigator going above and beyond the call of duty following a hunch that could cost her job and the dogged reporter stopping at nothing to get the latest scoop - it actually felt fresh and exciting and overall thrilling (with a bit of terror!). I loved the horror theme, ties to old Grimm’s fairy tales, and the quotes from old literature which really added to the storyline.

Unfortunately, I found the majority of the characters forgettable and wish there had been better character development. I also would have liked the history of the town to be woven in much sooner so as to provide more of a backdrop and build the suspense.

Overall I absolutely loved this book and absolutely recommend it for anyone seeking a new thriller!!