Thankyou to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and the author, Melanie Golding, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of Little Darlings in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
It is not very often that i get scared from reading a horror novel, nor from watching a scary movie. That being said. I got chills down my spine while reading this book.
I thought the storyline was well written and thoroughly unnerving. It felt so terrifyingly real.
Well worth a read.

I definitely had a hard time getting into this book. It was a good psychological read, but confusing at times. The characters were good, although frustrating every now and then and I’m still confused by the ending. Were the babies Changlings or was she crazy? Also, I feel like her husband was pretty checked out of the relationship from the beginning and the abrupt turn around with having the nanny there (while likely having an affair with HER now) seemed strange after his initial unwillingness to be present with the twins.

From the very first chapter this book had me hooked with it's creepy, haunting story of a mother who gives birth to children who aren't what they seem to be. I devoured this book, reading long into the night when I should have been sleeping! I definitely recommend it for those who enjoy creepy thrillers.

Lauren Tranter is exhausted. After the rough birth of her twins and complications after, Lauren just needs rest. Yet she cannot, especially after a woman tried to take her children and replace them with creatures. No one believes Lauren but she knows what she saw. A month later, Lauren's twins disappear from the park and when they are found, Lauren knows that something is wrong with them. The twins look the same to everyone else, but a mother knows her children best. Lauren learns that if she wants to get her own children back, she must do something unthinkable.

I loved Little Darlings by Melanie Golding. I never knew whether I should trust Lauren or if she was going through some sort of postpartum depression. I loved the back and forth of wondering if this folk tale of changelings were true or if Lauren was wrong. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and I look forward to more from Melanie Golding.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the book! What a STORY!!! I truly thought one thing and something else would happen. The ending was a huge surprise.

A mother’s worse fear…what happens when the newborns you just gave birth to have “changed”? New mother Lauren is about to find out, she swears that her newborn twins are crying different, singing, and are having eye color changes…but are they? Or is she just crazy? This book was great, the suspense slowly built up and you would think one thing and something totally out of left field would happen. Very unsettling and a read that will keep you up…until the haunting end.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advance copied of the novel for my honest review.
Little Darlings
by MelanieGolding
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.

A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley—to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.

Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.

Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some of our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking—and rechecking—your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

This was just creepy. I honestly had difficulty even following some of the dialogue. Perhaps it was the U.K.slangs, spellings, and whatever. It was very dark and chilling. I honestly could not finish.

And VERY sorry I rated it as my own opinion and rate scale.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review. I did not really care for this book. It was not really creepy or all that suspenseful. The ending was rushed and not very satisfying.

I requested this book back in November from Net galley and completely forgot about it until searching through my kindle TBR list. It sounded interesting enough so I started it yesterday evening. Well...I stayed up way past my bedtime devouring this book, it has such a unique concept. So much so that it's hard to put this book into one genre. It has elements of a psychological thriller, horror and dark fairy tale/folklore.

I went into this thinking it was a psychological thriller so I was very suprised to discover it was a whole lot more. This whole book gave me Rosemarys Baby vibes which is a positive as it's one of my favourite movies, talking of movies this is already being made into a film and I can definitely see why and I will also be watching the movie adaption as soon as it is released, definitely my cup of tea.

This book filled me with so many emotions. Not only was it seriously creepy but it touched the serious topic of post partum anxiety and psychosis. I think it is due to the fact that my youngest is only 5 months old so the worries and concerns that Lauren has at the start of the book really hit home and I could relate to a lot of what she was thinking and feeling and also the utter trauma she faces, you really do feel for her. It truly was terrifying in parts but not in the cliche way a horror usually is, this is on a more phsycological way that really gets you thinking about everything Lauren is going through. Again, this is probably because I am a mother and my Baby is still very young.  I'm not saying that only other parents will find this utterly creepy and disturbing because I am sure this would give everyone a huge shiver up the spine.

It is very cleverly written so you are always going backwards and forwards in terms of what you think Lauren is experiencing, one minute I was convinced it's post partum psychosis that Lauren is experiencing then the next paragraph the writer makes you question yourself and think "no could it really be...??"

My only small dislike with this book, which stopped me giving it 5 stars was the chapters which included the detective and her love interest Amy the reporter. I found these chapters that focussed on these characters were slightly unnecessary and didn't add any substance to the book for me.

I would love to read more of Melanie Goldings books in the future if they are in anyway as good as this one. This book is released on 2nd May in the UK.

Thank you Net galley and Crooked house books for sending me the digital ARC of this book. All views are my own.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

4.5 stars.

This. Was. Wonderfully. Creepy. I have not read many books about bad things and babies over the last several years since I've had my own child, but I couldn't resist this one. It's certainly largely a fairy tale--a haunting, dark, old-fashioned sort of fairy tale--but it also touches on horror and psychological suspense. And it will keep you up all night, jumping at things that go bump in the night.

I loved the references to the multitude of fairy tales that address the notion of changelings: these are some of my favorite tales. This novel does leave a couple of unanswered questions, but because the book is just so hypnotic, I'm willing to accept that we just aren't getting all the answers here. Overall, I enjoyed that I really did wonder from time to time if the protagonist was in her right mind; the author expertly presents the narrative so you juggle your interpretation on and off throughout the story. Golding also does an excellent job of making you feel the protagonist's anxiety; like her, you're not sure who you can ever trust. Really atmospheric and unsettling.

I agree with others that you might want to hold off on this one if you are having twins or have recently had them. It's just that affective. But if you can handle it, this is a great read. I'm considering using it for my fairy tale class next fall. Highly recommend.

This was a perfectly decent thriller, straddling the line between psychological and supernatural. I felt like the story got a little sluggish near the two-thirds mark, and some of the dialog was a little weak, but on the whole, the writing was quite good, and the story was fairly gripping. I felt it was good, but not great.

Do you like dark, scary fairy tales? Stories where the twists shock you and leave you breathless? Read Little Darlings. This is a modern take on ages old fairy tales that were more frightening than enlightening.

Lauren Tranter is a brand new mother of identical twin boys. She has a rather rough delivery and finds herself stuck in the hospital recovering. One night shortly after the babies have been born, she awakens to a nightmare. An ragged woman in in the cubby next to hers. The woman wants to trade a baby for one of Lauren’s. Lauren locks herself in the bathroom and calls for assistance. No one else has seen or heard anything, so they assume Lauren has had an episode from all the exhaustion.

Things don’t get much better once Lauren goes home. Her friends visit and gift her a very strange book of tales of twins that are both fairy tales and other dark stories. Lauren becomes convinced that she cannot leave her babies for even a second or something sinister will happen. She becomes obsessed with locking herself in her room and not allowing anyone near the babies, nor leaving the house. Everyone around Lauren chalks this up to exhaustion of a new mother, but is it?

No spoilers here. The story is fabulous. I couldn’t put it down (except from exhaustion.) While reading it is hard to discern what is real and what isn’t. Golding puts us into a state of wondering if fairy tales can be real. At no point did I think that the book was dragging or long-winded. I truly enjoyed this journey, even though it’s so unsettling to think about.

Definitely not a read for new moms, but for the rest of us, highly recommended! There were parts of this book that gave me the chills. Loved it.

For a psychological thriller book, it felt more like reading a mixed fantasy/mystery book.

Throughout the read, the suspense can be felt as the mother experiences the loss of her twins in a surreal manner. Her twins have been switched but with who? What must be done to save her twins?

I enjoyed the overall read but was not interested in the main plot due to the strangeness of the situation.

This book really incites paranoia because it rides on the aged old fear of new mothers losing their newborns. In this book, a newly made Mum goes hysterical when she believes her two newborn twins have been swapped by faeries, and no one believes her even till the very end.
It is terrifying, it is gripping, and worst of all it is relatable.
It makes me actually fear having kids and if the book manages to do that, then I think it has succeeded.

This book is not without weaknesses though. I felt that the scene where Lauren escaped to swap her babies should have been covered in more detail. So what actually happened underwater? Also, what were the motivations of that faerie Mother who swapped her kids only to be thankful to have them back few days later? Then, what’s the point of swapping?
The book has potential to be even more enthralling, if it explores deeper into how the faerie babies carried themselves, and the motives of the faerie Mother. More time should also have been spent on why the perpetrator looks like Lauren, and sounds like Lauren (according to the cyclist witness and the CCTV tape). It was never explained why.
So that’s one star gone for all that.

A creepy and atmospheric story that contains elements of the Grimm Fairy Tales.

In the maternity ward, a mysterious woman appears in Lauren’s room at night and tries to take Lauren’s twin boys and replace them with her own creatures. The doctors and husband put it off as Lauren just seeing things due to exhaustion, but Lauren knows the truth. What will a mother do to save her twin boys?

I had a hard time putting this book down. I even found myself reading it at work. It pulled me in and held my attention all the way to the end. My only gripe was that I wish the ending had been a little more fleshed out. Other than that this was a really good read.

A weirdly scary story. It’s gripping and intense. It will give you nightmares and make you question the sanity of people. The author tells a horrifying tale of a mother losing her mind after the birth of her children. She gets no support from her spouse and creates and incident that is a tangled mess. It is creepy and sad at the same time. You will not be able to put it down until the end.

My oh my, Mother Does Know Best; or does she? This thrilling dark tale took off quickly where we met a new mother Lauren Tranter whom just had twin boys; Morgan and Riley.
After someone attempts to steal her babies, and call to 999 Dective Jo Harper is on the case. No one believes the mum, not even her husband Patrick the tale is dark and twisted and a great read.

What a creepy read! Different in the fact that it wasn’t just a psychological thriller but also incorporated folklore/fairy tale theme. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you #Netgalley, the author and publisher for my free arc in exchange for my honest review.
Posting to goodreads as well.

3.5 Stars

Take my rating with a grain of salt because my friends LOVED this one. I’ll blame my sorta fail on the fact that I am not a big fan of fairy tales (even dark ones) combined with the fact that everyone else in a book can act like a complete dimwit and do things that are stupid and/or dangerous and I’ll still love it - EXCEPT if that person is a police officer. Occasionally it flies, but usually that gets on my nerves.

The story about Lauren Tranter’s twins will definitely leave readers asking "is this the real life - is it just fantasy" as she tries to convince her husband, doctors and the authorities that an encounter with a stranger . . . .

“Choose one. Choose one or I’ll take them both. I’ll take yours and you can have mine. You’ll never know the difference. I can make sure they look just the same. One’s fair. Two is justice done.”

Resulted in changelings being left in her care.

It’s up to the reader to decide if maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline a complete mental breakdown courtesy of some severe post-partum psychosis.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. If I actually reviewed these in a timely fashion (or ever) maybe I’d be at 80%!

Going in I had misconceptions about the book. Thought it would be a straight mystery. But it was so much more than that. Definitely a mystery but with some fokelore included as a bonus. Not recommended for those about to give birth.

Great read. Look forward to more from this author.