I'm still thinking about this book and it's been about two weeks since I finished it. As a mother I think my heart was a solid boulder in my stomach for most of this book. As a parent we all know that we would go to the ends of the earth for our children and Little Darlings is a prime example of that, just in a creepy, haunting way.

Is Lauren crazy? Is her husband? What's real and what's not? All questions I had the entire time reading this book and even after ending I am still asking those questions. This to me means the author put her work in and gave us exactly what she set out to. These kinds of books are quickly becoming a favorite of mine and I assure you that this one will not be easily forgotten.

This story is about a delusional woman. Lauren has just given birth to twin boys when she believes that they have been switched with another demonic set of twins belonging to a woman who lives in the river. Lauren believes that she must take the twins to the river and put them under water in order to get her babies back. Her husband tries to make Lauren believe otherwise. What a read!

This was a chillingly creeptastic book! This contemporary version of a dark fairy tale kept me turning pages as the story twisted along. I loved the horror and thriller dimensions of this book. This was a great read for me because it was psychologically thrilling and supernatural horrifying without being gory. I especially loved how this combined elements of so many genres in such a spectacular way. This was unique and I highly recommend it!

Sounded an interesting read and had a creepy feel to it but not quite what I expected. It was a good read but didn’t have the suspense of what I’d normally read.

Little Darlings is a thriller that balances the line between what we know and the supernatural. It tells the story of Lauren Tranter, a new mom of newborn twins and her fight to make sure her kids are the ones she gave birth to. Honestly, the thing that drew me into this book was the pitch about maybe it being changelings, since it is one of my favorite European folklore stories.

Don’t expect the plot just to start the minute you pick up this book. At first, it’s kind of slow, and the real action only starts about halfway in. The writing is masterful in making you doubt what happened. I thought everything was explained and, 10 minutes later, I would have a whole new theory. I didn’t know what to expect, if the abduction of the twins was something supernatural or if it had a rational, mundane explanation like post-partum depression or some freak abductor.

The ending was satisfying, although I think it was a little bit rushed. The action climax wraps up really quickly, we don’t know exactly what went down with Lauren, and then, after all is done, we are told what happened with the kidnapping, instead of shown in a meaningful way, which isn’t my favorite approach. Also, I’m still not sure the explanation made 100% sense, but I’m cool with it.

Because this book is so plot-driven, I felt like I never truly got to know the characters, especially who they were before the babies came along. What I know is that Patrick is a manipulative douchebag I just can’t cope with.
In this book, we follow two main POVs: the mother’s, Lauren Tranter, and Detective Jo Harper, so these are the two characters we get to know better and the ones that lead the story. In my opinion, Lauren’s POV is more interesting than Jo’s, but I understand why we’re following the detective.

Since the beginning of the book, we’re told Lauren is a super smart and active woman, but we don’t see that until 2/3rds in. She’s entirely focused on her kids, and I really liked how she was written as a new mom. We get this idea that the moment we see our kids, we just feel this overwhelming love for them. However, Lauren shows us that maybe it isn’t exactly like that, but you can still love your kids and do everything for them, which she does.

Jo, on the other hand, felt like a stereotypical male detective in the body of a woman. She’s super impulsive — she even does something super dumb nearly the end and gets called out for it —, lives for the job, is super strong physically, likes to defy authority and follow her gut. I think that’s why I couldn’t really connect with her. She has this whole backstory that makes her more open to Lauren's problem and that can explain why she is like she is, but I just couldn’t disconnect from this stereotypical idea I had of her. She felt like another typical detective I see on television every day.

Also, there’s some F/F representation but, to me, it was completely unnecessary. It doesn’t bring anything to the story, I didn’t connect to it at all, and it’s just there.

Overall, this is a pretty intriguing book to read. It keeps you on your toes, the writing is really well done and, although the characters aren’t my favorite, the plot makes up for it. This is a good thriller, especially if you’re feeling like reading something with a dash of supernatural.

Thank you Netgalley for the free copy of this book.

1.5 stars

This book is a mix of mystery and folklore. It’s quite different from anything I’ve read before. I’d expected more of a “creep factor” than I found. It fell flat for me overall. Perhaps I'm just not the target audience.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn't required to leave a positive review.

I loved this book! A magically twisted story of a woman who fears her newborn twins have been abducted. It is not scary, but has some creepy elements, like a dark fairy tale. The author beautifully describes the exhausting and difficult days following childbirth, I found myself relating to the main character. This story makes you question what is real and what is fantasy. A page turner I didn’t want to end!

I loved the creativity in this book and how it all came together in the end. Very well paced and plotted.

A bit of mixed feelings about this book. Loved the story. The panic feelings of the mother where accurately portrayed and if you are a mother it is easy to place yourself in her shoes. The feeling of been exhausted all the time and a husband that isn't completely honest and rather two faced. This book was for me a page turner and the the reason I gave it a four instead of a five is because the end left me fustrated. Didn't feel it was completed unless you like reading books and create your own variations of endings but this one keeps you guessing on the final outcome. You like to see the husband gets what he deserves but he seems to keep on following his own agenda or maybe the wife is completely delusional.

I wanted to love this book, but it just wasn’t a love for me. While, chilling and thrilling, I felt it was lacking something to engage me, I did give up eventually, but wiki review differently if I am able to get into it.
Will also be using in a challenge to let chapter chatter pub know about its release!

Little Darlings sucked me in and never let me go. A creepy and disturbing fairy tale told in modern time? Yes please!
Only thing I didn’t like was a small subplot that I just ignored. Thank you netgalley for the chance to read this book early.

I loved the premise of Little Darlings. It’s just so creepy. As a mom myself, I can’t imagine the horror of waking in the middle of the night in the hospital to someone in the next bed who shouldn’t be there. And a swamp woman at that with two babies that are anything but human.

And I love the idea of a re-telling of a fable and translating it to modern day. For these reasons, I’m sad to say that although I loved everything I read about the book, I didn’t love the book quite as much.

Lauren is believable as a new mom in the book, although her relationship with her husband takes a bit of a 180 during the book and I wasn’t sure exactly how much of that played a role in the plot. Except maybe to show that she is completely along and close to nobody believes her when she thinks something is wrong with her new babies.

For me, the book started out slowly. I had to return to the book several times to really get into it. And even then I found my mind wandering a bit. I wanted to know more about the town underneath the river in town. I wanted to know more about the fable, and I wanted more of that in the story.

Anyways, this one has been getting amazing reviews, and got amazing blurbs from other authors. I appear to be in the minority of readers who didn’t love it. If it sounds up your alley, check it out!

Special thanks to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for an e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out April 30, pre-order your copy! This review will be published on my blog, Women In Trouble Book Blog on March 30, 2019.

Lauren Tranter gives birth to twin boys. Everything seems to be going ok until she gets a creepy visit from a sinister woman trying to switch her twins for Laura's twins. Laura fights her off and calls 911. The whole incident is deemed to be a psychotic break. After Laura returns home, she can't forget this visit and refuses to go in public and fights sleep to make sure she can keep watch over her babies. After a month and finally deciding that she needs to get out more, she goes out for a walk. Her new attitude is cut short when she awakens to find her babies missing. Luckily they are returned almost immediately, but Laura knows these babies are not her. After being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, she fights to try to find a way to change her babies back.

* I received an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The synopsis for <i>Little Darlings</i> immediately struck something in me. I had to have it and I had to read it...immediately. Lauren Tranter has just had a traumatic, long, one hell of a birthing story fo her twin boys, Morgan and Riley. Immediately following their birth, she’s left alone for the night by her (in my opinion) good-for-nothing husband, Patrick and hears/meets a woman who she believes tries to abduct the boys. The police are phoned and the story begins to take a shape of its own.

We follow Lauren’s journey, which is similar to a Grimm’s Fairy Tale. Dark and twisty, the plot takes several turns and ends in a method that I didn’t quite expect. This pageturner will leave you guessing and a little frustrated at the end, as I found myself annoyed that some plot points were less explained than others.

This is a difficult book to review. It was very well written, and I adored the darker fairy tale aspect. The author did an amazing job of portraying a new mother, already raw with all of the emotional and physical turmoil of bringing her twins into the world, who has to contend with supernatural threats against her children. However, it was at times too graphic for my tastes (especially the beginning passages describing her labor and delivery... I’ve given birth twice and could still barely read it). The strength is the vivid characters and the writing, and five stars for such a creative use of fairy tales and folklore.

Thank you netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't love this book - reading it made me anxious and frustrated, and I don't love to feel like that when reading a book. I just wanted it to be over, honestly. The whole scenario is presented as a sort of Grimm's Fairy Tale of a story about a woman who believes her children are changelings. The book swing back and forth between believing the woman and not believing the woman, inserting a whole bunch of truly random, unrelated, and, looking back, time-wasting stuff.

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What was the actual point of Natasha aside from providing an almost case for why Lauren was 'maybe' right about her kids being changelings? It's never answered what the actual thing was that Patrick was doing with her to begin with. Never. Answered. That's a WHOLE lot of story line that was just head-turning padding. That kind of thing is what makes this book not so great. It really ends up being a sort of toss-away airport bookshop mystery, without providing much substance. The thing with the reporter was weird, the guy she knew who was a 'bad guy' but she lived there when she was younger?? What? Why is that in there at all? And Hanson's whole thing about whatever mystery of her own relationship to kids - again, brought out a LOT, but never actually shared with the reader. A book full of story lines with no provided answers just felt a bit lazy.

Also, Patrick is a horrible human. I kept waiting for his comeuppance, where someone calls him out for being such an awful father and husband, but that never happens either. Ugh.

A  tale inspired by a fairy tale we heard a lot growing up. Changelings. A horrid topic for any mother but a deliciously wicked and creepy idea for a fairy tale! Or is it more than a fairy tale?

Lauren Tranter has given birth to twin boys and is exhausted and unsure of even how to feed them. Her husband, who I disliked immediately, seems to think she will be fine by her self and leaves her there alone with the tiny twins, Morgan and Riley to figure it out.

Lauren knows she isn't crazy when she calls 911 to say someone is trying to steal her babies. Lauren knows what she saw. A slimy hag of a woman trying to switch her eel like babies for Laurens healthy children. And from the way she speaks, this isn't the first time.

Lauren is living in fear someone will steal the boys and the husband is definitely acting sketchy so she is pretty much alone. A month goes by and finally she takes the boys to the park. She only closed her eyes for a second and they were gone. And the babies they find look like Morgan and Riley but Lauren knows the truth. These weird little things are not her children and she isn't going to let it go until someone believes her. 

The decision she makes could be deadly and will she have the courage to do what must be done to get her children back?

I loved this book. The characters were described so well you could easily imagine every one of them. Even the weird little changelings!

Well Done!

Netgalley/ Crooked Lane Books coming out April/May of 2019

This left me breathless! The author has created every mother’s ultimate nightmare in this brilliant debut novel. I love the little bits of folklore and mythology intertwined with the story. It reminded me that fairy tales are essentially horror stories, too. The Dark Lady (I just call her/it that) gave me chills highly reminiscent of Koji Suzuki's Sadako.


The story feels like a metaphor on postpartum depression. At the beginning I was brought back to the labor room. It perfectly captured the horror of childbirth, the post op, and the first few magical but very stressful days of having a newborn.
 It speaks of a woman's journey towards motherhood stripped off of the rainbows and butterflies, and with only the gory details laid bare. It's about the ultimate sacrifice of not owning your body anymore, of having little strangers arrive in your life that you try so hard to love, the constant fear, and the huge weight of this lifetime of responsibility.


As a mother, I can say that this also helped me face the nightmares still hidden in my memories. I am grateful to have a wonderful husband who shares parenting tasks with me as equally as possible. But the truth is being a mother is a nightmare wrapped in sweet dreams. Is it worth it? Yes, but as this novel ultimately shows--it just may cost you your sanity.

Laura swears that she was attacked in her hospital room, shortly after the birth of her twins. She is written off as a tired, new mother when the police are involved. Her husband and the doctors think that she is imagining things. When she gets home, things start to get worse. She starts seeing that woman outside of her house. Again, she is written off as being a tired new mother. Then she takes the twins out for a walk in a park. Where they disappear. The twins are found shortly after being reported missing. But Laura swears that there is something different about them. She needs to bring her boys back. How is she going to do that? Are the myths and legends about changelings to be believed? Or is Laura suffering from a form of postpartum psychosis?

I couldn’t wait to read Little Darlings. From the reviews that I have read, the book was going to be fantastic. So, when I finally got around to reading, I was excited. Little Darlings has earned every bit of praise that has been thrown its way. When a book has me wondering which end is up, it is good!!

I wish that I hadn’t put it off. This book is that good. It is also super creepy. The bit of folklore that the author chose to put at the beginning of each chapter only added to the supernaturalness of the book. I loved it!!

What I also liked is that I didn’t know what was true. Was everything that Laura was experiencing real or in her head? That is what I liked the most about this book. The author did a great job of putting up both sides. And then she does a fantastic job of letting you make your own conclusion at the end of the book. Like I mentioned above, I love it when a book can keep me guessing about what actually happened. Even after it was over.

The end of Little Darlings sent a chill up my spine. Not going to get into it but let’s say that enough doubt is cast that I wondered what happened. The epilogue (well, I wouldn’t quite call it that) was what made me think. It also made me sit and think for a while after I finished the book.

I gave Little Darlings a 4-star rating. This was a creepy book to read. The characters were relatable. The plotlines were fast paced and well written.

I would give Little Darlings an Adult rating. There is no sex. There is violence. There is language. There are triggers. They would be postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and cheating. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Little Darlings. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.

What a creepy story! Firstly I hated her husband from the very beginning. What a terrible father from the get go and constantly making her feel crazy for being exhausted with two newborns. I loved following the story and finding out what was going to happen to Lauren and her babies.

I received an advanced copy in exchange of an honest review.