A darkly creepy tale based in equal-parts real-world family drama and archaic fairy tale mythology. On one level we meet Lauren Tranter, new mother and possible post partum depression sufferer; a character we can empathise with deeply as she negotiates the first fraught days and weeks of processing her new life with twin boys. On another level she is the victim of an evil presence, determined to replace her infants with unsettling lookalike changelings. I found myself quite able to suspend disbelief where necessary and engage with the story on both planes, due in large part to the confident narrative and strong female characters, The weakest link was Patrick, the spineless father who seems unable to satisfy anyone's expectations of him. This debut was quite gripping and I would certainly read more by the author.

This book has a very original story line. It is perceptive and illuminating about certain aspects of mental health. The reader is kept on edge by the hope that the troubled mother of twin boys might actually be right about what she fears. There is added uncertainty about the loyalty of her husband and the off-work life of the detective adds spice to the story. A good read but may be unsettling to some readers.

Fabulous debut novel will be looking out for this author in the future.
Really gripping had me hooked from the start couldn't put it down, a good insight to the state of mind after childbirth, but left me wondering, what if?!

This is a story about changelings. The chapter begin quoting from fairy tales and myths on the subject of babies who have been swapped with "fairy" babies when very young. The main character absolutely believes that this happened to her twins and sacrifices her own life style to save her children. The family situation becomes more complex as her belief cannot convince her husband that the babies are not the same after they are abducted.
The reader is left wanting to believe the mother but with huge doubts about her sanity as the social services try to manage the situation.
The book examines the stress on new mothers and the effects of post natal baby blues on individuals and family.

This is fantasy but not as we know it!!
I enjoyed it and recommend the book.

A new mum. Twin boys. An unhelpful and disengaged dad. A dismissive nursing team. A stranger who wants....something....a woman certain iof what she sees, what she hears, what she knows. A policewoman who wants to help but is obstructed by others.

Th8s is a story of what can happen when a woman is not believed. This story is dark. Th8s story is chilling. This story may not be fiction.......

An uncomfortable read involving the emotionally disturbing subject of puerperal psychosis, a serious though temporary condition if correct treatment available and ancient folklore regarding changelings intrinsically linked to substitution of babies at birth. Fact and fiction collide when police receive an urgent call from a recently delivered mother of identical twin boys that someone is stealing her babies. Quick action results in mother and babies found and released home after a difficult and traumatic birth to an inadequate husband, no family back up and the spiralling descent of the mother into depression, exhaustion and inability to differentiate between fact and fiction . This manifests itself in a total inability to believe or trust anyone. The handsome shallow husband Patrick has secrets that once exposed suggest he is a suspect but of what? Unable to follow orders from above, the confused DS Joanna Harper is struggling to make sense of the circumstances of the case whilst dealing with her own demons related to a teenage pregnancy. We the reader are drawn into evolving events each chapter giving days and weeks of the children's lives with the escalating difficulties encountered by the disturbed mother, abduction of babies and introduction of a suspect with links to family. Common sense tells us one thing. Skilled storytelling leads us along a very different path. Many thanks to Melanie Golding and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a story that defies genre and inserts a nagging doubt that folklore was not entirely based on fiction.

Following the traumatic birth of her twin boys, Lauren is exhausted.

In her sleep-deprived state, she has a terrifying encounter with another new mum in the middle of the night, which leaves her convinced that her babies are in danger and someone is trying to steal her children.

Barely given time to recover from the birth, she is left to care for her babies alone, and, exhausted and on constant alert to the cries and demands of the new babes, she fears for the wellbeing of her boys and how to keep them safe. One day she ventures out to the park and after accidentally falling asleep, her worst nightmare comes true, when she realises the boys are missing....

Little Darlings is full of suspense, with extracts from folklore and fairy tales interwoven in the story, you question whether someone is actually out to get the babies, or whether Lauren is suffering from post-partum psychosis.

I just didn't get it.

I didn't enjoy the fairy tale extracts at the start of each chapter and skipped those after the first couple. The husband was annoying, unsupportive as a husband and a father and frustratingly he never got his comeuppance.

That said, looking at NetGalley I'm clearly in the minority with this viewpoint.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

Lauren Tranter has just given birth to beautiful twin boys; her miracle babies. However, her happiness takes a chilling turn, when a mysterious woman appears on the maternity ward late at night, demanding Lauren choose between her babies to swap with one of the woman’s own set of twins. If Lauren fails to pick one, the woman tells her she'll take both boys. Lauren is determined to keep her boys safe at all costs, because she knows the woman won’t stop until she has Lauren's boys. There was no evidence of any intruder, so no one believes Lauren’s story, except Detective Joanna Harper. Harper investigates Lauren’s claims due to her own traumatic past, despite her boss telling her to drop the case. It only gets worse from there, as when Lauren falls asleep at the park, she wakes to find her boys gone and in their place she's convinced are horrible creatures. But everyone else only sees the two beautiful twin boys, but Lauren knows they aren't and she must save her true babies.
Little Darlings is a story about the depth of a mother’s love entwined with unsettling folklore,and hits home a parent's worst nightmare.

I loved this story. I really loved this story. It was creepy, ensnaring and made my imagination want to climb under the duvet until it was safe to come out. There was such a building tension that had me psychologically hooked from beginning to end.

What worked here was the execution and development of the mystery. The plot throughout teeters between the idea of this being a psychological thriller or a supernatural thriller, which made for a fascinating read. The inclusion of quotes from folklore tales and stories of changelings, really made the mystery feel otherworldly and unnerving.
Combined with this, was the story’s ability to seize control of any reader’s parental instincts and then plunge them into a blender of terror. When every chapter wrapped up, I was left with growing butterflies in my stomach. I was scared and anxious for Lauren and her babies, and dreaded the outcome regardless of whether or not the book was primarily psychological or supernatural.

The other thing that worked here was the awesome ensemble of likeable and loathsome characters, who were easy to connect with.
I loved Lauren and Harper. Lauren was like any new mother (loving yet nervous…) but had a lot more to contend with; from two babies instead of one, a serious lack of support from her spouse and the fear of a woman trying to take her babies. Her character was easily empathised with.
For a short time, I felt the introduction of Harper's narrative was needless. I wanted to charge ahead reading about Lauren etc., but with Harper's development in amongst Lauren’s nightmare, I began to love reading more about her as well. And just for the sake of saying it, yes, I loathed Lauren's husband, Patrick. And to all ladies and gents out there, if your other half was to treat you as crap as Patrick treated Lauren, DITCH THEIR ASS.

Maybe my favourite thing was the victim was believed/supported by one of the central members of police. There was no hostility or bullying tactics from Harper to Lauren, even if Harper found Lauren's narrative far-fetched. I wish more mystery thrillers pulled this approach off. I'll reiterate my feelings about police procedurals being so hostile to victims - I hate those kinds of plots. Yes, they're real life, but some are so exaggerated. A massive THANK YOU to the author for writing a detective who was compassionate and considerate, even if it was through the character’s own bias, because I loved Harper’s faith in Lauren. Additionally, I liked that the topic of mental health was handled very well.

I had a minor gripe with the ending as I felt it could have been polished off more, for both Harper and Lauren, with some communication between the ladies. I just felt the book needed something a bit more after the climax. Ultimately, the wrap up isn't the happy ending I would have liked, especially when babies are involved. But that just adds to the reader's psychological horror of it, doesn't it?

Overall, I read this over 2 days and I'm rating it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 as it is a cracking debut. There were some issues at the ending that were unsatisfying, but despite this, it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Someone needs to buy the rights to this as a film ASAP, because it would be one heck of a movie. Little Darlings was so eerie to make the hairs on my arms stand tall, I won't be forgetting this story or the characters anytime soon. Recommend without hesitation!

Thank you kindly to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-copy, in exchange for this honest review.

Sleep-deprived, exhausted and emotional after giving birth to twin boys, Lauren Tranter (her first name is an anagram of “unreal”... just saying) experiences something terrifying in the middle of the night on her hospital maternity ward. She calls the police, but the incident is put down as (and may indeed be) a mental health episode, and nobody believes Lauren’s story of a strange and sinister woman who threatened to steal her babies...

Steeped in the eerie and sinister folklore of changelings, Little Darlings is a hugely compelling and intriguing read. There’s some beautiful writing, particularly around early motherhood (anyone who’s ever breastfed a baby to sleep will recognise the way the twins “dropped off the breast, asleep, like ripened plums from a branch”) and a genuinely unsettling storyline which depicts - depending on how you look at it - a new mother experiencing distressing delusions, or a woman fighting against the disbelief of others to protect her children from a terrible danger.

Lauren’s beliefs and actions do look exactly like - and may indeed be - an episode of post-partum psychosis, and it’s hard to blame the people around her for coming to that conclusion, although there’s just enough possible corroboration to cast doubt on the interpretation.

I liked maverick police officer (and triathlete) Jo Harper right off - she felt very much like my kind of person. But I’m not sure the manipulative Amy is the girl for you, Jo.

Missing-child thrillers have been ten a penny of late; but hats off to Melanie Golding who has done something here with that basic concept which feels completely new. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel - it’s entrancing, haunting and often rather beautiful. I loved it.

What a little gem of a novel. Gripping, creepy and just delicious. An easy read that should be a summer bestseller. Should fly off the shelves.

The beginning of this book is superb. I was hooked by the second chapter. Lauren’s character is great and the premise of the story (twins/changelings/folklore/fairytales) is fantastic.
The ending for me didn’t clarify quite everything and left me with questions. It’s a well written book, Melanie Golding really proves herself as a magnificent storyteller, I just would have loved some of the themes and story explained more clearly at the end.

Melanie Golding’s debut novel ‘Little Darlings’ has much to recommend it: a realistic and moving portrayal of a mother, Lauren, floundering in the days after the traumatic experience of a complicated birth to twin boys, and almost drowning in the complex emotions that she is experiencing. In hospital, exhausted, overwhelmed by both the responsibility and the love that she feels for her sons, she is also convinced that a strange woman is out to steal her babies.
Weeks later, after becoming a virtual prisoner in her own home in order to protect the babies from the shadowy woman who threatens to destroy her family, she reluctantly agrees to meet up with other new mothers and their offspring in a park. Lauren enjoys the fresh air, the company, her happy babies but, after the friends disperse, she falls asleep and wakes up to find that her twins have been stolen.
Particularly enjoyable for me was the series of epigraphs focusing on folk lore about changeling children that preface many of the novel’s chapters, highlighting the long-held fear that babies and young children can be taken to be replaced by something ‘other’ – a difference that, sometimes, only the mother can see. This narrative is one way in which postpartum psychosis has been explored through storytelling over the centuries.
DS Joanna Harper becomes involved in the case. A single woman with particular empathy for mother/baby separations, she finds the boys who appear to have been taken by Natasha, a young woman with a singular connection to Patrick, Lauren’s husband. At first, this seems a clear-cut kidnapping case but the water is murky and unseen obstacles lie ahead, not least during the compelling section detailing Lauren’s terrifying experience of incarceration in a mental health unit.
Some elements of this first novel are not so convincing, such as the tentative relationship between DS Harper and local journalist, and the latter’s sources. Much of this does not ring true. Nor does it always add much to the narrative. However, that Melanie Golding does not sugar-coat her portrayal of some women’s experience of early motherhood is to be applauded. We feel Lauren’s pain; we know she loves her sons; we fear for them.
My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I can't quite come to a decision about whether I liked this book or not. What seems like a thriller on the surface is mixed with folklore and superstition! That said, I did enjoy it, liked the detective and the setting, it definitely kept me interested

I really enjoyed this book it is well written and the story line is something I have never read before and with a bit of creepiness in it. Not a really fast paced book but it does keep you reading and turning those pages. You just need to read it and let the creepiness and uneasiness set in.

This is an absolutely excellent debut novel. It is a twisty combination of thriller, horror, myth and legend. Lauren has given birth to twin boys, Morgan and Riley and she is exhausted. As she lies, half awake and half asleep, in her hospital bed, she hears the noises of another mother in the next bay murmuring to her baby. As she listens, she realises there are two babies responding to their mother’s voice. When she asks about the new mother the following morning she is told there were no new admissions.

The following night the woman is back; singing an unsettling song to her babies. When Lauren confronts her, the woman says that she want to trade one of her babies for one of Lauren’s. Terrified, Lauren locks herself and her babies in the toilet and dials 999. Security can find no evidence of the other woman and tell the police it was a false alarm. Has Lauren dreamt everything? Her husband Patrick, and the hospital seem to think so.

A short time later, when Lauren has gone home, she see the woman watching her house. She is still not believed, although DS Jo Harper, who has taken an interest in the incident at the hospital, wonders if there is more to this case. Not long after this, during a walk by the river, Lauren falls asleep and when she wakes, her babies are gone. The twins are found but Lauren is convinced they are not her children; they are changelings. Is Lauren imaging all this? Is she mentally distressed? How can she get her sons or her mind back?

Gripping, dark, scary and twisty, I could not put this book down. It is so well written and the characters were completely believable. Patrick is a terrible husband, selfish and self-regarding, Jo is a policewoman pushing the boundaries and Lauren is a lost new mother. There are a couple of good side stories one of which involves Jo and a journalist.

This novel had an added bonus for me as it is set in the Peak District where I grew up and I know the story of the lost village which is a significant feature in the story.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ for the ARC.
I rather enjoyed this book. It is an interestingly-constructed psychological thriller - the story weaving around fairy tales and folklore involving changelings, and post-natal depression/psychosis which can afflict new mothers. In this chilling tale the two are combined, with potentially devastating consequences.
DS Jo Harper has a past, a secret, which she shares with no-one. She has a rocky relationship with her boss and hates being desk-bound; she is a maverick and distains authority. Early one morning she's perusing the overnight logs when she spots a No Further Action call concerning an attempted kidnapping of newly-born twin boys at the local hospital. The mother, Lauren Tranter had phoned-in, frantic, that a woman was on her ward and trying to take her babies. DS Harper's instinct drives her to investigate further.
Returning home, Lauren becomes isolated and over-protective of her identical twins, Riley and Morgan, believing them to be in real danger. Her husband Patrick is not overly-supportive, but then he has other things on his mind, not yet revealed. Did Lauren really see that old woman again across the road from their house? Did she really have a psychotic episode in the hospital? Were her babies targeted to be swopped for the hideous beings in the old woman's basket?
Unofficially, DS Harper becomes more deeply involved, aided by her friendship with a local reporter who can access 'resources' unavailable to her officially.
Lots of questions - what relationship does the confluence of two rivers, and the reservoir-induced submersion of a town years ago, have to do with Lauren's present perceived situation?
To say much more would be too much. Suffice it to say that this is indeed a compelling read.
On the negative side I would say I found the dialogue aspect to be rather thin: I could see this as a TV film if dialogue was improved.
This story is a slow, emotional, burn, you can really feel Lauren's desperation, the helplessness of Patrick, and DS Harper's determination.
Well-worth the read.

I thought this was excellent. It is set in and around Sheffield, which I know well, with the names of famiiar locations changed. It involves Lauren, who has given birth to twins. She is convinced that they have become changelings and gets sectioned to a mental hospital. Joanna, the detective in charge of the case is not willing to let the case be closed and carries out some clandestine investigations with the help of a local glamorous journalist. At the beginnings of the chapters are some quotes and rhymes from folklore regarding faery folk and changelings. These add to the creepy feel and really make you believe that something magical is going on. The husband, Paul, is under suspicion as possibly not being as supportive as he could be. The ending is left slightly ambiguous so you have to draw your own conclusions. This is very cleverly plotted and is a compelling and absorbing read.

I really can't believe this is a debut novel, I couldn't put it down until I'd finished the whole thing. So here I am in the small hours writing my review whilst Little Darlings is fresh enough in my mind that I'm still properly creeped out. This isn't the first book that I've read on changeling folklore, which in itself is such a terrifying subject. The harm that real life women visited on children in the belief that they were saving them sends shivers down the spine so already I was heavily invested in this book from the opening chapters. All of my expectations though were turned upside down when I realised that this story is anything but straightforward. There are visceral descriptions not just of childbirth but also the painfully haunting disassociative despair of a new mother. There are also some frankly cinema ready moments that had me questioning why on earth I decided to read in the dark. Fantastic work, I will absolutely look out for the next one.

If you are looking for a great creepy, scary, psychological thriller then look no further. This one will have awake all night after reading, just be aware of you have twin babies !!

In the middle of the night, just after giving birth to her twin sons, Lauren Tranter, wakes up to the sounds of a woman in the next cubicle singing to her babies but after listening to the words being sung Lauren feels terror. Lauren is next hiding in the bathroom with her twin boys dialling 999 after the lady in the next cubicle tries to snatch her babies. No-one believes her and it is recorded as a mental health episode.

After going home Lauren sees the mystery lady opposite her house, and scared to leave the home she hides away from the world. Detective Jo Harper visits Lauren and despite everyone else not believing Lauren, Jo finds herself relating to Lauren and feels that there is some truth to what she is saying. Will the mystery lady got to Lauren’s twin babies or is it all in her head ? Can Jo crack the case before it ends in tragedy ?

This really is a creepy tale with a hint of the supernatural. A great read that will keep you awake at nights, especially if you have young babies !!

Thank you to HQ and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.