I absolutely loved this book! I've always been a fan of folklore, myths and legends so to find a book full of this while bringing a modern touch to the table was fantastic. Little Darlings is quite an unsettling read and probably one to avoid if you are pregnant/recently given birth. Luckily my daughters are now teenagers so if they are Changelings it's too late to swap them!

There's also an important mental health message in this book, Lauren's fears and paranoia are simply put down to her being a new mum/over tired/emotional and she is dismissed by most people that are there to look out for her. This decision on her mental health is quick and brutal, something that will hang over her head no matter what happens.

One of my favourite reads of the year for sure!

A very creepy story with mystical overtones. A mother thinks someone is trying to steal her twins and replace them with their own. There is no evidence to support this but one policewoman believes her and tries to find the truth but this turns out to be very challenging.

I actually loved this book, I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to write a review. I was texting friends throughout reading about how I’ve never been so on edge before while reading, and I’ve recommended it to many people. The atmosphere is so surreal and tense and you don’t know quite what to believe, it’s great. The only let down for me was that narrative around the mother was so incredibly strong that I felt the police officers narrative couldn’t quite stack up next to it.

This book is not quite what I expected. Judging from the blurb/cover/hype I was expecting an interesting but pretty standard thriller. I got something quite a bit different which was a pleasant surprise. This book is actually more of a horror with a bit of a thriller thrown in inspired by folklore about changelings who steal a child and replace it with an evil twin. I enjoyed the way each chapter opens with snippets of superstition about how to stop fairies from stealing children. I liked the two female leads. Lauren, the mother convinced someone wants to take her children but dismissed as someone hallucinating and Joanna, the cop whose convinced there’s grain of truth to Lauren’s story. This book offers something a bit different and engrossing.

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding is part detective story, part psychological thriller. The main character, Lauren, is convinced her new born twins are in danger and her actions appear to others to be irrational. The tension builds well and there are some edge of the seat moments. However, for me, the plot could have been stronger and I wasn’t convinced by the ending.

Little Darlings is a very well written book, the story line goes in a completely different direction to what I expected based on the cover notes. The ending leaves a lot of unanswered questions - maybe ready for a second book!!
An individual read but more fairy tale than psychological thriller for me.

Beautifully written, this chilling story grips the reader and will not let you go. When the book is finished you’re still lingering inside the world!
The writing style made this an extremely accessible and quick read for me, which helped me immerse myself in it more.
I would recommend this to anyone but be warned it may creep you out for a while afterwards lol

A great thriller. Super entertaining with great twists. Less character development than I was expecting but a great read nonetheless.

As a mother, a midwife and a parent, this book is deeply disturbing on many levels. This is a story about a woman suffering postpartum psychosis....or is it a story about a women suffering from a supernatural possession...of her twins? My heart went out to this poor woman and her babies. This novel is extremely well written and with a delicate touch to one of the most overwhelming, demanding and sometimes confusing phases of a woman's life. The ending is perfectly balanced, though not the ending I wished for.

This was a well written Horror/Thriller story based on historical folklore from Ireland and other places in the British Isles about changelings. I love the way bits of actual folklore like superstitions for how to protect a baby from being taken by the fairies is placed at the beginnings of some chapters.

The story itself follows two women; one, a new mother of twins who believes someone is trying to take her babies and the other a female cop who has good instincts and doesn't swallow the psychiatrist's explanation that the woman is just hallucinating. There's a definite supernatural aspect involved causing the mother to doubt her perceptions and the cop to doubt the dismissal of the mother's concerns by hospital staff.

The story kept me interested, especially the last quarter. I even stayed up late reading because I had to know what happened next! The characters were well defined and I really hated two of them, though I liked both of the two primary women.

There were some plot points that I felt could have been further developed, but my only real complaint is the ending. Too many questions were left open and side plots unresolved. The evidence for whether the happenings were hallucinations or psychosis could have supported either way. Perhaps it's meant to leave the reader to decide.

I LOVED this novel! The writing is so skillful, the description is detailed, visceral and so well done, and the story is flawless. The author writes an unreliable narrator in a way that I've never experienced before; you don't know what to believe, from beginning to end, and it's perfect.

Lauren is a new mother to twin boys. Whilst still in hospital she believes an attempt is being made to abduct her new babies. This story follows her initial days and weeks, exhausted by new motherhood but petrified about the safety of her babies. Patrick , her husband, is a character that is difficult to like, showing little support for his wife.
The story is full of twists right up to the end where the reader is unsure whether Lauren is suffering from mental illness or there are abduction attempts on her babies. Her only ally is DI Harper who invests her time in Lauren.
This was an enjoyable read with lots of suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Melanie Golding for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a delightfully dark book which explores post partum psychosis and the devastating impact it can have - or does it?

That's the beautiful thing about "Little Darlings." It could be a story about a mother in the throes of a rare but devastating medical condition or it could be a supernatural tale of wicked fey spirits, waiting to whisk away new born babies. It's so skillfully written, you can't be sure until the final page.

I absolutely loved every page of this. It's a refreshing twist on the thriller genre which brings something new to the table.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Having heard so mych about this book i couldn’t resist grabbing a review copy, and i was far from disappointed. Shocking and surprising by turns, I had no idea what was coming! Hooked from start to end, this book was utterly addicted and eerily brilliant!

*** ARC provided by Netgalley via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ***

Whilst I didn’t dislike this book, I didn’t really like it either. It kept me reading as I was really eager to know how it finished and to be honest, the ending felt a little bit like a cop out. The book is based around changelings in folklore (remember the Angelina Jolie film?) However, where I struggle is to make sense of it all.

Is this a thriller, a fairy story, a story about postpartum depression? Who knows? I feel like there are little things placed in the plot to lead to false conclusions but which are never really wrapped up in the end. I liked the main character and felt for her but honestly, her partner treated her terribly and made me wonder why Lauren put up with him? I can see this making a good film as the overall idea is interesting, I just think it needs a little finesse.

I felt that this was a well written book with an eerie storyline. At no point did the book let my interest go wandering, I was intrigued to find out the truth behind the mysterious stranger...and there is the sad part...as well as it was written, I didn't really get any sense of completeness or closure at the end of the book...if this was deliberate, then I've missed the point. Still a very readable debut.

I thought this book was ok. I didn't love it nor did I hate it. I couldn't easily work out if it was meant to be based on folklore, mental health or ghostly horror. It's obvious that the lead character was suffering from some sort of post partum breakdown but the book was heavy on the folklore so I was unsure. But it's worth a read.

Little Darlings by Melanie Gould is a very clever mix of psychological thriller with a supernatural/fairy tale twist. It starts as a tale of a potential infant abduction from a hospital. But fears are unfounded...or are they?

This turns into a haunting and occasionally chilling rework of the changeling fairytale. But how much is fiction? Are the fears unfounded? Like the shadow at the corner of your eye, as soon as you glimpse, the threat is gone. And yet you know there’s something there. That’s how these tales have lasted for centuries; who knows where the truth lies?

This is a slow burn take, but it had me hooked from the beginning and kept me reading. I think it’s a cracker.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Good god i maybe shouldn’t have read this book so soon after having a baby!!!

What a cracking read it was so scary and tense and just frightening to be honest and I bloody loved it; even though it also scared me daft!

Lauren had newborn twins Riley and Morgan and on the maternity ward she swears she sees a witch type person come and try and take them and swap them for other babies who look exactly the same as hers.

Everyone says she’s exhausted and imagining it, but is she?

All I’ll say is I didn’t dare take my own eyes off my baby for a second, seriously creeped me out and that takes A LOT....read the book if you want to be up all night!

This unsettling and bewitching tale soon had me under its spell. I must admit to initially feeling a little bit disappointed that it wasn’t the conventional psychological thriller that I thought it was going to be. However, I soon got over that as the nightmarish situation drew me in and I had to keep reading to find out where it was all leading.

I’m very interested in the origins of, and dark side to, fairy tales so I found the folklore passages fascinating. Lauren’s situation felt real and terrifying and I found myself questioning along with her what was real and what wasn’t.

I’d recommend this to anyone who likes chilling stories with a supernatural element.