A creepy read which explores postnatal mental health and the worst fears of parents. I particularly enjoyed the tie-in with fairy tales and ancient folklore.

I have never read a book like this before and that is what made it so fascinating.

This is the story of Lauren and Patrick, new parents to twin boys Morgan and Riley. Lauren has a difficult birth and struggles to look after the twins while she is in hospital. She is overwhelmed by the situation and the sleep deprivation starts to confuse her. Sometime during the night she meets a woman who also has twin babies and this woman wants to swap one of her babies for one of Lauren's - and if Lauren refuses she will take both her boys. Lauren is now in a dilemma, scared and confused, with no one believing her what is she going to do? Patrick is no help and makes it clear to her that the children are her responsibility and that has to learn to cope without him while he goes back to work - but just what is Patrick hiding?

Part folk tale, part postnatal psychosis, this is a chilling read that does keep you interested and invested in the outcome. The additional side story of DS Harper who is investigating Lauren's complaints is also interesting, as she has her own issues around childbirth to deal with too - and while she believes that something about all this doesn't quite stack up all the evidence is pointing her in a different direction.

Definitely worth a read but be prepared to feel vaguely unsettled for quite some time.

Gosh ! Haunting and exciting, you can feel the exhaustion of motherhood. Plenty to keep a reader interested, well drawn characters and a good pace. Hard to believe it’s a debut novel. Can’t wait for the next one

A must read

I really enjoyed this book. It was very thrilling and I was hooked to the pages to see what's going to happen.

It's definitely recommended if you like thrillers with supernatural elements in it. It's a true page turner.

Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry to say I found this one to be a bit of a slog.
This was in itself an interesting premise but we didn't quite click and I also found it a touch slow in places.
This did have a creepy undertone but it wasn't enough of a factor to ultimately rescue this for me.
This was told from new mother Lauren's POV as she struggles with the concept that something is after her twins and then later that they have been switched for changeling's and are not, in fact, her offspring.
I did enjoy the fable or tale at the beginning of each story chapter and found that to be a fun and interesting addition.
Laurens husband I detested with a passion what a piece of work he was, his falsely over the top endearments and pretend concerns were such an obvious sham and he couldn't be trusted as far as you could throw him.
I did believe that he did care for his boys despite his selfish nature that I did think was genuine.
But as for all else what a waste of space.
We also have an unorthodox detective who is prepared to dig for the truth and is surprisingly
open-minded to the seemingly impossible.
I also wasn't quite sure what to make of that finish as to me it seemed abrupt and unfinished.
This was well written and there's plenty out there that loved this I am just not one of them.
If this hadn't been an Arc I would probably have thrown in the towel and this would have been sent to my DNF Shelf but because it was I plodded on despite me not being fully invested.
As I have said previously there's nothing wrong with the writing here this just wasn't for me.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of Little Darlings.

This is not the kind of book you want to read when a member of your family is due to give birth in the next few days! That's not a criticism though - far from it. Golding takes the reader se o far into the mind of someone with postpartum psychosis that it is impossible not to question what is real and what is not. It is astonishing that Little Darlings is a debut novel. It's so well researched and written that I was completely engaged by the storyline and needed to know what happened to Lauren.

Alongside Lauren's story, we meet Detective Sergeant Jo Harper. She is involved in helping Lauren, but she has an interesting story of her own, so much so that I would love it if she were to have her own series. She is subversive and she has an interesting relationship with the local journalist, which throws up some intriguing ideas.

I loved the references to fairy tales in Little Darlings. These add an extra element of mystery to a wonderfully tense and atmospheric novel.

Little Darlings is based on a Welsh fairy tale, about a woman who has twins which are swapped with changelings.

After Lauren gives birth to her twin boys, a woman tries to take them. Except no one else saw this woman, so it is written off as Lauren being mentally unstable following the births. Only one person believes her, DS Joanna Harper, who vows to find out what happened.

This is a brilliantly creepy story, which does a great job describing the issues faced when becoming a new mother, and deals with depression well. Although I am a huge fan of police procedural, I think that element of the book let it down slightly and it would have been better if the focus was solely on Lauren.

A great, very tense read that starts slow but builds brilliantly to leave you dying to read on to the end.

Enjoyed this book a lot, although it is super creepy at times! I'm not a mother but in Lauren, the author captured brilliantly what I imagine to be the fears that so many new mothers go through. The fact that her babies were twins added another dimension to this. I spent a lot of the book guessing ... does Lauren have post partum psychosis or is there any reality to what she's seeing and hearing? I kept changing my mind on this and with Lauren as a hugely unreliable narrator, you're never really sure what to believe. If you don't like fairy tales, this probably isn't the book for you but I was strangely fascinated by the creepiness in these ones. I am never normally a fan of supernatural elements in books and had I known this involved them I probably would have stayed clear. I'm glad I was unaware as I would have missed out on a great book!

Such a good book!
I remember the feelings very well with having a newborn baby. Worrying about death, dropping them, visualising awful things happening. As a mum I presume we all have these thoughts. And I still have worries even with a grown up child. I don’t think that fear will ever go away. But this story goes beyond that. I’ve got goosebumps just writing this review. The story has stayed with me and I’ve thought about it frequently.
I was never quite sure if Lauren had postpartum psychosis or if these things were really happening, especially when other characters saw some of the things she saw.
The fairy stories at the start of a chapter, the babies eyes, the singing at night, stories of changelings OMG I could go on!
It’s nothing like I’ve ever read before and if you’ve got a new baby in the family don’t read it!
Disturbing, suspenseful, chilling, the stuff of nightmares! It creeped me out.

I have read so many amazing reviews about this book, and believe me when I say, I was so excited to devour this book. The book itself is so well written, so captivating, and incredibly well put together. The writing was stunning, and the characters were vivid. However, I couldn’t relate to the story as much as I wanted to.

This is a story of Lauren, who just gives birth two her first children, two lovely boys, and she fears someone might be after them. While in the hospital, a weird creepy woman visits her, and tells her she wants to swap the babies. Lauren is scared and calls the police, and no one can find any evidence.

I understand now that probably the reason why I couldn’t love this book as much as other people did is because the main character is a mother, and being a mother is the main aspect of this book. This is a story that captures all the horrors a mother could have when she fears for her children. We get to feel what Lauren feels, and see the world through her eyes. I remember talking to my mother, and how she once told me she could always feel when something is going on with me. I always wondered why, and I know that until I have children of my own, I will probably not know.

Lauren at first doesn’t have that motherly instinct. Or she thinks she doesn’t. She is troubled that she doesn’t care enough for them, and she is not confident she is the right person for this ‘’job’’. During the book, we can see the love that Lauren has for her two babies keep growing. She can now understand how she knows things about her baby boys that no one else knows. It is a beautiful journey she goes through.

Now, back to the book – let’s not forget – this is a horror story. As much as she loves her babies, they are in danger, and no one believes Lauren. After all, her story sounds like some creepy tale.

But what is the creepy tales are true?

After the beginning, and some time spent in the hospital, Lauren has to get back home and try to get into the new routine. But weird things start happening one after another another, and before she knows it, her babies have indeed disappeared. In their place are another set of babies, and no one can recognize they’re different, apart from Lauren.

I would like to take a moment here and comment of how big of an asshole her husband is. As women, when we give birth, we give life to a whole new person. With your help, of course, but on our own. Our bodies change, our routine changes, our emotions change. And then some men decide to belittle their wives and partners, make them feel unworthy and go aside and enjoy their lives. Well, life is too short to be surrounded by such douche bags, and if I were Lauren, I would have said bye bye to Patrick after the first night at the hospital.

Little Darlings was not a bad book at all. In fact, it was a very pleasant read, very enjoyable and very relatable to many women out there. However, I just didn’t feel that spark I usually feel when reading this genre. I wasn’t shaking and I wasn’t afraid for Lauren or her babies.

This was chilling. A modern day creepy fairytale, and one I believed. You couldn't help but believe what Lauren was going through and feel her terror. I still don't know what I think happened - was she psychotic? Was this the results of an extreme episode of post partum psychosis? Who is the mysterious woman who "finds" the twins? Was she just having an affair and obsessed with Lauren's husband, or is she an incarnation of the water people? The descriptions of Lauren's feelings passed the fear onto me - skillful narrating, and a great atmosphere. I was disturbed by this read, yet found myself believing in fairy tales. The description of the changeling twins talking and singing were chilling beyond belief. A great read. #littledarlings #netgalley

Little Darlings is quite the creepy thriller with a fairytale twist. Melanie Golding writes strong, believable characters and a phenomenal unreliable narrator. There are supernatural elements throughout. The pace is relatively fast keeping things moving along. There are several twists throughout. If you enjoy thrillers and fairytales, this is a fun choice for a novel that blends the two well. Highly recommended!

Page 1 introduces us to DS Joanna Harper, she’s standing by a river, watching a young woman edge her way in, in her arms her 5 week old twins.

Then we jump to Lauren, giving birth to the twins in hospital, the story takes us through the birth and a traumatic hospital stay, during which someone tries to swap her own twins for Lauren’s – yet no intruders are found on the ward and CCTV is grainy and doesn’t yield any further information for DS Jo Harper. But she’s willing to trust her ‘Mothers instinct’ and Lauren’s case intrigues Harper enough for her to get caught up in it to only have the investigation halted when her boss insists that Police budgets must be considered.

Not before Lauren and her husband, Patrick head home with the twins, Morgan and Riley as a new family of four. For any new mum, this is an intense and time, but for Lauren with two new babies to care for its doubly worrying. Its not long before Patrick decides he can’t cope with the lack of sleep because the twins want feeding and heads to the spare room for solace and a peaceful nights sleep, which isn’t a lot of help to Lauren, she’s struggling too and now doesn’t feel supported at a time she most needs it.

Lauren finds it even harder when Patrick goes back to work and she’s left alone with the twins, she considers going out, but she’s so tired and the house is a mess, she stays at home. Then as she opens the door one day, the woman who tried to steal the twins is watching Lauren from the other side of the road, hidden in the bushes, then at the back door. Shes long gone by the time Jo Harper can get there. She calls Patrick and he goes home to help calm Lauren. This prompts heightened security measures at home and means Lauren retreats further into the safety of staying at home.

Lauren’s state of mind is vulnerable, she’s just had twins, she’s exhausted and everything is new to her, shes got no-one to fall back on and really support her when she could do with it and after Patrick puts the pressure on and a visit from another Mum in the baby group Lauren was part of, she decides to head out, much preparation is required and she nearly gives in, but makes it out. She used to love walking down by the river and a quick meet up and chat with the other new mums – fresh air, a coffee, some light exercise – it would do her good, wouldn’t it?

Joanna Harper’s history and present life are an underlying tone throughout the book also, which also adds to the storyline and creates a reason to want to help Lauren.

Is Lauren imagining it all? is it real? Is someone after the twins? Is someone following her?

I am a mum, and I can understand all of Laurens worries and fears, I can totally identify with the feeling of it all ‘getting on top of you’ and being tired. But still needing to do the washing, feed everyone, tidy up and look after a new baby too. So many times I thought, ‘yes, I remember doing that’ and reaching the to the six-week mark, when it all kind of clicked into place, but before then – it was so new and daunting and overwhelming. After reading Little Darlings, in bed one night, I went to sleep and woke up in a blind panic at 3 am and I honestly haven’t done that since I had a newborn in the house, but I remembered the feeling of sheer panic and thinking ‘the baby’ only to realise, I don’t have a baby (not anymore, shes 6 now!) so not only did the book disturb me, I found it so compelling and enjoyable that I needed to know how the twins were and how Lauren was feeling that day. Brilliantly written, the characters are so believable, the storyline is haunting and dark and this is such a great debut, its like Melanie Golding is a previously published author, the book flows so well, watch this space I say.

Creepy, disturbing and clever. New mum of twins, Lauren is convinced she heard a woman in the bed next to her in the maternity ward, and is later trapped in the ward toilets with her twins calling for help when the same woman tries to steal the babies. Both times no one else can be found and the episodes are put down to Lauren's post natal stresses. But strange incidents keep happening. Gifts appear on the doorstep, and when Lauren is pushed into taking the twins out and falls asleep on a bench, the twins are kidnapped. A good mix of supernatural superstition combined with a crime thriller.

I can not say if I liked or disliked this book. It was VERY different. It keeps you guessing until the end.

I tried so hard to get into Little Darlings and tried persevering hoping I would start to enjoy it but it was not for me. From the initial description it sounded like a great book but I ended up giving up.

Lauren Tranter is a young exhausted and emotional new Mum, recuperating in hospital after giving birth to lovely twin boys Riley and Morgan. In a fuzzy world of sleep-deprivation, she thinks she hears a woman in the bed next to her also nursing twins, however the bed turns out to be empty. Shortly afterwards, a bedraggled woman turns up on the maternity ward and Lauren recognises her as the mystery woman from the next bed. Things go bad very quickly when the intruder tries to steal Lauren’s twins in an awful episode that finds the new Mum locked in the ward toilet with her terrified babies, calling the emergency services and begging for help.

There’s no woman to be found by the time help arrives, and Lauren’s experience is chalked up to a mental health breakdown. The next morning, Police Officer Jo Harper spots the case on the overnight logs and although she’s told there’s nothing to follow up on, she has a gut instinct that all is not ok and decides to do a little investigation before closing the case down.

A few weeks later, and Lauren is still struggling with the aftermath of her hospital trauma, not to mention managing with two brand new babies and a husband (Patrick) who is all but useless, and not even bothering to hide the fact. Strange things are happening to Lauren, little unwanted gifts being left for her on her doorstep and she keeps seeing the woman from the hospital hanging around outside. However when she tries to track her down, or sends Patrick after her, the woman is nowhere to be found. Bullied by Patrick into facing the outside world, Lauren goes to meet some friends with new babies and afterwards, falls asleep on a bench in the sunshine. When she wakes, a short time later – her babies have gone.

Jo Harper is called to the scene and knows that all is not as it should be. Determined to find out what the hell is going on while being very much restricted by her superiors attempting to clamp-down on the police budget, she calls on her journalist friend, and obvious crush, Amy, to help her out – leading to some interesting characters and situations.

This is a really clever book – there are two avenues that Melanie Goulding takes us down and it’s never quite clear which one, either, or both that we’re going down. There is a strong focus on postpartum depression and mental health issues, sitting side by side with some supernatural elements that Lauren is obsessing about. Are the strange events actually real or just a result of Lauren’s delusion?

I enjoyed this book – I took to the characters quickly (well, most of them with a few obvious exceptions), and I thought it was creepy and clever. While everything was tied up nicely – there was still some ambiguity that allows you an element of believe in what you will…so if you like black and white endings spelled out for you, then you might not like it as much as I did. I thought the fierceness of Lauren’s protectiveness towards her babies was conveyed perfectly, and the treatment of women with postpartum issues was highlighted, which is a rarity. I give this book 5 out of 5.

I really liked this book- especially how the supernatural elements were blended into the story.

Laura, a new mum of twins is sure a woman tried to steal her babies, replacing them with her own. But hospital cctv has no record of such a woman and in the end everyone thinks she's delusional.After returning home from hospital, she still sees the horrible woman and her husband Patrick is really not helpful... Laura spirals into fear and stress, and chaos of newborns doesn't help. Things get out of control. In the meantime Police Detective Harper is intrigued about this case- something seems off to her and she investigates.

The plot doesn't stop being tense until the end and there are truly creepy moments and this is highly recommended to anyone who loves mystery thrillers with a supernatural kick!

Little Darlings was a little different to the novel that I was expecting, but that’s not to say that I enjoyed it any less.

Lauren Tranter is the exhausted mother of newborn twins, Morgan and Riley. She is alone on the maternity ward in the middle of the night, when she has a terrifying encounter that leaves her believing her children are in danger of being abducted.

A traumatic birth, a near death experience and the exhaustion and anxiety of being a new Mother are blamed for her 999 call to the Police. Hospital security investigate and the Police are stood down, as the hospital blame the incident on Lauren's post birth mental health.

When she arrives to work the following morning, DS Joanna Harper wonders if there is more to the call than initially thought, and decides to investigate further. When she visits Lauren in hospital, she is intrigued by Lauren's story, and reviews the CCTV footage of the night.

There is nothing there.

But Harper cannot let the case go. Lauren's story was too convincing, her fear too real, for it not to be true.

When Lauren is released from the hospital and allowed home with her babies, she feels safe for a while. Until she believes that she sees the abductor from the hospital again, and that this time she has definitely come for the twins.

Little Darlings is part thriller, part Grimm style fairy-tale and borderline supernatural. I don't usually enjoy this type of novel, but I loved this one.

I really enjoyed this book! A great mix of phychogical thriller, ‘whodunit’ and how two worlds might collide. In and amongst this is woven a storyline about relationships, how closely intertwined emotions are with mental health.
The plot line was interesting, had a few twists and turns and a few ‘oooh’ moments which kept me engaged throughout.
I wouldn’t say it was a ‘can’t put it down book’ and there were areas where I found it slightly lacking (the ending definitely would lent its self to a sequel) but overall I did enjoy it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.