This one was a tough read for me because I struggle reading about children being helpless and abused. That being said, this was a compelling book that took a bunch of turns. I loved the dynamic between the sisters. I also liked the dual timeline of the story - flipping between current day and their childhood. I thought I had it figured out but I did not... I love when that happens!

Ms. Hepworth is starting to become an auto-buy author for me. She once again has wrote an amazing book that keeps the reader guessing! The twists and turns throughout are amazing. This book pulls you in from the very first page.

This book was such a wild ride! I loved the relationship between the three sisters and how they were so "ride or die". I also liked the concept of jumped between present and past time. It kept me thoroughly engaged. The twist had the end had me actually gasping!!

Really fast paced read. I couldn’t put the book down until I knew the identity of the skeleton. While I had suspicions that were close to being correct, I didn’t foresee all the details. The multi pov & timeline keeps the suspense & thrills high as the story slowly divulges little details that lead to many red herrings.

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This book was great! I loved the multiple POVs with all of the sisters and the different timelines. The writing was addictive and engaging. I was surprised by the ending and how things wrapped up and really enjoyed it.

really enjoyed this domestic thriller and the three "sisters". Their backstory and how they overcame was well plotted out. Twisty and fast paced!

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc for review!

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are three "sisters" who spent their formative years in a foster home with the "loving" Miss Fairchild who turned out to be not so loving. While the girls escape the abusive home they are brought back 25 years later when the body of a child is found under the house.

This who dun-it read more like literary fiction to me. I was hoping for more mystery and suspense. Overall I found it to be a good book and would round up to 3 1/2 stars. I liked the little twist at the end but wanted more of that!

Sally Hepworth writes the type of suspense that's great for folks who like suspense but don't want to wade through a bunch of violence. She also knows her way around writing tension. The kind of tension that suffocates the reader from the first page to the last. Darling Girls tells the story of Jessica, Norah and Alicia, three women who were rescued from family tragedies and raised in foster care by Miss Fairchild, who owns an idyllic farm out in the country. Things, of course, are not what they seem. The girls, now grown, are called back "home" when construction workers, tearing down the house to build a new development, uncover the skeletal remains of a small child. The "sisters" are now called back as potential witnesses (or possibly suspects) and none of them are all that ready or willing to revisit the past.
Out of the gate, all the trigger warnings for childhood trauma and abuse (psychological and emotional). Miss Fairchild is one of those evil adult characters whose milk and cookies image is hiding a monster underneath. It's very hard to read and unsurprisingly all that childhood trauma has manifested itself in unhealthy ways now that the girls are adults.

Told in a dual timeline between past and present, the suspense is very slow burn (hence that suffocating feeling) and doesn't truly begin to cook until the final third, when I could not tear myself away. There's a twist at the end that had me gasping out loud, but also took off a bit of shine. It moves this book firmly from suspense to the thriller category - meaning it leaves a door open more than a crack and I'm not convinced the person how needs to be punished (mightily!) truly will be. However, all three women do end up in a better place by the end of the story, which goes a long way in making me feel less annoyed. While I'm assigning this the same grade, The Soulmate edges this one out for me, but it sure as heck is still plenty riveting.

Final Grade = B+

Three foster children were all adopted by Miss Fairchild at various times. Miss Fairchild lived alone on a secluded farm which she grew up on. She prided herself on cleanliness. The girls were made to do all of the chores to keep the house clean and punished if things were not up to Miss Fairchild’s standards. Jessica, Norah and Alicia are as close as sisters now that they are older and will do anything for one another. When the body of a child is discovered on Miss Fairchild’s property, the three of them return to the town they grew up in to help in the investigation. When they were young, a fourth girl was brought into their home but soon disappeared. They never knew what happened to her and it’s been weighing on them all of these years.
This is a twisty, wild ride. Between the gaslighting, abuse and manipulation by Miss Fairchild to these young girls, you will feel so shocked and appalled. It’s literally insane the things that are said and done to groom them to her liking. The story flips between present day, when the girls were living at the home, and with a psychiatrist transcript of who we don’t know the patient.
The ending twist is enough to keep you thinking well beyond the ending of the book. I love a thriller that keeps me thinking.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read and review this title! This is my fourth read by Sally Hepworth and ties with The Good Sister for my favorite.

ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite reads ever. This is dark, thrilling, with complex characters that will continue to keep you guessing and turning pages.

Darling Girls was incredible!! I recommend this book and audiobook to everyone. I read the ARC and then listened to the audiobook. The narrators brought it to life in a different way that I thoroughly enjoyed!! The story left me guessing and that isn’t easy to do. I fell in love with so many of the characters. I cannot wait to read another Sally Hepworth book.

This was my first from this author and definitely won’t be my last. I love a good book that weave back and forth between past and present. This book had me hooked from the start.

It’s a hard balance for a book to be rooted in trauma but also witty and funny. With Darling Girls, Sally Hepworth manages to do it well. This book is a sad tale of childhood fosterdom, and tells the story of how three foster children become three adults who were once in the foster system. There’s a lot of character building in this book - learning the vices that each woman uses to make her feel a bit more human without truly sharing herself with others. Because neither Jessica, Norah, or Alicia let people in. Whether married, working with foster kids, or using sex transactionally, these women are just doing their best to get through each day.

So when they’re called back to Wild Meadows, the foster home they lived in together as young girls, because bones were found under the house, it’s a shock to them each, and gives an opportunity for them to bend, break, or blossom.

I loved the character development in this book, and the way the chapters were broken down. It set up the story in such an interesting way and made it thrilling and complex as I, the reader, tried to put together the pieces of the story being told.

There were moments where I thought “aha! I’ve figure it out. This is obviously what happened.” Then I’d hear more of the story and think “oh, never mind. It was something else,” then moved on to “these things can both be true!”

But the real kicker was that’s just what the story wanted you to believe.

I really enjoyed this book. I appreciated the moments of love and loyalty, those moments of light in the darkness. This wasn’t a happy story, but it did have happy pieces, and I really liked that.

I really enjoyed this book. The three main characters have such distinct personalities and Hepworth does a great job of carrying those voices through the story from their childhood and their adulthood. The author does a good job jumping from the story in the past to the present day. I really liked the twist.

As a heads up, this story does deal with some heavy topics.

Darling Girls is one of those books that will stay with me. It kept me guessing from start to finish. One of my favorites from Sally Hepworth to date!

3.5 Hepworth has been one of my favorite authors for years. while this wasn’t my favorite by her, I overall enjoyed it and I flew through it. I think I had a hard time buying in to the characters in the beginning which made it difficult for me to buy in to the story overall, but I got there, especially as we got to know the childhood versions of the characters more. the abuse in this was very difficult to read and at times felt like it bordered on “trauma porn” which was really my main issue with the book. I do really appreciate that Hepworth interviewed actual women who lived in foster care as well as social workers to base some of these experiences off of. overall, a decent fast-paced thriller that I do recommend, but definitely proceed with caution if reading about abuse is difficult for you! thanks to @netgalley for the gifted digital copy ✨

Yes yes yes yes yes! This was such a great thriller. It was tense, it had twists, it had me guessing! Just so good!

Jessica (a professional organizer), Alicia (a social worker), and Norah (with an H) all grew up in foster care at Wild Meadows with their foster mother, Mrs. Fairchild. As we meet the girls in their 30s, we learn that something atrocious has happened at Wild Meadows and it forces each girl to face the trauma that they faced while in foster care. Through past and present timelines, we learn about each girl and see a twisted, tortured story unfold.

Literally my only few small reasons for not giving 5 stars is because I got confused on timelines a couple of times and felt like the girl’s names at the beginning of the chapters were sometimes wrong (some chapters focused on 1 girl but some focused on all three). This book also switches between 1st and 3rd person and it kept throwing me for a loop.

Other that those small things, this story had me HOOKED. I was obsessed with the background of each girl and how it led them to the issues they had in the present. I think Sally (maybe unknowingly so) also showed what it is like in the foster system more often than not, which is something that I believe isn’t talked about enough. I was guessing all throughout the book and loved how everything wrapped up. Another win for me from Sally!

I really liked this one. There are 3 women - Jessica, Norah, and Alicia - who grew up together in the same foster home. The chapters rotate among their perspectives, along with a 4th POV that slowly reveals itself.

The women are thrust back to their past when the home they grew up in is torn down and the remains of a human child are discovered.

The women face the cruelty of their foster mother and their individual struggles when they return to the small town to help police try to get to the truth.

I really enjoyed the different perspectives as each woman was very different and unique. The revelations are well done and I was speculating all along the way. I recommend this book, especially if you've enjoyed other Hepworth titles in the past.

I knew I was a Sally Hepworth fan but after this one, she’s a must-buy going forward. How does she continue to churn out these unique layered stories? This was an enthusiastic five stars from me. This novel features one of my favorite plot devices in a way that I didn’t see coming and nothing makes me happier in a book! The description felt heavy and make no mistake the content is tough to read at times but it’s handled well and there’s a good balance to the tension. Loved the role of the dogs in offering levity and comfort.

This book kept me interested enough to keep reading, especially towards the end.
The plot has to do with three foster "sisters" growing up with a troubled foster mom. The way the story is told is interesting as it goes back and forth in time, and there is a present-day mystery that stirs up the past.
Interesting read, especially if you like thrillers.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this advanced reading copy.