Sally Hepworth has done it again; this is another winner. I have been lucky to get early copies of her last few books through Net Galley so I was thrilled to get this one and it didn’t disappoint. Told from the point of view of three former foster girls who as adults consider themselves sisters, it tells the story of their experience as children through present day and past voices. Their experience is interspersed with the voice of a mystery woman meeting with a psychiatrist. I figured out pretty early on who the woman was, but trust me, there is still a shocker at the end that I didn’t see coming. Sally Hepworth is at the top of her game with Darling Girls.

I have enjoyed the previous books by Sally Hepworth, however, this was my least favorite of those I've read. I felt that it was slow paced and at times the writing was, disjointed. At the 75% point the pace began to increase making it a more enjoyable and less tedious read.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Woah!!! I loved this book. I enjoyed the suspenseful journey through the intertwined lives of Jessica, Norah, and Alicia—three foster sisters with a shared past filled with secrets, love, and tragedy.
Hepworth expertly weaves a tale of sisterhood and mystery, drawing readers in with the promise of uncovering long-buried truths. From the outset, the complex dynamics between the sisters and their enigmatic foster mother, Miss Fairchild, captivate the imagination, setting the stage for a gripping narrative that kept me guessing until the very end.
The author skillfully navigates the delicate balance between past and present, gradually unraveling the mysteries of the sisters' upbringing while simultaneously exploring the ramifications of their choices as adults. As the plot thickens and a body is discovered beneath the home where they grew up, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia find themselves entangled in a web of suspicion and intrigue, forced to confront the demons of their past in order to secure their future.
Hepworth's character development is impeccable, breathing life into each sister with distinct personalities and motivations that drive the narrative forward. From Jessica's steely determination to uncover the truth, to Norah's quiet strength in the face of adversity, and Alicia's desperate search for redemption, the sisters leap off the page with depth and authenticity.
At its core, "The Darling Girls" is a story about the enduring power of familial bonds and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. It explores themes of love, loss, and betrayal, crafting a narrative that is as emotionally resonant as it is suspenseful.
Sally Hepworth delivers a captivating read that will linger in the minds of readers long after they've turned the final page. I was definitely not expecting all of the twists and turns. Now I want to read more books by Sally!

Sally Hepworth always delivers! Although I found this one to be more a family drama with some mystery thrown in than a suspenseful thriller, this slow-burn multi-layered story will grip you from the very beginning and never let go. It is a rather dark read and deals with some heartbreaking and troubling subject matter. I was lucky enough to receive both and ARC and an ALC for this book, and let me just say that the narration was excellent! Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copies of Darling Girls in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars
In true Sally Hepworth style this story is sooo messed up, but in a good way. 3 young girls were raised in foster care and their foster mother was super strict and not caring at all. She actually scared the crap out of me. She forced them to do chores every day, barely eat, and they basically just feared her. as they should. Move to current time, as adults, they are told there were human bones found buried under their foster home. All these secrets and stories come to light and many unexpected twists thrown in that kept blowing my mind up through the very last page.
THE LAST PAGE. OMG.

Favorite Sally Hepworth and I have like them all! 🤩

🗓️OUT APRIL 23

Finished this one on vacation and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! The twists truly got me and there were several- this one is best to go in blind. Also loved the multiple POV, multiple timelines, and cliff hangers at almost every chapter!

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my W-ARC!
.
.
.
#bookstagram #thrillerbooks #darlinggirls #sallyhepworth #netgalley

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth was such a great book.

It has been a while since I really did not want a book to end. I found myself re-reading chapters just to take it all in and make sure I did not miss a thing.

I will note that the book could be triggering for people who endured abusive childhoods.

The very last bit of the book. OH.MY.GOODNESS. NO!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed the story being told by multiple points of view, and each character was well-developed, The book flipped from past to present throughout.

Jessica, Norah (with an "H"), and Alicia were all foster children of Miss Fairchild. They all came from different backgrounds, but quickly became sisters, forming a bond deeper than biology. Together, they took care of Miss Fairchild's home and dealt with Miss Fairchild's volatile moods.

There are so many layers in this book. Jessica, the first foster child, formed an instant, special bond with Miss Fairchild. She was Miss Fairchild's only foster for many years and was treated like her own child. Jessica strived to please Miss Fairchild and sought her approval.

Norah had a troubled past with many foster homes over several years. Alicia was at Miss Fairchild's for the shortest period of time.

As adults, the women are very close. When they are contacted by detectives about a case related to their foster home, they all return to the scene of their troubled childhood. They are forced to talk about their past,

Gah. I am having a hard time writing this review because I do not want to give anything away.

There is a lot going on. Trust me. It's good. Grab a copy and peel back the layers!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of Darling Girls in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4.5 stars

Darling Girls draws you in slowly to the story of Jessica, Norah and Alicia who met as foster children in the care of Miss Fairchild twenty five years ago.

Their stories are all sad but fate has brought them together and together they bond forever.

Miss Fairchild is not the person she appears to be to outsiders: she is controlling, mean and manipulative .

Present day the trio return to Port Agatha at the request of the police who have discovered human bones buried under the farmhouse.

The book is told in the three different POV's and one unknown one that just has you getting more and more curious.

You will laugh with Jessica, Alicia and Norah and you will cry with and for them.

Most of all you will admire their tenacity.

Sally Hepworth is a master of twists and turns, red herrings and an ending that will surprise you.

Darling Girls is hard to put down as you get involved in the book and the lights stay on.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a tense but oh so good read.

Oh my goodness, this was an awesome read! Despite reading more like a domestic mystery than a thriller, I flew through this in one day. I loved the characters and Miss Fairchild was so subtly evil that I couldn’t help but root for the girls to bring her down. This is my new favorite of Hepworth’s and I highly recommend it to fans of Tarryn Fisher, Jaclyn Goldis, or Nora Murphy.

This book has everything that makes up a great entertaining suspense thriller it ticks all the boxes!
I was completely invested in the story. It was very character driven and each one had their own distinctive personality traits ,and were so compelling and relatable.
Miss Hepworth never fails to amaze me with her characterization skills and her ability to weave between the past and present so flawlessly..

I loved the storyline, and how at times it was devastating and then at other times, darkly humorous which broke up the heavy narrative perfectly.
Make sure to read the acknowledgment for the author's inspiration and abit more of her humor.
Overall I think this is her best book yet and definitely recommend picking it up on release day which is April 23rd.

Thank you yo McMillan Audio, Netgally and the author.

I loved the way this story unfolded. The use of multiple POVs and past and present chapters really propelled the story. I struggled to connect to the three FMCs, but it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the story. The twists and turns really kept me guessing! I audibly gasped during the final
twist!

I will also say I appreciated how the author brought light to fostering and adoption and some of the issues that come along with that.

If you enjoy family drama, lots of twists, and multiple POVs I highly recommend grabbing this book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Add it to your to be read for April 22!

✨Review✨
I went back and forth doing the book as well as the audiobook and I loved the accent of the reader. Three girls who become “sisters” in this foster home that is an absolute nightmare and years later are brought back there because as it was demolished, bones were found underneath. Detectives are questioning each girl as well as the few other girls who were brought to this foster home for a short time. As each character is described, you sympathize with them for how they are from their circumstances they came from. Sally Hepworth keeps you on your toes, and trying to solve the mystery of who it was, and who did it. So many parts come out to play and it leaves you questioning the whole time. Each sister has such a story to tell as to why they were brought to this foster home on the farm with the sweet lady who loved these darling girls. I was completely thrown off with this ending- the final chapter! Wow! Not at all how I thought it’d end but it brought it full circle completely. With all of the characters, details, Sally did a great job keeping you on edge. I had moments of pausing to make sure I was putting each detail together correctly. I always love her thrillers and stories she creates.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Sally Hepworth for the advanced copy. #netgalley #stmartinspress #sallyhepworth #sallyhepworthauthor #sallyhepworthbooks #sallyhepworthdarlinggirls @netgalley @stmartinspress @sallyhepworth

I enjoyed the first 70% of this book but the last 30% felt really sluggish to me. Once they stopped the dual timeline I struggled to stay invested. I think the concept is interesting but the payoff wasn’t enough based on the build-up. I also felt like some of the dialogue was awkward, written in a way I couldn’t imagine real people saying. Some of this could be due to the uncorrected proof but the back and forth with the psychiatrist fit in the chapters awkwardly, it would make more sense to be their own chapters.

Excuse me?! That ending! Darling Girls is a psychological thriller that really focuses on the characters, their development, and how past traumas have stayed with them into adulthood. This book is dark. I actually want to say this felt darker than some of the other thrillers I've read, and I think it's because it's not crazy to think of this book in a realistic way.

Norah, Jessica, and Alicia are three girls who've bonded in foster care while dealing with the trauma of an abusive parent. Set between three separate timelines, the past, the present, and various meetings with a psychologist this book had me on the edge of my seat. I didn't want to put it down because I just had to know what happened. This is my first book by Sally Hepworth and I am a fan! I can't wait to read her other titles.

Another fantastic thriller from this author! With twists and turns to keep me guessing, I could not stop turning the pages. I know I will always be entertained by this author’s books and each one is a must read!

Very good book by a reliable author! I loved the dual time lines and the multiple POVs. The setting of the book was right up my alley. I highly recommend this book and this author.

Such a great read! Jessica, Norah and Alicia are foster sisters who are contacted by a detective about bones found at their old foster home, Wild Meadows. The three are questioned and all remember a past they’d rather forget.

I couldn’t put this one down! Great thriller. Thank you for the ARC for my honest review.

4.5stars!
Well, it is to no surprise that I adore this author. I read all her books and I am practically hanging by a moment for whatever she will write in the future. At every publish, I claimed to have found a new favorite but then again, at every publish becomes my new favorite and Darling Girls is no different.
What made Sally's books so interesting? She got these three recipes into cooking. A dead body, a deathly secret and a crazy psychological thriller plot that thickens at every flip of the page.
Darling Girls was about women in their thirties who all grew up in a foster home, Jessica, Norah (with an H) and Alicia. A police investigator has reached out to them for information that might help the investigation regarding remains of a dead person buried under the foster house where they grew up. Un-earthing the unknown human remains who happens to be of a child come with the consequences of unburying the long-forgotten secrets, nightmares, pain and sufferings.
This one seem to be triggering and not for the faint of heart. Any book that deals with child abuse is heavy and difficult to read but for some reason, Sally Hepworth has the art of putting this painful reality into words gently without taking away the credibility and roughness of the pain that is deep and raw and heartbreaking.
I truly enjoyed this read and I can't wait to talk about this on Sally's US tour. She has done a beautiful job with Darling Girls and she has presented its themes of friendship, secrets, and the lasting impact of childhood experiences that was thoughtful and insightful. It was great that I was able to experience the book through different formats. I was one of the lucky people to received advance readers e-copy from St. Martin's Press via Netgalley and to have listened to Jessica Clarke's voice narrating the complimentary audiobook from Macmillan Audio in exchange of my honest review and with that being said, I highly recommend this book!

This psychological thriller immediately propels the reader into an intriguing, confusing plot in which the POV alternates between three former foster children, sisters in all but blood, and the mysterious patient of Dr. Warren whose narrative is the only one in first person. The action centers around a large house in rural Port Agatha, near Melbourne, the home of former foster parent Holly Fairchild and Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, the three sisters. A body has just been discovered underneath the home, and they've all been summoned to be interviewed by police. The device of switching between protagonists, and between Now and Before time frames effectively hooks the reader in and propels the action, although it demands close attention from the reader to avoid confusion. As the story goes on, the past and present happenings in the sisters' lives serves to fully flesh out the characters, and I became fully invested in their story and had a hard time putting the book down until I'd finished it. The climax and resolution of the novel are satisfying, and the final twist didn't seem gratuitous, as sometimes can happen in a thriller of this type; it is unexpected but makes sense. I'll definitely recommend this one to readers who love tense, complicated psychological thrillers.

If you like sister stories of secrets dredged up from the past, DARLING GIRLS is for you. The story follows three sisters in the aftermath of the discovery of a body beneath the foster home they grew up in. Sally Hepworth does sibling dynamics so well, and the bond of sisterhood takes center stage here. While there is a mystery it takes a back seat as a subplot to the main focus of the story: the characters. The sisters were not very distinct in my mind and I found the pacing to be slightly slower than what I was in the mood for.

Childhood trauma does play a major role in the storyline so please know that this story may not be for everyone. Through her lively characters Sally does bring some moments of levity. While I enjoyed some of Sally’s previous novels more, I think DARLING GIRLS will still find its home with many readers.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.