It has been so long since a book held my attention. Very well written and interesting storyline. I finished the story in two days.

"Darling Girls" is a thrilling and captivating novel that effortlessly grabbed my attention from the very beginning. The intricate plot, combined with the well-crafted writing style, makes it a page-turner that's hard to put down. The story took me through a journey of mystery, suspense, and unexpected twists.

The narrative alternates between the present day, where bones are discovered underneath Meadows Manor, and the past, focusing on the lives of the foster children who once lived there. The author skillfully weaves these two timelines together to unravel a compelling mystery. I felt connected to Jessica, who was the main child first introduced as a foster child to the mother. The relationship was quite enmeshed until the other two foster kids came. The character development in this book is outstanding. Jessica, the central character, is portrayed in a way that made me genuinely empathize with her. As we delve deeper into the story, we witness the evolution of the relationships between the foster children and their cold and manipulative foster mother, Mrs. Fairchild. Mrs. Fairchild would punish them for the minutest things, such as teaching them to swim and allowing them to drown, not letting them eat, or have any fun. Such a nightmare to live with, manipulative, and would abuse them but not leaving any proof. The portrayal of Mrs. Fairchild is chilling and hauntingly realistic. Her treatment of the children and the atmosphere of fear she creates in Meadows Manor are described in a way that sends shivers down your spine. The tension and psychological abuse depicted in the story are both disturbing and thought-provoking. The three girls like sisters, connected and protected each other until the foster mother adopts a baby who she does not allow anyone else to bond with or spend time with. The girls worry about the young baby’s well-being since she cannot defend herself. The story takes a dramatic turn when the foster children unite and try to protect a new baby, driving them to report the abuse, but leading to a disappearance. What a twisted story, very engaging, provoking, and just not what I imagined. I highly recommend to those who enjoy psychological thrillers.

Decades ago, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were foster children together at Wild Meadows – the beautiful country home of the mercurial and beautiful Holly Fairchild. Now adults, the three sisters return to the site of their tormented adolescence when bones are found in the basement of their former home. Old memories and mysteries resurface, and the trio needs to confront what really happened all those years ago.

I need to state immediately that this book deals with issues of child abuse - mental, physical, and to some extent sexual. It also deals extensively with unhealthy foster care situations. I knew what this book was about when I picked it up but, after reading. it is clear to me that I am not the target audience. An entire plotline focused on abuse was too rough for me to truly enjoy this. That’s on me for not knowing myself well enough as a reader.

The book was well written, and the structure of the narrative is designed to invoke a sense of mystery. We have the viewpoints of Jessica, Norah, and Alicia in the present day as the 30-somethings reconvene in the town of Port Agatha to assist in the investigation of the bones found in the basement of their former foster home. This narrative is intertwined with a narrative from when the three girls were pre-teens together living in the abusive home of Holly Fairchild. There is a third narrative of a woman telling her childhood story to a therapist and the reader is not privy to whose viewpoint it is.

As in all other Sally Hepworth books I have read, I liked the Australian setting although, there is much less of it in this book due to most of the scenes taking place indoors. I also enjoyed the characters and how they were each shaped by their experiences in different ways. The emotional abuse that the girls experience was visceral and highly effective in engaging the reader. I cared very much for the fate of these girls, then women. The mystery element, for me, was just okay. I don’t feel like there was enough groundwork laid for me to be completely invested in whose bones they were. I was curious, but not “on the edge of my seat” engaged. I was also able to reach the correct conclusion, prior to the “big reveal”. There was, however, one last little twist that erased that disappointment. I think fans of Frieda McFadden’s books will enjoy this one.

Three women who bonded and formed a sisterhood in an abusive foster home as tweens are forced to return to the small town where they were raised after bones are discovered underneath the farmhouse where they lived with their terrible foster parent, Ms. Fairchild.

Another solid thriller from Sally Hepworth! There were some fun surprises throughout. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs from the three sisters and LOVED the wicked little twist at the end.

Another riveting novel from Sally Hepworth. This book tells the story of 3 sisters who came together through the foster care system and the strong bond they formed. The sisters are called by the police back to the house they grew up in due to a current criminal investigation. I really found myself engaged with the characters and wanted to see them succeed in their adult life. Their foster stories were a bit bleak at times, but that is not unexpected. In some ways some of the foster system reminded me of "White Oleander".
Overall I recommend this book, there was a small twist or two, but really the story of these three girls supporting each other was the real heart of the book. Easy to pick up and hard to put down, definitely add to your TBR pile!
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a longtime fan of Sally Hepworth and will always be first in line to read her books. This book and her previous, The Soulmate, have been a bit over-the-top and I much prefer her earlier books, BUT her writing is always engaging. She incorporates great humor into her books and her characters are always super unique and interesting. I had this storyline figured out about halfway through, but it was still fun to read until the end. She's entertaining, pure and simple. I'd give this a 3.5, rounded up.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sharing and advanced copy of this book with me.

This book is the third book by Sally Hepworth that I have read. I haven’t been a thriller fan for along time, as I am kind of a scaredy cat. But something made me get into them earlier this year.

Sally Hepworth’s stories are very well put together, and she is fabulous with her character development. This book is no exception to that. They are also not predictable in my mind, and keep me at the edge of my seat. I didn’t see the twist coming at all.

I can’t believe that now I have to wait another year before her next book is out.

Fabulous!

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Sally Hepworth has done it again! I love her work and this might be a new favorite. I loved the way the story was developed and the look into the trials of foster children. Wonderful read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was a fantastic mix of present day drama and flashbacks to uncover childhood trauma. It is full of suspense and mystery and keeps the reader guessing at every turn.
Three now grown women, Alicia, Jessica and Norah, are called back to the town where they grew up in a foster home because the house is being torn down and a body was found, kicking off a police investigation. Was the body that of a foster child? The home was run by Miss Fairchild and she was exceedingly strict and maddeningly unpredictable. Jessica was the first girl sent to her home when she was just 5. At first, it was blissful, with Miss Fairchild doting on Jessica and letting her sleep with her in her big bed. But once Jessica went to school and started making new friends, Miss Fairchild was hurt and upset. Jessica was only supposed to love her, not anyone else. So Miss Fairchild turned on Jessica and started taking in more children who were older and more troubled than Jessica has been. First came Norah, who had a violent streak, although the violence was mostly justified because she was protecting herself from physical or sexual abuse, and next came Alicia, who was only a respite case in need of a home while her grandmother recovered from an illness in the hospital. But both Norah and Alicia were immediately distrustful of Miss Fairchild and they never bonded with her so she made all of their lives miserable, locking Norah in the basement, forcing the girls to clean the house from top to bottom daily, and making Alicia eat food off of the floor. The girls all stuck together against Miss Fairchild and started calling themselves sisters. Eventually, in order to earn more money, Miss Fairchild took in babies who were respite cases. Each one she tried to love and care for but each one irritated her with their fussing and crying to the point that she forces the girls to take care of the babies. The girls are exhausted with the burden of caring for the babies and cleaning the house and they are absent for weeks from school. After several respite babies, a toddler named Amy appears and Miss Fairchild says that she is not a respite case but instead Miss Fairchild is adopting her. The girls are shocked but happy to know that Miss Fairchild intends to do everything for Amy so that they can bond, letting the girls go back to school. Things are fine until Amy starts liking the girls better than Miss Fairchild and the girls fear for Amy's safety. After they witness Miss Fairchild trying to "teach" Amy how to swim by practically drowning her in the pool, they decide that they have to tell someone and they tell their school principle about the abuse and their fears for Amy's safety. The police are called but when they go to the house not only is Amy gone but there is no evidence at all in the house that a baby ever lived there. The girls are removed from the house, sent to counseling and told that they imagined the whole thing, especially once investigators found an old doll named Amy in the basement that authorities believe that the girls played with, pretending that she was real. Now, as adults, the police are questioning them about their time at the foster home and asking about the respite babies and Amy, especially after the bones are determined to be from an infant. But the women are just as confused as the police and hire an attorney once they learn that Miss Fairchild is trying to pin the death on them. As if the women don't have enough going on in their own lives. Jessica is addicted to prescription meds that she steals from other people's houses when she goes in to their homes as part of her organizing business and now past customers are threatening to go to the police, Norah's violence has landed her in hot water and the last man that she punched after a failed date is now blackmailing her for nude photos or else he'll go to the police, and Alicia is struggling with her crush on her friend and attorney, Meera, while trying to decide if she should adopt two of the foster kids that are part of her caseload. And mixed in with all of this are interview notes between a therapist and an unknown patient who describes growing up with an abusive stepfather who locks her in the basement, forces her to clean the house and sexually abuses her, all while her mother stands by and watches without intervening. When the girl gets pregnant, she is locked in the basement until she gives birth to a girl named Amy. The girl wants to run away with Amy but her mother and stepfather plan to take the baby as their own. When the girl tries to run away, she is caught and kicked out of the house while the couple keeps baby Amy. When the girl goes back to the house the next day, she is told that someone from the church took Amy to a new family. Eventually the police begin to suspect that the bones found under the foster home belong to Amy, since there is no foster care record for her. But the truth comes out that Amy was really abducted from her parents by Scott, an unscrupulous social worker, who was running an illegal adoption ring. Miss Fairchild was warned by Jessica that the girls were going to tell the principle about her abuse so she quickly called Scott, got rid of Amy and all of the evidence before the police came. Scott sold Amy to another family who adopted her, so the bones do not belong to Amy. Instead, they belong to the infant Amy that the girl locked in the basement gave birth to all those years ago. Finally the reader learns that Miss Fairchild was the one talking to the therapist in preparation for trial and she spun the story, full of half truths about what happened to her as a child, manipulating the therapist into giving positive testimony at her trial. There really was a stepfather but he wasn't evil. He and her mother were really in love, which upset Miss Fairchild to no end that she was being abandoned by her mother, and it was only going to get worse when they had a baby. Amy was her half-sister, not her daughter, and Miss Fairchild killed her when she was forced to babysit her one night. Her mother, having already lost one daughter, refused to lose another so she buried Amy's body and hid Miss Fairchild's secret. Now that the truth is out and everyone knows what a monster Miss Fairchild was, the women can move on with their lives. Jessica gets clean after going to rehab and sells her business, Norah goes to anger management classes and Alicia marries Meera and together they adopt two foster kids. This is one twisty novel! Highly recommend!

Darling Girls
Sally Hepworth
April 23=
St. Martins Press
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I was thrilled to read this book as I have enjoyed Hepworth’s other novels. This one kept me on the edge of my seat and I finished it in one weekend.
Darling Girls Focuses on three foster “sisters’ who grew up together for a couple of years at Wild Meadows foster home. They endured a cruel and abusive foster mother, Miss Fairchild. 25 years later, as adults, they all receive a phone call to return for an investigation about human bones found on the property. The book is an excellent portrayal of the effects of being raised by a narcissistic foster parent/parent. I highly recommend this book as the twists and turns were plentiful.
5 stars

Three sisters each get a phone call that will change everything. Having grown up in the foster care system, these "sisters" have stuck together through thick and thin. When the bones of an unknown body are found buried under thier childhood foster home, they are forced to relive the trauma that bound them together. Just when you think you have the mystery figured out, the story changes. This book will keep you guessing until the bitter end.

I loved how the book portrayed the bond between three sisters that weren’t biologically related but their relatability created an unbreakable bond. Overall the book was good but I felt it took a while to get into. The second half of the book was a page turner.

This might be one of my favorite Sally Hepworth books! I couldn’t put it down. I don’t always enjoy multiple viewpoints that switch from past to present, but it worked well in this book. There were a few twists I didn’t see coming which I enjoyed, but one I did not. Overall this was a great bingeworthy suspense novel!

Cheers for Darling Girls!

This is my second book from Sally Hepworth, and I have to admit, she doesn’t disappoint. What I love about her books, is her ability to write plots that are significantly different than a lot of psych thrillers being released nowadays.

Darling Girls follows three sisters as they navigate being forced to relive their past as foster children. Each sister has completely different life circumstances as adults, but still share such a significant bond that knows no limits. This bond is tested when police start asking questions about bones being found buried in the foster home they grew up in.

What I loved most about this book, is the intricate details that the author wove in to make this a page turner that demands to be read in one sitting. I’ll admit, I had a serious case of whiplash by the end of this book, and I loved every second of it!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Big thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book!

As always, Sally Hepworth has delivered. I’ve never been disappointed by one of her books, and this one was no different. “Daring Girls” is my favorite book by her to date. The story was very compelling, and I didn’t want to put it down. Loved the twists as they were believable and not over the top. My favorite part of this book was the theme of “chosen family” between the 3 foster girls who banded together to survive.

I am Sally Hepworth's biggest fan, and I have read every book of hers. She did not disappoint with her latest novel, Darling Girls. This page-turner revolves around 3 foster children, one murder, and one wackadoodle of a foster parent. Hepworth's characters seem to jump off the pages. I always get sad when I am at the end of one of Sally Hepworth's books because I know that I have to wait quite a while to read her next book.

Trigger Warning : talks about sexual abuse , drug addiction, and children who have been in foster care and had a bad experience may experience PTSD. .

Absolutely stellar book !This is my first time reading this author though I have seen her books recommend to me through goodreads and my library. I hadn’t yet had the chance to read any of her books — I will definitely will be trying more of this authors books in the future . We are introduced to three characters in this book Jessica , Norah and Alicia who all grew up in foster care and are called by the police due to a body being discovered at the foster care property where they grew up. These characters are all intriguing and I wanted to know more about them and their pasts . Around 58% in I was making guesses about who the unknown character POV was — with the phycologist — this book was extremely hard to put down and I had to know what really happened . The writing was excellent the twists were good— Highly Recommended .


Thank-you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for this ARC . This is my honest review.

This book will definitely be talked about next year! Such a great thriller and had me wanting to know what happens next. The twists and suspense was unmatched. Seeing the darker side of foster care really opened up my eyes to something I wasn’t aware about. The twist at the end was well written and completely unexpected. One of my new favorite authors! Such a great read!

Thank you NetGalley and Sally Hepworth for the ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
👧🏼 multi-POV 3 foster sisters
👧🏼 dual timelines
👧🏼 family drama
👧🏼 slowwwww burn

Jessica, Norah and Alicia are 3 foster sisters that grew up together on a farm with their evil foster mother Miss Fairchild. When the bones of a child are found buried beneath the porch, all 3 girls are called in for an investigation where they all tell their sides of the story. Whose bones are they? And where is Amy??
There were a lottttttt of perspectives going on in this one. We had a multi-POV from the point of 3 foster sisters, we had dual timelines of before the murder vs. 25 years later, and we also had transcripts of therapy sessions between Dr. Warren (a psychiatrist) and a patient. To be honest this many POVs/timelines was definitely a little confusing to keep straight in the beginning, but I really do love books that show multiple people’s perspectives, so I really did enjoy.
This was definitely a slowwwwwwer burn than most other Sally Hepworth’s that I’ve read so far, but it all came together nicely in the end and I really enjoyed it!
I was very intrigued and invested with this story the entire way through, and I tore through this book in only a few hours!
Maybe I’m just dumb, but I am still super confused by the ending??!
Definitely another hit from Sally Hepworth, who is very quickly becoming one of my favourite authors 💕 I can’t wait to read the next by Hepworth!

Oh. My. God.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked this book up, but it sure wasn’t this. All of the NetGalley reviews rated this book amazing, so I was really looking forward to reading it, but I stayed away from reading the plot summary details of the actual reviews because I wanted to be surprised. I’m glad I did that. Mainly, I chose to request this book and read it for the book cover lol. The entire time I was reading this book, I was on the edge of my seat with the suspense of what happened at the foster home that our main characters, Alicia, Jessica, and Norah grew up in. And boy, did it exceed my expectations. The last chapter blew me away. I was SO not expecting that. Also, this book did a very good job of showing how abusive parenting in any way can affect a human being, from childhood to adulthood. Ms. Fairchild being narcissistic and manipulative felt so real, and it broke my heart for the three girls. I seriously cannot get over the ending!

So thankful to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

CW: parent death, child abuse, grandparent death, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, drug overdose, suicide attempt

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC of DARLING GIRLS by Sally Hepworth in exchange for my review.

This was wild! It's not a thriller, rather a slow burn family drama. I figured out part of the twist, but not the other. The plot was compelling to the point where I was excited to keep going and find out where the story was going. Sally really makes you feel for the sisters who have endured horrific circumstances and who just want to put the past behind them. I liked that we got each sister's perspective to learn how each of them were individually impacted by the events in their childhood. It made for a very well-rounded story. Sally is an auto-buy author for me and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!