Title: Darling Girls
Author: Sally Hepworth
Source: DRC via Netgalley (St. Martin’s Press) in exchange for an honest review
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase Link: Amazon

Other books by this author: The Good Sister, The Younger Wife, The Soulmate

Why did I choose to read this book?

This book was emailed to me directly from St. Martin’s Press without me even having to request it! Of course I was going to read it because Sally Hepworth has a way of reaching inside my brain, finding each and every one of my insecurities and fears, and ripping them out as I read them on the page. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press!

What is this book about?

This book explores gaslighting, emotional and verbal abuse, and the horrors of the foster care system. It’s set in Australia but Hepworth could really be writing about anywhere.

What is notable about this story?

This is the most horrifying book by Hepworth that I’ve read yet. Honest to Christ how does this woman know how to write manipulation so fucking well? Reading about Miss Fairchild and their foster home was like reading a horror novel about a haunted house. These three girls/women (the story is told in multiple POVs and between their past and the present) went through so much and even as adults people in authority weren’t going to believe them. WILD.

The handling of the trauma that each of the girls carried with them was so well done in the writing. I don’t know how to explain it but I really appreciated that I never viewed any of the women as their trauma/behaviors. Right from the start it’s clear that these are not behaviors that they chose for themselves, they are things they do to just get by and survive and in the end they just became a part of who they thought they were. THIS IS SO REAL. If you’ve never experienced the kind of abuse that is in this story I need you to know that overcoming that kind of psychological manipulation is a life’s work and some people never crawl out from under the weight of it.

THE ENDING TO THIS BOOK IS WILD HOLY SHIT – I’m not gonna spoil it but Hepworth had me right in the palm of her hand and I’m STILL salty about it.

Was anything not so great?

I probably shouldn’t have read this book, but I trusted Hepworth to give me an ending that helped me find closure (MOSTLY, again I’m still salty about it). Everything about this book is exceptionally well done: the writing, the plot, the character development and investment, all of it was well done. I was glued to the pages right until the end.

BUT if you’ve had emotionally or verbally abusive relationships, or perhaps grew up in a household that utilized these techniques to keep you under control, or if you’ve had firsthand experience with the foster care system but not in a good way, please consider this a HUGE trigger warning. I’ve had years of therapy and it still hit me in tender areas.

What’s the verdict?

Five stars on Goodreads. Sally Hepworth is a genius and no one can convince me otherwise. I hope St. Martin’s Press decides to send me whatever she’s cooking up next, because I can’t wait.

A psychological thriller that had me flummoxed until the end! Not only is it a mystery thriller, but its also the story of a sisterhood forged by three young girls who were placed together in a foster home. Listening to interviews by Sally Hepworth, I know she put in the work to understand the impact of being placed in the foster care system and that came through so organically in all the characters in this book. When a discovery is made at their old foster home, the girls return together to fill in any pieces they could for the investigation.
The story is as much about the lives of Jessica, Norah and Alicia as it is about the murder mystery. The character development of where they came from to where they are today flows flawlessly through the book. With multiple timelines and POVs the story delves into their lives, their traumas, their bond forged together by living under the unpredictable Mrs. Fairchild. And an ending that totally took me by surprise!

Sally Hepworth knows how to build a story. I loved the multiple perspectives and timelines. The end was great.

I have yet to meet a Sally Hepworth novel that I didn't like. She is masterful at creating suspense and throwing in twists you don't see coming which is really important for me as a reader of suspense. I like to be surprised. I thought the premise of the book was interesting, and the character development was fantastic- I really felt like I knew these women by the end of the book. I think this might be Sally Hepworth's best book yet. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys suspense!

Three foster siblings managed to survive their placement with hot and cold Miss Fairchild. Years later, when a body is found under the house, suspicions arise about their time at the foster placement. Full of twists and turns, each chapter seemed to cast doubt on a new character’s involvement in the crime.

A page turner that I just couldn’t put down! Sally Hepworth’s best novel yet. I can’t recommend this book enough for anyone looking for a thriller!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Loved this book! The characters drew me in immediately. Just when I thought I had figured it out there was another twist I had not anticipated. Another great ready by Sally Hepworth!

Another hit from Ms. Hepworth!! This one was on the darker side, focusing on foster sisters who are forced to reckon with their traumatic past together when remains are found at their previous foster home. I would say this is more of a mystery/suspense than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it was deliciously captivating all the same! I look forward to keeping an eye out for Hepworth's next release.

This was such a good read. Twists on top of twists. And oh man what an ending!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC. And to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

Thank you to the author Sally Hepworth, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of DARLING GIRLS. All views are mine.

Slowly, Miss Fairchild became Jessica's entire universe. Jessica became intimately attuned to her moods. She knew how to please her, charm her, how to soothe her. She knew when it was a good time to ask for something, and when to accept that all was lost.

I actually really loved this book about girls no one wants who have to come together and take care of matters themselves. This was a redemption read for me, as I didn't get along well with the last book I read from this author. Honestly, I couldn't have picked a better one. Wonderful, loathsome characters whom I both despised and couldn't get enough of. They are also complex enough to have good impact on the plot, so I was surprised a few times. The ending killed me in the best way. Only a few minor quibbles for this book. Will I read Hepworth's next book? Yes, yes I will!

After all, if crime novels are anything to go by, the only person more likely to commit murder than a foster child, is a woman who is childless by choice.

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. The concept is excellent and creepy, and the character introductions definitely hooked me!

2. This text lends well to an audiobook, and the narrator does an excellent job.

3. This power play tug-of-war between the character's is excellent. Exemplary psych thriller fare. I'm finding this story hard to walk away from!

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. The metaphors are cliched, heavy, and bad: Her wrath, when it came, was like a runaway train....

2. I rarely say this, but I wish the denouement had been longer! The climax works, but I was left with too many questions at the end of the book. Especially about Jessica, whose character trajectory is wonderfully complex.

Rating: 🧒🏽👶🏻👱‍♀️🙍🏻‍♀️🧑‍🦲 /5 foster kids
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: May 10, 2024
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, audiobook, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
🤐 dysfunctional family stories
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 family stories, family drama
👭🏽 young girl friendships
💇‍♀️ girl's coming of age
🤫 family secrets

The final chapter sent this from a 3 to a 4 star book. The book’s strengths were the friendship/sisterhood of the Darling Girls, and the pacing of the flashback chapters. The ending was out of left field in the best way possible.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are foster sisters, having survived a horrific placement because they had each other. Miss Fairchild, on the surface, looks like a caring and loving parental figure, but she is anything but. Her arbitrary rules and hair trigger makes life a living hell for the three girls. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild, but soon find that they have different struggles on the horizon.

As adults, the three receive phone calls from the police that take them back to the place of their childhood. Will what they learn help Jessica, Norah, and Alicia finally move on mentally and emotionally?

Darling Girls is a good, solid read, but not really all that surprising. I find the ending to be predictable and think that the author spends too much time moving between the present and the past. Overall, I am a fan of the author, but this is not my favorite.

That being said, I made my way through the book quickly and was entertained by Darling Girls. Readers who like mystery thrillers with good character development will like author Sally Hepworth.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Jessica, Norah and Alicia forged a bond as sisters in their childhood when living at their foster home, Wild Meadows. As adults, they are still insanely close to each other and their everyday lives - but each has failed to deal with the stress and trauma their time in the foster system and with their foster mother, Ms. Fairchild caused them.

When a body is found in the demolished remains of their former home, the three sisters are forced to deal with their troubled past and the secrets that might have been buried along side the new found body.

As always - Hepworth’s novels are great and make for quick, unable to put down reads. For me - this one was definitely a departure from her last, The Soulmate, and I thought it was a good read - I wished for a little bit more character development and story telling with the supporting characters. A great read for any solid Hepworth fan!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Sally Hepworth for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Read if you like:
+ Family Drama
+ Psychological thrillers
+ Hepworth’s The Younger Wife & The Soulmate

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth was a story surrounding 3 young girls who are fostered in a horrible situation by Ms. Fairchild. Now as adults the girls are asked by investigators to come back to town when a body was found burried under the foster house.

The story is told in multiple points of view and jumps from present tense to past tense. While well written, this story was not for me, possibly due to my own triggers with the story involving children and abuse. While it has a twist inside not see coming at the end, it actually made it worse. Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sally Hepworth for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sally Hepworth for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED this book!!! It hooked me immediately and I could not put it down! This was so well done and I immediately ordered a copy to send to my best friend because I knew she'd love it too!

5 star read for me!

Oh. My. God.
Not only did this book move quickly, but it kept me hooked from start to finish. Plus... I feel like my brain was exploding by the time I finished this book, putting all of the pieces together and seeing how it all played out.
4.5 stars

- I really love getting the perspectives of each of the three sisters. Each on brought a very unique perspective to their upbringing in the foster home and it helped keep each chapter new and fresh.
- The twists were TWISTING - even when you sort of put things together, the way things are unveiled is brilliant and reveals even more than you thought.
- The child abuse represented in the flashbacks is very intense and dark, but it sets the tone well to allow the reader to understand just how malicious the situation was
- I appreciate that the characters had depth - they all had their own individual lives as adults with their own issues to work through

I loved the first half of this one but it kinda lost me after that. The last chapter almost made me bring it up because it was super shocking but I don’t know. Nothing remarkable about it.

I love Sally Hepworth! Everytime she publishes, I want to pick her up to enter her world.

Brief synopsis: Three young girls once lived on a farm with a foster mother named Miss Fairchild. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild, and they thought they were free. But the reach of someone with such power is long, and even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When bones are discovered buried under the farmhouse of their childhood, they are called in by the police to tell what they know.

My thoughts: The setting of this book was intriguing, a dead body found at three foster sisters’ old foster home.The story travels back and forth in time from when Jessica, Norah and Alicia are children to the present when they are contacted by the police regarding the remains of a child found buried under the pool at the old foster home. There are also chapters with one woman speaking to a psychiatrist but we aren't sure who it is until the end. I enjoyed getting to know the three sisters at the center of the mystery. Of note: all of the characters in the story are unreliable, flawed and complex adding to the mystery.

Darling Girls is full of tension, twists and turns and a mystery I wanted to solve.

Trigger warning: Hepworth includes difficult topics in Darling Girls, including foster systems and the sexual abuse/harassment of children and adults.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin Press for sharing Hepworths latest domestic mystery filled with sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder.

Three girls bond as sisters when raised in a horrendous foster home. Jessica came as a toddler and she and Mrs. Fairchild had a maternal child relationship until Jessica went to school and Mrs. Fairchild wasn't her whole world. Norah came later and was always a strong individual so she came in for most of the abuse Mrs. Fairchild handed out. Alicia came last when her beloved grandmother died leaving her without a home.

Mrs. Fairchild insists the house always be spotless. Sometimes there was food, sometimes not. There was verbal, psychological and physical abuse. But the girls never told anyone as they didn't want to ever be separated. Mrs. Fairchild started taking in babies but she would get tired of them and make the girls take over their care. Finally she adopted a toddler named Amy but again she got tired of her when Amy started transferring her affections to the girls. Mrs. Fairchild started abusing Amy and the girls decided they had to tell someone. But when the authorities come to save Amy, there is no trace of her and Mrs. Fairchild said the girls made her up. Amy is never found but the girls are taken away to a group home where they finish growing up.

Now years later, bones have been found under Mrs. Fairchild's house. They are the bones of a small child. Jessica, Norah and Alicia return to the town to help the police. Mrs. Fairchild is still there and she tries to incriminate the girls. Who was the body and what happened?

Sally Hepworth is an Australian author. Her thrillers focus on various family relationships and are full of twists and turns. This one follows the same formula and readers will be fascinated at this tale of abuse and murder. Each of the girls has made a life for herself, one a social worker, one a home organizer and one moving from job to job. This may be the final piece that makes their lives whole. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

4.5 stars rounded up! This book got me out of the slump and was exactly what I needed! Not like her usual books but I was completely hooked from the first chapter. I love the relationship the three foster sisters had and Ms. Fairchild was completely batshit. I loved this book so much!

The universe did not give the three main characters in this story much, but it did give them each other.

Nora, Alicia, and Jessica forged their sisterhood as young girls sent to the same foster home, and now decades later they find themselves dealing with a mystery from their past.

Honestly I don’t think I appreciated this story enough while I was reading it, and I’m glad I waited a bit to write a review of it. This book was more of a slow burn mystery, but with some twists you definitely won’t see coming. I especially loved Nora’s sarcasm and wit.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this somber yet profound story of found sisterhood and female empowerment,