3.5 stars rounded up
Jessica, Norah, and Alicia all grew up in the same foster home, Wild Meadows, under the watchful eye of Miss Fairchild. Jessica was the first foster girl that Miss Fairchild took in. Since it was just the two of them, they developed a strong bond. However, money was tight. So Miss Fairchild decides to take on another foster child, Norah. While Norah did not bond with Miss Fairchild like Jessica. Miss Fairchild is fascinated with Norah and pushes Jessica away. Next, there is another girl in need, Alicia. Miss Fairchild decides to foster her as well. Alicia also does not bond with Miss Fairchild. In fact, Miss Fairchild appears to not like her at all. After Alicia, there are more temporary fosters, but Miss Fairchild quickly loses interest in each, after about a week. The book rotates between all 3 POVs in the past and present; and we learn the background of each girl. Also, Miss Fairchild appears to be some sort of fairy godmother to the social workers, but we get the dark details of how badly she treats the girls. In spite of the poor treatment, the girls form a tight bond with each other and consider themselves sisters. Everyone has moved on in their lives until they get a call from the police that bones were found under the Wild Meadows house. The girls travel back to their hometown to answer questions for the police. I don’t know that I felt attached to any particular character, but they are all fleshed out. This was an interesting story with a fun twist at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC of this book.

Sally Hepworth nails tense family dynamics in her novels. Darling Girls has a captivating mystery at the center, but it's the really the sisters' connection that makes the story sing.

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARD of this book.

I am a big fan of Sally Hepworth's books, and have pretty much read them all. Darling Girls is her newest, and is a feverish thriller in the vein of Freida McFadden. It has everything you could want: sisters, secrets, love, murder, unreliable narrators and, gaslighting.

The book focuses 3 foster sisters, Alicia, Norah, and Jessica, and their time together in Wild Meadows foster home with their foster mother Miss Fairchild. As adults, the three sisters are struggling with what they went through has children. Then human remains are found when Wild Meadows is demolished, leading to an investigation and throwing the sisters back into their past.

The book gives POVs from each of the characters, and the sister's experiences are disturbing and haunting, leaving the reader feeling like they are a part of the collective experience. Without any violence, Hepworth manages to keep readers feeling off-kilter and eerie, with an untethered experience while reading. As their childhood experiences unfold, it is difficult to know who to trust, if anyone, as the sisters seem like unreliable narrators and everything that happened to them seems bizarre.

This book is one of a psychological brand or terror, and deals with the horrors of abuse and eventual catharsis and healing. Its a story full of twists and turns, and is a very bingeable read. Be prepared to stay up late reading this one -- possibly all in one sitting!

I definitely recommend this one to all the mystery/thriller fans! You won't be disappointed!

This is a multi-layered story focused on three foster sisters growing up on a farm estate under the care of Miss Fairchild. Years later, a body is discovered buried under this estate and the 3 sisters are interviewed, reopening old wounds and revealing hidden mysteries about their time with Miss Fairchild. Amongst the variety of confessions lies the real truth, but you will have quite a ride to endure to sort through this tangled, tragic tale. Thanks to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are as close as biological sisters. Twenty-five years ago, they shared a foster home with the seemingly perfect Miss Fairchild. From the outside, their life as Miss Fairchild’s Darling Girls looked happy. However, behind her public facade, Miss Fairchild was a narcissist with a mean streak. The trauma of those times is just beginning to dissipate when a decayed body is found buried under their old foster home. Can Jessica, Norah and Alicia shed some light on the bones? Was Miss Fairchild responsible? Or was one of the sisters at fault?

I just couldn’t stop reading this book! It is the ultimate compulsive thriller. Though I did see the end coming, I still wanted to read all the details leading up to the shocking twist at the conclusion. Plus, I wanted to find out how the sisters reacted. Darling Girls provided all of the answers, which is great. I hate it when a book leaves threads hanging. This book, luckily, knits up all the plot points into a tidy scarf.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a compelling thriller with a great mystery at its heart. It does have quite a few trigger warnings though so be cautious if you have lived through a troubled childhood. Having worked in child protection for several years, stories like this are distressingly familiar. Unfortunately, foster care money sometimes entices the wrong type of people to apply. That being said, few foster parents are as bad as Miss Fairchild.

With an unputdownable plot, well-fleshed out characters, and two mysteries at its heart, Darling Girls receives 5 stars from me!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

If you are a big fan of quick, fast paced reads that wrap you into the story from chapter one to the end – this book does just that! The story starts in present time, focusing on 3 women whom met when they were young pre-teens under the care of the same foster mother. While the three women have grown up and are traveling through regular adult life, their world is halted by a phone call from a detective summoning them back to their childhood foster home where a body was discovered under the house upon it’s demolishment. At this point, the story travels back in time from past to present and switches from each girl’s perspective as they essentially “survive” foster care under the care of a woman named Miss Fairchild.

From the beginning, you’re left questioning whom the body belongs to, what happened to the women in foster care, are they innocent, is the foster mother guilty, and so much more!

This was my first Sally Hepworth book and I will definitely reach for more in the future. Highly recommend Darling Girls!

I always enjoy Sally Hepworth's books and Darling Girls was no exception! Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were foster kids living in Miss Fairchild's home. They were mistreated, starved, and verbally abused. They are able to get away from Miss Fairchild, but are called back to the small town when a child's bones are found under the house.

This book kept me totally engaged and was a quick read because of this. Themes of trauma, child abuse, addiction, found family.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced digital copy of the book.

This book was a very good portrayal on the life-long lasting effects of being raised by an abusive, narcissistic foster parent/parent. There was also a good character study done on that of Miss Fairchild, and how she was able to manipulate everyone around her.

I highly recommend reading this book, as the twists and turns were plentiful!! I read this book late into the night, and the ending was well worth it!!

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for an Arc of this book which I had the pleasure of reading!

I really enjoyed this one. The characters are all very flawed but still easy to root for. The dual timelines worked well together and I was equally interested in past and present. The horrors faced by foster children are showcased while also not being repetitive.

It’s hard to rate this one because it was such a quick fast-paced read but the subject matter which includes a lot of child neglect and abuse was so hard to read. I didn’t find it extremely suspenseful but I did want to know what actually happened the whole time. I’m just glad it wasn’t so scary that it kept me up at night haha the ending is wild.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is a thriller that follows three foster sisters: Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. The story alternates between then and now, and also cycles through different narrators. Honestly, this book overall was a difficult read for me, but let me focus first on what I enjoyed.

I loved the relationship between the foster sisters, who are very well-developed characters. I loved reading of the bond they formed as children in a foster home and the support and encouragement they showed each other. In the present, they each have a separate story simmering in the background, which was probably my favorite part of the book.

Now, for the bad news: this book is filled with abuse. All the abuse. It is everywhere; it is not possible to skip over it or skim through it. So, while I enjoyed these characters and the overall story, Darling Girls wasn't really the right book for me.

I have read and enjoyed Sally Hepworth before, and I know I will be back for more Sally Hepworth in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this book.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia spent several years together at the same foster home in Australia. Though not biologically related, they consider themselves sisters. A woman named Miss Fairchild raised them. Many years later, the body of a child is found under Miss Fairchild's home. The police want to interview the women to see if they know anything about this child. How much do they know and what secrets might they be hiding?

I enjoyed this story, though not as much as some of Sally Hepworth's other novels. This one was more of a study in psychology and human nature than a page-turning thriller.

Note: There are trigger warnings for child abuse.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a review copy of Darling Girls.

A thrilling, fast paced page turner of sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder.
Highly recommend reading this book. It will keep you up all night!
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Oh. Wow. That ending was seriously amazing. I couldn’t believe it. This was one of those books where when I finished I had to start it all over again to see all the little hints that were left… I just needed that moment of reading this all over again!
Sally Hepworth is a talented author with these captivating plots I just can’t get enough of!

This story is told from the past and present lives of Jessica, Norah and Alicia. As children the three “sisters” lived in Wild Meadow, a supposedly peaceful, idyllic foster home that is far from a nurturing environment. As adults they are summoned by the police back to the town of Port Arbor after their foster home had been demolished. Human remains have been found in a grave at the property and the police hope that they can shed some light on what happened. The police are also talking to their abuser Miss Fairchild whom they haven’t spoken to since leaving the foster home and seeing her again brings up too many memories. Their time together and the lingering results from the abuses continue to affect the women into adulthood. Lots of twists and turns, secrets and surprises along the way. This was a tough one about child abuse in a care home. My initial thought was that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. Definitely not what I was expecting. This ARC was provided by St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I just don't think this author is for me. I liked the characters and really loved some of the twists, but the overall pace of it was too slow for me.

I liked all the characters I was supposed to like? Sally Hepworth really has a knack of writing characters you want to root for. And this didn’t disappoint. I loved the bond between the sisters and was surprised by the twists. Very interesting story. I do feel a bit disgruntled by the end because I HATE WHEN SOMEONE GETS AWAY WITH MURDER.

Man. Sally Hepworth knows how to build complex, flawed and possibly very evil characters... and is good at throwing in a twist. This one had all of that and more.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the digital review copy of this title.

This book gave me the biggest pit but I couldn't put it down! Norah, Jessica and Alicia are foster sisters who share trauma from growing up under the care of Miss Fairchild. Years after leaving Miss Fairchild's care, the three sisters are called back to their foster home when they learn that a body has been found buried beneath the house. As a parent, I was horrified at some of the things I read but Sally Hepworth knows how to keep her readers engaged, and I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for ARC access

3.5 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is a good mystery told in two different timelines and multiple POVs. The story focuses on three women that formed a sister bond while in the same foster care at Wild Meadows estate run by Miss Fairchild. On the surface the girls are "lucky" to be in such a wonderful placement, but scratch the surface and you'll find Miss Fairchild is unpredictable, vengeful, and is not to be crossed. When they are young teenagers they are able to break away from her and go on to grow up and be successful. But, each women still carries deep scars from their life at Wild Meadows, and the last thing they want to do is return to the place of their nightmares. But, when a body is found under the house, they are forced to return to speak with detectives. The question is, are they witnesses or suspects?

The story switches between Outwardly successful, the girls are internally a mess and lean heavily on each other to get through life, including this latest stress of the police investigation. They're forced to re-live some of the worst moments of their lives, and are not dealing with it well. Jessica has OCD and is dependant on valium that she steals from her clients. Norah has anger issues and is quick to react with her fists. Alicia is filled with insecurity that interferes with every relationship she's had and one that she may enter into.

I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Despite the subject matter and their issues, they still felt a bit flat. I kept waiting for something big to happen, but I never got that payoff. The book flows along at a low simmer but never reaches a boil. I kept waiting to get tense and concerned for the girls' welfare, but I never felt they were in danger. Even the twists were tame and predictable. Overall, the book is well written and a good mystery, but just a bit tame for my tastes. I think people that don't want their mysteries dark and twisty will really enjoy this book.

I received a complimentary e-copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. All opinions are my own.