I can always count on Sally Hepworth for a thriller that is compulsively readable! Or on this case, listenable! 🎧 ⁣
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𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 - out today! - was riveting from the beginning, slowly revealing more as the story went on, with a cast of very engaging characters. Darker than the author’s previous books, this thriller focused on the ways in which the foster care system regularly failed the children in its care. If that triggers you, this is not the book for you. ⁣
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Hepworth regularly injects dark humor into this story, which certainly helps lighten the mood. Norah, Alicia and Jessica’s backstories were riveting, and I loved the alternating timelines of “Then” and “Now”. Just when I thought I guessed where the plot was going, the author completely blindsided me. I’m so glad I didn’t see any spoilers. I loved this mystery/thriller and highly recommend it! ⁣
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Thank you to MacMillan Audio for my complimentary audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sally Hepworth's books have always been enjoyable reads for me. This was no exception. This was gripping and intense with well-developed characters. It was told in the perspective of the three foster sisters that I thought was very well done. The twist at the very end was jaw-dropping and completely unexpected.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

What I enjoyed: the multiple POV - all three sisters were engaging, fleshed out characters and it was easy to root for them all, dual timeline, suspense was engaging and kept me invested, Miss Fairchild was creepy and made me feel on edge!

What I did not enjoy: the final twist felt shocking but flat at the same time (maybe would have preferred if I had a bit more time with the book to process this or understand the character more in conjunction with the plot itself)

This is my first novel by Sally Hepworth and let me tell you I AM A FAN and will be reading her other novels. From the beginning I was enthralled with this story and the relationships between the characters from when they were young to now. Their characters were so well written, their emotions so palpable that I felt like I was truly in the story and going through it with them. Just when I thought I had it figured out, then would come another twist that I didn't see coming.

The end was exactly the perfect way to end this novel. It was the best parts of a surprise and of satisfaction. This would make such a great movie or tv show. I highly recommend this book if you're into thriller/suspense novels.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this novel. These thoughts and opinions are my own.

Yes! Another great read by Hepworth! She is an auto-buy author for me! This one was so addicting to read. You just wanted to know what exactly happened at Wild Meadows. Did one of the girls do it? Did Miss Fairchild have a hand in it? You just have to keep reading to find out! The audiobook was so good too!! I love when a story is based somewhere I have never been; this one being Australia. An Australian accent just makes it so much better! Loved the audio!! Highly recommend to read this one soon!!

*Thank you so much partner @stmartinspress and @macmillian.audio for the #gifted egalley and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.*

I read this as a netgalley ARC and appreciate the opportunity. I enjoyed it. It was suspenseful and a bit mysterious just like I like them. I would recommend it to my fellow thriller book lovers.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were each rescued from their respective homes after family tragedies struck and sent to live with their foster mother, Miss Fairchild at her estate, Wild Meadows. Jessica was the first to arrive, and Miss Fairchild seemed to dote on her, & treated her as if she were her own child. But with each additional child, she became more and more unhinged, and her moods became more erratic & unpredictable. Finally, the girls decide they can't wait any longer, and report her abuse, and that is the last they see of her. Fast forward to when the girls are now adults, and they all receive calls from detectives from their hometown, telling them that human remains have been found buried under the house at Wild Meadows. All three women are asked to come in... but are they witnesses or suspects?

I always love this author's books, and this is definitely one of my favorites. The story is told alternating between past & present, with both of them rotating among the three women's voices, so you get a well-rounded viewpoint. Also, interspersed randomly throughout the present sections are sessions with a therapist but you don't have any idea who the patient is until close to the end of the book. There were a few reveals at the end that I didn't see coming, and I love that it ended with giving an update on each woman a year later, after all of this was over with, letting the reader know how they were doing. This book is perfect for fans of Tarryn Fisher, Mary Kubica, Lisa Jewell, & Jeneva Rose. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an arc copy to review! Darling girls is out today, and I highly recommend grabbing a copy 🩵

Hepworth’s writing is so imaginative, and her plots are different than any other thrillers I’ve read. Her new releases are one of my favorites each year, and Darling Girls is no exception.

This tells the story of three “sisters” who grew up in foster care and are called back to the town of their old foster home when a crime had been discovered at the home.

I really enjoyed all three main characters in this novel and found them relatable and realistic. The ending was a bit predictable, but the idea of the novel was completely fresh. This is also told in alternating POV and timelines, and I found myself dying for more information from the past when it flipped to present day. My only critique is that the addiction in this book felt like it was just thrown in for dramatic effect, and I think such a tough subject should be handled with more care. Overall, definitely give this a read!

Buckle up- this one is a wild ride!! It is dark and the content is heavy, but you somehow cannot look away and cannot stop reading!

Darling Girls centers around three women who consider themselves sisters as they lived together in a foster home at Wild Meadows with Miss Fairchild. They are called one day and told that there are bones found at Wild Meadows after it's been torn down, As they travel back to this place of dark memories and revisit the past they've tried to forget they are faced with the question of whose bones have been found?

The story is told in alternating past/present timelines and through the perspective of each different woman. The story was incredibly gripping, while at times hard to read it was also hard to put down. Landing on 4,5 stars because I did guess some of the twists, but that likely comes from reading so many thrillers!

This should definitely be on your radar- out today! 4/23!

BRB while I go read her entire backlist!!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sally Hepworth for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia met in foster care under the tenuous and harsh care of Miss Fairchild. Told to be happy that they had been saved from tragedy, the girls toil on an idyllic farming estate. Their trauma keeps them bonded into adulthood and the present day. When the women find out that a body is discovered at the estate, all the pain, secrets, and lies come to light. Who is the dead body? And who killed them?
The story is framed in three timelines. The first is the present when the women find out about the body at the house. The second is the past when the girls stayed there. And, the last, is an unknown talking about her past with her therapist. These threads weave together to tell several stories that affect the story as a whole. The back story takes over the mystery in the beginning, leaving the reader slogging through. When it finally reaches its apex, things start moving quickly.
There isn’t enough time spent on the girls’ relationships now besides the mystery at hand. I would have liked more of that. I wanted to see the tightness and how things were between them. This would have had more emotional impact to something that happens towards the end. But above all this was an enjoyable thriller. I savored each twist and turn Hepworth took me on, as well as seeing who the mystery narrator actually was.

I am a big Sally Hepworth fan and have reviewed several of her books. If she has a new book coming out, I add it to my Goodreads “Want to Read” list. And that was the case with Darling Girls. So, when St. Martin’s Press reached out with a widget, I immediately accepted. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to read this book. Thankfully, it didn’t let me down.

The main storyline of Darling Girls is told in three parts. The first part contains chapters that show how Jessica, Norah, and Alicia dealt with growing up in foster care. The author labeled those chapters with the name of who the chapter was following, and all of these chapters started with just their name. The second part details how each girl ended up at Miss Fairchild’s, the abuse they suffered, and what happened when Amy came into the picture. These chapters also start with the girls’ names, but “before” is written underneath. These are significant chapters because everything is explained, and I mean everything. The third part is told in first person by an individual (revealed to be Miss Fairchild) during sessions with a psychiatrist. Those chapters (labeled The Office of Dr. Warren, Psychiatrist) are also critical because they reveal how and why Miss Fairchild was shaped into who she was.

At the end of the book, the author states that Darling Girls’s idea came from speaking to women raised in the foster care system in Australia. She also spoke to foster parents and social workers. I will assume that some of the more awful scenes were those that actually happened. She also acknowledged that villains (such as Miss Fairchild and Scott, the social worker) in the foster care system need to be fixed. I agree wholeheartedly with her.

This is not an easy book to read and it was not an easy book to process. Norah’s trauma, how she processed it, and how it affected her as an adult particularly struck a nerve with me. I read her chapters with tears in my eyes because of what she went through. Now, I know that she is a fictional character, but I couldn’t help but want to reach through the book, hug her, and put her in freaking therapy like yesterday.

The storyline with the body of an infant found under the house was compelling. We are introduced to Amy through the girls’ “before” storyline. How and why Amy was brought to Miss Fairchild wasn’t disclosed (remember, these girls were in their early teens). The treatment that they went through and what they saw Amy going through prompted all three to do something that would affect them for the rest of their lives. I felt so awful about the aftermath of that and what the police/Miss Fairchild implied. What is even worse is when, in the present-day chapters, the police were willing to entertain their story because a body was found.

I am not going to go into each girl’s backstory. But I will highlight what I thought was interesting. As an adult, Jessica was super uptight and had a type A personality. She ran a successful business. But Jessica was also a benzo addict and would steal them from her client’s houses. Norah had a temper on her, and she wasn’t afraid to use her fists to make her point. Because of her past, Norah has a hard time connecting with people. She used her temper and sex to keep everyone but her sisters at arm’s length. Lastly, there is Alicia. Out of the three, she has the most minor trauma. But, she does have body issues and low self-esteem due to the abuse she endured during her time with Miss Fairchild.

I loathed Miss Fairchild. The author truly wrote a villain who got under my skin. But, for a little bit, I felt bad for her. She also endured awful things, and they shaped her into who she became. Still, reading what she said to the girls and her treatment of them slowly stole away any pity I had for her. Even years later, she still got such reactions from the girls. She also got what she deserved in the end.

The mystery angle of the book was excellent. I liked how the author brought the bones of the infant found under the house and what happened that last day with Miss Fairchild together. It was freaking explosive. There were a couple of twists in that storyline that dropped my jaw. I also loved that Miss Fairchild finally got what was coming to her. Her lies collapsed on top of each other.

A twist at the end of the book took my perception of Miss Fairchild in another direction. I couldn’t believe what I read and the implications that were hinted at. I also loved seeing how Jessica, Alicia, and Norah were starting to heal from their childhood.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Sally Hepworth for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Darling Girls. All opiniond stated in this review are mine.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 361 / Genre: Psychological Thriller

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia aren’t sisters by blood but they are sisters through their shared time together in an abusive foster home. And they’ve been supporting each other ever since. Years later, a body is discovered under the foster home, so they have to go back and dig up their past to help shed light on who those bones belong to.

This was exactly the kind of thriller I love. Every character is complicated and interesting. There’s strong female bonding, dogs, and twists and turns that pop up to keep you guessing all the way through.

Thank you, @NetGalley, @StMartinsPress, and @SallyHepworth for my gifted copy. I loved it!

Happy pub day to Darling Girls!

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia find themselves in very unfortunate situations that land them in the foster system. They get placed with Miss Fairchild at Wild Meadows. At first it looks like a dream come true. A loving mother, a pool, horse stables.
Miss Fairchild turns out to be a monster. She finds little ways to torture the girls. Making them clean for hours and giving them unimaginable punishments when they ‘misbehave.’

It’s been well over 20 years since the girls left Wild Meadows, but when they are contacted by detectives about human remains being discovered on the property, they return to where it all began.

There are some shocking twists in this book, and then a twist to the twist!

It is written in the POV of all 3 girls, past and present times. Even though this is fiction, it’s still sad to read how broken the system can be. Children getting thrown around into family after family. Never learning how to cope with their trauma. My heart broke for Alicia the most. Her loving grandma passed away when she was 10 and had a rude awakening with Miss Fairchild. I cried when she cried 😢
She is now a social worker and makes sure kids get placed with the best families 🤍

I’ve always had a soft spot for fostering and/or adopting one day, so this book pulled at my heartstrings a little bit. The authors acknowledgements at the end made me cry even more. These children consider themselves ‘lucky’ even when bad things happen to them but know that it could’ve been way worse.

Wow!

Absolutely phenomenal thriller from Sally Hepworth. I’ve read a few of her books, this one is my favorite so far. A riveting story of three girls fostered by a cruel and unhinged foster mother, and the mystery surrounding bones they find buried beneath their long deserted but not forgotten foster home.

I LOVED this book. Alternating between the girls’ childhoods and the years they spent in foster care under the supervision of the awful Miss Fairchild, and the present investigation into the bones found buried beneath Miss Fairchild’s home. Sometimes when books alternate between past and present, one timeline is done better and more exciting than the other. That is NOT the case in Darling Girls. Both timelines were equally exciting, and page turning. Once the book hit about 50%, I literally could not put it down. Each girl had a really compelling background to explore, and I was fascinated while reading their stories and each of their experiences under the care of Miss Fairchild. At times this book reminded me a little of Before We Were Yours, which was another book I devoured and loved.

Sally’s writing and storytelling are both impeccable. The twist at the end has my head spinning! Well done!

Highly recommend!

Sally Hepworth is one of my favorite authors. I've read a lot of her books. They are well written and keep me on the edge of my seat. Her characters are fully developed, and her descriptive writing makes me feel that I am living the experience with the characters. She writes the best evil characters. As always, Hepworth hits you at the end with a totally unexpected plot twist.

I highly recommend Darling Girls and all of her books.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a chance to review this book.

Link to Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2TMUFBJFLIGH7/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Darling Girls
Sally Hepworth

Jessica, Norah and Alicia; three sisters by chance all survivors of their foster mother Miss Fairchild. What looked like a sprawling farm estate and an idyllic upbringing for the three girls is full of long buried dark secrets and lasting mental scars.

When a body is discovered underneath the home they grew up in, the sisters must face their traumas head on; now thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses, forced to recall their upbringing, are they actually the prime suspects?

This book really wasn’t for me, I think it’s mostly because this is being categorized in the incorrect genre. There are some mystery/thriller elements but it is not nearly as intense of a page turner as you might be after. This book should also come with a significant trigger warning for mental child abuse/trauma and that is what makes this work more sad and tragic than a nail biting thriller. Told in past and present alternating chapters, the story and its characters are well developed and there was no issue keeping all elements straight and organized along the varying storyline which, speaks to this veteran writers skill and experience.

Thank you Net Galley and St. Martins press for the ARC!

Wow! This book was dark and tense and twisty. I loved the characters and the alternating POVS, but it was also easy to get lost. All and all, I will read anything Sally Hepworth writes!

Darling Girls is an unputdownable thriller by Sally Hepworth. It goes between past and present day, as three sisters are forced to revisit their foster home upbringing.

I really enjoyed this book. I was on the edge of my seat for most of it, and couldn’t wait to find out what happened. There were several twists and I didn’t find the plot to be predictable. Without giving anything away, the ending made me gasp.

Sally Hepworth is an auto-read author for me, and Darling Girls did not disappoint. A sincere thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the electronic arc of Darling Girls. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I have really enjoyed everything I have read by Sally Hepworth, and this did not disappoint. This deals with secrets that 3 sisters have from their experience in a foster home as children. Twisty and kept me guessing though out the book. I would highly recommend for people who love smart mystery / thrillers.

Creepy and disturbing, but with a lot of heart and the joys of found family, this story is about flawed people and the discovery of their worth through heartbreak. Some are irredeemable, but all are unreservedly human.

I think you’ll love the bound between the sisters, the twisty plot, and the macabre circumstances.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.