Really enjoyed Darling Girls!
Beware to check trigger warnings for child abuse.
Overall the pace was good, it didn't feel like it had many lulls. I liked all of the different POVs and the jumping timeline. That really helps get the book going. The twist at the end was good and I didn't see it coming!

Sisters Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were raised by their foster mother, Miss Fairchild. But long after they left her home, secrets begin to emerge and the girls must band together to face the past - and Miss Fairchild.

Another winner from Sally Hepworth. Once the background is established, this book flew by. In turn, heartbreaking and hopeful, the story of these three sisters, and the aftermath, kept me reading and reading. Hepworth has quickly become a "must read" author for me and Darling Girls reinforced that. I thought the characters were well written and the dual timeline gave me enough background to understand where everyone was coming from. I can't recommend this one enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available April 23, 2024.

4 stars!
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of Sally Hepworth’s latest, Darling Girls!

Told in three different POVs and a dual timeline, Darling Girls follows Norah, Jessica, and Alicia, who grew up in Miss Fairchild’s foster home. Their childhoods were rough, and they managed to escape Miss Fairchild’s abusive nature, until a body is found underneath their former home. Who is the body, and who is responsible for it being there? This book flowed nicely and was fairly fast-paced. Another strong showing for Hepworth, with a little unexpected twist at the end. I’d certainly recommend for anyone who’s previously enjoyed this author.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are in the foster care system and are being raised by Miss Fairchild on a farm in the country. As children, the girls faced an unpredictable Miss Fairchild. They never knew who they would wake up to each day or return from school to. After years of being at the Wild Meadows farm, the girls escape and never see or speak to Miss Fairchild again. As adults, they are haunted by their foster care experience and everything they endured. One day, they get a phone call from a detective. A body has been discovered under the Wild Meadows house. And all fingers are being pointed at Jessica, Norah, and Alicia.
Review:
3.75 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.
First, I really enjoyed how this book was written in all of the girls POVs both during foster care and now as adults. While reading, it always felt like something was happening whether with the case, while in foster care, or in their personal lives as adults. It made me want to keep picking up the book to know what happened next. I loved the short chapters especially after my last couple of reads! At times it felt as though the pacing was off. At one point, a bombshell was revealed and then the next sentence went on to something totally unrelated. I had to read it back to make sure I didn't miss anything. It felt like there should have been a break there. I also felt that there were a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes (more so than I usually see in ARCs) which pulled me out of the story at times.
The ending was a huge twist that I did not see coming and I really enjoyed it!!!
Overall, I would recommend picking up Darling Girls, I really enjoyed my time reading this one and can't wait to see what Sally Hepworth comes up with next!! This pubs on 4/23.
Thank you to NetGalley, Sally Hepworth, and St. Martin's Press for this ARC of Darling Girls in exchange for an honest review.

Sally Hepworth has done it again. I cannot believe how good this book was. The good sister is still my all-time favorite, but this book rivaled it. The twist I did NOT see coming. I loved the whole premise, being that three sisters are forced to remember everything that happened when they were foster kids in order to figure out why there is a dead body under the house they grew up in. I was enthralled from start to finish. This was such a great read!! I gave this book 4.5 stars!!! Thank you so much for giving me a chance to review this!!

I enjoy Sally Hepworth's novels, and I would classify her writing as domestic suspense. The content is never too heavy, and often there is some much-appreciated humor sprinkled in, but you still want to keep turning the pages. Darling Girls is no different in that regard. At first, I was somewhat disinterested in the book because I (wrongly) assumed that I already knew where the story was headed. Eventually, though, several twists came, including a great twist at the end, and the book won me over. While nothing was totally jaw-dropping, it was still a fun ride.

For me, the best part of this book were the characters. Each one was very distinct and well-developed, particularly the three "sisters" and Miss Fairchild. Hepworth excels in bringing them to life and peeling back the layers behind why each woman has the struggles that she does. They were all very lifelike and relatable in one way or another, and the final chapters tie everything together so nicely in terms of their personal narratives.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Norah, Jessica, and Alicia are foster sisters who were each taken in by Miss Fairchild. Their life with Miss Fairchild proved to be traumatic. As adults, the foster sisters maintain a relationship and still consider themselves to be sisters; they have not seen Miss Fairchild since they left her home. After a body is found under Miss Fairchild’s house, the sisters return to help figure out who it is and what happened.

This was my first Sally Hepworth book, and it was great! There were so many twists, and I loved the ending and the fact that I didn’t see it coming. I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Publishing April 23, 2024

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com in exchange for a fair review. Author Sally Hepworth is a fine writer. I enjoy her books. Darling Girls focuses on three women who grew up in an abusive foster home. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia bond together as children when they find themselves under the care of a deranged foster parent, Holly Fairchild. Fairchild mistreats the girls, punishing them for imaginary infractions, while she insists that they are her 'Darling Girls'. Jessica is the business minded woman who works hard and makes good money, but has a secret addiction. Norah is troubled and acts out, often finding herself dealing with the police.
Alicia has never really gotten over her grandmother's death and suppresses her emotions. Some twists and turns (including a very twisted ending) kept my interest throughout. The three women are likeable and as a reader, you want them to succeed. Fairchild, however, is very questionable and her underlying story slowly comes forward. The action takes place in Australia, but could happen anywhere. If you have never read Sally Hepworth, give this one a try. I liked it!

HELLO?! This was so freaking good. I loved every second of this psychological thriller. I was left on the edge of my seat the entire time. I did NOT SEE THE TWIST COMING, which is one of the things I look for when I read a thriller book. I will be recommending this to everyone and anyone.

Sally Hepworth is an auto-read for me and this one lived up to all of her past work. I think this might even be my new favorite of her books!

The story had me hooked the entire time! loved the jumping back and forth between POVS and timeframes as well.

Every character was so real and relatable. In the adult girls you could really see how their past and trauma shaped who they were as adults, while still feeling as they were those same little girls. It was just beautifully done!

All the twists were super interesting and they kept me on my toes!

I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who has liked one of Sally Hepworth’s past books or who likes mystery/suspense novels!

I received a a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

As young girls, Jessica, Norah and Alicia were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a foster mother, Miss Fairchild, at Wild Meadows, an idyllic farming estate in Australia. When bones are discovered under the home they grew up in during its demolition, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

This is a good story, told from the points of view of the three "girls", now young adults, as they reunite to face police questioning related to the bones discovered at Wild Meadows. As each thinks back to the "Before" times when they lived with Miss Fairchild we learn that things were anything but fair. I enjoyed the story and the characters but it felt almost like the book was trying to cover too many issues so that only the surface of each was skimmed - prescription drug abuse, lesbianism, cyberbullying (also should be considered triggers along with child abuse). It would've still been an enjoyable read without some of those side threads. Even so, the strong ties that developed among the three "sisters" was truly uplifting.

Running parallel to the main story we get excerpts from the Office of Dr. Warren, Psychiatrist, relating to an unknown person whose identity doesn't really come as a surprise. A lot of readers didn't like the ending but I thought it was okay, not really jaw-dropping but more eyebrow-raising.

Sign me up for Sally Hepworth's next book!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication: April 23, 2024

this book was WILD. I think this was a nearly perfect thriller for me! the pacing was great, there were good twists + it had complicated family dynamics! this is easily my favorite book by sally.

Wowza! This one blew me away! It's harrowing, heart-breaking, and shocking, all packed into a fast-paced psychological thriller. I loved the different POV's...we meet Jessica, Alicia, and Norah, as well as a mystery patient visiting a psychologist. Each girl has a different backstory, but they all meet up as foster kids of Miss Fairchild. When we are first introduced to Miss Fairchild and Jessica the two are connected and have a very special bond. But as the story progresses this bond is questioned and all of the foster kids begin to realize what kind of situation they are truly involved in. The story goes back and forth from past to present, with more and more details unfolding quickly. When a body is discovered under Miss Fairchild's house many years later, the foster kids, now women, must come together to figure out who's bones they are and what happened.

As women, the foster kids still have a deep connection. It was nice to see how they moved on with their lives after aging out of the system.
All three have internal struggles they have never fully dealt with and these struggles help carry the suspense from the past to the present. Everytime I turned a page I couldn't believe what I was reading. Hepworth gives us so much to learn, and with the story development we go through an emotional roller coaster - each surprise surpassing the last. Even until the very last chapter the truths are incredibly shocking. One minute I was amused, the next minute I was wide-eyed, and the next one I was tearing up. This isn't an easy book to read by any means but I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is definitely a psychological mystery you don't want to pass on!

Warning: This book goes into detail about child abuse, sexual and physical assault and it was difficult to read some of the chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Miss Fairchild is a sociopath. But like many, she is good at hiding it and the people who know her, aside from the children she fosters, think she is wonderful. After all, when her parents died, she inherited a large house with acreage and chose to make it a foster home. What could be better - to bring young girls who have come from difficult backgrounds to a big house in the country and make a new family?

But the girls see an entirely different person. Selfish and demanding, cruel and cutting in her comments, the three girls, Jessica, Alicia, and Norah, learn to read her every move and avoid her wilder outbursts. But when they finally have had enough and report Miss Fairchild to the school authorities and the police, there is no evidence to back up their story and they are simply sent to a group home to live until they age out.

The three girls have remained close and still consider themselves to be sisters, so when the police calls come, they are afraid of what Miss Fairchild has done now. But the police are calling to tell them a body has been found under the house where they lived as it was being demolished. But whose body is it? No one went missing while they lived there. And then the body is identified as an infant girl. Is this the missing child that Miss Fairchild claimed to have adopted but disappeared without a trace on the day the girls reported her?

I liked the book and the premise, but there are a lot of stories going on at once and the ending was just too pat for me to wholeheartedly endorse it. It IS a good read, but a lot of questions are left unanswered.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were rescued from family tragedies as young girls and were raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on a farming estate. Unfortunately, their childhood wasn't the fairy tale everyone thought it was. Miss Fairchild had rules and could be very unpredictable. In a moment of desperation, the three girls broke away from Miss Fairchild and believed they were free. But even though they never saw her again, she was always lurking in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the foster home they lived in, the three women are thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses or possibly suspects.

DARLING GIRLS is a dark and atmospheric read that may be triggering to some so please check the content/triggers before picking this up. I loved that this story is told in the three POVs of the sisters: Alicia, Jessica, and Norah, as well as unidentified person during encounters with a psychiatrist. I thought the characters to be well-developed, interesting, and each with their own flaws and secrets. It was interesting to see how varied the traumas they experienced as children impacted their behaviours/mental health as adults.

The plot of DARLING GIRLS is twisty, even-paced, and tense. I think this story is very well-executed and had me gripped from the first few pages. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, a new reveal would occur and slightly change the course of the story. The ending was shocking, to say the least, and I absolutely adored it.


I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, of this advanced digital copy for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review! All opinions shared are my own.

Sally Hepworth does it again! This book is TWISTED, but Sally still keeps it light by weaving humor into it. I think this would make a great show!

Probably not my favorite of Sally's, but was definitely good. I love a good "mommy dearest" story and the twist was excellent!

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, foster sisters so spent years together with Miss Fairchild on her farm estate. To the outside world, the three girls were so lucky to have been taking in by such a wonderful woman. Reality was different. Miss Fairchild had lots of rules, was moody and unpredictable, and was not to be disobeyed.

Twenty-five years later, the girls, now grown women with their own lives and careers, find out that a body was discovered under the house they grew up in and they are the star witnesses. Or maybe they're the prime suspects? As the story unfolds, the truth starts to come out and Miss Fairchild is thrust into their lives once again.

I flew through this book. It started off a little slow, but definitely held my interest. The last 20% had so many twists and turns, my jaw was on the floor the whole time!

This story gives a little insight into the lives of many foster children (this one takes place in Australia, but I imagine the experiences Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have are common no matter what country a foster child is in, sadly). I thought the setting of a foster home with an unpredictable foster parent was perfect for this story.

In addition to getting Jessica, Norah, and Alicia's current POV, you also get their past POV from when they were living with Miss Fairchild and you read about the events that led up to them being removed from her care. This all plays a role in the current story about finding the body under her former house. Additionally, you hear what you learn to be Miss Fairchild's POV, although the timeline on when she is giving it becomes apparent only at the end, which was a big surprise and definitely added to the suspense and shock.

I highly recommend this psychological thriller to any thriller lover.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the digital copy. My review is honest and volunta

Sally Hepworth is an author whose books I always buy without hesitation. Her domestic suspense novels are full of unexpected twists and turns that keep me guessing until the end. In her latest book, Darling Girls, Hepworth shifts away from her usual domestic suspense genre and delves into a more intense and darker mystery, but she keeps all the twists and turns that we’ve grown to expect (and love) from her.

Highlights:
✨Three MCs: Jessica, Alicia, and Norah are foster sisters. Their past and present timelines demonstrate that adopting a survival mode during childhood has long-lasting effects on adulthood. Out of the three, Norah is my favorite. Her sarcasm is always on point and provides lots of laughs. If you enjoy the found family trope, then you will definitely love reading about these three sisters.
✨Darker than previous books: Here, Hepworth weaves an unsettling mystery around the underbelly of foster care. The story contains a few heartwrenching scenes, so check the trigger warnings.
✨Narrator: Jessica Clarke skillfully manages multiple POVs and a dual timeline, resulting in a captivating audiobook. I binged Darling Girls in one day and highly recommend this format.

Sally Hepworth did it again! Darling Girls is the latest novel from Hepworth and somehow her plots never cease to get old. She finds ways to construct stories that are vastly different from one another. Admittedly, it took me a bit to get into this one and thankfully I had access to both the e-book (thank you St. Martin's Press) and the audiobook (thank you Macmillan Audio) and the audiobook quickly sucked me in while the book took me longer to engage with.

As of recently, I have found I love combining reading and listening to my books. It allows me to switch from one space to another without having to "put the book down:"

I found the novel's context really drew me in. I found the experiences of the young women incredibly relatable and I kept rooting for their happily ever after.