Darling Girls was a quickly suspenseful story that led us through the past and present of three foster sisters and their foster mother. I was hooked from the first chapter. Sally Hepworth took us into the thoughts of all three sisters as they were dealing with the discovery of bones found under their childhood foster home. We also see glimpses into the foster mother’s life growing up. This story was a captivating slow burn with a twist at the end that I did not see coming. Overall, 4.5 stars!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for this eARC through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

spooky thrilling and scary! sally h knows how to write a twisty story that keeps the ready enthralled and questioning everything and everyone. what fun time!

Darling Girls follows three women who grew up together as sisters in the foster care system. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are each carrying something from their tumultuous childhood with them and working to leave their time at the farm with Miss Fairchild behind them. They each get a call from the police that a body has been found under the house and are forced to return and provide statements regarding the crime.

Written with multiple POVs and in dual timelines the reader goes on a journey with the sisters as they try to solve the mystery while grappling with childhood memories they'd rather forget. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and by the midway point was finding any spare minute to read just one more chapter. I have read several books by Hepworth and this is ranking up there as one of my favorites. I would recommend this book to other readers who enjoy a psychological thriller.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the advanced e-copy of this book.

Wow! Darling Girls is my new favorite book by this author. I could tell before reading the acknowledgments that she'd spoken to people in the foster care system before writing this story. I related with and found myself invested in all the different POV characters made up of a group of women who grew up in the same abusive foster home together. I loved the dual timelines and living their experiences in the moment which ratcheted up the tension for me as the mystery remained of who the bones found beneath the house belonged to. This is definitely one of my favorite thrillers of the year thus far.

I was sucked into this book as soon as I started it. Told from multiple perspectives and times, this was so good I couldn’t put it down. There were happy endings and a big twist at the very end that I definitely didn’t see coming. I loved it!

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
Pub date: April 23 2024

Sally Hepworth became an auto-buy author for me the moment I finished The Mother In Law. I’ve read everything she has published since then and she has never let me down. Darling Girls, her latest, has kept her firmly in my mental “must read” category.

Darling Girls is the story of 3 young girls who find themselves in foster care at Wild Meadows, under the abusive care of Miss Fairchild. When bones are discovered under the house of the now empty house where the foster children lived, Norah, Jessica and Alicia go back to the town to help police unravel the story of how they got there. Told from multiple points of view from the present and past, we learn more about the awful things Miss Fairchild did to each of her foster children and also about her own childhood and what made her the monster that she is.

What I think I love most about books by this author is how quickly the pages seem to turn themselves. The story weaves between each character and period of time so seamlessly, it’s hard to put the book down (or go to bed at a reasonable hour!). Each of the characters are flawed in their own ways and though most characters are female, they are all distinct and easy for the reader to find empathy for – except our villain, Miss Fairchild, that is. Miss Fairchild is the perfect love-to-hate them antagonist. She is manipulative. She is abusive. She is calculating. That a fictional character can bring such feelings of loathing to the reader is a testament to the author’s capabilities.

My only critique of this book would be that it seemed a little less compelling than her previous novels. The story seemed a little more fluffy, a little less gritty than her other books. Maybe the plot will be fleshed out and the writing more substantial once the finished copy is published. My review is of the unfinished ARC, of course.

As always, my biggest thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley and Sally Hepworth for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for my always honest review. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

This was my first book by Sally Hepworth and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Diving deep into the psyche of foster children hit a whole new level for me. This was a great thriller to read that’s dark but not too dark. I appreciate the mental health aspect behind our characters.

That ending though eek. I predicted it for the most part buttttt still a shock to hear it and just soak it in.

Thanks NetGalley for the chance to review

I loved this! Easy to read and it kept me entertained the whole time! Switched between past and present. I didn’t want to put it down. Good twist at the end! 4 stars!

Thank you to St Martins Press & NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

No one does thrillers better than Sally, and this was no exception!

Whenever I see Sally Hepworth has a new book I'm so excited to read it. Darling Girls tells the story of three foster sisters. There are three POV plus a view into appointments between someone and a psychologist. This book is full of twists and dark turns. The character development of the sisters is great with chapters from now and from 25 years in the past. It was interesting to see how the girls time with Miss Fairchild impacted their lives as adults.

While parts of this book were dark I could not stop reading and had to find out what happened 25 years ago. I did guess some of the twists but that ending... WOW!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth for an honest review.

This was my first Sally Hepworth novel and it definitely won't be my last! I loved how quickly I was able to read it and it definitely kept me interested! I did guess a big part of the twist but I didn't see the last twist at the very end so I really loved that. I also loved the way that the story really focused on the way each woman dealt with her trauma from her childhood and I loved the growth that they went through. I thought this was a unique story and I can't wait to read more!

I think this is my favorite Sally Hepworth novel. It revolves around three young girls: Jessica, Norah and Alicia. All three girls are put in to foster care at Wild Meadows. Their care taker is Holly Fairchild. She should not be a foster mom. The girls form a bond and literally think of themselves as sisters. Horrible things happen at Wild Meadows and may have been happening there for quite some time. The story is told in the POV's of the sisters. There are some chapters where a psychiatrist is talking to a patient. You sometimes think you know who he is talking to but you never find out definitively until the end. The emotional and physical abuse suffered from the hands of their "mom" makes you start to think of modern day foster care and hope that this doesn't happen. It is a great psychological thriller that keeps you wanting more. You are swept up into the drama of what is happening in the today time of the sisters and also the before time. The author did extensive research into the foster care system and you can tell by her writing. I highly recommend you put this on you TBR shelf and grab a copy on April 23rd, 2024.
Thanks to #netgalley, stmartinspress and @sallyhepworth for an ARC of this great read.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for my free digital copy for review.

The novel "Darling Girls" is a captivating page-turner that held my attention from the first page to the last. Ms. Hepworth skillfully kept the answers close to her chest, intriguing readers and adding to the suspense. The cleverly placed red herrings added to the shock factor of the reveal, making the ending delightfully twisted.

The author skillfully portrays the harrowing past of the three women, evoking empathy for the traumas that have haunted them into adulthood. The most compelling aspect of the book is the complex relationship between the three sisters, stemming from their troubled childhood and continuing into their adult lives, making them relatable and engaging characters.

The narrative delves into themes of childhood trauma, the challenges of the foster care system, and the displacement of children from one family to another, shedding light on the tireless efforts of social workers to find these children in their homes.

This book is a must-read for fans of unreliable narrators and intelligent psychopath tropes, offering a thought-provoking exploration of the human psyche and the enduring impact of childhood experiences.

Compelling story and protagonists to root for. The villain was completely inexplicable to me. Even the chilling coda at the end added confusion, not clarification. I love Sally Hepworth and I've read just about everything she's written. This one didn't quite come together for me the way I wanted it too. Still, she remains at the top of the list for domestic suspense.

OoOooOooh MY!
This is my 2nd Sally Hepworth read and I am HOOKED forever! I need all her backlog ASAP.

This is the first book in some time that I have been staving off my drooping, burning eyes at bedtime for "just one more chapter" over and over. I could NOT stop reading this because it was so addicting. It's a story of sisterhood, motherhood, growth, trauma, gaslighting, and a look at mental health (how we choose to please others, how we choose to punish others, etc) both in the middle of a bad situation as well as a reflection upon a terrible time and how we choose to deal (or not).

There's also a lot to be said for the foster system and social work in general. A lot of it really informative/enlightening, but then some of it just a reminder of how much more work we have for improvement in both areas. Heartbreaking at times.

Multiple (3? 4?) narrators over 2 time periods.... HAD ME CLUTCHING MY KINDLE!

Babies and children popping up all over, living and dead. Just twist after twist after twist. But the compassion of these three foster sisters is the heart of the book and story. It IS everything!

This is the third Sally Hepworth book I have read and I have to say that I did not find it as compelling as the first two I read. The ones I read were mystery/thrillers and dealt with domestic relationships and so perhaps I feel that her talent lies in that. This too was a mystery/thriller but it seemed that element of it took a back seat to the issue of foster care. In this novel, three girls that had been placed in foster care with a cruel woman and the body of a young child was found. I thought that this novel played into the tropes of bad foster homes and this took precedence over the mystery element. It felt to me like the author was trying to give me a message about foster care and I find this irritating in a book and it definitely detracts.
There was decent character development although I found myself not really liking them much, or being annoyed by them. The trope of bad foster care making these girls into dysfunctional women played into this.
Nonetheless, it was a fast read and the pacing was good.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with the opportunity to read and listen to this ARC.

If you’re in a reading slump and need a good page turner to get you out, I’ve found your next read! This was my favorite @sallyhepworth read so far! The characters are well developed and she delivers some gasp inducing twists, in classic Hepworth fashion. It was a great page turner with important themes and I applaud her for bringing light to them.

This was a fun, twisty thriller with some great surprises. I have read Hepworth before and always love her books. This felt very different from her usual work. Ina great way! Made from a great read! Will definitely be recommending!

Wow! Miss Fairchild is a massive psychopath and it made this book so great to read. She was the perfect nemesis to Jessica, Norah & Alicia. I thought I had this story figured out but in the end I was very wrong and Miss Fairchild became an even bigger villain to me. The relationship between the three sisters was lovely and vibrant, They really watched out for each other throughout their lives. I could tell they were great characters when they sacrificed themselves to help the babies, then Amy. It was heartbreaking to read this story of a woman who was foster parenting for all the wrong reasons, It was equally hesrtwarming to see Alicia and Mira fostering for all the right reasons. The plot tie ups for Jessica & Phil, Norah and Alicia were wonderful.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read this great book.

📚ARC Review 📚

Darling Girls ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was so good!!

This story follows Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. They are foster sisters that lived in a big farm house on an estate owned by Mrs. Fairchild. They were “lucky” to have such a nice house to stay in with a nice foster parent…or so they were told. 20 years have passed and a shocking discovery was found under the house at Wild Meadows while it was being demolished. Now the sisters are together again, under investigation, and have to relive all the trauma they went through while they lived there. But what really went on inside that house?

This book was so good! I was hooked within the first few chapters. I loved the multiple point of views of the sisters as well as a mystery person. Told in a past and present timeline, you get to see the story through each persons eyes and try to piece together what really happened. The epilogue was shocking!! Such a great story of foster sisters and how family isn’t always by blood. I will say this book does contain a trigger warning, so be sure to check that out before you start.

If you’re a fan of psychological/ domestic thrillers, then this one is for you! It comes out on April 23, 2024. Be sure to add it to your TBR list. And to my Book of the Month Box Girls- add this one to your box!!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced readers copy. This is my voluntary and honest opinion.