@sallyhepworth has done it again with this dark thriller

Thank you @stmartinspress for my #gifted eARC!

I’ve loved all of Sally’s books, so I’m not surprised that I loved this one too!

Jessica, Nora, and Alicia are sisters, but they aren’t actually related. They grew up in the same foster home and remained dedicated to one another once that home could not longer house them. Now, they are adults and a body has been found at their old foster home. The three women have been called back to the place they suffered as children.

Told from the perspective of all three women, this book is super fast-paced and dark. Plus, all three women are so different from one another. It was great to see all their stories woven together.

This is a dark book and is probably darker than Sally’s other books.

I found myself speeding through this story, and it will definitely make my favorite thrillers shelf.

Out April 23.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#litbylillireviews

Thank you to the publisher for the early release copy in exchange for a review. I was excited to get this ARC as I always enjoy Sally Hepworth - her novels really stick with me and I end up thinking about them long after finishing. This novel really grabbed me from the beginning and drew me into the story quickly. The three sisters are very different but all broken in various ways. I recommend this book - the story moves quickly and has a few surprises to keep you guessing. I look forward to the next Sally Hepworth!

I loved this book. I've never read anything that involved foster kids. The pacing was perfect, it wasn't to slow where the story kind of dragged but it also wasn't so fast that the characters and the plot couldn't be fully fleshed out. The formatting of the story was great. dual POVs and dual time lines. Its not none stop action where the main character(s) life is in immediate danger but its fast paced and easy to get through.

We Follow these three women who were being fostered by the same foster mom. She is awful to them. we follow each of their POVs. Its dual time line past and present. in the past we follow each woman as they were growing up is this house and how each of them ended up in foster care. in the present the women receive a phone call that a body has been found under their former foster home.

👩‍👧‍👧 Darling Girls - Sally Hepworth

4.5 ⭐️ - A slowww burn but so twisty, unexpected, and worth it. There were lots of times during this one where I simply just didn’t know where it was headed. Something felt predictable and then, bam! next twist.

This one had short chapters, changing POVs, and overlapping storyline - a few of my favorite things. I enjoyed the growth of each sister and the bond they formed over time. Toward the end, I thought we were getting a bland finish, but Sally hit us with the biggest twist in the last few pages. Definitely worth the read. Sally Hepworth is now an auto-buy/auto-read author and she doesn’t disappoint. Definitely keep your eyes peeled for this one hitting shelves on 4/2!

This is definitely my favorite Sally Hepworth book I have read so far! The story hooked me from the first page and at times I felt really sucked into the story and unable to put it down.

From the first page we have an unknown person talking to Dr. Warren psychiatrist. Having that additional unknown piece while still being able to see the exact conversation was so intriguing.

We also get the three girls, foster sisters, perspectives in past and present and that adds a nice layer to the book to keep you really sucked in to the book.

The thing holding back Darling Girls for me was the lack of character development I felt got put into Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. They almost felt flat and stereotypical for a thriller book. I wanted something more, and to see more of a sisterly bond between them since this was something the book was really centered around.

I also did guess some of the things in the ending and I was sad I wasn’t super shocked at the end. Maybe I just overanalyze books too much.

Overall, this was still a great psychological thriller, with so many moving parts that you will stay interested the whole time. I never felt too confused by what was happening which is what a lot of thrillers tend to do for me.

I would recommend reading this when it comes out!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

*I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

4- (minus) is my rating …
Generally I like anything from this author. This took some time getting into. It read much more like a YA novel, of which I’m not much of a fan. Teen angst is not entertaining to me. This is presented from various points of view, mainly with 3 girls bonded by foster care and becoming sisters of the heart. Much of this is heartbreaking and disturbing and probably very common. Still hard to read about it.

There are chapters that begin with a visit to a psychiatrists office by some undisclosed patient of his who describes a difficult childhood of abuse and manipulation. Who the patient is does eventually get disclosed and is detrimental to the plot line, in fact her whole story is.

For me it got better in the last half and the ending was indeed a shocker. I was however relieved to end it as it seems there has been an overload of mental illness news everywhere, even in the soap I watch. It gets depressing and leaves me feeling motivated to move on to lighter reading material, the likes of Emily Giffin, Rachel Hanna, or Debbie Macomber.

For physiological mystery fans, this may delight. My thanks to the publishers via NetGalley for the e-ARC of which I give my honest review.

I did not care for this one at all. The subject matter was too dark, and I actually ended up not finishing it. I usually enjoy Sally Hepworth, so I will look forward to her next one.

Jessica, Norah and Alicia are the luckiest girls, or so they are told. After family tragedies, each was given a second chance at a happy family, living on a peaceful farm with a loving foster mom. Yet, the foster sisters' childhood was far from idyllic, though no one ever believed them. When a body is found buried on the farm, they soon find themselves prime witnesses and possibly prime suspects.

As usual, Sally Hepworth delivers a well-plotted page turner. Miss Fairchild proved to be a perfectly aggravating villain, fully despicable in her child abuse but clever enough to conceal everything at first glance. I was thrown by several of the revelations and loved the push-and-pull of the then and now timelines. Although the thriller obviously shows the worst scenario of foster care, Hepworth balances that out with a wonderful portrayal of Alicia as a social worker.

Sally Hepworth’s new novel tells the story of Jessica, Alicia and Norah, who are three foster sisters raised by Miss Fairchild at her farmhouse estate Wild Meadows. Each had their own tragic childhood story and, at the time, felt lucky to have found a foster mother like Miss Fairchild. But over time, Miss Fairchild revealed herself to be a cruel and twisted woman. Eventually, the girls were able to escape from Wild Meadows, but the scars of their time there never went away. When the story opens, the 3 foster sister are now adults, each trying to rise above their troubled childhood and make their way in the world. When Detective Ashleigh Patel contacts the women to ask questions about human remains found buried beneath their old foster home, the girls are pulled back into a world they’d rather forget. Throughout the story, Miss Fairchild’s own psychotherapy sessions are revealed in snippets. We get a glimpse of her own childhood and the horrors that made her the cruel woman that she was.. This was definitely a slow burn and did not initially draw me in the way that some of Hepworth’s previous books did. The ending was actually great but I’m not totally sure that the slow lead up was worth the big reveal. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to advance read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was damn fabulous. the Soulmate was not my favorite Sally Hepworth novel, but Darling Girls has easily slid into the top three of my rankings of her work. Dare I say number two even (The Good Sister will be just so hard to top for me) and I think this is reminiscent of all of the things I loved about that title.

I received a complimentary egalley of DARLING GIRLS by Sally Hepworth thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley. I also received the advance listener copy thanks to Macmillan Audio!

DARLING GIRLS follows sisters and foster care survivors Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. The three came together under the care of Miss Fairchild. On the outside their home situation looked good, but behind closed doors their life was a struggle. Even so, the three become friends and family, doing their best to avoid Miss Fairchild’s anger. When a body is found under the home where they lived with Miss Fairchild, the trio is asked to come back and answer questions, either as witnesses or suspects.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I started this book and part of that came from not really initially liking any of the women in the present day. As we got more of their backstory with the switches between their POVs and those of their younger selves, I really wound up feeling a lot for these women and the way they were brought up. Working adjacent to foster care myself, it is certainly a broken system and the horror in this one was that such a situation isn’t something that would be out of the realm of possibility.

I think the author did a good job of balancing the narrative between past and present and bringing various secrets to life. There were certainly theories I developed as I was reading. Some proved to be close to accurate, but I stayed hooked the whole time to find out the answers!

DARLING GIRLS comes out on Tuesday!

“Darling Girls” by Sally Hepworth was a fast paced can’t put down book. This book has so many twists that you don’t see coming.
Jessica, Norah, and Alicia grew up together in the same home. They did not have the best upbringing but they stuck together. Now they are all grown up and something terrible happens that brings them right back to their childhood. As they are facing the past they each have things that are happening to them currently. As they rehash the past how will it affect their current lives?
Highly recommend to everyone. This book is a must read and highly enjoyable.

I really enjoy Sally Hepworth’s books and I especially enjoy this one. I loved the way she mixed up the traditional ‘dysfunctional family’ dynamic and found it enhanced this story so much.

Twenty-five years ago, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia all found themselves living at Wild Meadows, a foster care home, until one event led them to be moved. Now, all three ‘sisters’ are being pulled back to Wild Meadows, with the discovery of a body under Wild Meadows. While all three try to battle their own personal demons, they must also come together to rediscovery their pasts while being at the center of the investigation.

Primarily told through the eyes of all three girls, both in present day and past, we also hear a story from an unknown person which added to the story’s intriguing plotline. I really enjoyed getting to know each of our main players and how they came to rely so heavily on each other. Their stories are entirely different which makes the characters seems so much more real to me. The contrast between Norah’s explosive personality, Jessica’s OCD, and Alicia’s detachment was equally displayed and made each girl’s story stand out all the more.

While the pacing was a bit slow at first, this was an excellently done thriller. With plenty of twists, it also touched on the foster system and while it can be triggering for some, none of the events we’re too heavily graphic. The overall friendship and sisterhood portrayed is what makes this story. I rotated between reading and listening to the audio version of Darling Girls, and you really can’t go wrong either way! Highly recommend.


Darling Girls comes out April 23, 2024! Huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press and MacMillan Audio for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books

This was the worst Sally Hepworth I have read in a long time. I do not know if she intended this book to have such a sensitive and high shock value but that is what was presented, page after page. This book has many trigger warnings and is very violent, as well as graphic. After a full book of rape, graphic child abuse, graphic rape of children it does not make me ever want to read a book by this author ever again.

THIS IS NOT OK!!! WTF??!!

I did not even want to give this book 1 star because of the disturbing, nauseating content.

I cannot and will not recommend this. Child rape and abuse is never again, even in a book. Thanks to Netgalley, Sally Hepworth and St Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 4/23/2024

Many times I read early copies of books right before (or even after) their publication dates, but I finished Darling Girls almost a month before its publication date! Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the recent ALC widget via NetGalley which motivated me to listen to this audiobook right away. I followed along and occasionally read from the ARC I received from St Martin’s Press, too. All opinions are my own.
Darling Girls is about sisters who spend time in the same foster placement. While not biologically related to each other, they form a tight bond in their time together. The book switches between a current storyline with flashbacks to what was happening in their foster home. A portion of each chapter in the present includes a scene where one character meets with a psychiatrist - who is talking to the psychiatrist? The plot has an underlying mystery, too: a body is found in the foster home - whose body is it? As you can imagine, past secrets start coming out, both in the psychiatry sessions and in the investigation of the crime scene.
I was immediately sucked into this read and had trouble stopping to go to sleep, which is always a good sign. Darling Girls will be available April 23rd, and I recommend both the book and the audiobook - the Australian narrator does a particularly good job. Surprisingly, no content warnings are listed in the book, but I’m happy to answer questions if you have any hesitations based on my review.

This title contains reference to death (including that of a child), mental illness, gaslighting, child abuse, and addiction.

I enjoyed Sally Hepworth's newest release, Darling Girls, as I have enjoyed all of the other works of hers that I've read. Darling Girls follows three foster sisters as they cope with the abuse they endured at the hands of their foster mother following a gruesome discovery at the house of horrors where they all lived decades earlier. Like Hepworth's other books, Darling Girls has lots of twists and turns, and I devoured the entire book in less than 24 hours. While the subject matter is obviously dark and disturbing, Hepworth manages to handle it gracefully. A perfect beach read for those whose reading tastes skew to the darker side of things!

this book was engaging from the start. Alternating between the past and the present and between the three POVs and the psychiatric sessions with Dr. Warren and an unknown patient, the story moves along at a fast clip. It didn’t take long to figure out the identity of the unknown patient and what was coming. The book ends with the kind of twist I expect from Hepworth. I found the character-driven narrative kept me engaged throughout the entire story. Also, this book showcased horrific child abuse and the sexual exploitation of children and this was
I would have preferred it if the author had focused on the "now" instead of the "then" lives of the three "sisters from different wombs" foster care program protagonists.

I was deeply touched by the Author's Note where she asserted that there were "heroes" in today's foster care system but many more are needed. Among the darker parts, this is full of some jaw-dropping twists, keeping the book moving along and thrilling.

This was a hard to put down domestic thriller with multi POVs and timelines.

I never knew exactly where this was going and that’s how I like thriller. I like to be shocked and caught off guard by the unexpected and I love unreliable narrators.

I also am huge on found family and loyalty so this book really hit a lot of big points for me.

I grew up in a home with my bio family but we also fostered. So I have been blessed with so many opportunities and experiences to bond with children from other families. So I found some of this hard to read for me personally. I went in blind so didn’t realize that it talked but child abuse and abuse in foster homes.

This was my first Sally Hepworth and won’t be my last that’s for sure.

Read if you enjoyed: None of This is True, Everyone Here is Lying or Everything I Never Told You

This book was easily a 5 star read! The ending, mind blown!!!!

This is my second Sally Hepworth book and my new favorite of hers.

This story was dark, twisty and extremely addicting. I loved the dynamic between the three sisters and how they stuck together no matter what. I could not wait to find out who's bones were found and what happened. There are definitely some trigger warnings in this book especially around child abuse. This book gets dark and I felt like I could not look away. This was a wild ride, intense psychological thriller.

I liked the back and forth between the past and present and I enjoyed the different POV between the sisters and Ms. Fairchild. The final twist at the end had my jaw on the floor. This book comes out April 23rd and I highly recommend grabbing a copy! You will not be disappointed.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

You know that feeling you get when you're so hyped for something? The anticipation grows and grows and you can feel it in your fingertips? Then the moment arrives and it just can't quite live up to your overactive enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations? That was this book for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book or even a bad reading experience, it just didn't live up to what I was anticipating. Based on the rest of the reviews, I feel like I'm in a minority here.

Sally Hepworth has always been a bit hit or miss for me. And after last years' hit, Soulmates, which was a 4 star read for me, I was hoping she hit a stride that I could ride.

The book is told through the third person narration of three foster sisters who spent a little over a year together in a foster home run by the misnamed Miss Fairchild. We also get sporadic chapters from the first person POV of an unnamed (at least until around 50%) patient of a therapist telling their own story of childhood. The sisters are called back to the small town they once called home because bones have been discovered under the house.

Lies, mistruths, distrust, and gaslighting ensue. The middle of the book really dragged for me. Each new reveal was a little more over the top. I know Hepworth said she researched the foster care system in Australia for the book, but this seemed like she took every single horror story and put it all together in one place. It was just a bit too dark and made it seem a bit too implausible in a book that is supposed to be grounded in reality.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
The ending was a bit unsatisfying for me. It was a bit too tidy after all the desolation and yuckiness as before. And I am OVER the new trend of the last chapter undoing all the things that came before. It's the new equivalent to "it was all a dream" from decades before. This is happening a lot and I think it is a bit of a cop out. It brings unreliable narrator to just plain old lying. Which is unfair to the reader. The reasons for the lies, in this book, were never really stated beyond "I felt unloved" which, given the depravity, seems a bit loose. I think we could've gotten to the "big reveal" at the end without the "Gotcha! I've been lying to you the entire time" plot device.

So, it was meh for me. I didn't honestly care deeply about any of the characters. The parts with them in their younger years were more interesting than the present day chapters, but still a bit slow, and full of half-truths that weren't revealed so much as dropped in when it was convenient for the author. If you like Sally Hepworth, you'll enjoy this read. I just don't think it was as good as Soulmates. And I don't think it is as good as other thrillers out there now.