This book was a little heavy. We go back and forth from past to present and it was written nicely for a dual timeline. The things that happen to these girls you cant help but feel sick. As the story progresses they are forced to relieve old memories and wounds. This is one that stick with me I can already tell!

I liked how the story was told through dual times and multiple points of view. It was a great thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the ending!

Title: Darling Girls
Author: Sally Hepworth
Genre: Domestic Suspense
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: April 23, 2024

I received complimentary eARC and ALC copies from St. Martin's Press and Macmillan audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Bingeable • Unsettling • Heartbreaking

📖 S Y N O P S I S

From the outside, Alicia, Jessica and Norah might seem like ordinary women you'd meet on the street any day of the week. Sure, Jessica has a little OCD and Norah has some anger issues. And Alicia has low self-esteem that manifests itself in surprising ways. But these three have a bond that no one can fully understand. It's a bond that takes them back decades, to when they were girls, and they lived on a farm with a foster mother named Miss Fairchild.

Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed.

In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild, and they thought they were free. But the reach of someone with such power is long, and even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds.

When bones are discovered buried under the farmhouse of their childhood, they are called in by the police to tell what they know. Against their will, they are brought back to the past, and to Miss Fairchild herself.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Darling Girls was an easy add to my TBR when it was announced. I can always count on Sally Hepworth to bring the drama and keep me turning the pages. Marketed as a thriller, in my opinion, her books landed more on the domestic and/or psychological mystery/suspense side of the coin. No matter how you choose to classify them, they tend to be the type of 'thriller' that works for me.

Told from the POVs of three sisters - Jessica, Norah and Alicia, and with mysterious physiatrist sessions interspersed throughout, the plot in this one was deeply haunting. The push and pull of the past and present day timelines came across more as if information was being withheld rather than the slow reveal of the necessary pieces.

Each of the girls had their own distinctive personality, yet their relationship with one another was solid. They bonded over their awful circumstances and it really showed how, even years later, their relationship is strong with a need to stick together. As for Mrs. Fairchild, she was an absolute monster! Sally has done a phenomenal job with her character arc because she definitely had the ick factor. Her lies and gaslighting were so cruel and manipulative, and narcissistic actions churned my stomach, culminating in one final revelation in the last chapter which was absolutely revolting.

While the setting has played a huge role in some of Sally's previous works, I didn't find that to be the case here. There was some much atmospheric potential to make Wild Meadows its own character and I think it would have added a whole other layer to the story if she'd chosen to go that route.

The audiobook read by Jessica Clarke was fine. It added a layer of tension, yet there was also room for improvement. Given the story is told from multiple POVs, and especially with the mystery character therapy sessions interspersed throughout, having multiple narrators or at the very least a clear distinction between each would have elevated the audiobook experience.

While I know some people are going to love this book because of the final chapter, unfortunately, it has the opposite effect for me. In all honesty, it felt like it was added simply for shock value and to leave the leader with their mouth hanging open. To me, the book would have been stronger without it and it lowered my rating.

Darling Girls is certainly not my favourite Sally Hepworth book, yet I enjoyed it significantly more than her 2023 release The Soulmate. It opens up the conversation surrounding a foster care system that doesn't always protect the children involved. Yet it's important to keep in mind, that for every horror story like this one there are many stories filled with love. Sally continues to be an auto-read author for me and I will be curious to see where she goes next.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• strong sister bonds
• found family
• mysterious bodies

⚠️ CW: child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault, rape, sexual violence, pedophilia, neglect, abandonment, toxic relationship, gaslighting, bullying, confinement, kidnapping, torture, body shaming, violence, injury/injury detail, adoption, death, murder, child death, death of parent, mental illness, drug use, prescription drug abuse, addiction, attempted suicide, overdose, PTSD, panic attacks/disorders, pregnancy, vomit, alcohol, cursing

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Love and security were the most basic of rights. Forcing these kids to believe they were lucky to have that was even more damaging than what some of them experienced in care."

Three girl came together while in foster care are called back to their old home town when bones were discovered under their old house, We are showed how they grew up and how they were treated, all while trying to discover the truth.

*Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC*

I was skeptical going into this book at first, because I wasn't a huge fan of The Soulmate. I am SO glad that I gave Sally Hepworth a second chance. Dynamic and thrilling, Darling Girls will keep you at the edge of your seat the entire read. A family of foster sisters' lives are upturned when they get news of a body found in the basement of their childhood home. It's red herring after red herring as we yearn for the body's identity and their killer. The tonality changes in the narrator between the psychologist chapters and those of the current events was remarkable, especially with the ending. She wasn't doing a different voice per say, but just a slightly different tone that helped me distinguish the characters. It's a spotlight on abuse, addiction, and the foster care system in Australia, so keep that in mind if you have any triggers related to this. I do wish we'd gotten a bit more character growth, but the focus was more on the mystery and I can appreciate that.

Overall a solid thriller that really redeemed Sally Hepworth's writing in my eyes.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

This is my first Sally Hepworth and I enjoyed the narrator's narration making it a well narrated audiobook. The book follows Jessica ,Alicia and Norah three girls raised in the foster system . To the world their foster mother Miss Fairchild was a sweetheart but behind closed doors she was something else. However they run away only to be reunited and pulled back to the home when a body is discovered
under the home they grew up in, the girls find themselves either painted as suspects or witnesses. It was pretty much fast moving, dark ,moving and a high level look at the dark side of fostering .

Rating:=3.5/5

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this audiobook.

I truly think Sally Hepworth can do no wrong.

Jessica, Norah and Alicia may not be sisters by blood but they are sisters by love. Always being told how lucky they were to grow up as foster kids on Wild Meadows, the farm owned by Miss Fairchild. But what no one knew was the abuse they faced under Miss Fairchilds care.

We get concurrent timelines to see the lives of the girls as they were young, living in Wild Meadows and now, as they head back to answer police questions after a body was discovered on the property.

This one was chalk full of likeable characters, tugs at the heart strings and plot twists.

I highly recommend this book.

Suspenseful read that alternates between past and present. The story begins with a character talking to a psychiatrist, but who is it? Everyone has suffered trauma in this story. Loved the loyalty between the girls who cling together to survive with their unpredictable and manipulative foster mother. In the present the girls are brought back to their old foster home when bones are discovered underneath the house. The story speeds up in the second half and a thrilling ending I didn’t see coming!

This was phenomenal! I found reasons to listen.

The story of found family is about three girls who grow up in foster care at a home where, decades later, human remains are found beneath the house.

There is a twisty story for the foster mother, as well.

Highly recommend!

I don't think I could love this book any more than I did! Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth was fantastic, and expertly narrated by Jessica Clarke.

Alicia, Jessica, and Norah ("with an h") grew up together being fostered by Miss Fairchild. Miss Fairchild was abusive, and while they all escaped, the sisters are asked to help with an investigation when a body is found under their foster home, Wild Meadows. I enjoyed each of the sisters and I felt that they were all so beautifully tarnished. We get into the minds of each woman (both past and present), and there is someone who is speaking with Dr. Warren, a psychiatrist. I LOVED the ending!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. This was a pleasure to read and I simply could not put it down.

In this story we follow 3 foster sisters who are contacted by police to help with an investigation after human remains are found at the old foster home, Wild Meadows, they met and lived at together. The book recounts their time at Wild Meadows and follows along as details of the investigation unfold.

This book was a wild ride and I really enjoyed it. The writing style was extremely engaging and the author did a great job at making the book easy to follow amidst alternating POV's and timelines. I was concerned that with the 3 female foster sisters I was going to get the characters mixed up and become confused but Hepworth did a great job at making each sister unique and easily distinguishable. Their bond was one of the best parts of this story and I felt like I was reading about real people.

Then comes all the twists, which mostly caught me by surprise. The author expertly weaves unexpected developments throughout the narrative, keeping readers on the edge of their seats until the very end. The final chapter had my jaw on the floor and I went back and listened to it a second time to full absorb it. Overall I got through this book so quickly and was reaching for it in every spare moment I had. I think this book would be perfect for someone who wants to read a mystery, that is fairly new to the genre. While some parts are unsettling, I could definitely see this book appealing to people who mostly read general fiction.

I listened to this book on audio and really enjoyed the narrator, however I think my experience might've been even better had I picked up the physical copy as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, and Macmillian Audio for the ALC of this book!

The subject matter of this book had me super interested from the start! It’s haunting and heart-wrenching and so so entertaining. Would recommend to anyone and will likely reread!

First of all, I am quickly becoming a big Sally Hepworth fan! I was *obsessed* with this book. The story is so intriguing and fast paced that you can't stop, I finished it in 24 hours and really enjoyed every moment. I live for a good twist and this delivered! Highly recommend this thriller! I had a physical copy from BOTM and an audio copy thanks to Netgalley and the publisher!

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth rapidly went from four to five stars with that 60th chapter!

Three foster sisters… one seemingly perfect foster mother… secrets buried bone deep…

Each sister was well-developed and unique, making their three perspectives easy to differentiate, each portraying different ways an abusive childhood can affect an individual. I enjoyed seeing how Hepworth handled trauma through each character’s development; each woman was given an appropriately resolute character arc, which made the overall plot satisfying.

Admittedly, this isn't my favourite audiobook recording. There were noises between speaking moments that irked me; swallowing, inhaling, and shuffling are all notable in addition to the text narration. Yes, this is easy enough to oversee, but they are still present. Although not always the case (especially with multiple perspective books), this plot is easy enough to follow along with in audiobook form, making it perfect to accompany readers while performing mundane tasks!

With twists that kept me pointing my accusatory finger up until the end, this thriller has made me itching for another from Hepworth!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary audio copy to read and review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC of this title. This was another captivating mystery/thriller by Sally Hepworth. The narrator does a great job of voicing the different characters and noticeably changes her voice when reading as a child, male, etc. Darling Girls tells the story of "now," when Jessica, Alicia, & Norah find out about bones discovered under their childhood home, and "then," when they were young girls being brought up there. I loved getting to know the characters in this way and I was eager to keep reading, but the ending fell a bit short for me. Overall still a very enjoyable read and I would recommend to others.

This is my 5th suspenseful book by this author (I haven't read her earlier fiction novels though my friend Jenna swears those are her favourites) and I found this one very twisty and captivating but ultimately it is not a new favourite. For some reason, I still have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for The Good Sister because I really LOVED those characters and the story was creepy too.

In Darling Girls, three sisters (foster sisters who are very much a found family) return to the foster house they met at because it has become a crime scene. A crime from decades ago is unearthed and it's impossible to know who to trust as the reader because there are a lot of subtleties involved in the past story. The characters never really completely grew on me, but my heart did go out to them for their past trauma and I feel that content warnings for childhood abuse and neglect as well as child death must be included here. There's also a woven narrative from the foster mother throughout the story and that added another layer and perspective to it all.

It was gripping and would make an excellent vacation/beach read much like all of hers! I do eventually hope to go back and read The Mother's Promise and The Things we Keep by this author.

Darling Girls was a tale of foster sisters caught in the mystery of a body found in the creepy house they were raised in. The characters have dark backstory and were not the most impactful in my opinion. While haunting, the mystery and story were predictable and I found the whole thing to be anticlimactic.

Having read a few of Sally Hepworth’s books already, I was so excited to listen to Darling Girls, the story of three foster girls, their trauma filled experiences growing up and the incredible bond they created while living in this horrific foster home. Their sister-like bond held strong over the years, especially when as adults they are forced to return to the town they grew up in when a body was discovered buried on the property that was once their foster home. What follows will keep you on the edge of your seat! Like her others books, Darling Girls will not disappoint.

Sometimes my mind can wander when I’m listening to an audiobook, but this thriller with its twists and turns kept me throughly engaged from beginning to end. The narration was fantastic, which I find can make or break a book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to listen to Darling Girls and provide my honest review for others. To Sally Hepworth- You’ve done it again! Darling Girls will be added to my recommendations for those looking for a thriller that will stay with them long after finishing the book.

I've never read any Sally Hepworth before but I enjoyed this one! Told in two primary timelines, we get into the mid of 3 foster sisters both in the present (where we know a body was found during renovation of their former foster home) and the past as they survive the abuse of their foster mother. This one definitely has some major triggers so check out your content warnings before diving in. Idk if it's because my mom was a social worker when I was a kid or I am just passionate about it, but it kills me when foster parents mistreat their foster kids, needless to say I was not a fan of their foster mom. The mystery itself is quite the slow burn as we spend a good chunk of the book just getting to know these 3 ladies in the past and present before we learn anything about the connection to the bones in the present. But it's a good slow burn. The audio is great too. I really enjoyed listening to it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of both the audiobook and the digital book. I ended up listening to the audio. At first I wasn't sure that I would like the audio because of the British accent, but I think the accent added to the narrative. I have read many of Sally Hepworth's books and this one didn't disappoint!