Excellent read and audiobook! Great characters. Good twists. Fascinating stories. I enjoyed following all 4 characters and their lives. As well as the extras. The cruelty is scary but it fits the story. The timeline of past and present is good, both with troubles and resolution.

The story followed Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. In the current day, the police is investigating the foster care home because they found human bones after an excavation/demolition to the care home. The police contacted each of them and asked to meet up. They were all nervous to dredge up the past because their childhood at the foster care home was rough. In the current day, each of the character does different things and has her own troubles.

There was another mysterious character talking to a psychologist about her childhood. It all leads up to an explosive ending.

This is my third read from the author and I loved it. I didn't only listened to the whole book but also read it too to clarify on some parts. The narrator did a good job and I enjoyed her accent.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read, listen, and review!

Sally Hepworth’s books are definitely a more slow-burn, psychological suspense and this was no exception, but there was more action in here than in her previous books! This one was a little darker and more harrowing than previous books, but an absorbing read for sure. Recommended!

So, so good. I loved this book. It kept the reader engaged the entire time. There are little twists and reveals along the way and I was happy with the ending. There was trope that I am not a fan of <spoiler> (drug abuse) </spoiler> by one of the characters and it started to feel a bit repetitive, but by the end I realized how well it was done to get to where the story went.

All of the characters in this story have some issues they need to deal with and it was interesting to see how their childhood affected the adults they became. I enjoyed getting to know them and seeing how their relationships evolved as well.

This definitely does not have a neat bow ending if you need that and there are major abuse trigger warnings in this one, but if you want a book that keeps you reading this is great. I highly recommend this one and look forward to seeing what Hepworth puts out next.

The audio is narrated by Jessica Clarke and she did an excellent job. If you enjoy audiobooks, give this one a listen.

This was a very well developed and gripping read. I was completely invested from the start wanting to know which character was having a session with their therapist. As the story progresses more and more information is dropped - while I found most of the reveals to be a bit predictable; however, the author still shocked me on the very last page. I never saw it coming. I will defiantly be checking out this author’s back list and keeping an eye out for future releases.

Sally Hepworth does it again. A solid five stars of a unique, dark, suspense. I enjoyed this book as much as the others.

An intricate story set in Australia with four points of view, past/present perspectives, and found family bonds made through the foster system.

The three main points of view follow the sisters, Alicia, Jessica, and Norah (with an H), and their time at Wild Meadows under the care of Ms. Fairchild, the abusive, manipulative, foster parent. The past/present timeline allows you to see how they were shaped into the women they are 25 years on and what living in those conditions did to each one.

Called back to Port Agatha where present-day bones were found at Wild Meadows, the sisters are facing their trauma head-on and healing.

Each girl is vastly different in personality and backstory but, no less a perfect fit into the trio. Jessica whose been vying for the attention and love of Ms. Fairchild since 5, when she entered the system wants nothing more than a family and now struggles with addiction. Norah, who has a hard time controlling her emotions but cares deeply about her sisters, and Alicia whose Gran spoiled her until her sudden hospitalization and death, struggles with intimacy and now works within the foster system herself. All three have trauma they're dealing with in the present setting from their past abuse at the hands of Ms. Fairchild, but still, one thing remains true - they take care of each other and will until the very end. I found myself so bonded to each girl, rooting for each one throughout. Sally Hepworth's characters always pull me in.

The fourth POV is sprinkled throughout, and keeps you guessing - is it one of the girls we follow? It isn't revealed until the end.

Sally Hepworth's writing is always amazing, I adore the characters she creates while dealing with dark, sad, situations - there is always a bit of comic relief that's done so well it's not tacky. The plots are original and imaginative while exploring themes that are hard but allows for bittersweet endings.

The narration by Jessica Clarke is spot-on and done VERY well.

4.5 stars!

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are forced into the foster care system after immense losses and personal tragedies. So, when they are each individually brought to Wild Meadows, an idyllic farming estate under the care of the beautiful Miss Fairchild, the girls should feel gratitude and luck for this second chance for a happy family. However, nothing is ever as it seems to be. Miss Fairchild has strict rules, a wild temper, and can be very unpredictable – they quickly learn this second chance is no fairytale.

Years later, all three grown women are still working through the trauma of their childhood, when they are contacted by a local detective that states a body has been discovered under the home the sisters grew up in. The lives they have tried so hard to establish, the memories they have tried so hard to bury come crashing back.

What really happened at Wild Meadows? And are the girls key witnesses or suspects to this horrible crime?

Thoughts:

Thank you so much @Macmillanusa and @Macmillanaudio for the advanced readers' copy in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely LOVED Darling Girls! This was shockingly my first Sally Hepworth novel, and now I immediately need to get on to her backlist novels, asap!

The tumultuous upbringing and stories Jessica, Norah and Alicia experienced growing up as foster children to the unpredictable Miss Fairchild was an absolute rollercoaster, nonetheless. There is never a moment where it feels like you might have it figured out or can predict what will happen next. The ending left me in a whirlwind, in the best way possible.

If you love unpredictable, addicting, domestic thrillers (not involving the typical husband and wife scenario) then this book is definitely for you!

Another Sally Hepworth book that I binged in less than 2 days! Pretty sure I could’ve finished it in 1 day if ya girl didn’t have to work. 😂

Oh god. The way this book made me so angry and frustrated! Miss Fairchild is just a very effective villain. I hated her so much. 😂

So this book is about foster children and their relationship with their foster mom. After all three children aged out, they all went on their lives but still remained to be very close to each other. One day, all of them received a phone call from a detective asking if they can return to the small town where their foster home was because they had found human bones buried under the house… and that’s basically the plot!

For my thriller babes, you would definitely binge this one!!! Short chapters were also a great motivator to keep flipping pages 😂 I love how the story was told in past and present timelines and it didn’t confuse me at all even if I was listening to it in audio!

I love reading about the different personalities of the 3 female leads and how they react to certain situations. This book is also somehow about parenting and fostering children. That being said, I would just like to add heavy trigger warnings for child abuse. It was difficult to read about it sometimes.

Overall, this is another 5⭐️ thriller read for me and I highly recommend it to everybody who loves a good quick, bingeable, and twisty thriller!!

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillanaudio for the audiobook!

💭Tell me about your current read in 1-3 sentences and I’ll try to guess what you’re reading!

Read as an audiobook narrated by Jessica Clarket.

This was an expertly crafted psychological mystery. The foreshadowing throughout the book gives the reader just enough information to guess some reveals, but keeps others close to the chest. The twists that took me by surprise were satisfying rather than coming out of nowhere, and the increasingly tense atmosphere gave me a building sense of dread throughout. I enjoyed the audiobook format a lot, and the narrator did a great job with the characters and dialogue.

The antagonist of this story was a huge highlight for me. A character who is manipulative, clever, and unhinged is absolutely terrifying if done well, and the author really nailed it here. The main characters were sympathetic and flawed, and I felt that their individual responses to trauma was portrayed in a nuanced way. Heavy content warnings for CSA, general abuse within the foster care system, and substance abuse. Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC. This is my honest review.

5/5 Childhood trauma and healing featuring three flawed protagonists and one mastermind of a villain.

"Darling Girls" by Sally Hepworth is a women's fiction mystery and psychological thriller. I found it interesting.

This story is about three foster girls taken in by Holly Fairchild, who seems really sweet at times and then is very angry and cruel other times.

In the future, when the girls are adults, they are called back to the town that they grew up in because human bones have been bones underneath the house. The mystery is whose bones they are and who killed that person.

This novel is told from four points of view, each of the sisters and a mystery one talking to a therapist. Each of the sisters shares from two time periods, "now" and "before" - when they were kids. Dialogue feels realistic. The main characters are well defined.

Trigger warnings: extensive child abuse, teen rape, pill addiction, alcoholism, near drowning

Characters - 5/5
Writing - 5/5
Plot - 5/5
Pacing - 5/5
Unputdownability - 5/5
Enjoyment - 2.5/5
Narration - 3/5 Jessica Clarke. Sometimes, I couldn't tell the voices of the sisters apart
Cover - 4/5 unrelated
Overall - 4.3/5 rounded down to 4.

If the trigger warnings don't trigger you much, then you may really like this mystery thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sally Hepworth for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so tragic, and captivating! I really liked how many emotions they bring you through, how you can feel so much hate towards a character and then have some remorse for them at the end: I thought the ending was wrapped up very well

At first I thought this was going to be a retelling of “Annie”, and then it got a little twisted. The storyline was gripping, but not too intense, with a couple of unexpected surprises. This was a quick read for me and I enjoyed it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication.

This riveting thriller was an audiobook I absolutely could not stop listening to! Jessica Clarke‘s performance kept me wanting to absorb every detail as the stories of Jessica, Norah, and Alicia childhoods with Miss Fairchild unraveled.
Three sisters you can’t help but feel so much empathy for as they try to solve a mystery that has brought them back together where their sisterhood story began, Wild Meadows foster home. I would highly recommend anyone looking for their next favorite thriller to listen to!

''SISTERS, SECRETS, LOVE, AND MURDER... Sally Hepworth’s new novel has it all.''
I am a huge Sally Hepworth fan. I discovered her last year and devoured her backlist. I especially enjoy reading her books on audio. The narration is always top tier. and her characters always so fleshed out and unique. So, I obviously abandoned all my current reads to binge ‘’Darling Girls’’ and it did not disappoint! No one writes a domestic drama/mystery like Hepworth. I really enjoyed how this story centered on sisterhood and found family. I found the ending to be satisfying and SHOCKING! An easy 5 star read. Massive thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sally Hepworth is the master of crafting such interesting characters. In this book we have foster sisters Jess, a home organizer who steals pills from her clients, Norah, an aggressive 👊🏻 single woman who sleeps with men so they'll do odd jobs around her home, and Alicia who grew up to be a social worker. Norah also has dogs named Couch, Converse, and Thong because they're named after the first thing they chewed up 🤣

The story centers around the sisters' lives in their foster home, Wild Meadows, 25 years ago. Of course as we learn more about their childhood, the secrets begin unraveling. Who is the body under the house? And who buried it there?

Without giving too much away, I'd say this was suspenseful, but not overly thrilling. I figured out who Dr. Warren was speaking with, so that twist didn't get me. BUT there was a big twist in the last five minutes.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the chance to listen in exchange for an honest review.

Sally Hepworth is an autobuy author for me and I have never given one of her books less than 4 stars. The author's gift is being able to make her characters so authentic, they don't feel fictional. I think her books are classified mostly as thrillers, but really, to me they are more like character-driven dramas with some mystery thrown in. Always, the plots are fast-paced enough I can't put the book down, which makes it all the more amazing that I feel the characters so deeply and personally. My two favorite Sally Hepworth novels are The Good Sister, and The Mother-in-Law. Those were hard-hitting, and beautiful and extremely enjoyable to read. Darling Girls is so well written, but I just couldn't give it the same rating as I gave The Good Sister and The Mother-In-Law because it was a much more uncomfortable reading experience. Reading about child-abuse, whether active or passive, is extremely difficult for me. I was invested in all three "sisters" the book followed, but so disturbed by their childhood stories, especially Alicia's for various reasons. Seeing innocence be robbed intentionally and maliciously was painful to read. However, the mystery felt very realistic and I enjoyed the sisters' relationships so much. As always, I finished this latest book of Ms. Hepworth's and had to just take a break before starting another book so I could really think about it. How does the author knock it out of the park every time? I can't think of a bad book she has written...or even one I was "meh" about!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook copy. This book was five stars! I love the narrator point. However, my only complaint is that I wish there was different voices for each of the characters.

"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."

WHEW. What a story!!! I needed to catch my breath after reading this one because it was DARK. Seriously, proceed with caution because this was a tough read.

This story is about three sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. They aren't biological sisters, but they are definitely bonded for life after the trauma they experienced together while living at Wild Meadows as foster children. This idyllic estate is owned by the beautiful and pleasant-seeming Miss Fairchild. Each child is placed in her care at a different time, starting with Jessica. For as long as the girls can remember, they've been told how 'lucky' they were to be placed there. What they experienced in this house was far from serendipitous, and no sane person would consider them lucky.

The book starts off years later; the girls are now adults and they are still close, but one day each girl gets a call from the police to return to Wild Meadows because a body was found under the house. The sisters reluctantly return to their hometown and are forced to revisit old demons as an investigation is underway.

This is told in multiple POVs (each girl has a very distinctive personality which made this a pleasure to listen to on audio), and past and present timelines. This story was unpredictable, unsettling, and unforgettable.

I think giving any more information would be criminal because this is the kind of thriller you need to experience for yourself. The way Sally Hepworth described what these girls went through was nothing short of cinematic. I was glued to my headphones and my Kindle. I audibly gasped, my eyes widened at parts, and I *actually* found myself holding my breath at certain points.

This entire book was perfect and the ending was amazing! This is definitely going to be one of my top favorite thrillers of the year. I did guess a few plot-twists, but it's because I am just that good, lol. It was NOT predictable! Lastly, I really appreciated the author's note at the end and that the author actually interviewed children who were in the foster system in Australia. This was well-researched, disturbing, and if you can stomach the subject matter, a must-read for any thriller fan.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Macmillan audio for the advanced reader copy, and advanced listener copy in exchange for my honest opinion. This publishes on 4/23/24, it is already available on Book of the Month, but if you don't have a subscription mark your calendars and set those Libby holds! This one is a doozy!

CONTENT WARNING: child abuse (physical and sexual), childhood trauma, domestic violence

I’ve read a few books by Sally Hepworth, and for the most part, I enjoy her writing. I also really like the fact that they’re set in Australia and the audiobook narrators have Australian accents, but they aren’t so strong that I can’t understand them. And yes, I have had that problem in the past with a different author.

I wound up alternating my reading between the ebook and the audiobook, since I enjoyed the accent of the narrator, Jessica Clarke, and the way that she narrated the book. She did a great job with this story, and I enjoyed how easily she slipped between characters during the POV shifts in the story.

It isn’t just the characters that we slip between, since this is a dual timeline story. We gradually learn the story through the eyes of each character both “then” and “now.” Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are sisters through their time spent with Miss Fairchild, a foster mother who seemed to offer everything they could possibly ask for. Except like most things that seem too good to be true, this is too. Miss Fairchild isn’t the dream foster mother they hoped for, but quickly reveals herself to be an abusive nightmare. Jessica is the first girl to enter Miss Fairchild’s home, at the age of five, willing to endure ever-growing levels of isolation in order to keep the affection of Miss Fairchild. Norah follows, an eleven-year-old with violent tendencies due to her background. Alicia, a good-natured girl, comes to live with them at age 12 after her grandmother has an accident and has to stay at a rehab for a while.

In the present day, each of the women are struggling with their own inner conflicts. For Jessica, it’s obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and an addiction to prescription pills that she has been stealing from the houses of her clients, leading to the implosion of her business and marriage. Norah is facing potential incarceration as a result of her uncontrolled anger issues. And Alicia is a social worker, helping children to find safe living arrangements, but her own unresolved issues make it difficult for her to move on from her past and get into a healthy relationship and build a family for herself.

But when police get involved and let them know that human remains have been found beneath the house which they have tried very hard to put behind them, they can no longer escape their past. This is the central mystery to the story—whose remains are these? And who put them there?

We slowly learn more about each of the girls, and what they went through in Miss Fairchild’s care, but we also peel back the layers of the onion on the personality of each of the women in the present day. Each of the sisters grew on me in a different way. Norah is the one that I found myself identifying with initially, with her combination of sensitivity and sarcasm to protect vulnerable core, while Alicia was just too sweet not to like. She’s one of those genuinely good-hearted people that you can’t dislike even if you want to. And Jessica had my feelings all over the place during the book, as more information is revealed, but once her true personality is revealed, it was much easier to empathize with her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It kept me intrigued, and I was surprised by the plot twists and the big reveal. However, the ending kind of left me a little disappointed, and I didn’t love that last twist. It didn’t add anything to the story, and felt like it was there more to ruffle feathers than anything else. The only other thing that I wasn’t exactly thrilled about was the use of “abused child in foster care” as a trope. While I know that this does happen and far more than should ever be acceptable, i’m not generally a fan of this being used as a trope, and think it comes up in books, shows, and movies to the point where it seems as though every single foster situation is abusive, and there aren’t ever any good ones. Other than those things, I was here for the story. Nothing really played out as I had expected, and it kept me engaged from the start to the finish. And I highly recommend the audiobook—Jessica Clarke does a wonderful job and her Australian accent is fantastic to listen to (and easy to understand even if you’re an uncultured swine aka American like me 🤣). Is it just an American thing to love hearing accents different from my own? A me thing? Or is this basically universal? Regardless, while this isn’t my favorite Hepworth novel, it’s still a really good one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sally Hepworth for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC audiobook for Darling Girls coming out April 23, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really loved the Soulmate, so I was excited to receive this book from NetGalley. The narrator was really fun and it helps she was Australian. You really get a feel for the story. I definitely wasn’t sure where this story was going and there’s a few twists along the way. It took a while to get into the story. The foster care system is a hard subject and I wasn’t expecting the theme of child abuse. I was hoping for something a little different. I didn’t really like a lot of the characters. I definitely will check out other books by this author.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
Narrator: Jessica Clarke
Rating: DNF
Pub date: 4/27

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia all grew up in the same foster home, remaining close throughout their lives. As adults, a body is found beneath their old home, Wild Meadows, and the police contact them when they start to investigate. What follows is a series of revelations about what really happened to the girls when they lived with Miss Fairchild.

Sally Hepworth is an auto-buy author for me, so I was very excited to read this one. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

The story goes back and forth between the past and present tense, although we spend most of our time in the past while the girls live with Miss Fairchild. They are treated terribly and the victims of child abuse (some of it sexual) while they are there. This isn’t something I enjoy reading about, so I DNF’d the book at 60%. I should mention that I’m definitely an outlier here…there are lots of five-star reviews for this upcoming release, so make sure you check out the trigger warnings and other reviews before taking my word for it.

I listened to the audiobook, and Jessica Clark did a wonderful job voicing all the characters.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for my complimentary audiobook and Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy.