2.5 - 3 stars

I feel terrible with having to rate this book so low, but after finishing this story, I felt wholly let down by it. Melanie Golding is a new author to me, so I was not familiar with her, or her writing style. But even with that aside, this book did not produce any of the feelings or thoughts I expected it to when I read the blurb.

Part of my struggle with this book was the fact that I did not form any type of connection at all with the main character, Lauren Tranter. I understand she just had twins and there was a complication after and it was all very harrowing, but she just wore on my nerves to no end. Her husband Patrick comes across as a worthless lout who I disliked immensely from page one. And he just got worse as the book progressed. I feel like Ms. Golding wrote his character to be exactly what I thought of him, and that's all well and good when an author does that, but for me, there needs to be some type of comeuppance by the end of the book in order to redeem them, or the book, but that doesn't happen here. In fact, the book just sort of ends with no real resolution at all, which was pretty much the icing on the cake for me and left me feeling confused and frustrated.

Truly the only character I was interested in reading about was Joanna Harper, the Detective Sargent who was investigating Lauren's case. Her background was quite interesting and I enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on her, her past and her life. But again, by the end of the book she had pretty much just disappeared, with no closure or ending.

The premise of the story was really what made me want to read it, and I understand that a motion picture is in the works that I will watch when it releases. I really didn't come across any elements I would consider horror per se, except for the few interactions between Lauren and the "changeling" twins, but even those were just kind of creepy, not scary.

Overall, the story had a lot of promise, but something in the execution of the story was lacking for me. I think it is a combination of characters I didn't like, a slow moving storyline, and several very frustrating scenes that had me setting the book aside several times. It took me seven days to read this, and normally I finish a book in 2-3 days.

Perhaps one day Ms. Golding will expand the ending of the story, or maybe when they release the movie it will have a more resolved ending. I think I could have tolerated everything that bugged me about this book, and give it a higher rating, IF the ending had given me good resolution for both Lauren and Joanna.

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Giving birth was traumatic enough for Lauren but to have a gypsy come to you while you are still in the hospital and tell you she wants to trade your twins for hers would be even more traumatic.

Lauren had a very difficult birth and a husband who has checked out in the helping department with the twins.

Along with sleep deprivation, Lauren is deathly afraid to leave the house because of the woman she saw hours after the birth of her twins and again in her front yard and scratching at the window.

LITTLE DARLINGS moves along quickly sharing Lauren's fears and her wonderful care of her twins Morgan and Riley.

Then one day when Lauren finally ventured out and had a good time with her friends, she became exhausted, sat on a bench in the park, fell asleep, and when she woke, the stroller was gone.

A nightmare for any parent, but it seemed more pronounced for Lauren because of the threat from the gypsy.

No one believed Lauren about any of this.

They do find the stroller, but Lauren screams that they are not her babies. They had been switched and were changelings. This started an entire other problem for Lauren.

LITTLE DARLINGS will be frightening for anyone but even more so for any reader who is a new parent.

The book has a bit of paranormal and fairy stories as part of its theme, but it is more of a thriller and a mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. 4/5

This book was given to me as an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Little Darlings is a supernatural thriller part police procedural that depicts the life of Lauren Tranter, who is suffering from severe postpartum depression after the birth of her twin boys. One day at the park, Lauren dozes for a few minutes and when she wakes up, the twins are gone. When they are later found, Lauren insists that they are not actually her boys, but changelings. Those in Lauren’s life, including her husband and a police detective who is investigating the case, struggle to understand what is actually going on.

What I loved most about this was that it’s different from typical psychological thrillers. Lauren is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, yet, as a reader, I was captivated by her story and was rooting for her the entire time. The supernatural elements add a layer of unpredictable mystery, whereas the police detective portion grounds the plot and causes the reader to think, “What if . . . ?” An overall original and enjoyable read.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Crooked Lane Books and Melanie Golding for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this arc early.

I have to admit. When I first read the blurb? I was a little skeptical about the storyline and concept. I’m wasn’t too sure I’d like the book. But I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few chapters were it was a little
Slow or hard to get through. But for the most part, Such a great read. Unique too.

Lauren Tranter has given birth to twin boys. While worrying about not immediately being in love with them — that mysterious mother’s love, she hears a voice sing “I’ll take yours and you can have mine.” Frightened by the woman, she calls the police who don’t take it seriously. However when Det. Sgt. Jo Harper hears the call, she doesn’t think Mrs. Tranter is making up what happened even though hospital security finds nothing in her room. Mrs. Tranter is evaluated by the hospital. Sleep deprived, at home with her babies she does her best taking care of them. When she sees the woman from the hospital outside of her home, she calls the police again. It is assumed she is hallucinating. When the babies are taken, only Det. Sgt. Jo Harper believes that she wasn’t hallucinating. When the babies are missing, Mrs. Tranter is institutionalized. Why? Will she get her babies back?

The author has written a mystery that has a bit of horror to it due to the folklore given about changelings. It strikes the fear of what happens to the original babies and what the changelings are. The nightmare that Mrs. Tranter goes through kept me wondering if anyone would believe and help her. It is a suspenseful mystery.

Motherhood has not started well for Lauren Tranter. So excited for the birth of her twin sons, labor was a horrendous affair involving forceps and emergency surgery. When her beautiful boys are placed on her chest, she doesn't immediately feel the overwhelming surge of love you're "supposed to" feel when you see your newborn infants. Not to mention the nursing staff are less than kind, and her husband practically skips out the door when it's his time to leave.

She's alone, stressed, and overwhelmed.

That's the time when the old lady appears, and offers to trade babies with her. Except what she's offering aren't quite babies.

CCTV and the hospital staff say she's seeing things. That a traumatic birth plus exhaustion have led to a mental break. That once she gets home, she'll get some sleep. That everything is just fine.

But are things fine? Is she, in her sleep deprived state, seeing things? Is a fairy tale nightmare coming for her children, or is post partum depression/psychosis sinking in?

What is really going on?

This. was. excellent. I jumped on this book when I read the synopsis, but when it came time to start it, I was nervous. If we went too far down the fairy tale route, would I still enjoy the story?

The creep factor in this book is SO intense. It's not too much, though there are some moments where I couldn't help think, "WTF Why would you tell a new mother that?"

Each chapter starts with fairy tale lore about what to do if your child has been traded for a changeling. Different culture interpretations of the myth, and they are all relatively disturbing. If I were a sleep deprived new mother, I could see the paranoia kicking in, and the wondering if I were imagining things. What is real, who can be trusted?

So many layers to this story, so many questions. Even the ending will leave you guessing.

This book needs loads of attention, because it is so captivating, so good.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books for gifting me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. All opinons are my own.

I rate this book a 2 .5 out of 5 Stars.

Please, Please don’t let this review discourage you from reading this book, as I really am going to be the unpopular opinion here. Plenty of my fellow bloggers have given this 4 and 5 Stars. I don’t like writing negative reviews, but I also promised to give an honest review, and this is it.

It just didn’t work for me, and I really cannot pinpoint why, other than I just couldn’t be grabbed by the story, the characters, or the slow build up. And maybe part of the problem was that I psyched myself up to much on this one.

What I can say about this book, is that I liked the way you questioned whether, Lauren was suffering from Postpartum Psychosis, or were her babies really changelings? The Author did a great job writing it in a style to keep you guessing. I myself suffered with PPD, and I found Lauren to be very relatable, her feelings, her emotions, her fears, were all written very spot on.

I would consider this book to be more of a Dark Fairy Tale, or maybe a Dark Folk Lore, maybe the fact I thought of this as a thriller, is why I felt so let down.

That ending though, was pretty dang good.

Little Darlings was absolutely captivating. I was complete enthralled through out the whole book. I was completely intrigued by the whole story and the dark fairy tale/ dark folklore of this book. I was kept guessing from beginning to end and had a hard time putting this book down. I haven’t read anything like this book and I absolutely loved. It was creepy and just kept getting creepier but I had to find out all the answers. I will definitely be recommending this book to many of my friends.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Little Darlings is a suspenseful narrative weaving in folklore and the paranormal. It is for sure a page-turner that keeps you guessing what is really going on. Lauren is a brand new mom of twin boys. She is convinced someone is trying to kidnap them, even trying to exchange them for some sinister changlings. The premise of this novel is immediately capturing, unfortunately, it falls flat in many aspects. Despite its intimate ties to some grimmer fairytales, the author struggles with seamlessly integrating their content. In fact, I thought on many occasions that the whole story could've worked without any mentions of river fairies or their attempts to swap out newborns. The protagonist, Lauren, is plenty unreliable on her own. We never know if she is delusional or if someone truly tried to take her babies. Another disappointment for me was the ending - it just left me feeling deflated. It was so anticlimactic that I was confused about whether or not I had missed a huge plot point somewhere along the way. I kept thinking "there has to be more, right?". I also failed to care about most of the characters. Detective Harper had several of her own issues that should've been explored more. Her "relationship" with Amy, the journalist, was like an afterthought and added very little to the story. Lauren's husband was sleazy and disgusting at the very least and hugely manipulative on his worst days. There was also NO solution to any of his indiscretions. Lauren herself was an ok protagonist but her personal struggles were incredibly relatable and earnest. And this is really where the author did her best work.

Golding tackled a very important issue - postpartum depression (PPD) - in a unique and smart way. Channeling it through an unreliable narrator in a setting of potential dark paranormal forces gave the novel some depth and made PPD accessible to a reader without any personal experience, like me. At times, I too had very visceral sensations as Lauren was going through her "breakdown". I could understand her thought processes and I really felt for her. I am so glad we are starting to address some of our mental health issues in creative ways. I'd say this book could be a trigger for someone suffering from PPD but is definitely an interesting resource nonetheless. It sure allows bringing awareness to a topic that we often treat as hush-hush. I hope Golding will continue her writing journey along those lines and I will check out her next book.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is difficult to review, probably because it was so hard to read. Not because it wasn't well written, mind you, in fact the opposite is true. It's fantastic... but it's difficult because of the awful nature of events. I think it was mostly supposed to be a quasi-urban-fantasy-sci-fi-thriller-mystery-with-a-twist amalgamation, but it was also psychologically a little bit in the horror genre as it explores many people's deep-rooted fears - children being kidnapped, not being believed and everything thinking you're crazy, being locked up and medicated in an institution, creatures that are coming after you, etc.

Honestly, this book was super compelling, hard to put down, and successful in what it attempts to do - get in your head, stir up your mental pot, and set things a-boiling.

I don't want to spoil too much, so I can't really go into too much more detail, but I also feel like this book could be an exploration of post-partum as well. As someone who can't and will never experience that difficulties of childbirth and postpartum, I can't speak much on the subject or whether this is the author's intention.

But I will say this much. #notteamPatrick

Little Darlings is a creepy, engaging, hair-raising tale, one which I was happy to review. The addition of the dark fairy folklore regarding twins made this novel so much more sinister.

A new mother's worst nightmare is the premise of Little Darlings.

Lauren Tranter is the new mother of twin boys, Morgan and Riley. She's overwhelmed, experiencing postpartum depression and if that wasn't enough, one of the nights while she's still at the hospital, a young woman with twins wants to exchange/take her babies. Lauren runs away and hides in the bathroom and calls the cops. Of course, no one can find the woman and her babies. They all think it was Lauren hallucinating. She's tired, she was given medications during delivery so the conclusion is that she was imaging the whole event.

DS Jo Harper reviews the report the next morning and something about the event pushes her to meet Lauren and to further investigate it. Jo believes Lauren. She knows something happened to Lauren at the hospital. Sadly, her boss doesn't agree with her and using the police resources is not something he wants to agree on. Jo doesn't want to leave the case and she starts using her own free time to follow some leads.

Then the worst happens. While on an outing with the babies a month after they were born, Lauren falls asleep on a bench and when she wakes up, her babies are gone. Jo is called to help with the kidnapping. She finds the twins but when they returned them to Lauren, she shockingly screams that they're not hers!

I liked both Lauren and DS Jo Harper. It was interesting not knowing if Lauren was imagining it all or if it was real. The folklore at the beginning of every chapter really helps with the eeriness. Jo had her own reasons for investigating the case involving babies and she tried her best to help Lauren.

Little Darlings reads itself. The whole story was spooky. It had my attention from beginning to end.

I heard this could become a movie. Perfect script for one.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A mother knows her babies and Lauren knew her twins had been switched with changelings from the deep, but no one would believe her. She HAD to get them back, but being labeled as mentally unstable would prove her first challenge, switching them with the witch from the water would be her second. Surviving would be her third.

LITTLE DARLINGS by Melanie Golding is dark, haunting and every mother’s worst nightmare. Throughout this tale the feeling of wrongness prevails and an eerie sense of horror will keep readers glued to each page. Have the twins really been switched for monsters or has Lauren gone over the deep end? Riveting and edgy, this tale is the thing nightmares are made from.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Crooked Lane Books!

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (April 30, 2019)
Publication Date: April 30, 2019
Genre: Dark Fiction | Horror
Print Length: 315 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com

The most affecting passages in Little Darlings come early on - when Lauren is struggling as a brand new mom, bone-tired, sleep-deprived, and getting little help from her husband. I just wanted to somehow enter the story and relieve her for a few hours so that she could sleep and regain some of her energy. Every mother will see themselves in Lauren, not only in the first few months after giving birth but in the sheer horror and panic surrounding every mother's worst fear - what if someone took my baby when I wasn't looking?

Little Darlings is taut with suspense, as the novel expertly straddles the line between post-partum depression and folktales about changelings - fairy creatures who take the place of stolen human babies. In one chapter, I am sure that the fairies stole Morgan and Riley but in the next I am equally convinced that physically and emotionally strung Lauren is in the middle of a psychotic episode. In which camp does the ending finally fall? - I'll leave it to you to find out.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding has been described as an "unsettling thriller perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Grimms’ Fairy Tales." I would say I enjoyed the novel, its plot, and the writing.

Like almost all mothers with newborns, Lauren Tranter is exhausted from lack of sleep. Lauren has it worse than many mothers because she gave birth to twins. SInce she is so exhausted and sleep deprived no one believes her when, still in the hospital, she claims someone tried to take her children and wants to replace them with her own.

A month later her children are taken but when they are returned Lauren knows they are not really her children. Again, no one believes her.

What do you do when everyone tells you are wrong and does not believe you? Do you start to wonder if they are right? What if you are positive you are right and everyone else is wrong?

Melanie Golding's debut novel is a slow start but it is worth reading. The novel gets creepier and most suspenseful as the story progresses. The writing and character development, and the creepy stories at the beginning on the chapters helped set the mood well.

Review published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, and Goodreads on 3/22/19. Will publish on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on its release date, April 30, 2019.

Such a gripping story!

I'd love to thank the author, NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes out on 30th of April, so you have plenty of time to gather your money for it. This book is amazing! What didn't worked for me was the ending, because it didn't go out as I wanted it to be. But still, 4 FULL Stars! It has -kind of- an open ending.

This book starts with our main character, Lauren Tranter, just given birth to boy twins. She and her caring husband, Patrick, name their boys Morgan and Riley. I'll spare you with the gory details of Lauren talking about her bloody experience (literally). This kind of made me scared about having babies, but I guess it depends on every woman's body.

So, she has to stay in hospital for a while after the birth. In the first night, she hears somebody near her; another woman and her twin boys. But the next day when she asks a nurse about another woman, she denies saying that Lauren was the only woman giving birth to twins. So in the next nighttime, that woman comes again, and Lauren sees her and that woman tells Lauren that she wants to exchange the babies. She even tries to catch Lauren, but she escapes, takes the children with her and hides into the bathroom with them and calls the police, until the nurses come for her.
Of course they found nobody there and everyone thinks Lauren is insane. Even her husband.

After they let her go home, she stays a whole month in the house taking care of her babies, and seeing that woman outside, again.
Meanwhile, Detective Jo Harper comes into the scene. She tries her best to see what's going on and when Lauren gets out of the house eventually and her babies go missing, she believes Lauren, despite everyone else. She even finds the babies.
But Lauren says these are not her babies, because they act weird.
From here, a lot of crazy things happen. And Harper gets so close to the truth and the weird woman. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, the end takes another course and the novel ends open.

Harper was my favourite character in this book, because she believed that this was not a simple case and she dug dipper into it and found quite curious things about this situation. She is very determinate to find what's happening, and I like this about her.

This book is based on a fairy tale, but the author created an ingenious way to tell this 'story'. She has real talent and hooks you by the first pages!

I really liked this book and I'm happy that I found it on NetGalley. You should read it, too, when it comes out on April 30th. You will not regret it.

In this debut novel by Melanie Golding, we follow the journey of a seemingly-innocent, but understandably, exhausted new mother to twin boys. Strange events occur just after the birth of her twins, a scary "river woman" appears in the next bed and ominously threatens that if the mother, Lauren, ever leaves her babies alone, even for a moment, she will snatch them and exchange them for her own twins who appear to be strange, filthy, "creatures" of the river, not truly human. The book starts out a bit slow but picks up in the second half as strange things start to happen that make us (and Lauren's husband, Patrick, Detective Harper and her doctors) all wonder--is it Lauren's exhausted imagination, her mental health history or something truly dark and sinister happening, not of this world?

Like other reviewers, I found this book enticingly creepy, but had to find out what happened! While Golding doesn't really give us the clean/tidy ending one might hope for, we are left to wonder--was Lauren the culprit? Is her mind playing tricks on her? Or was she inexplicably tied to some dark, long-lost and forgotten historical disappearance of the "drowned village?"

That, friends and fellow readers, is up to you to interpret, mull and decide.

Overall, I enjoyed the fairy/historical additions and suppositions Golding weaves into this story. Not traditionally a fan of dark and twisted fairy-like stories, I found this one well-done and not too over the top. For those who tend to veer away from fantasy/supernatural novels, I'd encourage you to give this one a try. It has much more reality than fantasy and the parts that are included are done in a way that doesn't force the reader to fully immerse in a fantasy world.

3.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley, Melanie Golding and Crooked Lane Books for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren is exhausted after giving birth to twin boys, but she knows what she saw in her hospital room that night. A strange woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own. But when the police show up, there is no one to be found and everyone believes she is seeing things. A month later, Lauren falls asleep in the park and the babies disappear and when they are found, Lauren knows that something isn’t right. These don’t act like her babies, but they look like her babies. Lauren knows these aren’t her babies, and she’ll do whatever she can to get her babies back.

At the beginning of this book I was worried I was going to have to mark it as unable to finish because I was having trouble following Lauren’s thoughts and was worried the whole book would be like this. I am so glad that I kept reading! Thinking back now, it almost seems like those chapters are hard to get through because the narrator is so tired and discombobulated. I enjoyed how the folklore was incorporated into this novel because you don’t see that a lot and I loved the little stories that just fed into Lauren’s thinking. I really enjoyed Harper’s character and how trusting she is of Lauren and how she really wants to help her even though it is going to get her into trouble with the higher ups. I enjoyed thoroughly Lauren and how fully she believed what she was seeing and how twisted the story became the further you got into it. The author was so creative with this novel and I loved how unique it was. I would definitely recommend picking it up!

Out April 30th!

The story is inspired by some deliciously creepy dark fairy tales that adds an extra layer to the sinister, menacing and eerie feel of the book. I absolutely love these types of tales and found myself devouring this one!

This was one spooky read! Take your favorite psych thriller and combine it with Grimm's Fairy Tales...the real ones that are gruesome, dark and scary...not the version with sunshine and rainbows. I can't even put all of my thoughts into words because I was constantly questioning what was going on. Just when my mind would grasp onto one theory, something would happen and make me second guess everything. I was never quite sure exactly what to believe.

“Choose one. Choose one or I’ll take them both. I’ll take yours and you can have mine. You’ll never know the difference. I can make sure they look just the same. One’s fair. Two is justice done.”

The story is told by the mother, Lauren Tranter and police investigator, Jo Harper. Lauren is the mother of newborn twin boys. She is clearly exhausted with little to no support at home. While still in the hospital after her delivery, she has an unsettling encounter in the middle of the night with a strange woman who wants to trade children with her. She hides in the bathroom with her babies and calls the police. Unfortunately, no one believes her but it does get her on the radar of Jo Harper. Even though Harper's superior tells her it isn't a valid case, she has a gut feeling and continues to follow up on potential leads.

Lauren's paranoia worsens when she and the twins go home. Her husband, Patrick isn't very helpful and caring for the babies falls almost entirely on her. She's afraid that someone wants to steal the babies so she stays locked in the house with them and barely sleeps. An incident occurs later in the book and she's convinced that her babies have been swapped and aren't her own. From this point forward, the book also takes on a heartbreaking quality. As a mother, I could totally relate to being willing to do whatever you think is necessary to save "your" children. However, as the reader, I continued to wonder if these were actually her children or not. You could never tell if it was folklore or psychosis at work. In addition, the author's clever use of fairytale quotes at the start of many chapters adds to the creepy and gothic tone of the book. In turn, this keeps the reader in a state of indecision about whether this is all due to mystical reasons or simply a mother's mental illness.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good fairy story mixed with a thriller and this did not disappoint. As a mum myself I could relate with the uncertainty and fear that the main character was feeling. Admittedly I thought that she made some really stupid mistakes but these were soon forgiven as the mystery unfolds. I liked that the book starts at the ending and then goes back to the beginning it created that great cyclical structure that I enjoy in a novel. The descriptive language was very engaging and I felt that this is overall a good book.