Excellent read. At the end I was surprised to see this was a debut novel. Wow, this author has great talent and I look forward to more novels from her. This one kept you reading and kept you guessing. Well done.

Little Darlings is a creepy page-turner. I love the way the author integrated folklore to her modern story of a mother’s nightmare of twins stolen and replaced with changelings. Is she experiencing this or has she lost her grip on reality? Well written and highly effective entertainment for fans of the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the E-Arc copy.
Whoo... I must first say that I have been on a dark journey lately with reading adult fiction. I recently read Baby Teeth and was mesmerized by it. It stayed with me for weeks. Once it had cleared, I have been reading a lot of YA, so when I saw Little Darlings I thought why not. Well...Little Darlings seeps under your skin slowly and before you know it the book is finished. Seriously finished. Melanie Golding is a author to watch out for with this one. What I loved about this book is that it is dark and creepy, but not in the way you expect. It pulls at your gut, your instincts of what feels out of place, not necessarily what you see. The author plays on that perfectly. Do not underestimate this book because just when you think you know..maybe you don't. It made me glad to be a reader again. Reading a book should make your feel and think for a while sometimes. Sanity is a very thin line.

Little Darlings
By Melanie Golding
expected due date 4-30-19 (kindle & ebook) Crooked Lane Books and 5-2-19 (Hardcover) Harper Avenue

You don't need blood and gore to make a great horror story. Atmosphere, if masterfully done, will keep you creeped out and chill you to the bone.This eerie story will do that.This is done that masterfully. It will engage your mind on a wild ride and leave you so haunted, you may begin to question your own state of sanity, your own definition of sanity.
Lauren Tranter has just had twin boys-she is exhausted-but she is absolutely sure she saw a woman creep into the hospital and switch her twins with a different set of twins. No one takes her seriously. They think she's losing it. She is quite sure she is not. Soon she is home with her boys. She takes them to the park one afternoon and they disappear, but are soon found. They seem different to her...Lauren does not believe they are HER babies and becomes obsessed with getting HER babies back. She has a plan. Will she be able to carry off her plan?What's with her husband, Patrick?
This is so damn chilling and creepy. The atmosphere, the perfect pace and personable characters, make it hard not to get caught up in this story. Its that good.
I would not be surprised if its made into a movie or series.
Due late April / early May 2019. Put it on your must buy list.
I am keeping my eyes on Melanie Golding!
Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and #NetGalley for this advance copy.
#LittleDarlingsBook

When Lauren reports having a visit in the night from a sinister character carrying a basket of twins that she plans to replace Lauren's twins with, the story is dismissed as ludicrous. Hospital staff, as well as her husband, think Lauren is just hormonal and exhausted after giving birth to twins.

Since the police can find nothing proving that this new Mama had any visitors, Lauren agrees that she is exhausted and maybe it didn't really happen. However, in her heart, she can't rule out that the visit in the night certainly felt like it occurred.

The only person who somewhat believes Lauren is the investigator, but her ranking officers want the investigation to stop. This part is a driving force in causing the reader to continue flipping pages.

Upon getting home from the hospital she is faced with a husband who needs his sleep so that he can work and support the family. He moves to another bedroom so the feeding of the twins all night won't disturb him. But because of Lauren's fear that the experience in the hospital was real, she locks up the house and only gets to sleep in bits and segments. She doesn't feel she can let the twins out of her sight.

In time, Lauren's friends visit her at her home and bring gifts for the new babies, but one gift is most unusual. One that is somewhat disturbing.

At her friends' urging, Lauren finally chances going out and meeting them in a park. She vows to keep a good eye on her identical twin boys. But will she be able to?

This story is framed in dark history and folklore.

My Thoughts

What Concerned Me: This story is a bit dark and foreboding. I'm not sure how I would have wanted it to end, but it didn't feel totally satisfying to me.

What I Liked Most: This is a book that was hard to put down. The writing was excellent and flowed beautifully. Was it kind of creepy? Sure. When I read the tag: Horror, along with Mystery, and Thriller, I wondered how I'd missed that important word, since horror is the last type of book I'd choose to read. (But maybe I'm confusing that genre with horror movies that I see advertised. Anyway, nothing gory, and nobody carrying a chainsaw! To my great relief! Teehee.)

I'd rate the writing and interest level a 5. The ending felt like a 3 or 4.

Suitably creepy and unnerving. Nothing new here in domestic horror, but great descriptive language and a fun quick read.

Lauren is a new mother of twins who claims that a woman threatened to steal her babies while she was in the hospital. Everyone else believes that she is having delusions. She continues to feel threatened even after returning home until finally the unthinkable happens. But were the babies really taken or is it just an elaborate setup created by an unhinged mind?
I enjoyed this story and found it mildly creepy, but I think it would be better as a movie. The babies were strange, but nothing really seemed threatening and I think the story lagged a lot in the middle.

Little Darlings is a look into folklore and insanity using twin babies as it's crux.
Lauren has a tough birth with her twin boys. Exhausted and in pain, she tries her best to love her children and give them what they need. That night as she lay in the maternity ward, an old woman appears before here threatening to take her sons and replacing them with her own. When Laura reports the incident everyone thinks she crazy. She hopes when she gets home that things will get better, but she has a tough road ahead. Have the faeries really changed your children or is she losing her mind?
I really enjoyed this concept. I am huge on Faerie folklore and loved to see how this weaved into the story. I especially enjoyed the excerpts from writers about the folklore of changelings. This was a great plot device and I turned pages to find out if her children would be taken.
Unfortunately, about halfway through, the book slogs. The relationships outside the core couple drag the book down and one isn't really truly handled and someone walks away without consequences. The tension is also sporadic, spending too much time on the investigation than on these children which are the creepiest part of the story.
Little Darling is unique and captivating but isn't as creepy as you would think it would be.

Creepy and atmospheric tale about a young mother of newborn twins who is comvinced that someone (or something) is trying to steal them away and replace them with fae creatures. Based on Irish tales of changelings, this novel hits all the right spots. It'll have you wondering how fine the line between imaginings and reality really is. Devoured this book!!!

Wow, what a thriller! I struggled a bit to get into this in the beginning, but eventually the plot took off, and I was sucked in.

The protagonist, Lauren, gives birth to twins. A smelly, dirty woman attacks her in the hospital and tries to steal her babies. Nobody believes her, but an officer is dispatched to make a report. A series of strange events happen, and her lack of sleep from caring for the infants starts to get to her. Is she imaging everything?

Throughout the whole book I questioned what was real, and the ending was quite satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I thought that this was a very well written original, chilling, addictive and disturbing thriller.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.

A mother always knows her own babies.....doesn't she? Of course she does.....right? Fairie tales show their sinister side in the current century for new mother of twins, Lauren. As a new mother, she knows whats best for her babies! Why does she feel so alone and why does no one believe what she knows to be true? As you read through Little Darlings you're on this wicked trip, like the water ride from hell, as you believe and doubt and believe and doubt and on and on....never knowing when this ride will really end, never knowing who to really trust in the end.
The main characters were richly developed and interesting. Without giving spoilers I will only say that we can easily visualize what Lauren see's in her "Little Darlings" and empathize with all of her thoughts and feelings.
I enjoyed this book and found myself grabbing it in the middle of the night for "a chapter" only to find myself still reading an hour later. Mystery, fantasy, horror and crime with a nice dose of the creeps. Well done.

Very creepy tale of a new mother who fervently believes that someone is trying to steal her twins and replace them with changelings. No one believes her, with the possible exception of Detective Sergeant Harper - but even Harper isn't sure what to believe. Interesting story with relatable characters. The ending was not very satisfying, however.

Changeling: A changeling is a child who is suspected to not be a couple’s real child.

As the myth goes, a changeling was substituted by fairies. (vocabulary.com)



Often shown in art and literature, the notion of changelings is centuries old. The Brother's Grimm wrote numerous stories about changelings. When the basis of these stories were typically children with developmental diseases or disorders, the rationale of a perfectly normal child having been replaced with a faery child is one that made sense to those living as peasants in pre-industrial Europe. Little Darlings takes this myth and gives it a horrifying modern-day makeover.



Lauren Tranter has just given birth to twins. As a new mother, she's exhausted. The birth was traumatic with forceps being necessary and hemorrhaging the day after. She doesn't have the bonded feeling with the babies that everyone said would happen. During the nights in the hospital, she hears another woman in the adjourning bay with her own set of twins. However, when morning comes, there is no one there. She struggles through the second day and again, when night falls, the woman appears again, singing a horrible, creepy song. This time, the woman offers her a deal. One of her babes for one of Lauren's. Of course, Lauren takes her babies and locks herself in the bathroom to hide when the woman becomes forceful.



Thus starts the nightmare that Lauren's life will become. When there's no evidence of the woman existing and that this event occurred, no one believes Lauren. Everyone simply thinks Lauren is overwhelmed and tired. Her husband is no help and Lauren feels all alone. When the babies briefly disappear after Lauren falls asleep on a bench near the river, Lauren believes that the woman made true on her promise to take her babies and replace them with her own.



Little Darlings is a gritty look into motherhood. In the end, you are left to wonder exactly what really happened. Did Lauren imagine all of it? Is she simply suffering from lack of sleep and a traumatic birth, or even postpartum depression? Or is it a possibility that maybe, just maybe, it all really happened?

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
ISBN: 9781683319979

Little Darlings is dark and unsettling. Since I enjoy books that are disquieting, I liked the suspense. Any mother can identify with Laura's intense need to protect her babies.

I've read other books, fantasies about fairy lore, that include the idea of changelings, but I liked the epigraph citations that gave background to the origin of the legend. The old Irish tale set in modern times as a mystery thriller is a unique idea.

The long description of the birth process was unnecessary to the development of Laura's character. It slowed the start. I understood that she was a devoted mother without the lengthy description of a difficult delivery. The first chapter grabbed my attention but then the next few chapters slowed the plot.

Overall, this is an enjoyable eerie tale. This book would make a new mom shiver.

Reviewer: Nancy

Thank you Net Gallery and Crooked Lane Books for a copy of Little Darlings by Melanie Golding.

This book was interesting something a little different with some horror wrapped in. I just felt like it was slow and didn't like most of the characters. It could of used some suspense. Sort of a pick me up kind of suspense. I'm sorry this just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you

Oh how I loved this book. It took me away to that place of folk tales and fairies and changelings and everything eerie. I read it in one gulp and had a hard time looking at babies for a few days. Imaginative and believable, and the protaganist was everything a mother should be.

Straight up, the plot isn’t the most original. Golding takes a very old story and simply brings it into modern times. I won’t tell you exactly which story, of course. I’ll just say you’ve read it more than once.

Old story or not, though, Golding is a deft storyteller. She imbues such atmosphere – it’s creepy, dreamlike, and frightening. And the reader isn’t quite sure exactly what to believe.

The read is compelling. The author held me riveted as I worried for our main character and her children and I simply didn’t want to look away until the end.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

*Loved, loved, LOVED this book! I read it in a little over a day, and it only took me that long because I have to go to work, blast it all. A great mix of folklore and mystery, I believe this to be one of the best books of the year. Lauren has just given birth to twins when she finds a creepy, disheveled woman in the next cubicle singing to her own newborn twins., but apparently no one else notices the woman on the ward that night. When Lauren's children are taken several weeks later, she is sure that it was by the same crazy woman having traded her own children for Lauren's. Is Lauren experiencing postpartum hysteria, as everyone thinks? Or is there something to the tattered book that mysteriously turns up on her doorstep? A highly recommended read!

3.5
The most surreal thing I’ve read in a long time! I’m still not sure what to make of it?!? The story was fascinating and kept me riveted. The tidbits of dark fairy tales were haunting and notched up the creepy factor immensely. To weave all the elements of this tale together has me amazed.

I’m not sure how this is being marketed and really how it should be actually. Are there supernatural elements at play here or is it insanity? I’m still not sure I have the answer to that question because of so many events that occurred throughout the story. At the conclusion I’m still shaking my head. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the crazy ride!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Crooked Lane Books for a copy in exchange for a review.