Hold on to your seats for this wild ride of a psychological thriller. This combines suspense with dark fairy tales and changelings. It is a book that I never knew I needed but now I cannot believe I was without it! Lauren is a new mother to twins who everyone says is just exhausted like most new mothers. She believes that while in the hospital someone tried to switch out the babies but didn't succeed. This is never far from her mind. Then a month later in the park the babies are taken and then returned. But are they really returned? Are they really her babies? You will be thinking if she is sane or insane and what risks will she go to figure all of this out? This book left me on the edge of my seat and is by far one of the best reads all year.

Little Darlings was a great read by Melanie Golding. Lauren is the mother to newborn twins who has never been so exhausted in her life. Unfortunately no one believes her when she sees someone in her hospital room trying to take her babies and replacing them with creatures. A month later they are at a park and the babies disappear fom her side and when they return there is something off about them. Lauren knows deep in her heart that they are not her babies. Lauren will do anything to bring her babies home, no matter what that happens to be. This was a great read I cant wait to read more by the author.

Atmospheric book which was totally enjoyable but there was a few things that let it down, some added information that probably wasn’t really needed and I didn’t enjoy the ending.

This book was so unlike anything else I’ve ever read. Part fairytale, part ghost story, all intriguing.

I really enjoyed this book, but I found it all slightly confusing. It was clearly more of a thriller than the Fairy story I went into this expecting. But overall it was an interesting read with a lot of twists and turns that I would honestly suggest to anyone who wants a book with a lot of suspense. Lauren has just given birth to two identical twin boys when she starts to see a woman everywhere trying to take her twins. A local detective takes more interest in the case than necessary and all the action comes to a climax when Lauren's babies disappear from her side in a few precious moment's of sleep. (That she hasn't had at all because her husband isn't sharing in the responsibility of parenting). This is a story about a woman who has far too much on her plate and a husband who doesn't believe her and doesn't help her at all.

I found this to be a delightfully creepy and atmospheric story. We aren’t sure if the main character is hallucinating while suffering from postpartum depression or if something sinister really is going on. Is there a woman actually trying to steal her babies and swap them with changelings?

Dark, thrilling and evocative! I love psychological thrillers and this one played so much on the theme of “Is it real? Or is it something else...” Definitely one that will keep you up late! It gave me goosebumps!

Little Darlings was a very strange book to me. I finished it and had to sit on it for sometime. I wasn’t sure how I felt at the end! But overall it was very entertaining and at parts I could not put it down because I needed to know what happened next. To me, this book is definitely a horror, thriller and not for the faint of heart. I would recommend this book for someone who is looking for a book very different than most of the books out there. It was Interesting and horrifying at the same time.

Melanie Golding is an auto-read author for me from here on out. What an amazing book! Psychological or supernatural? We may never know. I loved every second of this read.

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER meets ROSEMARY’S BABY when Laura Tranter, a resident of Sheffield, gives birth to two evil twins. This synopsis, along with recent praise for the novel, grabbed my attention.

My curiosity was certainly piqued with the first couple of chapters: a dark and chilling maternity ward filled with strange voices and ghastly figures. From a psychological stand point, Laura is strong and stable, but is physically and emotionally wounded by thoughts of taking home the wrong infants. Everyone doubts her skepticism, except for Detective Jo Harper, who decides to go rogue with the case after receiving criticism from her advisors at the station.

Golding toys with the idea of referencing numerous fairy tales throughout this thriller, most likely to capture the overall sorrow and pain that Laura is feeling during her dreadful, postpartum hell. This fascinating concept is pivotal to the pace of the novel, yet it was faltered by certain characters and subplots.

Thanks to NetGalley for suppling digital copy for honest review.

Female author's are just killing it this year and another book added to my favourites of 2019!

Hands down the creepiest, most unsettling and disturbing book I've read so far this year. At once both terrifying and heartbreaking, Melanie Golding weaves a compulsively readable, frightening atmospheric modern day psychological thriller from the tendrils of dark folklore and grim fairy tales.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing a digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased review.

This book isn't so much a thriller as it is a contemporary with magical realism hinted at. However, if it was marketed as such it would EXCEL. My only issue is the misleading genre. The writing is amazing, the pace is great, the characters are eerie and real.

The ending was a bit of a let down but the book itself was PHENOMENAL, the last 20 pages did sort of ruin it for me, it would have been a full 5 stars but with the ending its a 4 star.

I remember requesting this one and reading the first couple lines and thinking it wasn't for me. But then I got the audio in and I remember sitting in my car after I'd parked to finish listening to the first one. It's true that the format makes all the difference.
After having twins, Lauren is exhausted. After all, any new mother would be. But then one day the twins are abducted and Lauren is distraught. But then she begins telling people those aren't her twins... and no one believes her. Determined to bring them home on her own, she risks it all.
What I liked most about this book wasn't even the writing style or anything like that.... It was a real experience. There were special effects and all. It made the atmosphere of the story even more creepy than it should have been. I wish I had recorded my face when I first heard the change in the audio. It creeped me out.
Although this was creepy, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. There just didn't seem to be much happening. And to make it worse, I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters. Especially her husband. He was terrible. Your wife just had your twins and you're out here doing stuff like the things he was doing?! He pissed me off!!!
As for the fairy tale that it was a retelling of, I'm not sure if it's real, but it was definitely something I'd like to read later on. It was creepy, interesting, and weird. So basically, all the things I liked. It made the story really weird, but it didn't seem like much happened with the plot. It was basically the same thing happening over and over, but it got weirder and weirder along the way. If you're ok with that sort of thing, then this will be a great read for you.
This wasn't amazing or anything, but still was entertaining enough. Definitely took a while to get into it, but the ending was kinda worth it. It was weird and will make you hug your little ones extra tight.

Little Darlings was quite the adventure. For the first quarter of the book, I thought it was going to be a similar story to the Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena and I found myself getting a little bored. I thought about putting it down but I am so, so glad that I stuck with it! I wasn't able to guess what was really happening until the very end and it kept me on edge throughout the story. I liked how the horror elements are presented in such a way that the reader can't tell if Lauren is crazy or if there really is something supernatural happening. I thought that the relationship between Lauren and her husband was a little unrealistic. They had a great and terrible relationship and I think it would have worked better if it was one or the other.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I think it was a great mix of horror, mystery and psychological thriller and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys those genres.

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding is a novel that walks that fine line between fantasy and psychological thriller and does it with an ease of an Olympic skater taking to the ice. In parts mind bending and in parts horrifying. You will wonder from time to time what is and isn't real. When a new mother of twins becomes convinced that someone is trying to take her children and then, that they babies are not her babies; is it an emotional breakdown or something far worse?

"...Through the binoculars, Harper saw the woman collapse into a sitting position on the dried-out silt, her face turned to the sky, still clutching the babies. Perhaps she wouldn't do it, after all.
A memory surfaced then, of what the old lady had said to her:
'She'll have to put them in the water, if she wants her own babies back...Right under the water. Hold 'em down.'
The woman wasn't sitting at the water's edge anymore; she was knee-deep, and wading further in..."

Lauren Tranter is exhausted, after a difficult birth and after care, her twins are finally here. Two beautiful newborn boys. Morgan and Riley. So when she is found screaming and locked into her hospital room bathroom, the staff put it down to medication and lack of rest. The emergency call into the police is dismissed as hysterics. The hospital staff and the security video back up the diagnosis that Lauren had a episode but that she and her twins are safe. That nothing had happened. But Lauren knows what she saw and she knows the woman was real. The woman who smelled and looked homeless, the woman with twins of her own. The woman who wanted to exchange her children for Lauren's boys.

"...Choose one,' said the woman, '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..."

It's a slow morning at the Police Headquarters when Jo Harper goes over the calls from the night before. The child abduction at the hospital seems off. Later turning out to be a new mother having what the hospital personal are calling, an episode. Still, Jo is not sure about it and decides to make a trip to the hospital to be sure. The young mother is scared but on enough pain killers that it could have been a hallucination. Jo decides to file it away but gives Lauren her card.

A month later, the unthinkable happens. Lauren takes the boys to the park and while she rests on a bench she dozes off. When she awakes, her boys are gone. The police are called and a search commences. Soon the babies are found but when Lauren comes to her babies she notices, something is different about them.

"...For the first time, she questioned if she'd know which one was which without the green and yellow colour coding that was only for Patrick's sake anyway. Had they been changed around, dressed in each other's colours? Both had the same blue-grey eyes they'd had before they were taken. But Morgan didn't look like Morgan, not exactly. Riley didn't either, something about the way his lip curled.
And then she knew, with a terrible certainty. It wasn't Morgan and Riley, not anymore. Something else was was looking at her, out of the eyes of her babies..."

Lauren knows with a certainty that somehow, the woman had done it. She had stolen Lauren's twins and replaced them with these creatures who looked and sounded just like her babies. But a mother knows her children, Lauren thought, and she knew that these were not her babies.

Jo Harper is working the abduction of Lauren's boys, but there seems to be alot more to this case than first meets the eye. Stranger still is Lauren's reaction to her found babies. Could this be some sort of postpartum depression Lauren is suffering from or is there some truth to what she is saying happened to her children. As she digs deeper she begins to unravel a legend and a tragedy that seems to return during the hottest years, when the water level drops. But what Jo is beginning to realize, is that Lauren may pose the biggest threat to the safety of her boys.

Little Darlings is a terrific novel that skirts the gap between psychological thriller and paranormal mystery. Golding writes about a young mother's descent into paranoia and madness and then makes the reader question if in fact it is just that. The thought throughout the novel that Lauren is right and that the babies are in fact changelings is dread that hangs over the novel. Is it possible or is Lauren losing her mind. These are questions that will have the reader guessing until the last page.

A really good read!

Let me begin by saying that when I first saw this book's listing on NetGalley, I was totally in awe! It had the most amazing cover, an incredible blurb and (upon further research) some really good reviews in the book's favour. So basically it had it all and I was positive that this will be one heck of a read.
To be honest, I couldn't start reading this book fast enough and I felt like this right till the moment I started reading this book:
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But when I started reading this book, say about 20-25 pages in, I was really not sure if I was reading the right book because the writing felt very forceful and unnecessarily dramatic. For one, the author kept going on and on about how the main character (don't even remember the name) did not feel "the rush of love" for her newborn twins. I am all for complex and grey characters, but after a while, it did start to feel like the author was unnecessarily pressing the point on the readers in order to make them hate the MC (or maybe they just wanted to make the readers feel that the character was very complex) either way, it felt too forced and outright fake. Still, I kept on reading in the hopes that maybe once this part gets over the good part would begin.
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Then came the part where the MC was being checked by the doctor in order to see if her womb (?) was okay (not even sure if I even understood that part) and then everything went to hell because the descriptions got so crazily gross that it's going to take me a long time to get over it. I mean, if you haven't been pregnant ever, then I recommend not to read this part as it sure as hell scared the shit out of me!!
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AND THAT WAS IT FOR ME!
I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!

If you've read this book and liked it, then hats off to you! But you haven't yet read this book and are planning to read it, then I'd suggest to check out some other book on twins and/or pregnant-female-horror fiction like Cleaving Souls by Chauncey Rogers or stick to the plain ol' decent thrillers like Sister Sister by Sue Fortin or The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena.

You can also read this review on my book blog:

Slightly strange but gripping read. This book is about a woman who has just given birth to identical twins. She believes that someone is trying to take them away from her and a few weeks later, they are actually abducted. A police woman with baby issues of her own is assigned to the case and pursues it even after the case is closed. There is a fairy tale element to this book and many chapters refer to fairy tales at the beginning of the chapter. All in all, this was an interesting yet rather strange book that keeps you going right until the end. The end also leaves you wondering so don't expect a clear cut final chapter.

Me. Golding has perfected her craft. Little Darlings was as horrifying as it was enticing. I couldn’t put it down. It was a great book to feed the part of me that loves a creepy psych thriller!

Great premise! Lauren has just given birth to identical twin boys. She is grappling with parenthood at the beginning, not feeling the instant "surge of love". I think a really good representation of post partem blues. One night in the hospital, after a difficult birth and recovery, she believes a woman wants to steal her babies and swap them for her own. Nobody believes her, expect for our lead detective, Jo Harper. Her babies go missing, after she does everything to keep them safe from this threatening woman that is only visible to her. They are returned safely, but they aren't the same babies...

There were definitely pros and cons to this book. Overall, a really creepy story and I couldn't figure out if our main character was mentally unwell, or this was a creepy fairytale come to life. The author really did a good job at keeping you guessing, and I still am not sure what was "real" in the end.

However, the book was majorly ruined by the ending for me. There was a lot of great buildup and I was expecting some shocking twist, but no. Why did Patrick want to keep her in the hospital? Was it because he didn't trust or, or because he wanted to hook up with his "nannies" on this side? I feel like the author didn't know how to end it.

The ending could have been cleaner in general; the bodies found in the lake didn't really add any value, and it was just a "dead end." Was it a ghost who wanted revenge, was it unrelated? For me it didn't add much value, and I thought it could have been pushed in one direction or another much more.

Still a solid debut, I would be interested to see what is next from this author.

3.5 Stars. This was a book out of my genre-comfort zone once I got into it. It's a mixture of mystery and fantasy. The ending did have me thinking but could've been a little better.