3.5 stars.

Darling girls follows three sisters, Jessica, Alicia, and Norah as they go through their traumatic childhoods while living in the foster system and landing on a lady's farmhouse. Told in third pov, with all of their pov and past-present timeline(plus an extra pov that would 'spoil' the whole story), this book is able to keep you on your toes even though there wasn't any bloody or extremely 'scary/thriller' BIG element that would necessary scare you. This is my first Sally Hepworth novel and I can already see the easiness of binging some of her books in the future! Her writing wasn't overly simple but still got to the point while also adding some depth to the characters. She was able to have so many different plot elements while still keeping the main one entertaining, I loved the small and I mean SMALL scenes that talked about romance since it helped the main (darling) girls have depth. While there were some elements of the story that dragged on or weren't my cup of tea, the story still was very captivating and made me gasp aloud a bit. Dark themed thriller with less action that will keep you wanting to read!

Wow wow wow!! This was my first Sally Hepworth book and it won’t be my last!! Such a great book from start to finish. I feel like I experienced every emotion while reading this book…anger, sad, frustration, shock…lots of shock at the end!! Great read!! Big thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the chance to read this ARC!

✨ARC Review✨

“But while it’s a headline or novelty to most, to me it’s my life. The place where I learned about loss, and shame…and hate.”

Wow!!!!! Another beautifully crafted, twisty, page turner with a hell of an ending from Hepworth! All I can say is absolutely pick this one up when it releases! The relationships in this book are absolutely bonkers and there are definitely some heavy triggers, but this was a wild ride, and I binged this book in less than 24 hrs!

Alicia, Jessica, and Norah have a bond. They are foster sisters, all raised by Miss Fairchild in a farmhouse named Wild Meadows. The three escaped her ways long ago, but now are brought back together as bones are found under the farmhouse. The three are forced back into a past with Miss Fairchild that they hoped to forget, splitting open the dark wounds of Wild Meadows…

What’s On The Pages:
-domestic thriller
-foster sisters
-plot twists
-fast paced
-bingeworthy

⚠️CW/TW: heavy/multiple triggers

✨Rating✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC! Darling Girls is out April 23rd!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC of this book. Where do I even begin with how much I loved this book?! Three women, all fostered by the same woman who banded together as sisters during their time at Wild Meadows. Miss Fairchild was far from the loving mother that the girls needed. While they have grown up and left Port Agatha, the effects of Wild Meadows hang around like a curse that just can’t be broken. When an investigation brings them back, will they be able to move on?

I loved the suspense of the book and how each point of view gave the reader insight to each of the sisters. The added question of who was describing their time with Dr. Warren also added even more suspense throughout the book.

Darling Girls was a bit twisty, a bit suspenseful, a bit creepy. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are sisters who grew up in foster care and receive a call, as adults, that brings them back to the foster house they grew up in. This event brings them back to the past they would like to forget and the foster mother they thought they had distanced themselves from. I rarely like all of the central characters in a book, but I loved these girls! Jessica’s OCD, Norah’s anger issues, and Alicia’s low self-esteem endeared them all to me. I want to be their foster mother and give them all of the love and support they need. Their actual foster mother, Miss Fairchild, is horrible. I actually thought I had it all figured out, but nope. If you are a Sally Hepworth fan grab this book. Lots of people are loving it, including me!

D A R L I N G G I R L S
SALLY HEPWORTH
PUB DAY April 23rd 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FIVE STARS


What… what just happened?!
I knew within the first chapter of this book that it would be my favorite of 2023, and I was dead on.

I know I say this every time, but Sally Hepworth has truly outdone herself. I finished this book in about 6 hours between yesterday and today, I absolutely could not put it down.
The events that unfold in this book are so heartbreaking, so harrowing, so unbelievably believable that my chest physically hurts. I cried - no sobbed - more than once and had to take a few deep breaths.

Sally’s characters are always extremely well rounded, full of soul and depth and this set of characters are absolutely no exception. I found parts of myself in each of the girls Jessica, Norah, Alicia. That is always such a sacred thing to find in the pages of a book, parts of yourself.

Is anyone familiar with that horrible woman in Harry Potter that wears pink? She took over for Dumbledore and just honestly was the worst. I hate her 😂 I have a very visceral reaction to that woman … and I think I hate Holly Fairchild more. My growing list of fictional characters I hate: Holly Fairchild, the pink witch from Harry Potter, And Rose (from The Good Sister- also from Sally Hepworth)

This book is dark, it is so well done, and it is going to be dwelling deep within my mind and soul for a very long time.

Thank you to Sally Hepworth, and the publisher for the chance to read and review this title early. It is always such an honor!

I LOVED this book!! Such a great story about the foster system, choosing your own family, secret keeping and protecting your loved ones. It’s a fantastic read with lots of twists and turns.

What did I just read?! I've been hooked on Sally Hepworth's books after The Soulmate, so you can understand how excited I was to get my hands on The Darling Girls!

The end was...such a twist and left me speechless. I'm glad I was able to get through it because I did not expect that at all. It's about 3 foster children who pretty much grew up together in a foster home. Norah, Jessica, and Alicia experienced trauma growing up and have grown up but are brought back "home" when a body shows up. The storyline was slightly dragging a little bit but I can see the reason and explanation for the buildup. The alternative timeline was easy to follow and I did enjoy reading the different POV of the three foster child/grownups. Overall, the ending was perfect, and a quick read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of Darling Girls.

I have become a huge fan of Sally Hepworth over the last year. So let’s just say, I was overjoyed to get my hands on the arc for Darling Girls!!!! She did not disappoint!

If I had to explain this book in 5 ways :

- Norah (with an H!) is not the one.
- Don’t tell her what you’re scared of.
- Sketchy shrinks and social workers
- Pill stealing
- This is why we like paper trails!!!!

Three sister’s lives are about to be changed, when they get the call that bones have been found on the premises of their old foster home. They will have to make the trip back to the one place they tried so hard to get away from.

I loved that this book flipped between past and present and the story moves in both directions until finally connecting in the middle. It is also told from multiple pov’s of all the sisters.

I think Sally Hepworth has such a talent for writing honest flawed people. Once again I was blown away by the dynamics in the relationships of her characters. Messy in the best of ways.

The twists were turning! I did not work out the end of the book before we got there.

Darling Girls was a quick, reasonably entertaining thriller from Sally Hepworth. Told in alternating chapters in both the current and past timelines, we learn about the three foster sisters Jessica, Norah, and Alicia and the trauma they experienced at their foster home. Miss Fairchild is the antagonist of the story - and she is a doozy. In the current timeline a body is found buried underneath the house, and everyone wants to find out who it was.

Overall, this wasn’t a horrible book, but it wasn’t fantastic. The chapters were rather short, and that helped to propel me through the story. Also, the ending was fairly shocking, but not surprising.

Two things really stood out to me as negatives. One issue was that additional problems were added to the story for each of the foster sisters - possibly to expound on the fact that being a foster child can cause issues and trauma that can lead to emotional and/or mental heath issues.

I also didn’t like that one of the characters was described as being “a little OCD”. What was described in the book was someone who enjoyed a strict schedule and liked to be organized/help others to organize themselves. These personality traits do not equal a person who has been diagnosed with OCD, and portraying a character with these stereotypical and ignorant characteristics does not help mitigate the stigma of mental health. I expect more from the authors I read in matters like this, and I am disappointed to see it happening in this book.

This is my first Sally Hepworth novel. I was excited to be approved for this ARC. I was not disappointed. I did find the pace to be a little slow. That being said, I enjoyed the storyline and found this book to be an engaging read. This book is well thought out, and kept me guessing throughout. I enjoyed the varying POV and alternating timeline. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

3 girls are placed into foster care at a place called “Wild Meadows”. Ms. Fairchild runs this house, and the things the girls have to endure is extremely heartbreaking. It follows their lives as children and as adults, and I absolutely love Sally Hepworth’s style of writing. This was a fantastic book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth.

*Trigger Warning* Topic child abuse/neglect

I really have enjoyed and loved all books by Sally Hepworth her books are always great reads. This one was also a hit for me. This is one of those that you just want to spend the whole day in the story until the end.
Darling Girls is told in two different timelines and has multiple POV. The suspense/Thrill is paced well and the ending is perfect!
Fantastic story!

When I say I couldn’t put this book down, it was an understatement! From the beginning of the book to the very last word, I was completely captivated by Sally’s incredible writing!

Never have I felt so torn, feeling almost sorry for who I thought was the villain, going against the rest of the world.

I will say there are some trigger warnings of abuse and child endangerment, but even in those moments, you just have press on, because it’s just so wonderfully written, that you have to know how it ends! BRAVO!!!! 🩷✨

“Darling Girls” is the newest thriller from one of my favorite authors, Sally Hepworth. Here we follow the story of three sisters, Alicia, Jessica, and Norah, who were fostered together by a wicked woman misleadingly named “Miss Fairchild”. The story alternates between past and present. In the present, the girls are called back to their childhood house of horrors when a body of a child is found on the property. In the past, we get to know the sisters as they each came under the care of Miss Fairchild, bearing firsthand witness to the abuse they suffered and learning how three girls with distinctly different personalities became thick as thieves.


Sally Hepworth is an autobuy author for me. I’ve always loved how she builds her characters and im always astonished at how quickly I become enraptured in the story. I’ve always considered her writing to be more “literary fiction with a little mystery”. This book was no different, as I found myself flipping through chapter after chapter trying to figure out who the dead kid was, and who was responsible. I was loving the story… until the end. It felt rushed and was honestly a little cheesy.

The character development was another issue I had with the book. The characters are incredibly well developed in the past chapters, but when we switch to the present, I found them a little boring (especially Jessica. Norah was my favorite). I also had a bit of difficulty associating some of the characteristics of the girls from the past with the women of the present.

In summary, while this is not a bad book, it just doesn’t compare to some of Hepworth’s previous works.

I would like to thank Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review of this book.

I wanted to enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed The Soulmate. But the characters fell flat for me, there were random love storylines thrown in, and I just didn’t have the same edge-of-my-seat feeling reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Sally Hepworth for this ARC!
What an insanely wild ride…! This is my second Hepworth novel and surely will not be my last!
This story was creepy and heartbreaking from the first page with engaging + interesting characters to boot.
I was entirely fooled by the twist until about the 75% mark of the book which was entirely fine with me.
Multiple character POVs with short chapters (my favorite) without lacking the in-depth character development needed for a story such as this. I truly have no complaints.
I am so thankful to have had the pleasure of reading this and highly recommend to others!
5 ⭐️

I love Sally Hepworth and this book did not disappoint! I enjoy books about foster care and sisterhood, so this story combined two of my favorite subjects and kept my attention. I enjoy Sally's pacing and characters. Her mystery/thriller stories are among my favorite ones out there.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book. I was excited to read this book because I read another book by this author and I loved it. This book did not disappoint. It switches narrators and also different timelines, yet the story is still easy to follow. I didn't want to put this book down as I wanted to figure out what the heck happened! Highly recommend for fans of suspense/thrillers.

Foster homes tend to have a reputation of being hard on kids. Many foster parents try really hard to give these foster children a feeling of safety during this stormy part of their lives. Some foster parents need the money so they take in kids for that reason and the kids are not as fortunate. Some foster parents are evil, such as the one in this book, who are out for their own reasons.

Ms. Townsend took in one little girl, raised her to the age of 10 and then took in another.. and another... and then some babies, too. The older girls end up spending their days cleaning the home as it is never clean enough for Ms. Townsend. Then they end up raising the babies when the babies don't love her enough to exclude others.

The story goes back and forth between their youth and their days as adults when the foster home is sold, the house is torn down and the rest of the mystery can come to light.

Interestingly different story line and sad that it is very possible for something like this to happen. Good story though, so thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy. The honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.