Norah, Alicia and Jessica grew up in foster care together. for the last few decades, they have considered themselves sister and have kept their bond tight. The women have done everything they can to forget about the abusive Miss. Fairchild. When a body of a child turns up on the estate they resided with Miss. Fairchild, the girls must face their past and help the investigators determine who's body was buried -- and who put the body there.

Twisty, dark, with some comedic relief, Darling Girls provides a twist that will hit you right at the very last moment! Excellent writing and a fun book to read.

📱Darling Girls, Sally Hepworth ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Sally Hepworth for an opportunity to read this book in advance of the publication date in exchange for an honest review.
Starting out, I’d like to give a trigger warning for child abuse, sexual abuse, and manipulation.
This dual timeline story did a great job of building the characters and telling their stories as individuals in the past and today. Most of the story was from a Third Person POV, which I think worked really well for this one. We were able to get to know all three sisters and Ms. Fairchild really well as the details of the story unfolded… or did we??? I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a character driven novel with a bit of mystery and a couple of twists. This book kept my interest and I flowed through it really easily. This was my first Sally Hepworth book but I have a few on my bookshelf o need to get started on. My will motivate me to do that sooner!

This is a fantastic fast-paced thriller that grabbed me from the beginning and didn't let go until the last page. I would have been happy to keep reading more about the characters lives - it's that good! The twists and turns made me gasp. The story is about three young girls that become "sisters" in a not so loving foster home with "Miss Fairchild". The parts that have abuse are a little hard to read - but they should be - and important for the story and contributing to how they all end up. What these girls endure, how they bond, along with a whodunnit murder of a child's bones found under the house they were fostered in, keeps you glued to the pages. This book has it all especially love with many complicated faces, and I highly recommend it! Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for allowing me to review this book and find another new favorite author!

This book does a very deep dive into the foster care system and its emotional and physical ramifications to those who are placed and aged out. I cannot begin to fathom how it would be to exist in such situations as what Norah described and how it caused her to lash out in such a physical way. Alicia, Jessica and Norah were truly sisters as they cared for each other despite being subjected to Miss. Fairfield who took such pleasure in depriving these girls in any type of happiness one should experience as a child. She wanted each one to love her and her only and if not, she quickly turned each day into punishment. Interspersed with Holly telling her "story" and how everyone was to blame except for her, she was the epitome of a sociopath. Amy was a paramount character in this book and why Holly became obsessed until she was not and what happened to the Amy that was birthed by a member of her family was truly horrific. This book is extremely well written but hard to read due to the level of suffering. I am glad that all three women got what they deserved in life when it comes to love.

I think I've had multiple books of Sally Hepworth's on my TBR list for years, and somehow this is the first one I've actually read! Why are there so many good books out there? But I'm not complaining.

Darling Girls is the story of three girls - Alicia, Jessica, and Norah. While not actually related, the years they spent in foster care with Miss Fairchild have brought them close enough to call themselves sisters. After all, trauma can do that. Although their time with Miss Fairchild is not really something that any of them want to remember, a discovery at the farmhouse that they lived in with her brings to light an old mystery that they feel compelled to revisit.

This book packed in a lot! Definitely a story that I got sucked into, and the twists and turns kept coming. It is a tale of found family, tragedy, and how even if you are brought up in a bad situation, the choices you make are still your own. If you are looking for a mystery that will give you something to think about long after putting the book down, definitely pick this one up when it releases on April 23, 2024.

My Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is a well-written, suspenseful thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. The story follows three foster sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, who are reunited as adults when human bones are discovered buried on the farm where they grew up.

Hepworth does a masterful job of building suspense and weaving together the past and present timelines. The reader is slowly drip-fed information about the sisters' childhood abuse and the dark secrets that lie buried beneath the farm. The characters are complex and well-developed, and the reader can't help but root for them even as they make mistakes.

The ending of the book is both shocking and satisfying, and it will leave you thinking long after you finish reading.

The reason for my 4 star review is the undeveloped subplots that are scattered throughout. There are a lot of fringe characters which do contribute to the story and the main character development, but at a basic level.

Overall, I enjoyed My Darling Girls and would recommend it to fans of domestic thrillers and mysteries.

My Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is an excellent psychological , domestic thriller well developed characters and and lots of secrets and twists and turns .

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth, published by St. Martin's Press
This novel was amazing, the author has done a fantastic job with this story. It's one of those books you just don't want to put down and read until the wee hours of the morning. There are lots of characters and the story takes place in the present and the past, but it's not at all confusing, I just loved it. Great twists and turns.
The main characters are Jessica, Norah and Alicia, 3 children in foster care, Miss Fairchild is the foster mom. The girls are grown now and consider themselves sisters, but as we go back in time we learn of the events that took place at the Farmhouse called Wild Meadows and Miss Fairchild's perverse child rearing methods.
Honestly an amazing story, it made me think a little bit about the Gypsy Rose story at times. This novel was extremely well written, the characters were well developed and had depth, I could picture them in my mind. I loved the ending and the twist it takes. I was very happy to have received this ARC. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves Sally Hepworth, psychological thrillers or mysteries. It will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I've been loving Sally Hepworth's recent books and this one is no exception! I sped through it in a day - it was that good. Even though the plot deals with tough subjects like addiction and abuse, it does so in a thoughtful way. Norah reminded me a little of Fern from The Good Sister.

Despite being on a steady diet of psychological thrillers, I didn't expect the twist at the end, ha!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Sally Hepworth is truly my favorite author of all time. She has MASTERED the art of a domestic suspense and I live for her books every year.

Darling Girls was no different. I went in blind. All I knew was this was Sally’s latest and I’d read her grocery store list without anyone twisting my arm. This was truly such a compelling read, one that broke my heart with the foster kid stories, but had me absolutely rooting on the found sisters element.
/
I loved this. Sally - you are truly so incredibly talented!

Sally Hepworth is an author I love to read when I need a distraction. Her books are quick reads for me and she never fails to get me with that final twist.

I really struggle with this one though. I really think it was how bad the girls were treated and how no one would help them.

I did like how the girls formed their own family and were there for each other. I even appreciated how they grew and they relived what happened and came to understand things about themselves.

My trouble with this book will not help me from eagerly anticipating and reading Sally’s next book. She is incredibly talented.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the copy of this book. All views are my honest opinion.

5 STARS
Sally Hepworth did it again!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Darling Girls. This book kept me on the edge of my seat turning the pages of the book (kindle style) as quickly as I could. The book is about 3 young children, Jessica, Norah and Alicia who spent a few years at with a foster mother who lacked in the maternal department. They formed a bond that survived many years of adolescence and adulthood. The children are now grown women with obvious issues directly influenced by their upbringing. They all receive calls from an investigation team that human remains have been found on the premises of the home they grew up in. The 3 head back to their childhood home ready to help unbury all the secrets they had preferred stay buried. When I think of this book, I keep thinking - "that ending"!

Pre-order your copy today!!!

I can easily give this book a 4.25 star rating. At first I had a lot of trouble getting into this book but once I got going I was HOOKED. As a huge fan of Sally Hepworth I was not shocked to love this book as much as I did. Usually I don’t enjoy books with multiple perspectives but I actually enjoyed all the characters and felt drawn to them. I’d say this is a great read if you like a fast paced mystery with a good twist!

A huge thanks to NetGalley for gifting me the ARC of this book!

Sally Hepworth does not disappoint! Rich, flawed, strong female characters tell the story of three girls in a hellish foster care situation who find sisterhood. Themes of child abuse, addiction and sexual exploitation are handled with care and consideration. Alternating POV drive the story and make this a quick read. Hepworth is one of the best family thriller writers out there! A must read!

Darling Girls is my sixth Sally Hepworth book. I keep coming back for a reason. This author consistently delivers great stories. This time we are following women who grew up together in foster care with a less than ideal caregiver. They are contacted by a detective from the town where they suffered their childhood, to discover that the house in which they lived was torn down and beneath it a body was found. Who was the deceased, when and how did they die? All things this book sets out to discover. While told in each person's voice in current and past timelines, it could have been confusing, but it wasn't. Hepworth is masterful at blending all the hard edges together, making the reading seamless and pleasurable. This book has multiple twists to keep the pages turning, right down to a spectacular ending. First, I was scratching my head, I couldn't figure out what I had just read. Then I realized despite reading mostly thrillers that this author had once again beat my skills at figuring things out. Brilliant and diabolical at the same time. Loved it.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me this advanced copy for review. My views are given freely. Again, thank you to all, including Sally Hepworth for the wonderful entertainment!

I read this book in a day and a half because I just couldn’t put it down. When foster sisters Jessica, Norah and Alicia are summoned back to the town they grew up in after bones were found under the foster home they grew up in, old memories resurface. All three women have dealt with their traumatic pasts in different, unhealthy ways and it’s caught up with them. As they work with detectives to determine whose bones were found, the book switches between the past in Miss Fairchild’s house of horrors and present day. Add in mysterious sessions with a therapist with a patient with a devastating past and you have an excellent thriller! So many secrets come to light and a cast of shady characters make this one unpredictable at every turn.

So dang good! Jessica, Alicia, and Norah grew up in Forster care with Miss Fairchild as their foster Mom. Miss Fairchild did was a horrible abuse mother. Miss Fairchild kept bringing in more short term children and treating them horribly until they left. There is a office visit with a Dr which tells a griping story. Guessing who that is is part of the juiciness of the story. Years later there are bones found under the home they were foster children in that brings them and others back. Whose bones? Who is responsible? This books keeps you guessing and is juicy to the last page. Going through the foster system currently to adopt the story is spot on with the feelings and bonds formed through the foster care system.

Yes! Sally Hepworth is fantastic at writing family thrillers. This new one centers around the story of three foster sisters. We get the story from each of the sisters' perspectives, jumping back and forth between present day and when they were foster children. They spent a few years living together under the guardianship of their foster mother, Ms. Fairchild. The story begins with a phone call to each of the women that sends them back to Ms. Fairchild's farm together for answers. Another well told story from Hepworth!

Many, many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this novel!

"Darling Girls" by Sally Hepworth is a captivating psychological thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The story is brilliantly crafted, with well-developed characters and a plot that constantly surprises. What I loved most was how the ending completely blindsided me, leaving me in awe of Hepworth's storytelling prowess. If you're a fan of gripping psychological thrillers, "Darling Girls" is a must-read that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

Thank you #Netgalley for this ARC

Sally Hepworth has a way of writing that keeps you reading. Even if there's a slow bit, the very next paragraph could change everything and you simply must keep reading. I enjoyed the alternate points of view from the sisters in present day as well as during their childhood. A couple points were a bit predictable (though that may be due to the amount of domestic thrillers I read) but it was still a compelling book. It really helps demonstrate how our formative years and personal relationships are so vital.