Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is the story of three women, Alicia, Jessica, and Norah who were all raised (at least for a period of time) by the same foster mother, Miss Fairchild. When bones are discovered under the home they shared with Miss Fairchild, the “sisters” are now either key witnesses or prime suspects to what happened. This book is my favorite Sally Hepworth book to date. I loved the back and forth of the story. I enjoyed reading about all three of the very messy “sisters.” But, I especially loved the final chapter of this book- the ending genuinely surprised me (which is not easy to do as I literally spend most of my time reading a book trying to figure out what the twist is) and solidified Hepworth as a must read author for me!

Sally Hepworth is an instant must read for me, I would read this woman's grocery lists. Anything she's published I immediately need to get my hands on. Obsessed.

Another great book by SH. It was a great storyline that kept me interested and surprised with the different twists! Highly recommend all of her books

Thank you Libro.fom / Macmillan Audio, for the ALC and St. Martin’s Press, #partner for the advanced copy of Darling Girls in exchange for my honest review.

It’s no secret I’m a HUGE fan of this author, having read almost all her books & enjoyed them immensely. I think this latest one not only is her darkest one yet, but is also my new favorite. It’s a complicated, complex story about sisters, a broken foster care system & a mystery that gets under your skin. There are characters you meet in this novel that you will either love or hate & those are some of best kinds, all so richly developed that you won’t be forgetting them any time soon. ⁣

This story will have you questioning everything and everyone and I could not have loved it more. There is a lot going on here than just the main plot – who the bones belong to. Each of the girls have their own thing going on and I loved getting that deep dive into their lives, yet at the same time, the focus is still on the central story. It’s nothing short of brilliance how the author is able to weave this multilayered, engaging story that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

This would be the perfect book to add to your summer reading list – it’s one heck of an addicting read that you are not going to want to put down once you start reading it!

This was SO good!!! Super super dark and unsettling, trigger warnings galore but what a great thriller…. I truly couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend.

Darling Girls jumps from present to past which each chapter giving us a bit more information about what happened in a foster home years ago. I enjoyed getting to know the characters both in present and past. While it started slow, I sped through the end of this one because I needed to know what happened.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for ARCs of the audiobook and book. I did not like putting this one down. I enjoyed how the story went back and forth between the past and present. I liked all the characters and how the ‘sisters’ were close. The end was unexpected, but good! I also enjoyed the narrator. I will be recommending another one by Sally Hepworth! Thank you again for the ARC!

👶🏼🍼 Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth Review 🍼👶🏼

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5/5

💭 Thoughts:
This was an extremely dark slow burn thriller/mystery. Check TWs before you read it! With that said, the story primarily follows 3 foster children and their psychotic foster mother going back in time to tell their history after remains were found under their old foster home. Despite how dark the story was, I loved how Jessica, Alicia, and Norah persevered and stayed close throughout the years, as well as the found family that they found within each other. The ending was WILD, and I had a lot of guesses!! But I was taken aback for SURE! I recommend this one if you can stomach the TWs (primarily a lot of details of child abuse).

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Sally Hepworth for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Normally I can’t stomach books where cruelty to children occurs. But this one is so cleverly done I got caught up in the story and I forgot to be horrified. The twists and turns are amazing and by the end I was so surprised that I was surprised. Kudos to the author for a truly original story. Thank goodness it was a fiction book and not true crime.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

This was a 3-3.5 read for me and unfortunately my least favorite from Hepworth so far.

I don’t think this is a thriller. This was much more of a dark drama. I am literally the worst at guess any twists in thrillers but I had this fully figured out from the start. To me, there were no surprises in this. Even the end, which Hepworth is famous for, felt like “well duh.”

The writing was great, characters were good, per her usual. I’m just left disappointed.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is one I won't forget for a while. It was really good, centered around foster care and trauma with some mental health/sociopath pizzazz. I thoroughly enjoyed the psychological aspects of the cause and effect of trauma on kids and I think Hepworth was trying to make a point with one of the characters, that not all foster care situations are horrible, but lots are. Overall, it was a good mystery that kept me turning the pages, but the payoff was sort of cringy. Overall, I enjoyed it and I think a lot of others will too!

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75


Jessica, Nora, and Alicia were brought up by Miss Fairchild, a loving foster mom. They were given a second chance after being rescued from their family tragedies.

But their childhood wasn't the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?


This started off really good. I was so intrigued by who the body was. I didn’t realize until towards the end, that one of the POVs, the office of Dr. Warren, Psychiatrist, we didn’t actually know who was talking to Dr. Warren. I thought it followed the same chapter that had just finished. I think because of the way it was set up in my eARC had me thinking that way. Well that changes everything…

At times it did drag on a bit. But holyyy, if reading about child abuse is a trigger for you I highly suggest approaching this with extreme caution. That ending…😐

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an eARC. Darling Girls is available now.

I enjoyed this fast-paced suspense novel! There were times in the beginning where I felt the story dragged a bit, but towards the middle to the end I was nose deep into the story and enjoyed the plot twists! While I can’t say I was over the moon after reading, I did like it and would recommend for a quick thriller read.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Three foster sisters, one cruel foster mother and the quest to find the truth of bones unearthed beneath the foster home where they lived.

Sally did it again! I was so hooked by this story. Each of these women, the 3 foster sisters - Jessica, Norah and Alicia and their foster mother - Miss Fairchild, were fascinating characters. I loved that the story unfolded in both past and present timelines and via multiple point of views.

The book takes us through the dark effects of trauma and abuse but also shines a light on found family and sisterhood. It was haunting, engrossing and absolutely gripping. I felt so much for the girls and everything they went through.

Highly recommend this one! It is up there with The Good Sister for me which is my fave by Sally.

Thank you so much to @macmillan.audio @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the ALC/ARC!

🔹 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 🔹
This was my first read of Sally Hepworth, and it did not disappoint! I didn’t expect this psychological thriller to be so character driven, where I’d get invested into the well being of the three main children.

This story is set in Australia, where three children - Jessica, Norah, and Alicia - go to live at Wild Meadows home with their foster mother Miss Fairchild. The children aren’t sisters by birth, they each come from a different background that brings a unique backstory to each of their personalities.

Each girl learns that there is more to Miss Fairchild than meets the eye. They have to learn to navigate her wild temper, her manipulative personality, and her spontaneous whims.

You root for the girls as you hear their story past and present. They each thought they’d never go back to where they grew up, but a gruesome discovery of a body buried beneath their childhood home draws them back to the area, where they have to face their past and demons.

The ending of this book left me like 🤯. It’s such a sinister plot, and it isn’t a far fetched one at that. It’s rooted in truth and could easily be anyone’s story. There are twists and turns, and slow revelations as the story unfolds, and Hepworth reveals things in such a manner as to leave you hanging on for more at each turn. The past and present timelines were interwoven perfectly, revealing past stories that had to do with the present at the right time.

🎧 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
🔹 Psychological Thriller
🔹 Dual Timelines
🔹 Foster Children/Mother Dynamics
🔹 Character Driven Story

Dark, twisty, moving, this is a well told psychological thriller. Sally Hepworth created characters and a story that was completely plausible. The trauma the main characters went through, the foster care system, those parts were sad and hard to read. She has great storytelling ability that kept me reading even when the subject got difficult. Check the trigger warnings before picking this one up! Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is truely a Sally Hepworth book. If you have enjoyed her books in the past, you will definitely enjoy this one. I especially enjoyed this one because it focused on foster children versus a boyfriend or husband! Overall, great read.

Wow! Hold on tight. This was a whirlwhind of a story with multiple MCs, multiple timelines, and multiple mysteries.
I had to sit and just think for a bit after finishing this and getting that final twist. My head is still spinning.

This one had me itching to get back to it every time life interrupted. I loved getting to know Jessica, Norah, and Alicia on multiple timelines and from their sister’s points of view too. Mrs. Fairchild will have you flip flopping your feels all over the place. And yeah, you think you know where it’s going… then you have to change your opinion… then you have to change it again… then you get SMACKED in the face with what really happened. I’m shocked.

Thank you go NetGalley for the e-ARC and audio-ARC in exhchange for my honest opinion.

i always enjoy Sally Hepworth's books and I could not put this one down!

Three sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are not sisters by blood but by shared experience at a foster home that was other than ideal. They are brought back to the town and house when a body is found under it. We are left guessing throughout who the bones belong to and the last chapter was a big WOW moment. These women are so scarred by the treatment that Miss Fairchild inflicted on them. Locked in the basement, made to eat off the floor, having to stay up all night taking care of the babies she would foster. They just went through so much for kids that were already traumatized by loss.

The one thing that keeps them going is the strong bond they have with each other. As Jessica's husband says at one point, I wish you loved me like you love your sisters. That bond will get them through the healing they need as they confront their past and Miss Fairchild again.

I enjoyed every second of this book. I was utterly involved in what would happen with the sisters and the last chapter was just icing on the cake.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's for a copy for review.

Even though, the dates say 5 days, I’ve actually been reading this book for a whole month and still hadn’t finished and had to DNF. It’s just too cruel and violent, and I just couldn’t continue. It saddens me because I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from this author, and I will still pick up her next book, but unfortunately, this wasn’t it.