I’m not crying. You’re crying. This was a typical Sally Hepworth, complete with complex characters and a dynamic plot with lots of emotion.

A body is found under an old foster home, which brings three sisters back to face their traumatic childhood. Each sister is going through her own struggles, Which added some drama to the story.

The big reveal of who was in the therapists office wasn’t entirely a surprise, but the culmination of it in chapter 55 was 🤌🏻chef’s kiss🤌🏻

Between that layer and the dual timeline, this was a delightful book that I couldn’t read fast enough!! 4.5 stars!

Mystery/Thriller

You can always count on Sally Hepworth for a good story and Darling Girls doesn't disappoint.

Three girls met in foster care and formed a lasting friendship. Their shared trauma bonded them closer than sisters. They all are experiencing lasting effects from their experiences - Norah gets into physical altercations with people, Jessica has a successful business but is stealing medications and abusing benzos, and Alicia cannot form lasting attachments to anyone. They are brought back together to the town where they once lived because bones were found buried on the grounds of their former house. The police want to hear about their experiences, and it brings up lots of memories for the girls.

The book's narrative is provided between different characters and there are also timeline hops, which sometimes made following the storyline difficult. There are also inserts from one of the characters visit with a therapist. It's difficult to tell which character is the patient until the very end of the novel.

Holy cow - the ending! It saved the book for me. I felt like this book moved really slowly and I just wasn't that invested in the characters. True to Hepworth's style there are twists upon twists. Another solid effort from a true star of the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC of this novel.

This is a riveting unputdownable book. It has both an exciting plot and interesting characters. Plus, it is full of great family vibes and unpredictable plot twists. It is definitely worth reading!

Sally Hepworth did an amazing job writing the story of three girls now women who grew up in foster care.

The sisters stayed close all these years and have been doing the best they can in their lives since Miss Fairchild. That is until one evening they each get a call that human remains have been found underneath of the “home” they found each other in. The women return “home” to have more secrets, lies, and coverups. This book kept me reading and even when I thought I had figured it out i was dead wrong!


I enjoyed reading Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review

This story follows Jessica, Alicia and Norah, 3 girls that were in foster system that were placed at Wild Meadows with Miss Fairchild. Now they have found remains where the house once stood and they are asked to come back to town to help find out who they belong to. It brings up many memories of growing up there and finally escaping to live on their own.

Great character development and a great plot with many twists and turns. I highly recommend reading this one!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

I loved this book! I didn't want to put it down. Kept me guessing until the very end. Sally Hepworth is an automatic read for me.

Darling Girls
By: Sally Hepworth @sallyhepworth
Story: ✨✨✨ ✨✨ 5/5
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 5/5

Thank you @penguinrandomhouse and @netgalley for a preview of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Oh those darling, darling girls…

Every girl should feel lucky to have a mother’s love.

The lives of three foster children; three very different personalities and yet one tragic thing in common - their upbringing.

Jessica craves order, Nora craves freedom and Alicia sits somewhere in between the two. How did they all end up this way? They share a “mother” (if you could call her that) who is more devoted to her own wellbeing and self perception than to the children she is supposed to be raising.

From the outside looking in, Mrs. Fairchild is viewed as the perfect foster mother. Yet, twenty-five years later, the truth is unveiled after human remains are found underneath the house where she raised so many of her foster children.

And no one knows who it might’ve been…

After detectives are called to the scene to decipher whose body the remains once belonged to, Jessica, Nora and Alicia must return to the place they once called home. Desperate to forget their time at Wild Meadows, once they arrive the memories come flooding back.

Will their secrets withstand all of this new attention? Find out in Darling Girls.

⚠️ I do not own the rights to the imagery or audio used.

Oh, Sally Hepworth. Not typically a thriller gal, I end up reading thrillers if they're by her. Darling Girls was a bit slow to start and, to be honest, I had no clue where it was going until the very end. I found the ending satisfactory and enjoyed the mystery, but my favorite part of the story was the relationship between the sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia.

The sisters are not biologically related but became sisters during their time with foster mother Miss Fairchild, a seemingly loving, but abusive woman. When they finally broke free of Miss Fairchild, they though they were free of her. Years later, detectives come knocking, letting the sisters know that bones were found under the house they spent so many contentious years.

A winding mystery, this thriller keeps you on your toes and wondering what twist will come next. I enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the ARC copy of this one, which is out everywhere now!!

This was a very interesting read. To me it kept a great pace throughout, had some nice surprises & just had a great plot line.
I really enjoyed how this wrapped up and felt like everything was answered nicely.
There was nice development for the characters & throughout the story as well.

Really enjoy Sally Hepworth's writing style!

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for a readers copy of this book. My reviews never contain spoilers and are freely given.
Three foster children, all girls, spent years at a home with Miss Fairchild, who was, to put it mildly, in need of help herself. The “sisters” are now grown women and are stunned to get a call from police that bones were found at the site of their old home. Whose bones?
The story switches between present day and the past, but is never confusing.
If you love a good suspense novel, don’t miss the latest by Sally Hepworth.

Sally Hepworth has crafted another crafty thriller with Darling Girls. This mystery is heavy on character development. The three main characters, Jessie, Norah and Alicia have a traumatic shared past as foster children of Miss Fairchild at Wild Meadows. The story jumps between present day and the past seamlessly. A body is found at Wild Meadows forcing the girls to reunite and relive their dark and twisted past, which is full of secrets. As with all Sally Hepworth novels, there are lots of satisfying twists and turns in this story. This is probably my favorite Sally Hepworth novel to date, and I really enjoyed here earlier titles as well! Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Sally Hepworth for the copy of Darling Girls.

Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I was hooked from the beginning…and the final chapter put my jaw on the floor. This was my first book of Sally’s but I will definitely read more and I definitely recommend this one!

Sally Hepworth has done it again. This was a wonderfully creepy book that kept twisting all the way to the end. I love that all the characters were well developed and that the plot was quick paced.

3.5 stars rounded up
Jessica, Norah, and Alicia all grew up in the same foster home, Wild Meadows, under the watchful eye of Miss Fairchild. Jessica was the first foster girl that Miss Fairchild took in. Since it was just the two of them, they developed a strong bond. However, money was tight. So Miss Fairchild decides to take on another foster child, Norah. While Norah did not bond with Miss Fairchild like Jessica. Miss Fairchild is fascinated with Norah and pushes Jessica away. Next, there is another girl in need, Alicia. Miss Fairchild decides to foster her as well. Alicia also does not bond with Miss Fairchild. In fact, Miss Fairchild appears to not like her at all. After Alicia, there are more temporary fosters, but Miss Fairchild quickly loses interest in each, after about a week. The book rotates between all 3 POVs in the past and present; and we learn the background of each girl. Also, Miss Fairchild appears to be some sort of fairy godmother to the social workers, but we get the dark details of how badly she treats the girls. In spite of the poor treatment, the girls form a tight bond with each other and consider themselves sisters. Everyone has moved on in their lives until they get a call from the police that bones were found under the Wild Meadows house. The girls travel back to their hometown to answer questions for the police. I don’t know that I felt attached to any particular character, but they are all fleshed out. This was an interesting story with a fun twist at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC of this book.

Sally Hepworth nails tense family dynamics in her novels. Darling Girls has a captivating mystery at the center, but it's the really the sisters' connection that makes the story sing.

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARD of this book.

I am a big fan of Sally Hepworth's books, and have pretty much read them all. Darling Girls is her newest, and is a feverish thriller in the vein of Freida McFadden. It has everything you could want: sisters, secrets, love, murder, unreliable narrators and, gaslighting.

The book focuses 3 foster sisters, Alicia, Norah, and Jessica, and their time together in Wild Meadows foster home with their foster mother Miss Fairchild. As adults, the three sisters are struggling with what they went through has children. Then human remains are found when Wild Meadows is demolished, leading to an investigation and throwing the sisters back into their past.

The book gives POVs from each of the characters, and the sister's experiences are disturbing and haunting, leaving the reader feeling like they are a part of the collective experience. Without any violence, Hepworth manages to keep readers feeling off-kilter and eerie, with an untethered experience while reading. As their childhood experiences unfold, it is difficult to know who to trust, if anyone, as the sisters seem like unreliable narrators and everything that happened to them seems bizarre.

This book is one of a psychological brand or terror, and deals with the horrors of abuse and eventual catharsis and healing. Its a story full of twists and turns, and is a very bingeable read. Be prepared to stay up late reading this one -- possibly all in one sitting!

I definitely recommend this one to all the mystery/thriller fans! You won't be disappointed!

This is a multi-layered story focused on three foster sisters growing up on a farm estate under the care of Miss Fairchild. Years later, a body is discovered buried under this estate and the 3 sisters are interviewed, reopening old wounds and revealing hidden mysteries about their time with Miss Fairchild. Amongst the variety of confessions lies the real truth, but you will have quite a ride to endure to sort through this tangled, tragic tale. Thanks to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are as close as biological sisters. Twenty-five years ago, they shared a foster home with the seemingly perfect Miss Fairchild. From the outside, their life as Miss Fairchild’s Darling Girls looked happy. However, behind her public facade, Miss Fairchild was a narcissist with a mean streak. The trauma of those times is just beginning to dissipate when a decayed body is found buried under their old foster home. Can Jessica, Norah and Alicia shed some light on the bones? Was Miss Fairchild responsible? Or was one of the sisters at fault?

I just couldn’t stop reading this book! It is the ultimate compulsive thriller. Though I did see the end coming, I still wanted to read all the details leading up to the shocking twist at the conclusion. Plus, I wanted to find out how the sisters reacted. Darling Girls provided all of the answers, which is great. I hate it when a book leaves threads hanging. This book, luckily, knits up all the plot points into a tidy scarf.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a compelling thriller with a great mystery at its heart. It does have quite a few trigger warnings though so be cautious if you have lived through a troubled childhood. Having worked in child protection for several years, stories like this are distressingly familiar. Unfortunately, foster care money sometimes entices the wrong type of people to apply. That being said, few foster parents are as bad as Miss Fairchild.

With an unputdownable plot, well-fleshed out characters, and two mysteries at its heart, Darling Girls receives 5 stars from me!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

If you are a big fan of quick, fast paced reads that wrap you into the story from chapter one to the end – this book does just that! The story starts in present time, focusing on 3 women whom met when they were young pre-teens under the care of the same foster mother. While the three women have grown up and are traveling through regular adult life, their world is halted by a phone call from a detective summoning them back to their childhood foster home where a body was discovered under the house upon it’s demolishment. At this point, the story travels back in time from past to present and switches from each girl’s perspective as they essentially “survive” foster care under the care of a woman named Miss Fairchild.

From the beginning, you’re left questioning whom the body belongs to, what happened to the women in foster care, are they innocent, is the foster mother guilty, and so much more!

This was my first Sally Hepworth book and I will definitely reach for more in the future. Highly recommend Darling Girls!

I always enjoy Sally Hepworth's books and Darling Girls was no exception! Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were foster kids living in Miss Fairchild's home. They were mistreated, starved, and verbally abused. They are able to get away from Miss Fairchild, but are called back to the small town when a child's bones are found under the house.

This book kept me totally engaged and was a quick read because of this. Themes of trauma, child abuse, addiction, found family.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced digital copy of the book.