Darling Girls
Sally Hepworth

Jessica, Norah and Alicia; three sisters by chance all survivors of their foster mother Miss Fairchild. What looked like a sprawling farm estate and an idyllic upbringing for the three girls is full of long buried dark secrets and lasting mental scars.

When a body is discovered underneath the home they grew up in, the sisters must face their traumas head on; now thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses, forced to recall their upbringing, are they actually the prime suspects?

This book really wasn’t for me, I think it’s mostly because this is being categorized in the incorrect genre. There are some mystery/thriller elements but it is not nearly as intense of a page turner as you might be after. This book should also come with a significant trigger warning for mental child abuse/trauma and that is what makes this work more sad and tragic than a nail biting thriller. Told in past and present alternating chapters, the story and its characters are well developed and there was no issue keeping all elements straight and organized along the varying storyline which, speaks to this veteran writers skill and experience.

Thank you Net Galley and St. Martins press for the ARC!

Wow! This book was dark and tense and twisty. I loved the characters and the alternating POVS, but it was also easy to get lost. All and all, I will read anything Sally Hepworth writes!

Darling Girls is an unputdownable thriller by Sally Hepworth. It goes between past and present day, as three sisters are forced to revisit their foster home upbringing.

I really enjoyed this book. I was on the edge of my seat for most of it, and couldn’t wait to find out what happened. There were several twists and I didn’t find the plot to be predictable. Without giving anything away, the ending made me gasp.

Sally Hepworth is an auto-read author for me, and Darling Girls did not disappoint. A sincere thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the electronic arc of Darling Girls. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I have really enjoyed everything I have read by Sally Hepworth, and this did not disappoint. This deals with secrets that 3 sisters have from their experience in a foster home as children. Twisty and kept me guessing though out the book. I would highly recommend for people who love smart mystery / thrillers.

Creepy and disturbing, but with a lot of heart and the joys of found family, this story is about flawed people and the discovery of their worth through heartbreak. Some are irredeemable, but all are unreservedly human.

I think you’ll love the bound between the sisters, the twisty plot, and the macabre circumstances.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

Darling Girls is a psychological mystery, showcasing Hepworth's darker tones in writing. Three women form an unbreakable bond after being placed in a foster home. This house of horrors is perfect on the outside, but once the door close, Holly Fairchild unleashes her lasting scars.

Twenty-five years later, the ladies are forced back to home to aid in the investigation of bones found on the property. This story alternates between the past and present, providing insight into the girls survival. The culminating conclusion provides what we expect, a stunning twist!

Thank you, St. Martin's Press.

Sally Hepworth has done it again! Darling Girls is an addictive psychological thriller that lends itself to binge reading in one day. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are found sisters bonded by their experiences growing up in foster care. Their foster mother, Miss Fairchild, is alternately loving and cruel, setting the girls on unstable paths to adulthood. When a body is found on the grounds of their old foster home, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have to confront past demons. Perfectly plotted, the twists come at just the right times, building to a shocking conclusion. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Thank you so much Netgalley, Sally Hepworth, and St. Martin's Press for the ebook! Wow! This was such a gripping and also sad read! Having worked in the psychiatric world just knowing the disposition foster kids are put in just makes this story so much more real to me. The twist at the end had my jaw on the floor!!

More mystery than thriller, this story comes to us from multiple perspectives and timelines, unraveling in pieces, over time, so it slowly comes together.

I never fail to enjoy a Sally Hepworth novel. Once secrets started spilling out, more arose. The girls had to deal with major issues from all directions, and I was surprised by some of what they endured.

Overall, a satisfying read.

I received an ARC of this book. Fantastic story! I really enjoyed this book. I was caught up in the tale from the start and couldn't wait to find out the conclusion. Highly recommend!

DARLING GIRLS review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5

🩵Anyone else a Sally Hepworth fanatic?! ✋ I’ve read 8 of her books and they’re all so good in their own way!! Her older work leans toward women’s fiction where as her newer books are more suspense/family drama. DARLING GIRLS had no shortage of family drama and I was immediately invested in the story!

🩵Here’s a summary of the plot:👇
Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were raised by the same foster mother as children. The horrible treatment they suffered bonded them as “sisters” for life. Now a body has been discovered under the house they grew up in and everyone wants to know what really happened at their foster home?!

🩵Holy plot twists! The final ending of this book had me 🤯. I thought I knew where this story was headed (and I was partly right) but the final twist at the end left my head spinning! This book is Hepworth’s darkest yet and definitely check content warnings! I really enjoyed this one overall and Hepworth is absolutely an auto-read author for me!

🩵Thanks @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my advanced copy! DARLING GIRLS is available now (happy pub day)!!

I greatly enjoyed this novel! It was so bingeable and interesting. Complex plot, twists left and right, and the ending was completely unexpected. I had one qualm with it and it's that if Miss Fairchild hated Amy so much, why would she foster a bunch of kids and then adopt a bunch of babies and name them all Amy? I guess I feel like her lie was more believable than what actually happened. I would've loved for Sally Hepworth to touch on that a little bit more but regardless, I enjoyed this book all the same! Rating 3.75!

4.5 rounded down to 4.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

Sally Hepworth is a master at her craft. She can spin a psychological thriller with the best of them! Darling Girls was equal parts suspenseful, tense, sad, and creepy. There are four different POV, which I wasn't crazy about, but I understood the purpose of. The story is told from three foster children's viewpoints, both now and when they were in their foster home. The foster mother is clearly demented and it was so tense to read her interactions with the children. I was really never sure what was about to happen to the girls.

This book does portray a toxic and dangerous foster home situation. Abuse and neglect are also a large part of the story, so please proceed with caution if those things are triggering for you.

Hepworth does a great job showing the ways in which childhood trauma can filter into life as an adult. All three of the women, who were the foster children, were dealing with their own individual sets of problems as adults. But their bond and love for each other was so strong and deep that they instinctually knew they could rely on the others when they needed them. I really appreciate a good depiction of true sisterhood.

This is a solid thriller and one I will definitely be recommending to all my thiller loving friends. This is only my second Hepworth book. But I feel like she is going to fast become an auto-buy author for me!

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are as close as sisters, raised together in a seemingly idyllic foster home. But their past was far from perfect, and it still haunts them to this day. When, in the present, a body is found under their old home, secrets threaten to spill out.

Hepworth really cleverly uses point of view here, especially in the mysterious therapist sessions. We get backstory from multiple characters, which really helps build up the world of the book and keeps the suspense going.

The reveals took my breath away, especially the last one, which still haunts me. This is really an expertly plotted and well written book, that will keep readers engrossed and constantly second guessing. I would recommend this book.

She’s done it again!!! Sally Hepworth is the master at writing chilling psychological suspense. DARLING GIRLS is very much character driven and way darker than her other novels. Told in three POV’s, then and now; -the first chapter opens with a POV from an unknown person.

The story revolves around three tightly-bonded foster sisters; -Jessica, Norah and Alicia who were cared for at Wild Meadows by the deviously sinister Miss Fairchild. Twenty-five years later bones are discovered under the farmhouse and the police have requested them to return to Port Agatha for questioning.

With mental scars still felt to this day, the women’s lives have been far from perfect. What begins as a traumatic journey through their childhood.. to the present with disfunction in love, life threatening addiction and crazy DRAMA.. you’d think it couldn’t get any worse. It does. This tale goes way beyond the normal twisty rollercoaster ride of unsettling moments. Just know Hepworth wraps up with one HE**UVA ENDING. Karma, gotta love it!!! 4.5 stars — Pub. 4/23/24

I received an advanced copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to St.Martin's Press for the arc of the book.

This book was an absolute rollercoaster! I couldn't get enough of this gripping thriller that had me hooked from start to finish. Every spare moment I had, I was diving back into its pages, eager to uncover the next twist and turn. It's rare for a thriller to hit me right in the feels like this one did - I even found myself shedding a tear or two along the way.

Centered around three foster sisters and their haunting past at a foster house in Port Agatha, the story unfolds through their distinct perspectives. The clever narrative structure, with intermittent therapy sessions shrouded in mystery, keeps you guessing until the very end. Flitting between past and present, the storytelling remains seamless, never once losing its momentum. When the sisters return to Port Agatha years later to confront their foster mother and unearth buried secrets, the tension reaches a boiling point.

What I loved most was how each sister brought their own personality to the table, grappling with their trauma in different ways. The raw portrayal of the foster care system's dark realities hit me hard and left me reeling. It's a tough read at times, with potential triggers for some readers, so proceed with caution.

Overall, "Darling Girls" is an absolute gem with its beautifully crafted narration. And the cherry on top? The innovative reading and listening experience that adds a whole new layer of immersion. Count me in for more like this!

This was a solid read! I was hooked from the beginning!

I love a good murder mystery, with shocking twists and alternating timelines! This story was also told from multiple POVs, including a mystery POV whose identity is only revealed a bit later on!

I really felt for the three sisters - Jessica, Norah and Alicia. They went through such a horrible ordeal and I loved the fact that they stayed close after everything! The found family trope is amazing in this book! Sally Hepworth really can write compelling, flawed characters and complex, layered relationships!

I read this really quickly and found it hard to put it down! I really wanted to know whose bones were under the house, how they got there and what the sisters knew!

I'm keeping this vague because I don't want to spoil anything, but if you're a fan of murder mysteries, then I definitely recommend this book!

🏠Book Review🏠
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Summary; For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life.

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?
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts: Thank you so much @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy, happy pub day to this beauty! I’m such a big Sally Hepworth fan, she’s such a doll to follow on social media and I’ve probably read every book she’s written since pre bookstagram! 🤣that said, this one was a really great book but it is definitely a tough/heavy read. This dives very heavily into the physical and emotional abuse these girls suffered at the hands of the foster system. At times this was really really hard to read because it was so well written. But the ending is absolutely buck wild 😂 I did not see some of the twists coming at all, and my god I fell in love with these characters. Overall it was a great book, just very heavy subject matter.
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QOTD- what is a new release that you loved ?!
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Review: Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I was really looking forward to Darling Girls; Sally Hepworth is an author I enjoy so much but her endings can be hit or miss and I was hoping this would be a good one for me.

AND IT WAS.

I had figured out the twists by the end (more or less) but this was SO well done. I essentially read it in two sittings and it wasn’t by choice… I would have read it in one if I was able.

I was so invested in the sisters, I liked each of them. I also felt so SAD for them. The dual timeline and dual POVs lent so much to the story.

Darling Girls releases today and I highly recommend.

𝑻𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆: 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔
𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓: 𝑺𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑯𝒆𝒑𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉
𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵: 📱

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5


I must start by saying, I have been sleeping on Sally Hepworth! I need to dig into her backlist.

In all the ways that matter, Jessica, Norah and Alicia are sisters. Growing up together in foster care, their caregiver, Miss Fairchild certainly wouldn’t win any awards for mother of the year. As adults, the sisters want nothing more than to put Wild Meadows behind them. Unfortunately, a call to each of the sisters, about a dead body being found under their foster home, brings each of them back to Port Agatha to answer questions, and confront their childhood traumas.

Admittedly, some of the scenes in Darling Girls were difficult to read, but Sally Hepworth wove such a dark and twisty narrative that had me guessing. I felt there were some gaps in the timeline and unanswered questions, but I really enjoyed the sharp twists the story took.

If you love a thriller, multiple timelines, and multiple perspectives, pick this one up.