As a first book by the author, it isn't one that will encourage me to run and read her older works. It was an okay read, but I wasn't in love with the story. It was well written, don't get me wrong, but the characters weren't memorable. Actually, they were actually insufferable. But I powered through because I was intrigued to find out the ending. While I had a feeling who the culprit was and wasn't surprised, I thought the ending fell flat. All in all, I'm glad I gave the author a try, but I'm not running to recommend this book to anyone.

“Darling Girls” by Sally Hepworth
Release Date: 4/23/24
Genre: thriller

Thank you Netgalley for this arc! I really enjoyed this book. It kept me on my toys the entire time and until the reveal wasn’t sure what happened. I will give a trigger warning of child abuse.

Jessica, Nora, and Alicia are sisters, but not the traditional kind. They spent years in foster care at Wild Meadows with Miss Fairchild. The book is told from all three POV and switches from when they lived at Wild Meadows to present day.
When a body is found under Wild Meadows the authorities call all three back to take statements about their time there. None of them want to relive their time there. It looked normal on the outside, but Miss Fairchild was anything but normal.
Who is buried under the house that haunts the sisters memories?

This book is about three "sisters" who bonded through their experiences in their foster home under the care of the evil Miss Fairchild. The abuse they suffered affected them all in different ways and they just want to put it behind them. But now when the foster home is sold and demolished, a body is discovered under the house and the sisters are brought back to their childhood nightmare as witnesses... or are they suspects.
I like psychological thrillers that reveal pieces of the story a little bit at a time with a before and after timeline. The story also jumps between the three sisters and another unnamed person talking to their psychologist in short chapters that hold your attention. With a few shocking reveals and plenty of twists, this book had me flipping pages long after my bedtime to find out what really happened.
Thanks to St Martins Press through Netgalley for the advance copy of this book. The opinions in this review are my own and given voluntarily.

As readers of Sally Hepworth know, she is a master of the plot twist. There were several in "Darling Girls", so in that respect she doesn't disappoint in the slightest.

Within these pages we learned the stories of four women.

Jessica - went to live at Wild Meadows when she was just four years old. She bonded with Miss Fairchild but was bitterly disappointed in her when she changed with the advent of new children being added to her foster 'family' when she was thirteen. Jessica was desperate to please her foster mother, always seeking approval and hoping for love. When more girls came to live at Wild Meadows, Jessica soon saw another side of Miss Fairchild. Now an adult and married, Jessica continues to utilize her OCD tendencies within her home organization business - despite her growing reliance on antidepressants.

Norah - began living at Wild Meadows when she was eleven years old after several other unsuccessful and sometimes abusive foster placements. She has violent tendencies and is very bright and very beautiful. Norah is the girl of the three who was more likely to incur Miss Fairchild's wrath due to her confrontational attitude. Now an adult, Norah continues to struggle with her violent bent and has had trouble with the law. She is single, adores dogs, and owns three of the large breed variety.

Alicia - went to live at Wild Meadows on a temporary basis at first when the grandmother who raised her had to be hospitalized. Sadly, her Grammy died in hospital and twelve year old Alicia was left with Miss Fairchild. Alicia was accustomed to a loving and generous caretaker in her grandmother so Miss Fairchild's meanness and strict rules are something she finds difficult to accept. She is hungry all the time. Now an adult, Alicia works as a social worker helping other children find foster families.

As children, the three girls faced a fearful adversary in Miss Fairchild. Their common nemesis caused them to become even more bonded than real biological sisters. Love and security are the most basic of children's rights - yet these three girls were bereft of both. They turned to each other.

Miss Fairchild - a deeply damaged woman who owns the Wild Meadows farmhouse where she herself grew up. We come to know her via her visits to a psychotherapist. She is a fastidious housekeeper who demands cleanliness at all times. She sees herself as a generous woman who takes in foster children and would never raise a hand to them. She calls them her 'darling girls', yet she is militant in her demanding that the girls do all the chores around the house. Her moods are mercurial and she emotionally abuses the children in myriad ways. She demands loyalty and unprotesting acquiescence from the girls in her care. Rebellion of any sort is not tolerated and she brooks no argument. She plays upon their deepest fears and her own behaviour is highly unpredictable. She is an intensely bitter and disturbed woman.

"When it came vengeance, Miss Fairchild preferred to play the long game."

Wild Meadows is a large farmhouse a few hours drive away from Melbourne. Now, twenty-five years later, the house is being torn down. However, human bones were found on the land and now the police want to interview all those who once resided there. So they all travel back to their old hometown...

Told via alternate timelines, twenty-five years apart, this story was a compelling read. We come to know the girls as children and meet them again as deeply damaged and traumatized adults.

The novel poses the question 'Is abusive behavior always cyclic, OR are some people just born evil?'

Sally Hepworth is an auto-read author for me, and this was a solid thriller that kept me riveted throughout. Highly recommended!

Three girls in foster care end up with Miss Fairchild and leave even more broken than when they arrived. The sisters are all carrying around baggage from their childhood and when a body is found under the home they were in, all the secrets come out. This was a great book! And that last chapter!! Wow!

Darling Girls
🗓️ 04/23/2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“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?”

A well paced, page turning suspense novel that kept me engaged from the start. This is my first @sallyhepworth read and I am looking forward to the next. She makes light of some difficult topics all while keeping you guessing until the end. Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an early release copy in exchange for my honest review.

#darlinggirls @sallyhepworth #netgalley #stmartinspress #newrelease #suspense #thriller #arcreview #kindlereads #bookstagram

Darling Girls is a powerful dual timeline thriller, set in Australia, about three foster sisters' traumatic childhood experiences with their foster mother, Miss Fairchild. The story also weaves in the lives of Jessica, Norah, and Alicia as adults when something mysterious is found at the location of their childhood home. Hepworth writes boldly to deliver a narrative that quickly draws in her readers and never slows down the mystery and suspense.

Hepworth thoughtfully put in background research prior to writing the book, and describes it in her acknowledgements. Whether a fan of Hepworth or new to her writing, lovers of good thrillers will want to strongly consider this book.

I received an advance reader's copy from Net Galley and St. Martin's Press. My review is my own.

Darling Girls is the latest domestic thriller by best-selling author Sally Hepworth. In this story, she trains her lens on the complicated issues of love, trust, sisters, and parenthood, all framed by the fraught foster system.
This is the tale of three young girls who are placed, one by one, into the Wild Meadows Farm, home of Miss Holly Fairchild, a seemingly lovely lady who affectionately refers to them as “darling girls.” But all is not what it seems, and the girls find that forming their “sisterhood” is the key to surviving the mood swings and ensuing maliciousness of their foster mother.
The story evolves into a compelling look at the many faces of love, partnerships, and mothering. Told in two timelines, and from the POVs of sisters Jessica, Norah and Alicia, it illustrates, with wise and witty prose, the lifetime effects that damaged adult carers can have on children and how those children then function as adults. In her signature style, Hepworth deftly weaves these themes with a bit of criminal activity tossed in, making this a mystery investigation, also.
The main characters are well-drawn, with humor and pathos, in a compelling narrative that is hard to put down!
This is a smart, well-written, thoroughly enjoyable domestic thriller by the masterful storyteller Sally Hepworth. I recommend it to readers who enjoy fresh contemporary writing with depth and heart.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

How did it take me this long to read a book by Sally Hepworth?? I enjoyed the heck out of this one. While I struggled while reading about small children in foster care, I had to finish this story. The author did an incredible job giving an individual voice to each character, staying consistent with the plot, and tying up loose ends. While there were twists and turns, there weren’t any so unbelievable I threw my Kindle across the room. I sometimes felt uncomfortable reading this – which is the perfect thriller for some – but it kept me from giving it five stars.

Quick recap without spoilers:
Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are non-biological sisters bonded by their shared experiences in the foster system. The women met as pre-teens when each entered the foster system and went to live with Miss Fairchild, a woman residing on a beautiful farming estate in the country. Unfortunately, life inside the house wasn’t as picture-perfect, and the girls grew close to survive. Their time ended abruptly at Miss Fairchild’s, and twenty years later, the women were sequestered back to their childhood home after someone located bones buried under the property. Are the women victims or suspects?

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin Press for this ARC. I will post this review on 4/23, the publication date, on my Instagram page, @onebookeachweek.

Sally Hepworth is back with another dysfunctional family! I think this one is a good bit darker than her others I’ve read, but that didn’t stop me from reading it in a weekend! This time we follow three girls who grew up in a foster home who have been called back to the home after some bones were found on the property. It’s told from multiple perspectives and we go back and forth between the then and now. And the end is twist after twist!

I was hooked right from the get go! I was intrigued by each of the sisters and how they ended up together in the home and formed their sisterly bond. It starts to get dark pretty quick with the life they were made to endure, but the now timeline really helps to balance it out. The end is twisty and I enjoyed how it all settled. Hepworth really does do a phenomenal job writing family thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance digital copy! All opinions are mine!

I’ll admit I was skeptical to dive into a book dealing with abused foster children, but Sally Hepworth always delivers. This one kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat right up until the surprise ending! Definitely not a quick, easy read, but a great thriller/mystery!

I absolutely LOVE Sally Hepworth’s newest psychological thriller. Bones are found under the former foster home of three sisters and they are forced to go back to be interviewed and figure out who it is and what happened. Sally Hepworth writes amazing characters with such deep and twisty stories. I think this is my new favorite of hers. I loved the way the sisters stuck together and always had each others backs. I loved how Ms. Fairchild’s story progressed and how we figure out the truth at the end. It was devious! Loved it all and would highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC of this story.

It's been a while since I've read a book as quickly as I did with Darling Girls. I got hooked on the story very early on and it was quite a wild journey. Darling Girls follows three girls who grew up together in a foster home and is written in past and present timelines. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and felt that each one was well developed and unique. Both these aspects helped build and reveal the story in a way that kept me intrigued and not wanting to put the book down. This one does get pretty dark as it focuses on the girls' experience in foster care, the abuse they endured and how it shaped them. I found this to be twisty and unpredictable with a pretty shocking ending (which I love in a book!).

Overall, I enjoyed this one and rated it 4.5 to 5 stars! If you are looking for a bingeworthy domestic thriller that is dark, twisty and addictive that centres around foster sisters, check out Darling Girls (out April 23!).

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book. It was really hard to put down. I’m such a sucker for dual timeline and different POVs. This book had all that and the chapters were short. Yay! I read this in less than a full day because I was so interested to see where it would go next.

I do think this book is more about the 3 girls and their shared experience with their foster mom. The mystery aspect was pretty low-key. I didn’t mind though. I thought it was horrifically entertaining. It was interesting to see how everything affected each girl a little differently.

This was my first book by this author but I’d love to read more of her work. I loved the writing style.
Thanks to Netgalley for the arc! All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin’s press for the eARC!

I binge read this book over this past weekend but if I didn’t have other things to do I 100% could have finished it all in one sitting! It was just the right amount of suspenseful & shocking. This book is like a twist between domestic thriller/psychological thriller & it definitely makes you think. I thought I had figured this book out & was just enjoying the ride until that very last chapter😳.

My favorite parts were the character development & the slow burn suspense that kept me from putting this book down! The found family element between Norah, Alicia, & Jessica was heartwarming. Their strong relationship balanced how heartbreaking it was to witness how their trauma affected them each differently. This story is a little bit darker than Sally Hepworth’s previous books & it did make me a little bit anxious at times so I would definitely check trigger warnings!

This ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed reading Darling Girls!

I like the format of now and then chapters and having all three characters' points of view.

A story about three young girls in the foster care system Norah, Jessica, and Alicia who end up in the care of Miss Fairchild.
She is not a very nice person she makes everyone think she is caring and cares for the children. Miss Fairchild has a dark past.

I love the bond between Norah, Jessica, and Alicia built through their time with Miss Fairchild, and after is unbreakable how much they love each other and will do anything for each other. Even though they are not blood sisters.

Norah is funny I had a lot of LOL moments with her.

I was so happy that Jessica got her happy ending. she went to rehab her relationship with Phil became stronger and she was able to start again, and they had a baby. After all the mind games Miss Fairchild made her go through. She was free at last.

Alicia was able to be a foster parent and I was so happy she ended up with Meera.


The book has a lot of twists and turns you don’t see the end coming! I dint LOL

All this time I wondered why Miss Fairchild was an evil woman.
Well, when Miss Fairchild was a teenager, she was jealous of her stepfather (John) she believed he stole her mother from her. Then her mother and John had a baby. Miss Fairchild believed that Amy (stepsister) was more important than her.
One night She was left to babysit her sister but that night she put an end to her crying. Miss Fairchild's mother buried Amy under the house to protect Miss Fairchild she couldn’t lose two children.

Years later Norah, Jessica, and Alicia will find out whose bones were buried under the basement at Wild Meadows Farm.


"I never would have dreamed up this teen pregnancy story. Thank you, Mummy. Thank you for everything. "


Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC!

I absolutely loved this book. The story is so original and I really haven’t read a book with this topic. I enjoy the characters and how real they are with their issues and traumatic pass. I also enjoyed the perspective of each of the characters and the ending. Wow I loved it. I actually love this book so much that I picked up a physical copy because I feel like it’s a book that I just wanna own and share it with others.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Sally Hepworth, and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was fine. I've only read one other of Hepworth's books and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to read another one. I thought the way she wrote Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were great, and I was really entranced with the sister relationship. She writes truly compelling characters, and this almost read like a domestic/contemporary novel rather than a mystery in many parts. The mystery element is what ended up letting me down though. I was able to see several twists coming, and there's a "story line" mixed in between the flashback and present day chapters of someone being interviewed in therapy that didn't quite work for me. Then, the last chapter revealed a shocking conclusion, that again, was a predictable ending that didn't work for me. I won't count Hepworth out completely yet, as there were elements of Darling Girls I enjoyed, but I don't think I will end up reaching quite as quickly for her next book.

This one was really slow to start. I thought it wrapped up well, but overall it wasn't that thrilling. I thought the characters were mostly well thought-out and I enjoyed watching their lives play out but the stakes just didn't seem that high to me either. It seemed pretty clear who the killer was, regardless of how we got there.

4.5 stars
Truly another amazing book by Sally Hepworth. I don’t know how she does it! She manages to captivate me in every book she writes and I love how each premise has been different.
“Darling Girls” is about 3 young girls and their time with Ms. Fairchild, their foster caretaker. When the girls grow up, they soon get a call that bones were found under their foster home, and they have to relive it all over again to figure out whose bones it could be.

This book was something memorable: something I’ve never read before. Ms. Fairchild was truly awful and the way Hepworth carefully described the abuse (TW: child abuse) was honestly heartbreaking but enough for me to not want to put the book down because I had to know what happened to these girls. I loved their relationship throughout the book and how connected they all continued to be in their lives.

As always, Sally adds a crazy ass TWIST in the end that I never see coming! I thought I had it figured out but alas…
The only main issue I had was sometimes I felt taken out of the story from the minor “present day” side plots. They felt unnecessary; Sometimes I’d forget about them and when those issues came back around in a later chapter, it took me out of the main story a bit.

Go snag this one up fast if you love fast paced, good twists, maybe even a bit of a darker theme! OUT TOMORROW 04.23.24!!! Thank you so much NetGalley + St. Martin’s Press for this e-arc copy!!