”Aren’t you a darling girl?” Mum would say as she stood over the bassinet, gazing at her. “How I love you, darling girl.” It made me sick.

Darling Girls was my 5th read from Hepworth and my favorite thus far. Hepworth can write thrillers like no other! This novel is told from multiple points of view- Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, all foster children in the 90’s as well as an account from a Dr. Warren, psychologist. You aren’t sure whom is communicating with Dr. Warren until the end of the story which adds to the suspense. The book is also told in the present day but flashes back to the girls time at Wild Meadows- both time frames essential to the plot.

Darling Girls is a domestic thriller done right. I highly recommend picking it up for your next 5 star read!

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

Chilling family thriller revolving around three sisters in foster care and the mother who was supposed to take care of them. This is a dual-timeline story flashing back to when the girls were adolescents in the care of Miss Fairchild and to the present, when they return to their hometown after bones are discovered under the farmhouse of their old foster home. All of the girls have faced troubles since leaving care, but they always stuck together, even as adults. The opportunity to finally tell their story about what happened to them in foster care, as well as the solving of the mystery, allows them to put the past behind them and grow.

If I have the opportunity to read a Sally Hepworth book early, I move it to the top of my list! They’re usually some of my favorites but this one fell flat. I’m usually hooked from the first sentence but this one took until half-way to really get into it. I did love the 2nd half of the book but the first half just didn’t do it for me.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are foster children placed at Wild Meadows farm with an abusive foster mother, Miss Fairchild, in the 1990s. In the present day, the three sisters have learned to cope with their past in different ways. Those coping mechanisms are put to the test when they receive a call from a detective that bones have been found at Wild Meadows and they need to return to the place where their childhood trauma took place.

Darling Girls is told in multiple POVs and the characterization is excellent. I loved each sister. We learn about their lives before foster care and how they came together under Miss Fairchild's "care". Jessica, Norah, and Alice's stories are heartbreaking and you can't help but empathize with each of them. This is a DARK psychological thriller with twists and a jaw dropping satisfying ending. I have read a few Sally Hepworth novels and I love that Darling Girls is much darker than her previous books. I will always pick up Hepworth's new releases!

4.5 stars!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I received a complementary copy of this book, and all opinions expressed our entirely my own.

I read this book less than one day, and it blew my mind! I love the different points of view and the bond between the “sisters”. I loved going back-and-forth between the time periods, and the twist at the end was absolutely amazing. Highly recommend !

This has been my favorite Sally Hepworth book yet! Three girls become "sisters" when placed in the same home while in the foster system. Their foster mother is creepy and off balance and the girls bond grows as they take on her daily exploits. These girls were so relatable and I looked forward to starting the book again every time I had to stop reading. This story came alive for me and I felt like I was part of their story. This is one of Hepworth's best books yet!!

I have read pretty much all of Sally Hepworth's book and this one has to be my favourite. I didn't see the ending coming (I really should have). There were so many surprising twists in this book. Loved it!

The author weaves an interesting story with a strong focus on sisterhood, long buried secrets and always so many lies! I really loved the relationship between the girls and learning about their individual stories, how they came to be in foster care, and how their childhoods affected them into adulthood. I’d say this is more of a slow burn mystery than a thriller with a few good twists along the way.

A great twisty story full of strong females and a mystery that’ll keep you guessing. I was pleasantly surprised with the ending and enjoyed the journey.

Trigger Warning: Child Neglect & Mental, Emotional & Physical Abuse.

Darling Girls focuses on 3 foster children, Alicia, Norah & Jessica (and their evil foster mom Ms. Fairchild whose name is just as evil) after they receive a phone call 25 years later that human bones were found under the house they grew up in. The story weaves through past and present time, allowing the readers to grasp what awful things the girls went through under Ms. Fairchild’s care.

I quite literally listened to this book in under 24 hours. This book had me hooked from the very beginning and I needed to know what happened next. The ending…. I definitely did not see coming. I was 😱😱😱

Thanks so much Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press & Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read / listen to this ARC!

Darling Girls is the newest mystery/thriller by Sally Hepworth. This story follows three girls who became sisters by being placed/raised in the same foster home as children. Now that the sisters are adults, there have been bones found under the home they lived in together as foster sisters. This discovery leads to questions about their lives before/during the foster home as they and the police try to uncover whose bones are buried at the house.

Hepworth's books tend to be slow burn mysteries and while this one was as well, there seemed to be more action than in some of her other books. There are definitely some dark aspects to this book with regard to the foster home and abuse which may be triggering to some readers. But as in most of Hepworth's books, she gave several twists throughout the story that made for a great read. Sally Hepworth has been an auto-read author for me, and this new book reinforces that!

I love a Sally Hepworth thriller! This audiobook did not disappoint. There were so many things going on stemming from the trauma these girls experienced in childhood and it was fascinating to see it all unfold!

Jessica, Norah and Alicia were not born sisters,; they became sisters. Raised on a country estate as Forster children they learned to have each other’s backs. The woman responsible for their care, Miss Fairchild, was far from stable. She expected a lot from the girls and,if she didn’t get what she wanted her punishments were cruel. Now, years later, a body has been found on the estate and the sisters find themselves having to relive their pasts and revisit old wounds. They need to know, who was buried on the estate and why?

Did I just become a full-on Hepworth fan? I think I did! I loved this book! And, having just read The Soulmate, and also loving that book, I now need to read everything she ever writes!

Seriously though, the journey these woman take us on, all told from such unique perspectives, was inspired. The characters are authentic and likable. The mystery at the heart of the story is engrossing and keeps you on your toes throughout. And the ending….. fantastic!

Huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Much thanks to NetGalley and St.Martins Publishing for the ARC of "Darling Girls" in exchange for an honest review.
Psychological domestic thrillers don't get much better than this. And the 'domestic' part of this one involves three women, the 'Darling Girls', who together suffered terrible childhood abuse at the hands of their monstrous foster mother.
Now grown women and bonded together as much as blood related sisters, Jessica, Norah and Alicia still struggle to cope in various ways with the trauma of their upbringing. Jessica's career as a 'home organizer' is jeopardized by her drug addiction. Norah can hardly control her impulses for anger and violence. And family social worker Alicia can't find any measure of happiness for herself as she tries to find fostered children homes where they'll never encounter the horrors she endured.
All of them, in different ways, were forever damaged by their time spent in the care of the odious Miss Fairchild, a deceptively benevolent woman. Her home's a spacious farm, complete with swimming pool and barn for horses. But Miss Fairchild herself once she drops her false mask of normality, is a real life Wicked Stepmother straight out of the darkest fairy tales. And the amount of emotional and physical abuse she inflicts on the three girls finally brings them to the breaking point of going to the authorities.
Years later, the three women have been summoned back to the town of their former foster home. Police would like to question them about skeletal remains found buried on the farm grounds, and every miserable memory of that place comes flooding back to them.......especially with the return of their hated and feared nemesis Miss Fairchild, who exists in her own self-contained bubble of thinking she's never done anything wrong.
This is easily one of the most compelling thrillers I've read so far this year. There's no shortage of shocking, disturbing twists right up the very last pages and author Sally Hepworth, constantly breaks your heart and fuels your anger on behalf of her three lead characters. I stood in complete awe of how the final wrap-up is handled, with a skilled mixture of surprise, heartfelt empathy......and dread. For every reader who can't enough of this genre, this one's a must read.

I was so excited when this one came through my email. Sally Hepworth is an auto buy author for me and so far can do no wrong in my opinion. Her latest, Darling Girls is no exception. This domestic thriller follows 3 foster sisters who endured a horrific foster care placement. It’s fast paced, told in various POVs and 2 timelines. It’s signature Sally but with a darker plot than I’ve previously read from her. I loved it and it kept me guessing til the very end with a great plot twist! Highly recommend! Trigger warning for child abuse and neglect.

4.5 STARS!

Um…OMFG! That ending! 😳

"When cruelty becomes familiar in your tender, adolescent years, of course you start to become comfortable with it. You believe you deserve it. But you don't."


First of all, a huge THANK YOU to @macmillan.audio, @stmartinspress, @netgalley, and @sallyhepworth for the complimentary ALC and ARC.

This was my first read by this author and it will not be my last.

This book is insanely bingeable and addicting. And the characters were all complex. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are foster sisters who formed a lifelong bond when they had to endure the hell of living with their foster mother, Miss Fairchild. It is years later when they are all contacted because human remains have been found under the foster home they lived in bringing them back to Port Agatha for the first time since they all managed to get out.

When I tell you that this story gets freaking crazy, I mean it.

This story is told in multiple POVs and in both past and present timelines. It helped bring each character to life showing their history and how they each ended up in Ms. Fairchild's care. And how those experiences shaped them in adulthood.

Norah was by far my favorite character. I loved her snark and bite. And some of her lines made me laugh out loud.

There were so many aspects of the children's stories that were raw and messed up. For those who have concerns about the child abuse, it is MOSTLY neglect and emotional abuse based. It was difficult to read at times and pushed me way out of my comfort zone.

The narration was done by Jessica Clarke. This audiobook was so good! I definitely recommend listening.

And that ending left me staring out into nothing for like 10 minutes after I finished this book just...

Darling Girls releases 4/23/24

Darling Girls tells the story of 3 young girls in an Australian foster home run, Wild Meadows, run by Ms. Fairchild. It is told in alternating then and now timelines, giving each main character a voice before and after the event that pulls them all back together.

25 years after leaving Ms. Fairchild’s care, the Darling Girls are living relatively productive lives, or so it seems. Mostly. Ok, Norah is a problem. The characters are flawed and their flaws are shown almost immediately. The author highlights those flaws and motivations and shows how each was a product of their origins.

This was an engaging and enjoyable read. The story unfolds slowly, using the alternating timelines. I enjoyed the opening and ending chapters and how they balanced the story. I love it when a novel's title is revealed in the story.

The characters felt a little flat and a couple of the interactions required a rather large suspension of belief but overall, this was a good story.

I enjoyed the narrator; crisp, clean narration. I always appreciate when a book set in a county like Australia is voiced by someone with an appropriate accent.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for Arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Once I started reading Darling Girls, I had a really difficult time putting it down. I felt sucked into the world of these characters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, and I loved how Hepworth did a back and forth time period storytelling thing here - it really amped up the tension and kept me turning the pages. The three woman are not super well developed as characters, but that's not really the point - this is a tense thriller where, as the reader, you truly just want to get to the bottom of what's going on here. Whose bones were found at their childhood home and what happened to that person? And did any of the three of them (or all of them) have anything to do with it? I enjoyed this a lot and read it in a single afternoon.

GAHHHHHH! This book had me guessing! I thought I had it all figured out BUT nope! This book was a crazy ride. It was so eye opening to see the relationships form in hard situations. It was also very real with the trauma that happens and how these young children suffer as adults.

Bones are discovered under a home that housed several foster girls. Three of the older girls who are now adults are brought in for questioning. Once back into the two they were fostered in things start to unfold. People and facts come out of the work works and the story moves fast.

Found myself carving out time to read just one or two pages. This was a great thriller. Thank you #netgalley for my ARC copy of this book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for this advanced reader copy of Darling Girls. I have always enjoyed reading Sally Hepworth books and it was the same with Darling Girls.

As the book progressed, I kept changing my mind about what I thought happened and enjoyed watching the story unfold. I enjoyed each of the sisters’ stories and like how they each wrapped up at the end of the book.

Sally Hepworth novels are always a must read for me!