This book was quite a ride. The second half of the book moved pretty fast and was filled with twists and turns. This book was a little darker and more disturbing than I expected, but the author still wove a very captivating story that kept me turning the pages. There are some trigger warnings (death of a child, abuse) but I would definitely recommend this book. I received this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Three foster sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, are reunited as adults when a dead body is found underneath the foster home they grew up in. They’ll have to help solve the mystery by piecing together their memories of childhood. Unfortunately, that time was filled with trauma and abuse at the hands of Miss Fairchild. Told through alternating timelines and perspectives, the mystery is slowly solved. And yes, like all good thrillers, there are twists and turns.

I enjoyed this one. The characters all had very unique personalities and voices. The abuse the girls suffered was pretty traumatic, so avoid if that’s a trigger for you. Hepworth also tried to infuse humor and some romance storylines in the modern timelines to balance the tone. I wasn’t fully sold. I felt like it was a bit cheesy against the murder mystery backdrop.

The audiobook was very well done! The narrator managed to capture each character with a different voice which is a challenge with so many female characters.

Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the AudioARC!

Such a good story! Really kept me interested and when I thought I had figured something out there was a new twist that surprised me!

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

Honestly, without the twist at the end this would have been just okay. It was predictable. Really liked the characters, however.

Sally Hepworth does it again with #DarlingGirls, a thrilling mystery about sisters, secrets, and murder.

From the outside, Jessica, Norah (“with an -h,” please!), and Alicia are very lucky girls, despite the sadness of their early years. Foster children as a result of various family tragedies, they’ve each landed on the idyllic Wild Meadows estate under the doting care of Miss Holly Fairchild.

But that’s just what it looks like from the outside.

From the inside, things look very different. Miss Fairchild’s “darling girls” are manipulated and mistreated in a myriad of ways, and they learn early on to tread carefully around the whims of their foster mother.

The girls form a bond that is as strong as that of any biological sisters, and they rely on each other well into adulthood — especially after human remains are found on the estate where they spent their childhood! ☠️

Every Sally Hepworth novel I have read deals with emotional, real topics, and that is what I love about her books! This story is no exception, so be warned, it has plenty of triggers: child abuse, mental illness, drug addiction, overdose, and childhood trauma.

🌪 But it also has love, loyalty, and that 𝑺𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑯𝒆𝒑𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈!

This book hooked me from the beginning (glad I was on a long road trip so I could listen to the entire book in one day!).

If you enjoy a good family drama with a twisty side of mystery, put this one on your summer reading list!

Thank you to @sallyhepworth @netgalley @macmillan.audio for the advance copy!

I absolutely loved this book! Now, the content definitely won’t be for everyone, so be aware of your trigger warnings. Don’t try to tough anything out, if it’s not content you can handle, respect your boundaries.
There is some pretty well detailed scenes of child abuse. These are flash back scenes. That may be a spoiler to some people, but I honestly feel like it’s necessary to know going in. I, personally, really related to these characters, so for me it was like I was deeply connecting them.
I love a story where you’re not sure who to believe. Unreliable narrators? Maybe, but really, who knows?! You can’t trust anything anyone is telling you, regardless of who is speaking. Did I mention there are multiple Past and Present POVs?! One mystery narrator, and 3 identified speakers tell us this twisted tale, and I ate up every second.
5 stars, all day long.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia spent their childhood in the foster care system at Wild Meadows. From the outside, Miss Fairchild seemed like a wonderful caretaker with the best interest of the children in mind, but behind closed doors the girls faced extreme emotional abuse. Many years later when a dead body is found at Wild Meadows, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia return to the estate to face Miss Fairchild and what happened to them.

I received an advanced audiobook, and while I enjoyed the book overall, I think this format was a bit harder to follow at times than a regular book would be. The story is told from Jessica, Norah, and Alicia’s perspectives, and the plot line switches from past to present. I liked this because it helped me better understand each character and what they went through, but sometimes I forgot who was the focus of each chapter, especially early on. I really felt for the characters, even in their troubled adult years, and I wanted to keep reading to find out all of the details. This isn’t super suspenseful, but enough happened to keep me guessing and reading. I think the ending was a little anti-climactic, but I still really enjoyed this. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Sally Hepworth for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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!

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.

🎧 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 🎧
Jessica Clarke did a fabulous job narrating this story that had so many POVs and timelines of adult vs child. Even with the POVs of the three girls and others, it was easy to follow in the audiobook. She had an Australian accent that worked perfectly for the setting of the story!

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

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.

This book was a little heavy. We go back and forth from past to present and it was written nicely for a dual timeline. The things that happen to these girls you cant help but feel sick. As the story progresses they are forced to relieve old memories and wounds. This is one that stick with me I can already tell!

I liked how the story was told through dual times and multiple points of view. It was a great thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the ending!

Title: Darling Girls
Author: Sally Hepworth
Genre: Domestic Suspense
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: April 23, 2024

I received complimentary eARC and ALC copies from St. Martin's Press and Macmillan audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Bingeable • Unsettling • Heartbreaking

📖 S Y N O P S I S

From the outside, Alicia, Jessica and Norah might seem like ordinary women you'd meet on the street any day of the week. Sure, Jessica has a little OCD and Norah has some anger issues. And Alicia has low self-esteem that manifests itself in surprising ways. But these three have a bond that no one can fully understand. It's a bond that takes them back decades, to when they were girls, and they lived on a farm with a foster mother named Miss Fairchild.

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 they thought they were free. But the reach of someone with such power is long, and even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds.

When bones are discovered buried under the farmhouse of their childhood, they are called in by the police to tell what they know. Against their will, they are brought back to the past, and to Miss Fairchild herself.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Darling Girls was an easy add to my TBR when it was announced. I can always count on Sally Hepworth to bring the drama and keep me turning the pages. Marketed as a thriller, in my opinion, her books landed more on the domestic and/or psychological mystery/suspense side of the coin. No matter how you choose to classify them, they tend to be the type of 'thriller' that works for me.

Told from the POVs of three sisters - Jessica, Norah and Alicia, and with mysterious physiatrist sessions interspersed throughout, the plot in this one was deeply haunting. The push and pull of the past and present day timelines came across more as if information was being withheld rather than the slow reveal of the necessary pieces.

Each of the girls had their own distinctive personality, yet their relationship with one another was solid. They bonded over their awful circumstances and it really showed how, even years later, their relationship is strong with a need to stick together. As for Mrs. Fairchild, she was an absolute monster! Sally has done a phenomenal job with her character arc because she definitely had the ick factor. Her lies and gaslighting were so cruel and manipulative, and narcissistic actions churned my stomach, culminating in one final revelation in the last chapter which was absolutely revolting.

While the setting has played a huge role in some of Sally's previous works, I didn't find that to be the case here. There was some much atmospheric potential to make Wild Meadows its own character and I think it would have added a whole other layer to the story if she'd chosen to go that route.

The audiobook read by Jessica Clarke was fine. It added a layer of tension, yet there was also room for improvement. Given the story is told from multiple POVs, and especially with the mystery character therapy sessions interspersed throughout, having multiple narrators or at the very least a clear distinction between each would have elevated the audiobook experience.

While I know some people are going to love this book because of the final chapter, unfortunately, it has the opposite effect for me. In all honesty, it felt like it was added simply for shock value and to leave the leader with their mouth hanging open. To me, the book would have been stronger without it and it lowered my rating.

Darling Girls is certainly not my favourite Sally Hepworth book, yet I enjoyed it significantly more than her 2023 release The Soulmate. It opens up the conversation surrounding a foster care system that doesn't always protect the children involved. Yet it's important to keep in mind, that for every horror story like this one there are many stories filled with love. Sally continues to be an auto-read author for me and I will be curious to see where she goes next.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• strong sister bonds
• found family
• mysterious bodies

⚠️ CW: child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault, rape, sexual violence, pedophilia, neglect, abandonment, toxic relationship, gaslighting, bullying, confinement, kidnapping, torture, body shaming, violence, injury/injury detail, adoption, death, murder, child death, death of parent, mental illness, drug use, prescription drug abuse, addiction, attempted suicide, overdose, PTSD, panic attacks/disorders, pregnancy, vomit, alcohol, cursing

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Love and security were the most basic of rights. Forcing these kids to believe they were lucky to have that was even more damaging than what some of them experienced in care."

Three girl came together while in foster care are called back to their old home town when bones were discovered under their old house, We are showed how they grew up and how they were treated, all while trying to discover the truth.

*Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC*

I was skeptical going into this book at first, because I wasn't a huge fan of The Soulmate. I am SO glad that I gave Sally Hepworth a second chance. Dynamic and thrilling, Darling Girls will keep you at the edge of your seat the entire read. A family of foster sisters' lives are upturned when they get news of a body found in the basement of their childhood home. It's red herring after red herring as we yearn for the body's identity and their killer. The tonality changes in the narrator between the psychologist chapters and those of the current events was remarkable, especially with the ending. She wasn't doing a different voice per say, but just a slightly different tone that helped me distinguish the characters. It's a spotlight on abuse, addiction, and the foster care system in Australia, so keep that in mind if you have any triggers related to this. I do wish we'd gotten a bit more character growth, but the focus was more on the mystery and I can appreciate that.

Overall a solid thriller that really redeemed Sally Hepworth's writing in my eyes.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

This is my first Sally Hepworth and I enjoyed the narrator's narration making it a well narrated audiobook. The book follows Jessica ,Alicia and Norah three girls raised in the foster system . To the world their foster mother Miss Fairchild was a sweetheart but behind closed doors she was something else. However they run away only to be reunited and pulled back to the home when a body is discovered
under the home they grew up in, the girls find themselves either painted as suspects or witnesses. It was pretty much fast moving, dark ,moving and a high level look at the dark side of fostering .

Rating:=3.5/5

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this audiobook.

I truly think Sally Hepworth can do no wrong.

Jessica, Norah and Alicia may not be sisters by blood but they are sisters by love. Always being told how lucky they were to grow up as foster kids on Wild Meadows, the farm owned by Miss Fairchild. But what no one knew was the abuse they faced under Miss Fairchilds care.

We get concurrent timelines to see the lives of the girls as they were young, living in Wild Meadows and now, as they head back to answer police questions after a body was discovered on the property.

This one was chalk full of likeable characters, tugs at the heart strings and plot twists.

I highly recommend this book.

Suspenseful read that alternates between past and present. The story begins with a character talking to a psychiatrist, but who is it? Everyone has suffered trauma in this story. Loved the loyalty between the girls who cling together to survive with their unpredictable and manipulative foster mother. In the present the girls are brought back to their old foster home when bones are discovered underneath the house. The story speeds up in the second half and a thrilling ending I didn’t see coming!

This was phenomenal! I found reasons to listen.

The story of found family is about three girls who grow up in foster care at a home where, decades later, human remains are found beneath the house.

There is a twisty story for the foster mother, as well.

Highly recommend!