The "Queen of Domestic Suspense" and master storyteller Sally Hepworth and comedian (a favorite author) returns following The Soulmate with her latest highly anticipated addictive domestic unputdownable thriller, DARLING GIRLS.

No one does dysfunctional families better! I have read every book by Sally since her debut. She is a star! Each book is unique and has the signature Hepworth trademark style, which I love. She knows how to create some devilish characters and puts them through the wringer, but somehow (the good ones) come out stronger on the other side!

Meet Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. They call themselves sisters (not blood-related) but bond through their tragedies and misfortunes. They are foster sisters.

As young girls, they are rescued by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild. They thought this would be a second chance to live a normal life at the lovely Wild Meadows. However, she is anything but—a total nightmare horror show.

When they entered this beautiful farming estate in an idyllic setting, Miss Fairchild put on a different face and personality, making them feel loved and part of the family.

However, soon, her true colors and personality rear its ugly face as a master manipulator, from cruelty, abuse, and gaslighting. She looks for the vulnerabilities and the weaknesses and uses them to her twisted advantage. The pool scene was scary!

Their fairy tales turn into horror. They learned Miss Fairchild was impulsive and highly unpredictable. She was never to be crossed, or you would PAY.

Desperately, the three girls escape, but she is always in the shadows of their minds. The girls have remained close friends, each with their own issues and problems.

Later, the media would call Wild Meadows a House of Horrors, The Secrets Buried Beneath the Wild Meadows, and What's Lurking in the Wild Meadows.

Before the media, a body is discovered under the home of Miss Fairchild in Wild Meadows some twenty-five years later. Now, the girls (women) are in the middle of a crime investigation as key witnesses, OR are they suspects?

The detectives come calling, and now they must relive the horrific past. Whose bones are under the house?

Oh my goodness! What a story. Initially, Miss Fairchild was charming and turned into Dr. Jekell and Hyde. That ending!?! Oh, my, so twisted!

I loved the girls' relationship, bonds, and sisterhood—each with its own struggles, insecurities, and traumas from the past that carry over to the present. The girls depend on one another for ongoing support.

DARLING GIRLS is told through the POVs of the girls, both past and present, infused with chapters from a chilling, unknown voice speaking with a creepy psychologist, Dr. Warren.

As always, Sally blends the dark evil side with the good, and the three strong, lovable girls/young women are resilient, resourceful, witty, and intelligent. I loved the gals!

If you enjoy darky charming, twisted villains, dark secrets, deception, gaslighting, revenge plots, mystery, suspense, and sisterhood mixed with MURDER —give DARLING GIRLS a whirl. Be prepared to be hooked from page one to the explosive, satisfying ending. And you will also be burning the midnight oil. I highly recommend all her books.

AUDIOBOOK: I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the talented Jessica Clarke, for a highly entertaining listening experience. I also read the e-book.

Thank you for the honor and privilege of reading an early ARC and ALC from St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: April 23, 2024
April 2024 Must-Read Books
April Newsletter

DARLING GIRLS 👧🏼

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
@goodreads: 4.20
Author: @sallyhepworth
Format: 🎧
Narrator: Jessica Clark
Length: 368 pages / 9 hours audio
TW: child abuse
Pub Date: 04/23/24

💭 this book promised secrets, love, and murder, and it DELIVERED. 👏🏼 don’t let the happy cover fool you - this book is daaaaaark. at times it was was so hard to read about how the girls were mistreated + I almost feel guilty for giving a book of this content such a high rating!!! but man, oh man, is it GOOD. while the burn is relatively slow, the character development is 🤌🏼 and even though I saw a few of them coming, the twists are wild. my fave POV was the one told through intermittent therapy sessions - so unique + well-executed. 👏🏼 the story was tracking for a solid 4 star read then BAM! that freaking last chapter hits. 🤯

Read if you enjoy: dark family dramas, NO ONE CAN KNOW

a HUGE thank you to @netgalley + @macmillanaudio for the ALC! so glad I was able to read this before pub date - it hits the shelves Tuesday + I promise you won’t want to skip this thriller! 🥳

Sally Hepworth is one of my favorite authors, so my expectations are always sky high when she has a new book drop. While I'm definitely an oultier on this one, I'm sad to say that my expectations might have been a little too high with <i>Darling Girls</i>. Not every book can be your favorite book from any author, and for me, this one joins that list.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia aren't biologically related, but they're sisters, bonded by their shared trauma during their years in foster care at Wild Meadows Farm. When each gets a call from the police alerting them to the fact that bones have been found on the property of the home they once lived in, they travel back to the estate to see for themselves who was buried there.

What went right: Hepworth is a skilled writer, so there's no question that she was able to keep me entertained and engaged throughout. What I wish was different: I honestly struggle to put my finger on it, but there was something that just felt a bit off to me. Maybe it's that there's so much horror and abuse to be spread around — life in foster care certainly has its trauma, but there seemed to be absolutely no bright spot for these girls. That made it quite a difficult read, and the ending gave me a serious "ick" that felt tossed in there for shock value rather than feeling at home in the story.

All that said, I still encourage any Hepworth fan to read it — and any thriller reader will likely happily find themselves swept along and engaged. 3.5 stars rounded down.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced Audiobook.

Darling Girls is a mystery/thriller told from the POV of four characters in present and past time. It is fast paced and full of twists and turns with a very unexpected surprise ending! I enjoyed this audiobook very much but would have preferred it better as an ebook (it was a little challenging to differentiate the different characters through the audio version in my opinion). Overall, I would definitely recommend this book!

The ending made up for some of the short-comings of the story.

I discovered Sally Hepworth's books a few months ago and read 3 or 4 of them within a week. While I normally love her character viewpoints and interesting dynamics contained in her books, this one fell a little flat for me. I felt like the characters were a little too stereotypical of their archetypes, and the storyline just felt a little too drawn out.
I will also admit that I have a personal bias against any book or movie that plays on the "poor, unfortunate orphan soul" storyline. I feel like it's overdone, and exploits the story of unfortunate children for the sake of profits.

PUTTING ALL THAT ASIDE....
This story kept me wanting more. I never had to force myself to pick it back up, and was genuinely invested in seeing how it played out.

The premise is that 3 adult women who met each other while living in the same foster home of an emotionally abusive Mrs. Fairchild, are forced to come face to face with their past when they are informed that human remains have been found under the old foster home, and are brought in for questioning.
The book alternates between past and present timelines and is told from the perspective all 3 sisters, along with a viewpoint from a mystery character's therapy sessions.
Who do the bones belong to? How did they get there? Who is responsible?
Can the women overcome the trauma they endured as children and teens and rise above the struggles they are facing in their adult life (addiction, violent tendencies, emotional fences) to become healthy, happy humans?

Trigger warnings: childhood abuse, narcissistic parents, child death

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Darling Girls was a wonderful book about found family. Three sisters who experienced trauma at a foster home grow up and we see how it is affecting their lives. Each girl handles the trauma differently and are struggling in various aspects of their lives. After a horrifying discovery at their former foster home, their lives get throw into disarray. The characters and stories are engaging and January LaVoy, the narrator does an amazing job reading.

Another good mystery from Hepworth. This one has 3 POVs with 2 timelines (past & present). It’s a story of 3 “sisters” who lived in a foster home, & after 25 years, bones have been discovered under the house. Child abuse, neglect, & trauma are discussed, but it wasn’t too much for me to handle. Loved the twists & mystery unraveling, especially the last chapter. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this audiobook.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4.25⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: mystery/ thriller 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
I hooked into this one right from the start!
𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Dark and twisty thrillers
Unique plots
Unreliable narrator
Multiple POV
Forster children
Slow burn suspense
Narcissistic foster parent
Engaging reads

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Greyhound mix dog!
The narration was great it really helped keep me engaged

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Ending was a little too over the top for me

Sharp and captivating, I loved all three points of view past and present. The characters were well-developed, and my heart broke for the girls. I hated the foster mother as I felt the only reason she took in the kids was for the money. The story is filled with twists and turns that pulls the reader through and makes it hard to put down. I also never expected the surprise reveal at the end.
The narrator also does a great job and made me want to keep going.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book is everything that you would think it could be, and more. Prepare to be shook by this gripping tale of sisterhood, love, and murder. Sally Hepworth delivered a page-turner that lingers long after the final chapter. 📚🔍🌟 The bond of the sister's is genuine. I will be thinking about the twisted ending for a long time to come!

I absolutely loved this book! Were there definitely times in this book where I had no idea what was going on? Ya for sure! But I figured it would all make sense in the end and it was so worth it! The twists and turns of this book along with the chosen family theme running throughout was absolutely amazing. And as crazy as it sounds, I loved the idea of this mystery/thriller book to have not one but several happily ever afters in the end. It was truly heartwarming. And the narrator was incredible!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for allowing me to audibly read and review Darling Girls on NetGalley.

Published: 04/23/24

Narrator: Jessica Clarke

Stars: 2.5

Meh.

Hepworth chose to utilize the Foster Care System as her setting with it being 100% corrupt. Girls go from one bad situation after another from their birth to multiple foster homes before landing at Fairchild's House. Their hope is short-lived for safety, meals and human decency. The story jumps from kids to woman when bones are found at the foster home.

The system in its entirety failed these kids: familial, teachers, social/case workers, law enforcement, clergy, and medical professionals. I am not naive. I know human decency is under fire in the foster care system. I find sensationalizing for book sales mind-boggling. I also find it hard to imagine not one person stepped up for these kids. This is not listed as fantasy, horror, or thriller. This is women's fiction and expected to be reasonable and relatable.

These kids never had a chance, nor did I as a reader have a chance. The abuse was not going to end and that lead to a convoluted mess while Hepworth tried to make the book feel complete. Since there wasn't going to be a satisfying ending, she went for shock and even that didn't work.

My appeal would be for the publisher to change the genre.

When a Sally Hepworth novel comes out its a auto read! I've been lucky enough to get arcs to read her asap!


Holly Fairchild
The foster mother to the outside she's fantastic. To her foster children shes....


Jessica, Norah, Alicia
Jessica was the 1st and things seem alright in the beginning and then you realize miss Fairchild is using the fact Jessica wants to be loved against her. Then when money gets tight she brings in another child a few years later enter Norah who's had a lot of bad run ins at other foster families. Then Alicia is supposed to be a short term foster why she waits for her grandmother to get out of the hospital. The 3 girls become a trio and look out for each other.

They stay together long after they got out of Miss Fairchild's care and are true sisters. They try to put the past behind them until they get called from the police about bones found under the house and they are pulled back into there past lives and have to relive there childhood.

Now they have to stick together to understand the past and what all went wrong.


I received an E-ARC/Audio Arc from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I loved this book, it is right on the edge of a 5-star listen for me. It was intriguing from the start with the premise of three young girls who end up in foster care at the same home with the same new mother, and develop a bond as close as sisters. Nevertheless, their foster mother isn't exactly what she presents herself to be to social workers and any outsiders.

This book developed into a twisty, mysterious novel built around the bond of these three women and their desire to get answers about their childhood home. I really enjoyed the alternating viewpoints of time in foster care vs. the current mystery they were facing.

Each child developed into a woman with her own set of challenges, all very obviously driven by their upbringing, which created unique and dynamic characters. I loved following the mystery along with them and watching them overcome their traumatic past to find closure and growth into the rest of their lives.

And of course, that ending! Fantastic way to keep the twists coming until the very end. I thought the book might be headed in that direction, the ending was such a great twist and final knockout punch.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Sally Hepworth's other works before this, Darling Girls is a new favorite for me.

As someone who frequently works with children in foster care, I found Darling Girls particularly chilling. We follow three women who had became sisters to each other in every sense of the word while in foster care with a particularly vengeful foster mother, from their respective perspectives in both the present and past timelines. Each still feels the effects of their past trauma on their present lives, but they must reopen old wounds when the police calls and tells them a body has been found under their old foster home. That discovery unearths long-buried secrets about what really happened at Wild Meadows.

Each of the three main characters is unique and easily distinguished, with some trait that both allowed them to survive their past ordeals and makes them interesting to follow, while Miss Fairchild is vile indeed. Hepworth throws in some wicked twists and loops that make this a fascinating and enjoyable read. Jessica Clarke does an amazing job narrating the story. Thank you to the author, Macmillan, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Darling Girls (out this Tuesday, 4/23/24!)

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Sally Hepworth is an auto-read for me since “The Mother-in-Law” and “The Good Sister” a few years back, and so I always look forward to her newest releases.

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are sisters in all but blood, growing up together in the foster care system under the care of Miss Fairchild. While all seemed perfect on the surface, Miss Fairchild was unpredictable (to say the least), and each girl had their own issues to overcome. When a body is found underneath their foster home decades later, the sisters are thrust back into the past. Are they the key witnesses or are they the suspects?

In true Hepworth style, readers get short multiple POV chapters that keep you wanting to turn the page, several unexpected twists, and a wild-til-the-last-page-ending. These are the reasons I’ll keep picking up her books each year!

The one piece of this book that I couldn’t quite get over though was how laissez-faire the ancillary adults in past chapters were; no spoilers here, but I found it hard to believe some of the behavior in the house was left unchecked for so long. I found this continued into present day with the police (why are all the suspects hanging out in a bar during the middle of an intense investigation?). These things left me scratching my head the entiiiire time I was reading.

Gripes aside, I really liked the stylistic element of a first-person unknown narrator talking to their therapist in between POVs. Trying to guess who this person was kept me on my toes, and per usual, I sped through this book. It is probably #4 on my list of her books after MIL, GS, & “The Soulmate”, but I do recommend this if you’ve been a fan of her in the past!! Thank you to @netgalley for the early copy to review 🩵

3.5⭐

I can see why early reviewers, in general, are rating Darling Girls highly. If consistently tense mysteries/psychological thrillers are your jam, I definitely can recommend this one for you. On the other hand, because the subject matter is especially sensitive (largely involving children), I advise special reader caution. Content warnings include abuses within the foster system, kidnapping, child abuse, sexual blackmail, drug abuse, murder, and gaslighting, at least.

Throughout the story, which is set in Australia, psychiatrist Dr. Warren seems to get his jollies from his patient's description of the abuse they endured. Besides being wildly unprofessional (not to mention unhelpful), it's a gross kink. The vague treatment of the timing of the psychiatric visits seems a bit underhanded. However, I take no exception at the location being kept secret—it's in service to the plot tension.

The foster sisters stick together and support each other throughout their lives, including after bones are discovered under their childhood home.

The combination of my early (and almost complete) anticipation of the twists—along with the repetition of certain descriptions and the prolonged trauma of so many characters—dampens my enthusiasm a bit. As you can see, though, I still rated the book above average. It kept me hooked—I had to see how it would all end.

This unbiased review is based on an audio ARC supplied by the publisher—Macmillan Audio. Publication is expected April 23.

Truthfully, the cover of this book had me thinking this was going to be some kind of beach-read thriller (is there such a thing?). I wasn’t sure what to expect but I’m almost always willing to give a thriller a try. I’m glad my first impression of the book was wrong!

First Jessica, then Norah, then Alicia. These three girls were taken in at different times by someone whom they were told was a loving and caring foster mother. This is especially true for Jessica who, for a time, was the apple of Miss Fairchild’s eye. Things begin to change when Miss Fairchild takes in two other girls, and later, some younger children. The three older girls forge a strong bond, knowing that getting through the day under Miss Fairchild’s roof relies on teamwork.

In the present-day timeline, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are grown and have lives of their own. It’s been years since they’ve seen Miss Fairchild. When a body is found under the house they grew up in, they must confront their pasts. Whether it’s as witnesses or suspects, none of them are certain.

I loved the foster sister relationships in this book. I love how much these girls/women looked out for one another. Though I was more invested in the past storyline, I was quite interested in the mystery in the modern setting as well. I found Miss Fairchild to be an intriguing antagonist right up to the end. Without getting into spoilers, I will admit that I was left a little perplexed by her motives aside from the obvious character traits she displays.

Were the characters particularly memorable and unique? No. Did I enjoy the vibes? Absolutely. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Jessica Clarke, does a fantastic job delivering the story.

A huge thanks to Macmillan and NetGalley for inviting me to read a free audio ARC of the book!

Took me a little while to get into this book due to the past and present / different characters. I thought the narration was great. There were a lot of unexpected aspects of the book. Thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong! I would definitely recommend this book! I will probably listen to it again soon.

Really enjoyed Darling Girls!
Beware to check trigger warnings for child abuse.
Overall the pace was good, it didn't feel like it had many lulls. I liked all of the different POVs and the jumping timeline. That really helps get the book going. The twist at the end was good and I didn't see it coming!