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!

I really liked this book! The story was great, and it was very fast paced. I really liked all of the characters, and it was easy to feel sympathy for them. I really liked the different perspectives, and I feel like the author did a great job of embodying the different personalities of the girls. This was a really easy read, and I never felt like it was dragging at all. It moved throughout the whole story. I will definitely be reading this author again!

Three girls raised in a foster home by mean Miss Fairchild develop a special bond and call one another sisters.
They are contacted years later by police because a child’s remains were found buried under the house that the girls once lived.
The girls go back to help with the investigation and the mystery unravels with shocking twists!
Thanks to @NetGalley and @St.Martin’sPress for the opportunities to listen to this audiobook.

Sally Hepworth does it again! This book is TWISTED but Sally still keeps it light by weaving in humor. I think this would make a great show! I loved the narrator.

Darling Girls is the story of three women who grew up in the same foster home. Jessica, is a pathological people-pleaser. Norah, who doesn't take shit from anyone. And Alisha, who questions her own self-worth.

When a body is found on the property of their former foster home, the women reluctantly return to the home they grew up in and are forced to face the demons of their past.

With chapters alternating between the three women (NOW and THEN) and an unnamed woman meeting with a therapist and talking about her childhood, we're given bits and pieces as the story unfolds. All the while, the women have to deal with their personal demons both from their traumatic childhood and their adult lives.

This book shows that a seemingly perfect home can still hold dangerous secrets. And seemingly wonderful people are less wonderful behind closed doors.

I listened to the audiobook version and, as an American, the Australian accent of the narrator was at first jarring, but I quickly adjusted and enjoyed her reading of the story.

I left Jessica, Norah, and Alicia feeling like I was saying goodbye to new friends. And that ending. Oof. I didn't expect that. Wow!

I absolutely loved this one! I devoured it within 2 days (which is crazy fast for me). I thought the characters in this book were so great. The three main characters grew up together in an abusive foster care situation, and I loved their relationship with each other and how close they became. Each girl has her own flaws, but they are all so interesting. I especially liked Norah's character.

The mystery in the book is a slow burn, but I was enthralled the whole time. There were so many great twists that I didn't see coming, and I thought the ending was excellent.

Jessica Clarke is a great narrator (I'm always partial to narrators with accents). She was really easy to follow and understand, and although there are multiple POVs and timelines, I didn't find myself getting lost at all.

I highly recommend checking this one out when it publishes, and I hope you like it as much as I did! Be sure to check content warnings!

Sally Hepworth is an author whose books I always buy without hesitation. Her domestic suspense novels are full of unexpected twists and turns that keep me guessing until the end. In her latest book, Darling Girls, Hepworth shifts away from her usual domestic suspense genre and delves into a more intense and darker mystery, but she keeps all the twists and turns that we’ve grown to expect (and love) from her.

Highlights:
✨Three MCs: Jessica, Alicia, and Norah are foster sisters. Their past and present timelines demonstrate that adopting a survival mode during childhood has long-lasting effects on adulthood. Out of the three, Norah is my favorite. Her sarcasm is always on point and provides lots of laughs. If you enjoy the found family trope, then you will definitely love reading about these three sisters.
✨Darker than previous books: Here, Hepworth weaves an unsettling mystery around the underbelly of foster care. The story contains a few heartwrenching scenes, so check the trigger warnings.
✨Narrator: Jessica Clarke skillfully manages multiple POVs and a dual timeline, resulting in a captivating audiobook. I binged Darling Girls in one day and highly recommend this format.

Sally Hepworth did it again! Darling Girls is the latest novel from Hepworth and somehow her plots never cease to get old. She finds ways to construct stories that are vastly different from one another. Admittedly, it took me a bit to get into this one and thankfully I had access to both the e-book (thank you St. Martin's Press) and the audiobook (thank you Macmillan Audio) and the audiobook quickly sucked me in while the book took me longer to engage with.

As of recently, I have found I love combining reading and listening to my books. It allows me to switch from one space to another without having to "put the book down:"

The narration also added to my enjoyment of this audiobook. If you are a fan of Sally Hepworth, I would recommend reading this one!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Darling Girls
By: Sally Hepworth
Narrated by: Jessica Clarke
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Pub Date: 4/23/24
Sally is hands down one of the best writers out there today. This is probably my favorite out of all her books so far.
Three young girls are all in foster care and one at a time they have arrived at Miss Fairchild’s home, Wild Meadows Jessica comes first. At just 5 years old. She’s alone at first. There are no other children there. She calls Miss Holly Fairchild, Mommy. She’s very isolated and develops a cleaning obsession at a young age.
Norah comes along second, she’s eleven. Brought up in a rough environment she has had to be violent out of necessity.
Lastly Alicia joins them when she’s just 12. She had been raised by her grandmother but following her grandmother's accident and death she entered foster care. She had the roughest adjustment having come from a loving home. For two long years the girls dealt with her abuse until Miss Fairchild began to bring babies in for respite care. She needs the money to keep the house going only she isn’t the one taking care of the babies. The girls are. When a little girl shows up and Holly reveals that she’s adopting her. That’s when the girls finally go to an adult about the abuse. When the police arrive they don’t find a child or any of her things.
Jumping forward 25 years the girls are all adults now. You learn how each of their adult lives were impacted by their shared abuse. Jessica is stealing and abusing drugs from her clients in her home organization business. Norah struggles with anger issues and the possibility of imprisonment if she can’t get herself under control. Alicia is now a social worker herself trying to find safe homes for the kids and her care.
The police from Port Agatha reach out to let the girls know the body of a child has been found buried under the house. As they return to Port Agatha, they are not only confronting their childhood abuse, but they come face-to-face with Miss Fairchild. Who is the child under the house? Is it one of the babies or is something more sinister at play?
This was a great read. The flow and pacing were perfect. This book kept me reading, I had to know the answers! Thanks to Macmillan, Sally Hepworth and NetGalley for the ARC

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for this Arc copy of Darling Girls.

Awesome read but not for the faint hearted. Deals with some serious subjects and you can feel heartbroken by the end.

The audiobook has an Aussie narrator which did a great job on delivering the story.

Not a Summer read but good for Fall into Winter reads:).

🫶🏽What I enjoyed
Where do I start??? The way this story unfolds was so clever!! Even with multiple POV and the then/now timeline, it’s easy to follow because you spend enough time reading from each POV in the beginning to learn how that sister is different from the other two. The dialogue during therapy sessions in between the then/now timeline kept it extra engaging. There’s definitely a strong theme of resiliency and loyalty among these sisters. Their ending was so perfect, while being relatively realistic and I legit teared up. After reading about their horrific childhood with this foster mom, it was the type of ending my heart needed for them. The end with Aaron and Theo 🥹🥹🥹🥹 But also, THAT ENDING 🤯🤯🤯🤯 I’m trying to keep this all vague enough to prevent spoilers but it was jaw dropping.
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🤷🏻‍♀️What didn’t work for me
Nothing to report here! All the stars. Highly recommend
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🎧Audio Review
The audio was full of emotion and wonderfully performed. I binged this in 2 days and it only took that long because of my silly full time job getting in the way 😜

Wow, this book was something. Very psychological and really messes with you! The story is heart-wrenching for these women who faced neglect and abuse during their stay in the foster care system. It really goes to show how broken that system is and how it does not protect these young children well enough. The book is eerie and intriguing and that ending, WOW, not what I thought was going to happen in the end. It was a great read!

I appreciated the flow of chapters, shifting in both POV and time period, all to see the full picture by the end; and an unexpected picture it provides! I thought the pacing was a bit slow in the beginning, but I felt like everything after made sense and were creative choices for the mystery. I look forward to this author's future novels!

3.5 stars

Miss Holly Fairchild's house in Port Arthur, called Wild Meadows, was supposed to be an ideal placement for foster children. In the Australian countryside, with fresh air and a school nearby....what could be bad? What's bad is that Miss Fairchild, who had a nice appearance, was an obsessive control freak who kept her charges, always girls, under a VERY tight thumb. Miss Fairchild had a mean disposition; provided barely enough food to sustain life; and made the girls clean the house for hours every day. Miss Fairchild also got drunk and railed against the children for imaginary infractions.

The story revolves around three women, now in their thirties, who lived at Wild Meadows more than 25 years ago. The ladies, who aren't related, call themselves 'sisters' and remain close friends.

The three foster sisters are Jessica, Norah, and Alicia.

👩‍🦰 Jessica, married to a man named Phil, is a well-to-do professional home organizer. Jessica has anxiety issues and steals prescription medicine from the houses she organizes. Jessica got away with the thefts for a while, but her latest client, Debbie Montgomery-Squires is making a fuss and threatening Jessica's professional reputation.

****

👩‍🦰 Norah, who has anger issues - and lashes out with her fists - makes money by taking employment competency tests for other people. Norah goes out with men strictly to get free house repairs, and she recently punched out a bad date named Kevin. Now Kevin is threatening to go to the police, which could land Norah in jail. That's unfortunate, because Norah just met a man she actually likes.

👩‍🦰 Alicia is a social worker who helps children in difficult situations, and tries to get them fostered or adopted. With the help of a close friend, Alicia is currently assisting a troubled boy, and is even thinking of adopting the child herself.

****

As the story opens, Wild Meadows has been sold, and while it's being torn down, human remains are found under the house - bones that have been there for many years. Detective Patel, who's in charge of the investigation, phones Jessica, Norah, and Alicia and asks them to come to Port Arthur to answer some questions. The foster sisters reluctantly agree to cooperate, and the story alternates back and forth between the present, where there's an ongoing police investigation, and several decades ago, when the women were wards at Wild Meadows.

When Jessica, Norah, and Alicia lived at Wild Meadows they were always hungry; always busy with chores; and always on edge, because Miss Fairchild could erupt at any moment. In addition, the foster sisters sometimes had to take TOTAL CARE of babies briefly fostered by Miss Fairchild, apparently for the money. This meant the girls sometimes had to skip school to feed, diaper, bathe, and sooth the infants day and night.

In the present, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are helping the police with their inquiries while also dealing with the issues in their personal lives. The tension ramps up when Miss Fairchild herself arrives in Port Arthur, and seems to be delusional, because she thinks the foster sisters will be happy to see her.

Hurtful past events are revealed as the story unfolds, some during sessions between an unidentified patient and a creepy psychiatrist.

The novel demonstrates that bad parental figures leave a permanent mark on children, but the bonds of friendship can mitigate the damage. Moreover, love can be found at any stage of life.

This is a engaging story and a riveting mystery. Recommended to fans of suspense novels. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Jessica Clarke, who does a fine job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Sally Hepworth, and Macmillan audio for a copy of the book.

"Darling Girls" is a new psychological thriller / family drama from an Australian author, Sally Hepworth to be published in US on 04/23/2024.
I love the sparkling cover, which gave a beach-read vibe (in fact, it is suitable for any seasons). I also enjoyed her previous novel, "the Good Sister" very much and was excited to read her newest novel.

Like "the Good Sister," this novel is also about sisters. This time they aren't bound by blood but by the foster mother, Miss Fairchild who has Miss-Havisham like creepiness. Three girls, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were taken in by Miss Fairchild to be brought up. They all have different temperaments and backgrounds. As anyone who is familiar with foster care system might know, it can be very difficult and trauma-inducing. Each girl has a reason why they were being brought into foster care. There are quite bit of bullying and other traumatic events included, so I would check out content warning if you are sensitive to child abuse, bullying, etc.

The story is told in two main timelines - current and some 20 or so years ago, from multiple points of view. I listened to the audiobook which is well narrated; however, it gets a bit confusing with multiple POVs and timelines. I feel that I would have enjoyed this better as a physical book. I also noticed that a number of "breadcrumbs" or the story plots didn't develop fully. If it is to be abandoned without being fully developed, why would it be included? I enjoyed her last book a lot more, which had a tighter construction. I also couldn't connect with any of the characters in this book unfortunately, or any of the side characters
Having said all that, the book has a lot of great reviews - so this, as always, may be a personal preference. I would be open to reading other books by this author.

The advanced copy of this audiobook was provided courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange with my unbiased opinion. Thank you!

#DarlingGirls:⁣
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Thank you @macmillan.audio #MacAudio2024 for my gifted copy!⁣
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Sally girl, what in the what?! I love Sally Hepworth’s domestic dramas (I can’t consider them a thriller I’m sorry) so I was expecting about the same. Darling Girls was very different than her other books, and it was good. I’m floored. It was uncomfortable, juicy, convincing, and shocking. It’s a yes from me.⁣
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First and foremost, the type of child abuse in Darling Girls was very hard to listen to. I was shaking I was so angry, and did have to shut off the audio a few times and regroup. Hepworth is so good at writing vile stories, that I was so angry. (Which means it’s a great book) So, if that’s not your cup of tea, you may want to skip over this one.⁣
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The audio is phenomenal. Jessica Clarke knocked it out of the park for me. The sinister undertones for Miss Fairchild gave me chills! Highly recommend the audio. ⁣
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I know everyone is talking about the ending, but holy cannoli. I was disgusted (at the character, again great writing Sally love you xx), not very shocked but still shocked, bamboozled, and went back to disgusted. Whew, it was a ride for me. ⁣
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Overall, lots of triggers, lots of hard moments, great reveal, great writing, amazing audio. ⁣
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Out 4/23!⁣
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Predict text: The Darling Girls…