"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."

WHEW. What a story!!! I needed to catch my breath after reading this one because it was DARK. Seriously, proceed with caution because this was a tough read.

This story is about three sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia. They aren't biological sisters, but they are definitely bonded for life after the trauma they experienced together while living at Wild Meadows as foster children. This idyllic estate is owned by the beautiful and pleasant-seeming Miss Fairchild. Each child is placed in her care at a different time, starting with Jessica. For as long as the girls can remember, they've been told how 'lucky' they were to be placed there. What they experienced in this house was far from serendipitous, and no sane person would consider them lucky.

The book starts off years later; the girls are now adults and they are still close, but one day each girl gets a call from the police to return to Wild Meadows because a body was found under the house. The sisters reluctantly return to their hometown and are forced to revisit old demons as an investigation is underway.

This is told in multiple POVs (each girl has a very distinctive personality which made this a pleasure to listen to on audio), and past and present timelines. This story was unpredictable, unsettling, and unforgettable.

I think giving any more information would be criminal because this is the kind of thriller you need to experience for yourself. The way Sally Hepworth described what these girls went through was nothing short of cinematic. I was glued to my headphones and my Kindle. I audibly gasped, my eyes widened at parts, and I *actually* found myself holding my breath at certain points.

This entire book was perfect and the ending was amazing! This is definitely going to be one of my top favorite thrillers of the year. I did guess a few plot-twists, but it's because I am just that good, lol. It was NOT predictable! Lastly, I really appreciated the author's note at the end and that the author actually interviewed children who were in the foster system in Australia. This was well-researched, disturbing, and if you can stomach the subject matter, a must-read for any thriller fan.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Macmillan audio for the advanced reader copy, and advanced listener copy in exchange for my honest opinion. This publishes on 4/23/24, it is already available on Book of the Month, but if you don't have a subscription mark your calendars and set those Libby holds! This one is a doozy!

CONTENT WARNING: child abuse (physical and sexual), childhood trauma, domestic violence

I’ve read a few books by Sally Hepworth, and for the most part, I enjoy her writing. I also really like the fact that they’re set in Australia and the audiobook narrators have Australian accents, but they aren’t so strong that I can’t understand them. And yes, I have had that problem in the past with a different author.

I wound up alternating my reading between the ebook and the audiobook, since I enjoyed the accent of the narrator, Jessica Clarke, and the way that she narrated the book. She did a great job with this story, and I enjoyed how easily she slipped between characters during the POV shifts in the story.

It isn’t just the characters that we slip between, since this is a dual timeline story. We gradually learn the story through the eyes of each character both “then” and “now.” Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are sisters through their time spent with Miss Fairchild, a foster mother who seemed to offer everything they could possibly ask for. Except like most things that seem too good to be true, this is too. Miss Fairchild isn’t the dream foster mother they hoped for, but quickly reveals herself to be an abusive nightmare. Jessica is the first girl to enter Miss Fairchild’s home, at the age of five, willing to endure ever-growing levels of isolation in order to keep the affection of Miss Fairchild. Norah follows, an eleven-year-old with violent tendencies due to her background. Alicia, a good-natured girl, comes to live with them at age 12 after her grandmother has an accident and has to stay at a rehab for a while.

In the present day, each of the women are struggling with their own inner conflicts. For Jessica, it’s obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and an addiction to prescription pills that she has been stealing from the houses of her clients, leading to the implosion of her business and marriage. Norah is facing potential incarceration as a result of her uncontrolled anger issues. And Alicia is a social worker, helping children to find safe living arrangements, but her own unresolved issues make it difficult for her to move on from her past and get into a healthy relationship and build a family for herself.

But when police get involved and let them know that human remains have been found beneath the house which they have tried very hard to put behind them, they can no longer escape their past. This is the central mystery to the story—whose remains are these? And who put them there?

We slowly learn more about each of the girls, and what they went through in Miss Fairchild’s care, but we also peel back the layers of the onion on the personality of each of the women in the present day. Each of the sisters grew on me in a different way. Norah is the one that I found myself identifying with initially, with her combination of sensitivity and sarcasm to protect vulnerable core, while Alicia was just too sweet not to like. She’s one of those genuinely good-hearted people that you can’t dislike even if you want to. And Jessica had my feelings all over the place during the book, as more information is revealed, but once her true personality is revealed, it was much easier to empathize with her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It kept me intrigued, and I was surprised by the plot twists and the big reveal. However, the ending kind of left me a little disappointed, and I didn’t love that last twist. It didn’t add anything to the story, and felt like it was there more to ruffle feathers than anything else. The only other thing that I wasn’t exactly thrilled about was the use of “abused child in foster care” as a trope. While I know that this does happen and far more than should ever be acceptable, i’m not generally a fan of this being used as a trope, and think it comes up in books, shows, and movies to the point where it seems as though every single foster situation is abusive, and there aren’t ever any good ones. Other than those things, I was here for the story. Nothing really played out as I had expected, and it kept me engaged from the start to the finish. And I highly recommend the audiobook—Jessica Clarke does a wonderful job and her Australian accent is fantastic to listen to (and easy to understand even if you’re an uncultured swine aka American like me 🤣). Is it just an American thing to love hearing accents different from my own? A me thing? Or is this basically universal? Regardless, while this isn’t my favorite Hepworth novel, it’s still a really good one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sally Hepworth for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC audiobook for Darling Girls coming out April 23, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really loved the Soulmate, so I was excited to receive this book from NetGalley. The narrator was really fun and it helps she was Australian. You really get a feel for the story. I definitely wasn’t sure where this story was going and there’s a few twists along the way. It took a while to get into the story. The foster care system is a hard subject and I wasn’t expecting the theme of child abuse. I was hoping for something a little different. I didn’t really like a lot of the characters. I definitely will check out other books by this author.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
Narrator: Jessica Clarke
Rating: DNF
Pub date: 4/27

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia all grew up in the same foster home, remaining close throughout their lives. As adults, a body is found beneath their old home, Wild Meadows, and the police contact them when they start to investigate. What follows is a series of revelations about what really happened to the girls when they lived with Miss Fairchild.

Sally Hepworth is an auto-buy author for me, so I was very excited to read this one. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

The story goes back and forth between the past and present tense, although we spend most of our time in the past while the girls live with Miss Fairchild. They are treated terribly and the victims of child abuse (some of it sexual) while they are there. This isn’t something I enjoy reading about, so I DNF’d the book at 60%. I should mention that I’m definitely an outlier here…there are lots of five-star reviews for this upcoming release, so make sure you check out the trigger warnings and other reviews before taking my word for it.

I listened to the audiobook, and Jessica Clark did a wonderful job voicing all the characters.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for my complimentary audiobook and Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy.

This is my first book by this author and I’m looking forward to going back and reading her first. I loved the multiple POV, dual timeline, and the twist where I finally realized that things weren’t adding up. You make assumptions in the beginning and it tangles you up a bit after a while and I really enjoyed that.

Audio: 4/5: Wonderful job!!

TW- Drug abuse and Foster care with child abuse.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

I’m torn on this one. I did find it engaging and listened to it over 2 days as I was eager to find out what happened. However over the last couple of days the more I think about it the more I don’t like it. I think this author just isn’t for me, I’ve tried several and I feel meh about all of them.

The story of 3 foster sisters who are forced to go back to the town they grew up in when a body is discovered under their foster home. I did like the different perspectives especially the unique unreliable narrator’s perspective and the ending. But overall the story just fell flat for me and the ending wasn’t enough to redeem it.

What I really look for in a thriller is the atmosphere - a creepy and suspicious edge of your seat type vibe. And these books are more domestic drama than thriller, which is fine it’s just never what I go in hoping for and expecting for some reason.

I am seeing a lot of excellent reviews for this one so I think if you like her other books I’m sure you’ll like this one.

Thank you to @macmillan.audio for my copy, this one is out on April 23rd.

#bookreview #bookish #booksta #reading #bookthoughts #audiobookreview #audiobooks #audiobookstagram

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sally Hepworth for allowing me to review this twisty thriller. The narrator, Jessica Clarke, was fantastic. Her narration really added to the atmosphere and experience of the book. I love Sally Hepworth and highly recommend all of her books. She always throws me for a loop with the twists and turns in her books. This one, however, was a bit challenging for me to read due to some triggering details regarding child abuse. I am usually able to read most books with trigger warnings regarding this issue, but I struggled to get through this one in some parts. All of that did add to the character development and was impactful in the storyline, but I would have enjoyed it more without the graphic detail of some events. I still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fast paced twisty thrillers and Sally Hepworth’s gripping storylines and writing. Just keep in mind there are trigger warnings and it might be good to skip a few scenes. Thank you again for allowing me to review this audiobook.

Sally Hepworth's Darling Girls was another fresh thriller for 2024! The story was fast paced and enjoyable, and I really appreciated a mystery/psychological thriller with a happy ending for the complex characters. The narrator did a fantastic job as well.

A dark read but well worth it! The way you uncover the history of the sisters as you continue through the story line continues to keep you guessing, making it nearly impossible to put down. While it's never an easy topic to digest, the author does a great job in describing abuse in a way most people don't typically understand. It's a very unique set of perspectives, I'll definitely never hear the term "darling girl" the same again.

I highly suggest the audiobook!

Huge thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of this title. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you love creepy stories, Sally Hepworth is your writer. All her novels keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what creepy turn of events will happen next. Darling Girls does not disappoint. And when you learn the protagonists are foster children with a "LOVING" foster mother, you move up the creep scale. Miss Fairchild (oxymoron of a name) and the ending...once again, you, my reader friend, will be blown away.

It took me awhile to sort this one out. I found it a little confusing on audio with the multiple POVs & alternating timelines. Different narrators would’ve really elevated this one for me. However, the second half is captivating as secrets start to emerge. There are several twists and turns but I did find a few easy to guess.
Overall, I enjoyed the characters & the story as a whole. I was interested to see how it would all play out. Miss Fairchild was creepy and clever. The found family storyline was thoughtfully done. I would say I liked it but didn’t love it. The topics are heavy so here are some TW: child abuse, childhood trauma, death of a child, overdose

Darling Girls was such an entertaining thriller. Right from the start, you're introduced to some interesting characters right away and thats what really brings the reader in. I loved how the past and present timeline was done in this one. I thought there were a lot of characters and was a little worried that they would get confusing, but Hepworth does a great job at distinguishing them all. While it wasn't super twisty, the twist at the end really threw me for a loop! This will be a great beach read or pool side book for the summer!

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth, narrated by Jessica Clarke, is another excellent twisty psychological thrilled by Sally Hepworth. The story is told through the POV of three foster sisters and their foster mom, as the story moves from past to present. Alicia, Jessica and Norah are not blood sisters, but they became sisters while they were all foster children at Wild Meadows, with their foster mom, Mrs. Fairchild. On the outside, they looked like a happy, successful foster family. Behind closed doors, though, Mrs. Fairchild was not the doting, loving foster mom that the world saw. She had strict rules, strict punishments and could run from hot to cold. Usually cold. Now adults, the fosters sisters remain thick as thieves. They left Wild Meadows and moved on with their lives. Until bones are found underneath Wild Meadows, when they are excavating for new construction, after the house was sold. They are asked to come to talk to police in the town where they lived together as girls, and questions abound as to who might be responsible for the body found underneath the home. Might they even be the prime suspects?

This book was a good listen. Despite the changes of POV, Jessica Clarke did a good job with voices, to make it clear who was speaking. She has a lovely voice to listen to, which is always a bonus in an audiobook. The story was easy to get into and easy to stay with. I felt for the characters in this book (except for the ones you are not supposed to feel anything good about) and wanted to know more of their story. I liked how different information was exposed at different times throughout the book, so the reader was always left guessing. You think you have it locked down, but I bet you won't be right. Not until the big reveal at the end of the book.

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Macmillian Audio for the opportunity to listen to this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I will not be giving feedback on this title until after St. Martin's Press issues a public statement regarding the commentary by one of the staff made. As an mother of black children and a Muslim, I am deeply affected by the comments that were stated.

Wowowowow. This book was an insanely wild ride!! This was my first Sally Hepworth and now I am a biiiig fan. Weeeew I can’t even describe the twists in this book - it was so so good.

I absolutely LOVE when thrillers bounce back and forth from past to present and I found myself intrigued by both timelines.

The quick rundown is that three girls in the foster system end up at the same home and discover that outside appearances can be deceiving. What they went through both at the time and in the future kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book!

The ending shook me to my damn core too!! Like WHAT ?!?! Many members of my book club also received advanced access to this book and my text to them when I finished the last chapter was just… “bruh….”

So if you are in the market for an amazing, wild thriller - add this to your TBR and give it a pre-order!

I wasn't sure how to rate this book. I went back and forth between 3 stars and 4 stars. It intrigued me and I was curious throughout the whole book what the end would be. What was going on? What was the true story? That kept me listening and wanting more. Overall though the whole story seemed a little flat. I felt like it could have been better but not sure how to explain it. It was a good story and kept me listening and wanting to know more but at the same time there wasn't anything that made me go WOW! In the end I did like it and maybe because it wasn't the usual who dun it type book that has me questioning things but I think many out there will absolutely love it.

Jessica, Norah and Alicia are not related by blood but consider themselves sisters in every way. They were each placed under the care of their foster mother, Miss Fairchild, as young children, and they formed a bond that could not be broken - no matter how hard Miss Fairchild tried. As adults, they’ve seemingly moved on from their tumultuous childhood, until they receive a call from local police. The estate they grew up on is being demolished for development purposes and they’ve discovered bones under the house. The sisters head back to the small town where they grew up for questioning and to see if they can help figure out what happened all those years ago. They presume to know who the bones belong to, but they’re wrong - and only one person knows who was buried under that house.

WHOA. Sally Hepworth is a master at psychological suspense novels, so I don’t even know why I’m surprised that this book was so great! There was a dual timeline and alternating points of view, which I always love. There was a smidge of unreliable narration because the women were children for much of what happened and essentially gaslit for a long, long time. This is definitely a dark story (DM me if you want CWs), but so well told. I absolutely loved the ending - I thought the author had wrapped everything up and then she dropped another bomb - it was great. Many thanks to MacMillan Audio for the ALC - the narration was wonderful. I highly recommend this as an audiobook, or adding it onto your BOTM subscription box like my mom did 😉

I love a Sally Hepworth novel! I just feel that the are sometimes marketed wrong - if you go into her books expecting a fast paced thriller, you could be disappointed. Overall, if I had to say the word thriller to describe her books - I would say DOMESTIC thrillers - light on the thrills.

I really enjoyed this one - not my favorite of hers especially after reading and loving The Soulmate last year, but I always get what I expect from a Sally Hepworth book:

Family or Relationship Dynamics
Some sort of mystery or murder or truth that is being uncovered
Well-written characters that are flawed but interesting
A plot that intrigues me and keeps me turning the pages
Some sort of twist or reveal that I don't (or sometimes do but still enjoy) see coming

I especially loved the "sister" dynamics of the three main characters that were raised together in the same foster house. Hepworth does such a great job differentiating the characters and giving them distinct traits that I had such an easy time going from one narrator to the next. This was an interesting story and, as always with Hepworth, definitely worth the read!

Thank you to Netgalley & St Martin's Press for this advanced copy (I tandem read with the audiobook as well so thank you also to Macmillan Audio) in exchange for my honest opinion!

Unfortunately I just don't think Hepworth's books are for me. I have read a few of her books previously and for the most part just felt meh about them. With this one I struggled to connect in any way to the story and was just never hooked.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4

Darling Girls was such a quick, creative mystery/thriller. I am very familiar with Sally Hepworth's books and she is the queen of this genre. She has such an easy to digest writing style. I loved how this book had multiple points of view and multiple time frames. If you are looking for a good twisty thriller, I highly recommend this book.

I really enjoyed the audiobook/narrator of this book. It kept me engaged, and it was easy to follow.