Sally Hepworth Follow

I just recently discovered this author and have loved everything I’ve read. However, this beat the rest, hands down. This story kept me guessing. I was scrambling to figure out what exactly had happened in the past and trying to catch the twist before it was revealed. I failed.

I loved the format this was written in with the labeled flashbacks as well as another point of view that was slowly unraveling throughout the story. Thus began the scrambling and the guessing. I have never flipped from back to front to back again and again as often as I did while reading this book. I was desperate to find the answers to my questions.

This was such a great story filled with characters that were flawed but that called to me in a way I’ve not experienced before. As much as I was thrilled to learn all of their secrets, I hated to see their story end.

Twenty five years ag three girls met at a foster home. Today they each receive a phone call from the police that there former foster home has been demolished and the bones of a young child have been found. While recounting their stories to the police it is apparent that there was a lot of things going on with the foster mother and their time in the home that no one knows and that wasn't good for any of the girls. They found a way to escape the foster mother, but now are sucked back into her conniving, selfish, hateful orbit and they have no idea how bad she really is and how far she has gone.
(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy)

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is a psychological mystery about three girls who become sisters when placed at Wild Meadows, a foster home run by Miss Holly Fairchild.

Jessica Lovat was only four years old when she was placed at Wild Meadows; her mother, a Chinese Immigrant who worked as a seamstress, died, and her father was unknown. She became Australia's reading expert on home organization and married Phil.

Norah Anderson was ten years old when she was placed in the foster system. Her mother became addicted and died of a drug overdose holding Norah's hand. She's six feet tall, has olive skin, blue eyes, and a Lebanese heritage. When she was placed at Wild Meadows, it was already her seventh placement.

Her grandmother raised Alicia Connelly until she became ill and was hospitalized. She went to Wild Meadows as a respite case but stayed for over a year. Later, she became a social worker, working with foster children.

Miss Holly Fairchild owns and operates the Wild Meadows foster home. Ms. Fairchild had rules, was unpredictable, and was never to be crossed; the punishment could be detrimental. At one point, it was only young girls, but then she started taking in infants Rhiannon and Bianca. Taking care of particular needs, infants became overwhelming; she gave up the babies and adopted a little girl named Amy, a blue-eyed blond-haired girl.

Dirk Winterbourne is a red-haired, freckled young man who is the horse caretaker who worked on the property for the boarded animals.

Scott Michales is the darling girls' social worker who placed them at Wild Meadows.
Dr. Warren Psychiatrist

Twenty-five years later, Miss Fairchild sold the property, and they were knocking down the house to build a McDonald's when they came across human remains. The police contacted all the girls who lived at the home, asking questions about their time at Wild Meadows.

The twists and turns, the abuse and trauma these women experience at the hands of a psychopath narcissist.

Wow! This has some amazing twists and turns. I was enthralled from the moment Pippa glanced out to see the scene at the cliff. Holy heck! That set the atmosphere for me and I couldn’t wait to find out what it was all about.

This has a slow but steady pace. Each chapter introduced me to another piece of the puzzle while oftentimes leaving me with more questions. Each new piece wasn’t always a surprise which only added to my overall amazement when everything was revealed.

While I was never a true fan of any of the characters, there is no denying I couldn’t wait to find out the what, who, and why of it all.

I went into this book expecting one thing and was pleasantly surprised when this story went a completely different direction.

The women were well developed and easy to connect with. Even as they had things that made them less desirable, I still cared about what was going to happen to each of them and who among them was going to end up either dead or the one to make someone dead.

This is definitely a character driven story with a thin layer of menace running through it. I found myself caught up in the lives of each of these women when suddenly something would be casually hinted at that sent me spinning with contemplation. I picked and prodded at these characters, guessing as to what had happened, why it might have happened, and who might have done it, before I’d switch to someone else as the villain. I loved every minute of it.

This was unlike other psychological thrillers I’ve read. It had such a fresh feel to the writing and the creation of the story never felt heavy handed. Overall an enjoyable read that I could not put down!

Wow, this was one twisted sister tale!

It didn’t take any time for me to get completely caught up in this story. It was so easy to picture Rose and Fern fraternal twins, one of them apparently on the spectrum and the other her protector. What an awful childhood they had. Is it any wonder the issues they faced as adults? My heart hurt for them.

While Fern is never officially diagnosed, her condition is pretty obvious. She’s highly functioning and I fell completely in love with her. She was totally charming in such an innocent way and I realize that was due to her autism, but the way this author portrayed her had me loving her, wanting to hug her (even though that would be a no-go) and laughing at the way she inadvertently pulled others into her world.

Rose was fiercely protective of Fern. Her whole life revolved around her. She was an amazing older sister and Fern would have been lost without her. I worried about her other relationships and how Fern’s presence affected them.

Much of this is written in a journal type of format that gives us glimpses into the past. With each new entry we are given, a clearer picture begins to form. I began to question the title along with the words on the page and soon I was vacillating between who truly was the good sister and why were they not considered good?

This has a very thin veil of darkness running through it but the question is to which twin is it contributed to?