REVIEW: DARLING GIRLS, BY SALLY HEPWORTH

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. 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 thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

 

Life in foster care reveals much in Darling Girls, and as the three girls in this novel show us, abuse is a regular part of their world. But their connection to each other sustains them, and as a retired social worker, I could definitely see how the girls managed because of each other.

When the girls are grown, they are pulled back into that world due to the discovery of a body beneath the former foster home. Will they find out more than they bargained for, or will there finally be relief? A 5 star read.

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My eARC came to me via NetGalley..

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