Wow! This story kept me completely engaged until the very end. Nice blend for a contemporary fairy tale. I had to research the London slang a bit but that made the story feel authentic.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the advanced reader’s copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Lauren has just given birth to twin boys Morgan and Riley, and while there isn't that insta-love that all the books talk about, she does grow to love them, immensely. Alone in the hospital with her boys, Lauren sees a vicious woman who threatens to take her boys, to steal them and replace them with look-a-likes. While she did everything she could, no one is taking her concerns seriously. Her anxiousness is made worse when she discovers someone had given her a folklore book that centers around mothers and their twin children.

Lauren is a good mother but her job is made much harder in the fact she is essentially doing it all on her own. Her husband, claiming the need for sleep because of how often he works has chosen to "tap" out of child-rearing and even Lauren says "...there'd been signs that he wasn't a natural caregiver". If only she could get some sleep, her days would be easier. If only her husband would help, she would be able to manage. If only...

But Lauren's fears are getting worse. Someone has been watching her, someone has been at her window, looking in at her and her boys. Unable to leave the house for fear that the woman will steal her sons, her husband is getting impatient with her. He's shooed off the Jo, the officer who was trying to help Lauren and she feels even more alone. After her husbands urging, she finally does get out for a walk only for it to turn horribly wrong. The boys are missing and her worst fears have come true.

Little Darlings is infused with lore from a multitude of places. A new mother reading such stories would be horrified so it helps to express Lauren's fear of the children being replaced. Her husband Patrick was awful. He was selfish and sneaky, only caring for his sons when it suited him. He treated Lauren like dirt and I kept hoping she would leave him. I appreciated Jo's persistence in helping Lauren and found myself incredibly frustrated with the police department who would not take Jo seriously. My frustration at some characters is a great example of how well Golding wrote those characters.

While I felt I had some inkling of what was going on, Golding added a few surprises that were a nice mix. New moms don't have it easy, and a lot of them suffer from postpartum and Golding did a great job at hinting the possibility without saying it. I felt for Lauren who wanted nothing more than protect her sons. Little Darlings was a well-written, easy and quick read, with suspense and a hint of fantasy in the lore she used. An enjoyable read.

Okay, creepy is the closest descriptive word you can use for this book, but it's so very well written that even the creepy parts are outstanding. I found myself reading through my fingers like I could not see what was coming next. But it would be a shame to not keep reading. A mother's instinct tells her that something is different about her twins, but is it really? Is her husband part of the switch? Melanie Golding has done an excellent job of writing a mystery that crosses over into horror very quickly but never loses sight of the mother's fight to see her children brought back to her. Love, love, loved it!!!

I was unable to finish this book. It was painstakingly slow. I couldn't focus on it. It didn't hold my attention at all. I am sure there will be many out there that will enjoy it. It wasn't for me.

This was creepy in the best possible way. I love a good thriller and I love a dark fairy tale. This book has the best of both worlds. I tore through this sinister tale in no time!

Lauren Tranter is exhausted.  She's given birth to twin baby boys, Morgan and Riley, and suffered a postpartum hemorrhage.  She has barely slept (thanks to the hospital's lame rule that doesn't allow fathers to stay overnight), her nipples are raw and cracked from breastfeeding, and she's beginning to worry.

"She was still waiting for the rush of love. That one you feel, all at once the second they're born, like nothing you've ever experienced before. The rush of love that people with children always go on about. She'd been looking forward to it. It worried her that she hadn't felt it yet." *

From the other side of the curtain in the maternity ward in the early morning hours, a woman is singing a creepy song.  When Lauren asks her to stop, the young woman explains that she too has twin babies, though hers are cursed.

"'Let's deal,' hissed the horrible woman, bringing her face up close to Lauren. 'What's fair, after all? We had everything taken, you had everything given. Let's change one for another.'" *

This is when Lauren finally feels that rush of love; she will do everything in her power to keep her boys from harm.  As the woman continues her raving, Lauren escapes with Morgan and Riley to the locked hospital bathroom and calls for help.

"'Choose one,' said the woman, 'choose one or I'll take them both. I'll take yours and you can have mine. You'll never know the difference. I can make sure they look just the same. One's fair. Two is justice done.'" *

When hospital security respond to her call, they find no evidence that a stranger gained access to the locked ward and cancel the police assistance.  

Detective Sergeant Jo Harper sits down the following morning at her desk and scans the calls from night shift.  She's intrigued by the call and though police assistance had been cancelled she decides to visit the hospital to follow up anyway.

Hospital staff have decided that Lauren's exhaustion caused a hallucination of the terrifying woman.  When Harper asks Lauren what she believes, she says that she isn't sure she can trust her thoughts.

Once Lauren is safely home with the boys, they begin to settle in.  The problem is that her husband Patrick is a grade-A asshole.  He decides that both of them shouldn't lose sleep at night so he sets himself up in the spare bedroom.  His logic is that if he sleeps well at night he'll be better able to help during the day.  Also, Lauren should really get used to taking care of the boys alone since he'll be returning to work. (I have so much to say about this but for the sake of this review, lets just all agree Patrick is an asshole.)

Though struggling through sleep deprivation and anxiety over the horrible scene at the hospital, Lauren finds herself in the newborn stage where time loses all meaning; days pass in the blink of an eye and yet you live hours in a span of five minutes.  

When she finally works up the nerve to leave the house with Morgan and Riley after weeks indoors, her worst fear is realized when she falls asleep on a park bench by the river and wakes to find the stroller she'd parked next to her is missing.

The police are immediately called in, DS Harper is on scene searching the riverbank where she's spotted tire tracks thought to be from the stroller going into the water.  Several minutes later Harper finds a woman down the trail and it appears she's pushing the stroller into the water.

The woman is arrested and the situation looks even worse when it becomes obvious she'd been having an affair with Patrick (remember what I said: asshole).  It seems to Harper that this woman had obvious motive to stalk Lauren and abduct the twins.

When the boys are brought back to Lauren, she's inconsolable.  They are not her boys.  The evil woman had taken her boys are replaced them with her own.  She remembers a story about changelings from a book called Twin Tales.  The only way to get her boys back is to throw the changelings into the river.  Grabbing the stroller, Lauren runs for the river.

Now Lauren is placed on a mental health hold that lasts three days. She realizes people will think that she's crazy if she tries to explain that the real Morgan and Riley have been stolen away. She has no choice but to find a way out of the facility and back to the river where she can exchange the changelings for her own.

Little Darlings really messed with my emotions.  I remembered all too well those exhausting days with a newborn:  all the worries, exhaustion, overwhelming love and fear, the time warp of sleep deprivation, the emotional rollercoaster and of course trying to both mentally and physically recover from childbirth.

I rooted for Lauren as the story unfolded, knowing how easy it is to feel like you've lost touch with reality in those first weeks after birth.  I was mad at myself when I began to doubt her!  That final scene gave me all the feels and made me wonder if we'll get a second book -- but don't worry, it's not a cliffhanger!
I loved that this psychological thriller was inspired by the folklore about changelings; it's not only creepy but also preys on a mother's worst fear, making the main character extremely relatable for me.

I liked the small bit of history we receive on DS Jo Harper, it gave me a better understanding of her persistence on the case. My biggest complaint is that the history of the creepy woman and her twin boys was explained at the very end of the book and it was really only a brief mention.  There was potential for some great detail and back story that would've taken this book to the next level in my humble opinion. 

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  Little Darlings is scheduled for release on April 30, 2019.

*The quotes included are from an advance readers copy and are subject to change upon final publication.

Honestly wasn't sure what I would think about it so I went into it with an open mind well-written well-executed not sure if I would run out and buy it but I'm glad I read it

Short review: for me, this book had a slow climb to a disappointing climax, and flat ending. I was disappointed with the blah ending. I was really just waiting for something majorly OMG to happen, and it just didn't. I was interested, but not engrossed. I put it down a lot in order to read something else.
Netgalley ebook.

Lauren is exhausted after giving birth to twin boys Morgan and Riley. Awakened by strange singing and babies cooing from the bed next to her, she investigates in hopes that she would find another new mother to twins. Instead, a ghastly woman in rags holding faceless bundles greets her. The woman demands that they exchange twins, to which Lauren pulls her twins to safety and makes an emergency call for help. When hospital security responds, Lauren is found alone with her twins and no sign of the mysterious woman. Her husband and doctors think she’s over tired and imagining things.

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Her first month home with them is spent on guard, convinced that this woman will show up and switch her beautiful boys out with something not quite human. After meeting up with friends in a park, Lauren accidentally nods off on a bench and wakes up to find her babies missing. In a frantic search involving the police, Morgan and Riley are found. One look at them and Lauren knows that these aren’t her children. Something has replaced them and she needs to get them back.

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Littered with fairytale and changeling references, Little Darlings is a fantastical thriller. I loved the unreliability of Lauren’s point of view. I especially love thriller/horror stories centered around women who are pregnant or new mothers. The terror that something is wrong with your baby and no one believes you because they think you are being overly emotional is horrifying to me!

The first four and a half chapters of this book were a chore to get through. There is way too much detail about birth included (and this is from someone who has had two children). I almost abandoned it completely but instead I pushed myself to keep reading as the book description was so enticing. In the end it was an okay story, missing to me were elements of the dark fairy tales as described. I suppose I thought this book was going to be much more spooky and sinister and it just fell a little flat for me.

Lauren Tranter, exhausted after the difficult birth of twin boys is lying in her hospital bed when she thinks she sees and hears a dirty, dishevelled woman try to swap one of her babies for one of Lauren's boys. However, the the police and the hospital can't find any evidence of an intruder, so she is forced to believe that she has imagined the woman but is nevertheless relieved to take her boys home where she can keep them safe.

Once at home, with little help from her selfish husband, Lauren becomes even more exhausted, so that when she does finally get out of the house to meet some friends when the babies are four weeks old, she falls asleep sitting on a park bench and the babies are snatched from her side. Although safely found, Lauren becomes convinced that they are not her babies but changelings and so begins a nightmare for Lauren trying to convince those around her that she needs to get her boys back.

Melanie Golding's debut thriller is sinister and creepy and demands to be read quickly to find out whether Lauren is a psychotic new mother or the victim of an evil faery plot. The writing and pacing of the plot were excellent, although I think the creep factor could have been ramped up a bit more, especially during Lauren's sightings and interactions with the faery woman for a bit more tension. Lauren and police sergeant Jo Harper are well developed characters. Ms Golding really painted an excellent picture of what sleep deprivation can do to a new mother (especially one with twins and an unengaged husband) and Jo with her intuition is the just the sort of policewoman you'd want on your side when facing the rest of the world. I didn't care much for Amy, the journalist and thought she was a bit too flaky for someone like Jo to like and trust (and I really would have liked to see Lauren's husband suffer more for his neglect of his wife and twins!). Overall, an enjoyable thriller with a sprinkling of fairy tales and the supernatural to give it an unusual twist.

If you like a creepy mystery, and Melanie Goldin’s debut novel Little Darlings has not come to your attention yet, then I strongly advise you to put it on your reading list right now! There is nothing better than an urban myth to give a mystery that extra scary touch, and Goldin has gone one step further and has found various old legend to back up her story. This creepy story had me utterly captivated, and even after finishing it I could not shake off a slight feeling of unease that lingered in my room. Aren’t those the mysteries of the best kind?

A young mother calls emergency services from the maternity ward of the local hospital claiming that someone had tried to steal her newborn twins, but noone believes her. A few weeks later, her babies go missing for a short period of time when their sleep deprived mother briefly nods off on a park bench whilst out walking. They are quickly located, but their mother is convinced that these are not her babies. Everyone thinks she is crazy, but is she?

I love mysteries where it is never clear if the MC is in fact a bit crazy, imagining all the creepy things that are going on, or if there is indeed something sinister at play. Little Darlings messed with my mind in the best possible way. Yes, there is a certain supernatural element that may seem far-fetched to some readers, but I found it utterly compelling. Especially the premise that Lauren is convinced her babies are in danger, but everyone thinks she is crazy. Imagine how terrifying and frustrating this must be! I still vividly remember the constant fog of tiredness I operated under after the birth of my first child, and how after weeks of sleep deprivation my mind started playing tricks on me. So is Lauren really just a bit paranoid? Her story does seem a bit far fetched ...

Goldin knows how to plant a seed of doubt in the reader’s mind very early on, which resulted in a constant sense of menace and danger that made me snuggle deep under my covers and jump at every noise in the darkness out there. The chapter introductions, featuring some old legends and urban myths, only served to ratchet up tension as they lent an aura of mysticism to the story. I still remember sitting in my grandma’s kitchen as a child whilst the old women talked about such things. Perhaps this is why this story evoked such primal terror in me. Whatever it was, it really worked, and I am putting Little Darlings on my list of best eerie mysteries! Very highly recommended to anyone who loves a creepy folk tale wrapped into the folds of a compelling contemporary mystery as much as I do.

This book was just the right amount of creepy and mysterious. Lauren Tranter has just given birth to identical twin boys and she's not getting any rest. Her husband is a dolt who gives her no help and it's clear Lauren is exhausted before she even leaves the hospital. While still in the hospital Lauren claims a woman tried to take her sons. The story is part fantasy, part real and the reader is left wondering how much is in Lauren's head and how much is actually happening. This is a fast, engrossing story that I enjoyed. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

I received an ARC of Little Darlings from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year. This book is filled with folklore and is reminiscent of something straight out of Grimm’s fairytales. While it was a little slow to start it quickly picks up and turns into a page turning having you need to know what happens. It is creepy and unsettling and so amazing all wrapped into one package. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who grew up as a fan of folklore.

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding is not a book about the miracle of childbirth but the hell of it. This book is super creepy from the get go, a fantastic debut novel. It's a modern day fairy tale, and not one that starts with once upon a time and ends with a happily ever after. It's like the original Grimm's fairy tales that were often horrific and creepy in tone and made your skin crawl. The ending is really great and lets you the reader ultimately decide what you believe. This book is being marketed as mystery but could easily fit in to phycological horror category. This was by first book as a new reviewer for netgalley and man was it a great one, thanks to netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for letting me read this early release of Little Darlings by Melanie Golding for an honest review.

The plot: Lauren Tranter has just had a rough birth of two twins Riley and Morgan. She has the regular fears of new mother, how is she going to take care of two kids and how can she protect them? She also has the fear of not being able to tell her two identical twins apart. and she then she has one thought that changes everything what if some one tried to take them? I the maturity ward she starts hearing a woman in the next curtain over singing a hideous old song about taking twin babies and drowning them in the river, then the woman tries to take her babies Lauren take the babies and lock the bathroom door and call emergency. Detective Jo Harper takes an interest in the case that everyone else writes off as post partum depression, since she has her own issue with a newborn being taken. Lauren is so convinced about woman that Harper investigates she find interesting evidence that no one else seems to care like odd shadows and an odd voice on a recording. Cut to one month later and Harper gets a call that Lauren's twins have been taken there found by a woman that has ties to the husband but when the twins are returned Lauren freaks out saying those are not her twins.

What I Liked: The blending of the mystery and fairy tale elements. The descriptions are what really make this book work, especially the would be kidnapper in the hospital, and the changed babies. The main characters Harper and Lauren are very well rounded and fully realized characters that you come to understand even the crazy parts. The mystery was really good and kept you on the edge until the end. And I was for the most part satisfied with the ending there's one angle I wish was explored more, but the ending is not totally concrete and lets you the reader ultimately decide which I thought really worked and will be perfect for book club discussions.

What I Disliked: Towards the ending there's a piece of evidence that's found that relates to the lore, which is a huge tease because harper and her department doesn't have the resources to investigate that evidence, which could've lead to closure. As a reader investigated I felt cheated out of this tease, and might have worked better if not included. There was minor dragging on the pacing after the finale. But a really solid debut.

Recommendations: This book will be released on April 30 2019 and I highly recommend it and think you should add it to your TBR shelves. The author just announced it is going to be developed into movie, if you want to be first to read it before the movie comes out. If you love psychological thrillers this is a can't miss it. I rated this book a very satisfied 5 out of 5 stars and will definitely look for this author in the future and will check out the movie when it is released.

Lauren Tranter has just had two identical twin boys. A difficult birth, a harrowing experience in the hospital, a creepy stalker, and an unreliable spouse make for every new mother's fears realized. Are her children changelings? Is she losing her mind? Or is her husband involved in a much darker plot?

I couldn't put this book down, because Melanie Golding makes Lauren's fears so real that I was genuinely afraid for her - it gave me that same desperate feeling as Rosemary's Baby. The labour was difficult for me to read because I experienced something similar, and when Lauren first struggles with motherhood, I felt like I found a kindred spirit. And I loved how resilient and strong she was throughout - even when I felt she was the antagonist, I rooted for her!

Creepy, fast-paced, and oh, so satisfying!


Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thought the premise of the book sounded interesting, a retelling of an old changeling folklore into a modern story about a woman who believes her children have been switched. I thought it was an ok story. Some of it seemed to predictable while reading it though. I thought too much was given away throughout the story that gave away what was going to happen. I didn’t get the creepy vibes and wasn’t on the edge of my seat while reading. The execution of some of the elements that are supposed to cast doubt on the mother fell flat for me. I feel like the ending was supposed to be ambiguous (was she crazy or wasn’t she etc etc) but by the time I got there I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or the other.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Melanie Golding for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

And other thanks to all those that have already read Little Darlings and recommended it to me. I am SO grateful, it is a really great, scary and thrilling read!

I'm not going to provide an overview - because Goodreads can do that… I am just going straight into how irrational this book genuinely made me. The husband, Patrick, and dad of two little darlings, is such a jerk that this book actually made me angry at Tom (my boyfriend) for about an hour, even though he is NOTHING like Patrick… Patrick just made me so angry and I needed some space afterwards ha ha…

This book prays on your worst fears of becoming or being a parent - what would you do if someone kidnapped your kids, and what would you do if when you found them they were… different.

Oh my heart, this books is sad, I was questioning EVERYTHING… is it all just in the Lauren's mind (the mother)?!! The issues with mental health here just truly broke my heart.. It felt real, I felt involved and I was way way wayy too invested.

I loved the little fairy tail snippets of the beginning of some of the chapters.

The only reason I would say 4.5 stars and not 5 stars is because when I get so deep and invested in a book there are times where the tiniest slightest thing can throw me off… and I wasn’t disappointed by the end… I just wanted it to kind of end my way, you know? I guess the story extract at the end didn’t feel as relevant as it really could have, but maybe that's just me..

Okay, I am totally irrational, but you should DEFINITELY pick this up!

This is a good book; the writing is great and keeps the reader engaged. You connect with the characters and feel for the protagonist. It’s a different kind of thriller and was a nice change of pace for me. Very well written and has a dark creepy feel. Definitely recommend!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This story kept me thoroughly entertained, although—to point out the main character’s madness?—the narrative felt a bit repetitive, over-explained, and slow-burning. A scene or two were absolutely creepy and I even feared I’d have nightmares, but although I’m a mother of twin boys myself, I couldn’t feel for the main character. I’ll recommend this book to anyone who likes a good ghost story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion.