Folk lore or post partum psychosis. A beautifully descriptive book that has you wondering if she is suffering from psychosis or indeed the underworld is at play. No-one really believes and she is scared and worried for her twins and no-one to back her up. A good story throughout and this novel will really stand out. Well done Ms Golding. Definitely worth a read

If this happened to you would anyone believe you?
Laura has just had twin boys and is still on the maternity ward and a woman is coming to get the babies. She locks herself in a bathroom and calls the police. However, no-one believes her and there is no proof.Is he imagining it? DS Joanna Harper picks up the case the next day and something doesn't seem right to her.
Lauren comes home but won't take the babies out as she feels the woman is still there. Then she takes them out and nothing will be the same again. But how can she make them believe her! Can DS Harper help her?
You wont want to put this book down!!

Thriller, mystery or just plain fantastic fiction? A young mum is convinced her newborn twins are changelings and is haunted by an apparition only she can see. Is she mentally ill or are there darker forces at work? A brilliant read.

Lauren Tranter is utterly exhausted from giving birth to twins, Morgan and Riley. The night they're born and her husband has already left the hospital she is aware of another woman who has clearly just had twins. She hears her crooning and talking to them, so she thinks she will speak to her. She pulls back the cubicle curtain...and this is where the nightmare begins. A mix of fairy tale, folk tale and horror story, this incredibly scary tale had me hooked from the start. And there are questions we ask while reading; is Lauren suffering from some kind of psychosis, or is what she experiences real? I'm not sure the question is answered irrevocably, but perhaps there is no answer. In any case LITTLE DARLINGS is a book I would heartily recommend. I loved it.

"These are not my babies..."
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.

Golding constructs a background inspired by many of our darkest fairy tales which will leave you shivering, wondering and even checking. The strongest elements of this compelling novel are the explorations of the boundaries and valleys between postpartum depression and a dark and sinister fairy-tale. The reality of depression and the common feeling of not being entirely sure what is real and what is influenced by your mental state overlaps throughout and I think that's what kept me hooked on this book.

I wanted to find out the answers. I'm not entirely sure that we ever do - and isn't that the case in real life? The reality is we all fear getting things wrong, messing things up and even losing a child - this book explores the very fine line between all of these nightmares and the reality that can occur.

The genre of this book baffled me.. at times I felt like i was enjoying a psychological thriller and in other moments it felt almost mystical and supernatural. In this case the issue of not being able to define what I was reading wasn't frustrating - in fact it helped the book even more.

Investment in the main character - Lauren - is the key in this book. You will be invested, you will want her to come out on top...you will want her to be the successor in this story. That's the beauty of Golding's writing. She paints a character that could quite easily be you.

I expected this to be a thriller and whilst it is to a degree it’s actually difficult for me to slot it into one genre. It’s a good concept and well written although I’m not sure how much I like the charcters. It was very easy to read this, it took me a couple of chapters to get into it but once I was I was zooming through it. I found it quite creepy and twisted and it was definitely hard to know what reality was real. Overall the author has given birth to an intriguing book.

This story is about Lauren who gives birth to her twins Riley and Morgan. Whilst in the hospital a woman comes and wants to exchange her twins for hers. Nobody believes Lauren apart from a female police officer who decides to look further into the case.

I really enjoyed this story. There is a lot of Folklore and Fairytales involved in this story which is really not my thing. The story is fast paced and kept me reading late into the night. I was a little disappointed in the ending and I am still processing it. I would recommend this book because it is something a little different from the usual psychological thrillers.

I couldn't honestly say that I enjoyed this book but it did intrigue me and I did finish it. It started really well with a mother believing that someone was trying to abduct her twins. I found the whole fairy and changeling thing quite confusing and having finished the book I'm still confused!

A well crafted modern take on an old tale. I particularly enjoy the different perspectives as we switch effortlessly between characters, and the mother's plight is almost tangible. Well worth the read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This book is a realty creepy read and had to keep putting it down and then picking it back up as found it unsettling in parts. That being said a recommended read.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. This is the first book I have read by Golding but I will be seeking out others.

The book was really well written and had me changing my mind about whether Lauren was seeing things through lack of sleep or if she was telling the truth,

I loved the excerpts of different fairy tales through out as well as the differing point of views.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an ARC.

Loved, loved, loved this! Who is good and who is bad? You want a book to keep you guessing then this is for you! Can you trust anyone?

Little Darlings is one of those books that keep you guessing the entire way through the book and then still long after finishing reading.

This book is heavily influenced by the ancient folk lore of changelings. A "phenomenon" that appears all over the world and involves infants being swapped for fae children without the knowledge of the parents. I am absolutely fascinated by folk lore so I was so excited to get a chance to read this book. This book is modern thriller meets dark fairy tale and it is done to absolute perfection.

Little Darlings is written with two PoV characters - the mother Lauren and police officer Harper. Both incredibly interesting characters and I honestly didn't have a favourite point of view to read from which is rare for these kinds of books! Although this did make it even harder to put down.

The writing itself is excellent. The pacing, the characters and the story is all absolutely top notch. I would never have guessed that this is the work of a debut novelist.

We spend the entire book trying to work out exactly what is happening. Is there really some kind of water witch trying to steal and change these little twins or is mother Lauren actually having a break from reality? Many women do struggle with their mental health after having babies and this is an extremely important subject for the author to address.

This book is dark and atmospheric and thoroughly enjoyable to read.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This is a fabulous book, I could hardly put it down. The story line seems bizarre but also remotely possible, is there a dark force afoot trying to steal her twins? Even at the end you are never quite sure although everything is explained in a plausible fashion. I would definitely recommend this book, it's a fascinating story line and you can hardly read fast enough to find an explanation for all the fear and strange goings on that surround the heroine. Our police heroine is also a wonderful character and the chapters outlining the problems she has with a bullish bosh seem very real and up to date. A fantastic book, I will definitely look for more by this author.

One thing Golding excels at is subtlety. As someone who reads a lot of horror, there were some moments that were certainly creepy, but none of the descriptions are particularly shocking. Golding is brilliant at making the reader feel uncomfortable without overstepping the line into disturbed. I can see how this could be a little disappointing for readers expecting a darker story. The element of horror is never expanded on, it’s more of an underlying theme that comes second to the thriller aspect.

However, I do think this does a great job of bringing Post-Partum Depression into a wider public discussion. ‘Little Darlings’ served up a compelling story and a number of unexpected twists and turns.

I also really loved the way Golding writes female characters. Lauren was easy to sympathise with, and her character was so complex! DS Harper was also such a brilliant head-strong character. The two contrasting POV’s left the reader wondering what was real. If you love unreliable narrators this book is for you!

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It’s not something I’d usually pick up but the synopsis had been hooked and it explores important topics.

This is a good mystery / horror / thriller that intersperses fairytale changeling tales with a mother suffering from post partum depression.

For me, the writing was sluggish at times and I did find it hard going overall. It wasn't the page turner I anticipated.
However, overall, it's a good read with scary elements and sinister undertones.

Thanks to HarperCollins Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview in exchange for my honest review.

Is Lauren suffering from hallucinations due sleep deprivation and an unsupportive husband or is it post natal psychosis or something more sinister? A tenacious police woman, with her own hidden history, tries to unravel this case, privately carrying on investigating despite being told to drop it by her superior. The story his peppered with passages from old fairy stories. Over all enjoyable.

Wow, wow, wow it's been along time the a book can keep me up at night and send shivers down my spine.
Lauren is a new mum of twin boy's and it's been a difficult birth, when Lauren is in hospital after giving birth she sence someone close to her bed.
Someone is trying to take her babies and locks herself and them into the bathroom at the maternity ward and phones the police.
When the police arrive they is no sign of a intruder but when DS Joanna Harper reads the notes the next day she has a strong feeling that something is wrong. .
With Harper's superior officer telling her to drop the case Joanna decides to investigate anyway, this book with keep you turning page after page.

When I started reading this book my immediate reaction was this is about fairy stories, definitely not my kind of book. But I read the through the first chapter and second and next thing I was over halfway through the book; which is about a woman Lauren and her husband Patrick she gives birth to identical twin boys after a horrendous birth and then a day later a huge bleed. She is traumatised but then during the night she hears strange singing and through the closed curtains she can hear a mother talking to her twins. But this is no ordinary woman and she is trying to take Lauren's babies away so Lauren locks herself and her boys in bathroom and rings 999

The police and hospital staff can't find anyone in the ward or on cctv who could be the person Lauren described with long dark hair,rags for clothes all dripping in water
After returning home Lauren refuses to leave her twins convinced someone will steal them away, she is finally persuaded out by her friends and having had a coffee and cake and swapping birth stories they all leave the cafe at the lake but Lauren decides to go for a walk as she is feeling so good, she sees a bench puts the sleeping babies at the side of her in their buggy and sits and relaxes. When she awakes the Priam and babies have gone

I found this book slightly scary but I had to find out what happened so finished the book in a day and am hopeful that the ending is good or was it all a psychotic mother?? Or was there twin babies in the lake and Lauren's were not hers??

A darkly creepy tale based in equal-parts real-world family drama and archaic fairy tale mythology. On one level we meet Lauren Tranter, new mother and possible post partum depression sufferer; a character we can empathise with deeply as she negotiates the first fraught days and weeks of processing her new life with twin boys. On another level she is the victim of an evil presence, determined to replace her infants with unsettling lookalike changelings. I found myself quite able to suspend disbelief where necessary and engage with the story on both planes, due in large part to the confident narrative and strong female characters, The weakest link was Patrick, the spineless father who seems unable to satisfy anyone's expectations of him. This debut was quite gripping and I would certainly read more by the author.