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.

This book has a very original story line. It is perceptive and illuminating about certain aspects of mental health. The reader is kept on edge by the hope that the troubled mother of twin boys might actually be right about what she fears. There is added uncertainty about the loyalty of her husband and the off-work life of the detective adds spice to the story. A good read but may be unsettling to some readers.

Fabulous debut novel will be looking out for this author in the future.
Really gripping had me hooked from the start couldn't put it down, a good insight to the state of mind after childbirth, but left me wondering, what if?!

This is a story about changelings. The chapter begin quoting from fairy tales and myths on the subject of babies who have been swapped with "fairy" babies when very young. The main character absolutely believes that this happened to her twins and sacrifices her own life style to save her children. The family situation becomes more complex as her belief cannot convince her husband that the babies are not the same after they are abducted.
The reader is left wanting to believe the mother but with huge doubts about her sanity as the social services try to manage the situation.
The book examines the stress on new mothers and the effects of post natal baby blues on individuals and family.

This is fantasy but not as we know it!!
I enjoyed it and recommend the book.

A new mum. Twin boys. An unhelpful and disengaged dad. A dismissive nursing team. A stranger who wants....something....a woman certain iof what she sees, what she hears, what she knows. A policewoman who wants to help but is obstructed by others.

Th8s is a story of what can happen when a woman is not believed. This story is dark. Th8s story is chilling. This story may not be fiction.......

An uncomfortable read involving the emotionally disturbing subject of puerperal psychosis, a serious though temporary condition if correct treatment available and ancient folklore regarding changelings intrinsically linked to substitution of babies at birth. Fact and fiction collide when police receive an urgent call from a recently delivered mother of identical twin boys that someone is stealing her babies. Quick action results in mother and babies found and released home after a difficult and traumatic birth to an inadequate husband, no family back up and the spiralling descent of the mother into depression, exhaustion and inability to differentiate between fact and fiction . This manifests itself in a total inability to believe or trust anyone. The handsome shallow husband Patrick has secrets that once exposed suggest he is a suspect but of what? Unable to follow orders from above, the confused DS Joanna Harper is struggling to make sense of the circumstances of the case whilst dealing with her own demons related to a teenage pregnancy. We the reader are drawn into evolving events each chapter giving days and weeks of the children's lives with the escalating difficulties encountered by the disturbed mother, abduction of babies and introduction of a suspect with links to family. Common sense tells us one thing. Skilled storytelling leads us along a very different path. Many thanks to Melanie Golding and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a story that defies genre and inserts a nagging doubt that folklore was not entirely based on fiction.

Following the traumatic birth of her twin boys, Lauren is exhausted.

In her sleep-deprived state, she has a terrifying encounter with another new mum in the middle of the night, which leaves her convinced that her babies are in danger and someone is trying to steal her children.

Barely given time to recover from the birth, she is left to care for her babies alone, and, exhausted and on constant alert to the cries and demands of the new babes, she fears for the wellbeing of her boys and how to keep them safe. One day she ventures out to the park and after accidentally falling asleep, her worst nightmare comes true, when she realises the boys are missing....

Little Darlings is full of suspense, with extracts from folklore and fairy tales interwoven in the story, you question whether someone is actually out to get the babies, or whether Lauren is suffering from post-partum psychosis.

I just didn't get it.

I didn't enjoy the fairy tale extracts at the start of each chapter and skipped those after the first couple. The husband was annoying, unsupportive as a husband and a father and frustratingly he never got his comeuppance.

That said, looking at NetGalley I'm clearly in the minority with this viewpoint.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

Lauren Tranter has just given birth to beautiful twin boys; her miracle babies. However, her happiness takes a chilling turn, when a mysterious woman appears on the maternity ward late at night, demanding Lauren choose between her babies to swap with one of the woman’s own set of twins. If Lauren fails to pick one, the woman tells her she'll take both boys. Lauren is determined to keep her boys safe at all costs, because she knows the woman won’t stop until she has Lauren's boys. There was no evidence of any intruder, so no one believes Lauren’s story, except Detective Joanna Harper. Harper investigates Lauren’s claims due to her own traumatic past, despite her boss telling her to drop the case. It only gets worse from there, as when Lauren falls asleep at the park, she wakes to find her boys gone and in their place she's convinced are horrible creatures. But everyone else only sees the two beautiful twin boys, but Lauren knows they aren't and she must save her true babies.
Little Darlings is a story about the depth of a mother’s love entwined with unsettling folklore,and hits home a parent's worst nightmare.

I loved this story. I really loved this story. It was creepy, ensnaring and made my imagination want to climb under the duvet until it was safe to come out. There was such a building tension that had me psychologically hooked from beginning to end.

What worked here was the execution and development of the mystery. The plot throughout teeters between the idea of this being a psychological thriller or a supernatural thriller, which made for a fascinating read. The inclusion of quotes from folklore tales and stories of changelings, really made the mystery feel otherworldly and unnerving.
Combined with this, was the story’s ability to seize control of any reader’s parental instincts and then plunge them into a blender of terror. When every chapter wrapped up, I was left with growing butterflies in my stomach. I was scared and anxious for Lauren and her babies, and dreaded the outcome regardless of whether or not the book was primarily psychological or supernatural.

The other thing that worked here was the awesome ensemble of likeable and loathsome characters, who were easy to connect with.
I loved Lauren and Harper. Lauren was like any new mother (loving yet nervous…) but had a lot more to contend with; from two babies instead of one, a serious lack of support from her spouse and the fear of a woman trying to take her babies. Her character was easily empathised with.
For a short time, I felt the introduction of Harper's narrative was needless. I wanted to charge ahead reading about Lauren etc., but with Harper's development in amongst Lauren’s nightmare, I began to love reading more about her as well. And just for the sake of saying it, yes, I loathed Lauren's husband, Patrick. And to all ladies and gents out there, if your other half was to treat you as crap as Patrick treated Lauren, DITCH THEIR ASS.

Maybe my favourite thing was the victim was believed/supported by one of the central members of police. There was no hostility or bullying tactics from Harper to Lauren, even if Harper found Lauren's narrative far-fetched. I wish more mystery thrillers pulled this approach off. I'll reiterate my feelings about police procedurals being so hostile to victims - I hate those kinds of plots. Yes, they're real life, but some are so exaggerated. A massive THANK YOU to the author for writing a detective who was compassionate and considerate, even if it was through the character’s own bias, because I loved Harper’s faith in Lauren. Additionally, I liked that the topic of mental health was handled very well.

I had a minor gripe with the ending as I felt it could have been polished off more, for both Harper and Lauren, with some communication between the ladies. I just felt the book needed something a bit more after the climax. Ultimately, the wrap up isn't the happy ending I would have liked, especially when babies are involved. But that just adds to the reader's psychological horror of it, doesn't it?

Overall, I read this over 2 days and I'm rating it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 as it is a cracking debut. There were some issues at the ending that were unsatisfying, but despite this, it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Someone needs to buy the rights to this as a film ASAP, because it would be one heck of a movie. Little Darlings was so eerie to make the hairs on my arms stand tall, I won't be forgetting this story or the characters anytime soon. Recommend without hesitation!

Thank you kindly to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-copy, in exchange for this honest review.

Sleep-deprived, exhausted and emotional after giving birth to twin boys, Lauren Tranter (her first name is an anagram of “unreal”... just saying) experiences something terrifying in the middle of the night on her hospital maternity ward. She calls the police, but the incident is put down as (and may indeed be) a mental health episode, and nobody believes Lauren’s story of a strange and sinister woman who threatened to steal her babies...

Steeped in the eerie and sinister folklore of changelings, Little Darlings is a hugely compelling and intriguing read. There’s some beautiful writing, particularly around early motherhood (anyone who’s ever breastfed a baby to sleep will recognise the way the twins “dropped off the breast, asleep, like ripened plums from a branch”) and a genuinely unsettling storyline which depicts - depending on how you look at it - a new mother experiencing distressing delusions, or a woman fighting against the disbelief of others to protect her children from a terrible danger.

Lauren’s beliefs and actions do look exactly like - and may indeed be - an episode of post-partum psychosis, and it’s hard to blame the people around her for coming to that conclusion, although there’s just enough possible corroboration to cast doubt on the interpretation.

I liked maverick police officer (and triathlete) Jo Harper right off - she felt very much like my kind of person. But I’m not sure the manipulative Amy is the girl for you, Jo.

Missing-child thrillers have been ten a penny of late; but hats off to Melanie Golding who has done something here with that basic concept which feels completely new. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel - it’s entrancing, haunting and often rather beautiful. I loved it.