Added to my list of "books that were pretty good up until the last chapter." ( )

My best friend bought me audible for Christmas and she could not wait to give it to me so I have been digging for gems since I got it. This is one of those gems in the Plus Catalog. Lauren Tranter is the new mother of twin boys, Morgan, and Riley. She is overwhelmed, experiencing postpartum depression and if that was not enough, one of the nights while she is still at the hospital, a young woman with twins wants to exchange/take her babies. Lauren runs away and hides in the bathroom and calls the cops. Of course, no one can find the woman and her babies. They all think it was Lauren hallucinating. She is tired, she was given medications during delivery so the conclusion is that she was imaging the whole event. DS Jo Harper reviews the report the next morning and something about the event pushes her to meet Lauren and to further investigate it. Jo believes Lauren. She knows something happened to Lauren at the hospital. Sadly, her boss does not agree with her and using the police resources is not something he wants to agree on. Jo does not want to leave the case and she starts using her own free time to follow some leads. What I loved about this novel the most is the folklore details that the author infuses in this modern tale. Lauren quickly becomes an unreliable narrator and it adds so much more to the story.

Then the unthinkable happens her twins are missing and or stolen and Laurens fears come to life. The span of the children being gone is very short and the children are quickly found, still in the stroller, looking the same and unharmed but the new mom knows they are not her children. All and all this read is worth the time and energy and is very uniquely written.
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Infuriatingly slow to start and massively infuriatingly compulsive!

There is folklore and fairy tales at play throughout the book mixed into a psychological thriller with touches of the supernatural. This book plays on the fears of every new parent, the sleepless nights, the paranoia of something bad happening to your new baby and even the irrational fears every parent feels at one time or another.That is this books strength, how well she has put those fears and thoughts, the emotion they create and written them into this fantastic book. It had me questioning my own sanity and believes in the unknown.

Changelings – a child believed to have been secretly substituted by fairies for the parents’ real child in infancy. One of the most sinister superstitions and folklore.

The only slight negative I can say about the book is nothing to do with the book its self as such as the book is well written, slow paced until the midway point and then things really start to unravel with a great ending, so it is more to do with the advertisement of the book. Described on Amazon as ‘The most addictive and haunting debut of 2019’ that is a massive statement to live up too and as much as I enjoyed the book it just didn’t hit that mark for me sadly. Didn’t meet expectations you can’t help but have going into this book just from that one sentence.

Other than that it is a great read and one that will make a brilliant book club read as it will give you all plenty to discuss, during the read and after.

I can also see this one hitting the big screens in the near future, I know I’d love to see this book turned into a movie!

Little Darlings will be published in the Uk on 02 May 2019 and can be pre ordered now

A massive thank you to the author Melanie Golding, publishers HQ and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/little-darlings-by-melanie-g... ( )

Why did I leave it so long to read this? When twins are born and the mother starts hearing and seeing strange things you may think she had post partum psychosis that’s what I thought the book was leading to. Turns out I was wrong and it is not the first time it has happened, which DS Harper finds out when investigating.
This book is creepy and chilling and one that grabs you in so you don’t want to put it down. I really enjoyed it. ( )

I received an ARC of Little Darlings from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Netgalley, for making me scared of twin babies.

Little Darlings is about Lauren, a new mother of twin boys, who becomes convinced that they are changelings after a brief abduction in a park. She is dismissed as delusional by everyone except for Detective Joanna Harper, who believes there may be some truth to her story.

I really enjoyed Little Darlings, and rated it 4 out of 5 stars. The prose was absolutely haunting; particularly the descriptions of the childbirth as well as Lauren's "hallucination" while in the maternity ward.

The premise of the novel was fascinating; usually books about changelings take place centuries ago, when changeling legends originated. They're also generally more concerned with faeries, rather than the very modern, suburban setting of Little Darlings. The town does have a very interesting past, though, which goes back to times when changeling legends may have been more prevalent; I think this ties together the modern and historical quite well without making the modern setting seem so far removed from changeling legends and faeries.

I also loved the unreliable narrator aspect of the plot. I love reading from the point of view of an unreliable narrator; however, I do find it a bit confusing at times, which is why I really liked the addition of Harper's point of view. Detective Harper's chapters provided clear insight into what was happening when Lauren wasn't present, as well as the background information about the previous set of abducted twins in the 1970's. Without this point of view, I think the story would've become muddled and confusing with only Lauren's perspective.

An interesting thing about Little Darlings is that it could easily go into either the paranormal or the mystery genre, depending on which point of view you are reading. It follows a fairly standard mystery plot, with a detective having point of view chapters as well as the main character(s), but it also very obviously contains elements of the supernatural, which are mainly present only in Lauren's point of view. I think this book would be good for anyone who likes the paranormal genre but wants to get into mysteries, or vice versa. As someone who loves both genres, I think Little Darlings covered everything I could want in either a mystery or a paranormal novel.

There are also quotes taken from changeling or faerie legends at the beginning of each chapter, which I really loved. I wish more books would do something similar to that, because I think it really adds to understanding.

But...there were still a couple of things I didn't like. I found the first few chapters to be a little hard to get into at first. They were mostly about Lauren giving birth to the twins and her first night or so with them in the hospital. The writing seemed to be kind of rambling, but that was probably because Lauren was on painkillers at the time.

I also really, really didn't like the subplot about Patrick being a horrible husband. I hated Patrick right from the beginning, when he was making Lauren do all the work so he could get a good night's sleep. I know he's meant to be unlikable, but, god, what kind of father and husband does that? I'd divorce him right then and there. Anyway, I think that his whole subplot with Natasha was pointless. I already hated him enough for acting the way he did; I don't think that the addition of Natasha was needed to make me dislike him more. That part of the plot, as well as Harper's constant back-and-forth about whether or not she liked Amy, and Harper's own pregnancy, just seemed like filler to me. I didn't like Amy, either. Harper deserves a lot better. And the fact that Harper's daughter was raised as her sister really had no bearing on the plot and wasn't mentioned after the first few of Harper's chapters.

Still, I really enjoyed Little Darlings...and I think there's potential for a sequel, or at least another standalone featuring Detective Harper. Fingers crossed! ( )