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.