Little Darlings: A Novel

I really enjoyed this book! I knew that I wanted to read this book after seeing a couple of really favorable early reviews. Since I didn't get to it prior to the book's release, I decided to take a look at the audiobook and I was sold on it after listening to the sample. I was somewhat mesmerized by this story and found myself frequently wanting to read just a little bit more. I am really glad that I made the decision to read this book. I didn't really know what to expect from this book when I started reading it since I try to go into books as blindly as I can. I was drawn into the story right away. I think that one of the main strengths of this story is its descriptions. I felt like I was right there with Lauren when she had the twins and felt her frustration and exhaustion as she worked to care for them largely on her own. Her fear, her panic, and her desperation were all beautifully illustrated through the details of this tale. This was really more of a mystery than anything but there is a bit of otherness to the story. There is definitely a fairy tale aspect to the story with changlings at its core. I really liked the fact that in addition to Lauren's point of view we also get to see things from Detective Harper's perspective. I couldn't help but wonder what was really going on and I wanted both of these women to succeed in their quest to figure things out and protect the babies. I thought that Stephanie Racine did an amazing job with this book. This was an emotional story at times and I think that the narration was able to add a certain element to a number of passages. She had a very pleasant voice with a nice accent that was easy to listen to for hours at a time. There were quotes at the beginning of some chapters that were done by a different narrator, the author I believe. I would have preferred to see a single narrator for this story. I don't think that there was really a point to having someone else read the quotes at the beginning of the chapters and I wasn't a fan of the delivery. Even the audio quality seemed off during those sections. Thankfully, the quotes are very infrequent and had no real impact on the story or my enjoyment of it. I would recommend this book to others. I thought this was a really well-done story with just enough of a creepy factor to keep me hooked from beginning to end. I cannot wait to read more of Melanie Golding's work! I received a digital review copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley and purchased a copy of the audiobook.