Natasha is the owner of a successful beauty company and is in a long term relationship with the charming Sizwe However she has no interest in marriage or in becoming a traditional makoti She has it all figured out Until a fateful encounter with a handsome stranger When Natasha makes an impulsive decision she has to navigate the unfamiliar complexities of love life and desire She turns to the Darlings WhatsApp group for advice these women are her lifeline There s Sofia who seems to have it all while the cousins Farhana and Razia both find themselves in complicated marriages But whatever life throws their way these darlings always have one another s backs Darlings of DurbanThe emotional ups and downs of love and family plus glamour add up to a highly entertaining and engrossing read English A cute quick read English I really really wanted to like this book as someone from Durban myself but I really struggled to finish this The first half of the book was ok I really appreciate the representation that we don t often see in novels And it s fun reading about your home in a book. But from the start the level of writing just wasn t there Lots of telling not showing The dialogue often felt stilted and unnatural And the pace was a bit weird in places But I enjoyed reading about these four women. The halfway mark is where things really went downhill for me Every single man in this book is manipulative including Fahim yet he is portrayed as the good guy Natasha is repeatedly called independent and smart in this book so the fact that she gets so easily caught in Fahim s web is really disappointing to read Their marriage is terrible and then suddenly at the end it all works out and everyone is happy It just felt like Natasha s character was empty by the end of this book she hates the idea of a long term marriage and then suddenly she wants forever and babies with this guy It just came out of nowhere. But most annoying of all this book is supposed to be about this group of women supporting each other The book is literally named after their WhatsApp group Yet they all keep things from each other lie and steal from each other and when Razia leaves her abusive husband instead of supporting her Farhana rebukes her Ultimately the group of friends split up because they cannot resolve the conflicts amongst themselves Like WHAT WHY What a totally unsatisfying ending So much for women supporting women I genuinely cannot understand why the author chose to end the book this way Disappointed English Undeveloped characters and simple storyline English An enjoyable quick read I wish the characters had time to develop and work through their situations English I found this book in a bookshop in Cape Town and wanted to read a local author while in South Africa Darlings of Durban is cute enough but i felt like it misses out on its potential The story is different and i love The whole WhatsApp twist but the individual stories are somehow too shallow In the end it felt like the author got tiered and finished the book before the story was done English So wonderful to discover super talented female South African authors Really enjoyed the book Darlings of Durban The book is about four close knit friends Natasha Sofia Razia and Farhana who share their joys and sorrows on their Whatsapp group called The Darlings Natasha is single and a successful businesswoman Sofia is a happily married stay at home mom Razia has her physiotherapy practice and she is complicatedly married to Joe Farhana is married to Mike who is so obsessed with his chess club that Farhana ends up making way too many sacrifices to keep her family and household afloat Natasha is seeing Sizwe and he is hinting at marriage all the time but she doesn t see herself doing home cooked meals and babies yet until one night something happens to change her mind Will she consider the proposal I love how the author shows that even romantic relationships and marriages are not always moonshine and roses The importance of friendship honesty transparency and trust I also feel that the author shows that we shouldn t judge other women or other people so harshly until we ve walked in their shoes My heart really went out to Farhana I m sure we all have family members like her who will sacrifice everything for her family English