The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey

This book was just okay for me. While it had an interesting premise and moments of humor that made me chuckle, it didn’t quite hit the mark. The quirky dialogue and outrageous situations were fun, but the characters felt too cartoonish, and the pacing made it hard to stay engaged. Fans of satirical or offbeat stories will get a kick out of it.

I felt this was supremely ambitious. In the vein of a reality tv show with actual murders unfolding, it was interesting to see how Hope would unfold as a character only to get smacked in the face with the fact that Eden was actually very much an anti hero.

Much like the shows this is emulating, this book can be summed up as mindless fund. A fun "murder mystery" romp set against the backdrop of a Real Housewives style show. Fans of the housewives franchise will recognize familiar tropes within the characters of this one. A quick read - would be a great travel or vacation read. The various "reveals" were quite obvious, but I still had a good time with this one. I would recommend this to fans of the Real Housewives and Bravoverse shows or anyone looking for rather low-stakes rich people drama. Solid and fun, but ultimately forgettable.

Looks like I missed a memo and have not read Anna Dorn's Perfume & Pain (Astrid Dahl is a pen name for Dorn). It's on my list for next year and I've heard great things.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with the eARC of this book to review. Its expected publication date is January 14, 2025.

It’s real housewives with a thrilling and hilarious dive into the chaotic world of reality TV.
We follow the lives of its colorful cast members, where secrets, intense rivalries, and a shocking murder make the story exciting
The story centers around Hope Bennett, who marries into the influential Fontana family and becomes a new star on the show.
Her arrival stirs up old grudges and unveils hidden secrets, leading to a dramatic and deadly turn of events
Weather your a real housewives fan or not his story blends humor with suspense which makes this a page-turner .

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey. This one is a 2.5 for me, rounded it up to a 3.

If you're a Real Housewives fan you'll enjoy this book. This book is fun and like watching an episode of the show in book form with some added murder mystery.

The different POV kept the book interesting throughout.

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster, Astrid Dahl and Anna Dorn for the NetGalley e-ARC!

This was deliciously campy and hard to put down. I’m an erstwhile fan of the Real Housewives franchise, but adore their undoubtedly iconic pop culture contributions. When I found out that Astrid Dahl was publishing the “book within a book” from Perfume and Pain, one of my most fun reads of the year, I knew I needed to read this, and I’m so tickled that I got to read it early.

You don’t need to be a Real Housewives die-hard to read this campy, queer thriller. Following the cast of Huzzah’s (lol) Garden State Goddesses, we watch dewy-eyed new castmate Hope transition into the glamorous, insular world of wealthy Italian American Jersey suburb Shady Pond, making her reality debut as a new housewife. But is Hope really on the run from something more sinister?

This was such a fun read, though sometimes there were a few moments where there was more telling than showing as plot points developed. I wished that a few moments had gotten to be elaborated on, though I can’t go into detail without spoiling the plot. That being said, I understand that that choice was likely for the sake of brevity.

My one note is that, if possible, it might be wise to change the person Birdie’s on a yacht party with at the beginning to someone other than P. Diddy given recent news, if possible.

The Really Dead Housewives of New Jersey is a fantastic vacation read, and I can’t wait to get copies for my friends - we already chose which Goddess we most identify with based on their signature taglines!

I don’t watch reality TV shows, I’ve never had the desire to, but this book was entertaining. At first it was tough to keep track of all the characters, but that’s often the case with mystery books and eventually you remember who’s who. Reading it in my kindle didn’t help to easily flip back to the character bios at the beginning. I loved that it was more than “the housewives” drama and we had Hope’s secret past to dig up as the story progressed. I wouldn’t have enjoyed this as much if it was more focused on the petty drama as you often find in the shows. Thanks for the advanced copy!

If you adored Anna Dorn’s Perfume & Pain this one is going to have a very obvious appeal. I was very amused to see this title by Astrid Dahl. I don’t watch a lot of reality tv but even with a vague awareness of the real housewives franchise, this one ended up being a very fun mystery. Dorn is great at creating hot messes you can’t look away from!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey.

If you're a Real Housewives fan you'll enjoy this book. I'm from New Jersey and watched the first few seasons of Real Housewives of NJ so I was laughing at a lot of this book.

This book is fun and like watching an episode of the show in book form. There are a lot of characters, but the cast of characters at the beginning of the book helps. I liked that we got different points of view and I loved the confessionals.

2.5 stars but rounding down to 2 -

This was a true middle of the road book for me. Perhaps I went in with my expectations a little high- I'm a big fan of the Housewives franchise and was really looking forward to a mystery book with the same amount of drama and mess that I get from watching the shows. Unfortunately, this missed the mark for me. I was very appreciative of the Housewives quotes and references laced throughout this (lots of fun easter eggs if you're a fan as well), and I think the way this was set up was promising, especially with the inclusion of the confessional transcripts. I thought the characters had some promise at first. From the beginning descriptions of them, we seemed to have a cast that would be as fun as a season of RHOBH (ex. Carmella, evil but adored like LVP; or Renee, the sweet fan favorite single mom like Kyle Richards), but I found myself unable to connect with any of the characters at all, even the ones that weren't one of the "housewives". While I know the point of some of the characters was that they were literal sociopaths (this is a murder mystery, so duh), it seemed that every single character had some sort of sociopathic/narcissistic personality, which made it very hard to feel for any of them, even as they went through their "character development". And coming back to the point that this is supposed to be a mystery/thriller, I kind of found it to be neither. All of the big reveals and plot twists were a bit predictable. Really wanted to love this, but I was just kind of left wanting so much more.

The reality show aspect of this was really fun. However, I wanted to connect to the characters more and I just didn't. I think if you are a fan of real housewives, this book might resonate with you.

first off, if you haven't already, read perfume & pain by anna dorn. astrid dahl is the main character of that book and this, presumably was the book that she was writing in sapphic scribes and it makes a lot of sense for her.

this book takes place on the set of garden state goddesses, a soapy tv show similar to real housewives (which i haven't seen) but i HAVE seen christine be messy on the first season of selling sunset, so i can appreciate a little camp, a lot of drama. we're following several main characters: hope (married to leo), carmela (married to leo's brother dino), valerie (leo's sister and carmela's bff), birdie (a drunk bajillionaire), and renee (a bisexual who is supposed to be mid-40s-ish with a teenage daughter but i can't unsee her as renee rapp in my head).

and it's messy. the big beef is hope's mysterious background - she's got no friends from back home, no family. and that doesn't bowl over well with some of the cast, who's also very unimpressed with her knock-off taylor swift musicality.

hope's sorta-not-close-to-her-but-sorta-on-hope's-side cousin eden is the showrunner over the whole shebang, navigating both creating fictional drama and making sure to have eyes and cameras on the drama when it's happening. but even she takes time within the confessional interviews to pry hope and others about the secrets they all have. and maybe some of them are worth dying over.

anna dorn's writing is really heavily focused on exploring characters, but astrid's voice is a bit more focused on the bigger picture. same dope writing, but i appreciate this book for making the voices distinct from the other. don't go into this expecting intense character explorations, because this was just pure cheesy, soapy goodness. and that's why i had a good time.

The real housewives of jersey.. but with dead bodies.
I absolutely adored this book! I am a fan of the real housewives so I was immediately drawn to this book. The characters are amazing, I loved them all. The author did a great job of keeping me engaged and just when you thought you had things figured out, there was more! I highly recommend this book.

A fun, quick, and silly read. Character interactions and personalities are super well done and fun to read. Don't read it for the murder mystery as the answers are sort of handed to the reader and it's hard to feel engaged in it. But again, enjoyed the well drawn characters and dialogue very much!

The Housewives are my guilty pleasure, so when I saw this book being advertised, I knew I had to read it. Admittedly though, I struggled with the first half of the book. There are a lot of characters introduced, but not much actually happened at first, besides petty clashes. Once we got to the halfway mark, things started to pick up and I found myself becoming more invested in the actual story. Things got really messy and I was living for every chaotic twist that was thrown in. Overall, I enjoyed the read and would continue to read more books focusing on these characters (those that are still alive anyway lol).

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey comes out on January 14th!

Thank you Netgalley for an arc of The really Dead Wives of New Jersey. This book was okay, I rated it 3 stars. It felt flat at times for me and I struggled to get through the rest of the book. I enjoyed the beginning and then I felt it got a little boring.

I ended up DNF-ING this book. It was billed as a mystery and I just never found the mystery. This reads as a soap opera more and just isn't for me. I think the marketing of this was a bit off.

Astrid Dahl's "The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey" is hilarious and over-the-top thriller that skewers the reality TV genre. Set against the backdrop of the hit show "Garden State Goddesses," the novel dives into the lives of the show's cast, where secrets, intense rivalries, and a shocking murder propel the story forward.

The plot follows showrunner Eden Bennett as she navigates the chaos of the cast's personal dramas while trying to uncover the truth behind the murder. The characters are larger-than-life, each bringing their own unique blend of drama and intrigue to the story. From the glamorous airhead to the wealthy matriarch, they are a colorful mix of personalities that keeps readers entertained.

Dahl's writing style is engaging and fast-paced, making it easy to get swept up in the twists and turns of the plot. The novel's exploration of the darker side of reality TV, combined with its witty dialogue and vivid descriptions, creates a compelling and entertaining read.

Overall, "The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey" is a must-read for fans of Bravo's "Housewives" universe and thrillers alike. Dahl delivers a propulsive, page-turning story that is as fun, fabulous, and over-the-top as it sounds.

To start off, I have never watched a Real Housewives so the premise wasn't that much of an intrigue for me. Set in a reality show with the riches of New Jersey, we meet a cast of scrupulous characters, each out for themselves. Its filled with all the drama you'd expect from a group a catty ladies, as a mystery unfolds on screen.

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey needed a bit more for someone who is not a fan of these shows.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster

Listen- those of us drawn to the title of this book KNOW what we are hoping to sign-up for, and it’s not Anna Karenina.

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey centers around the show-runner Eden and her cousin Hope. Hope has recently moved to New Jersey with her new husband -Eden being their point of connection- and has fallen into the cast of the reality program “Garden State Goddesses” It soon becomes apparent the Hope is running from her past and the cast members, each with their own drama, start digging. But it’s not long until they uncover information they wish they wouldn’t have.

This was a quick, campy, fun, entertaining read that infuses reality TV snark into a domestic thriller. I found the thriller aspect to be a bit too predictable but I had little trouble flying through the book and enjoying it overall.


Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.