3 stars!
I read this book so fast! It definitely held my attention but I wish it was longer or gave more to the story. It ended up being a very average read for me unfortunately.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC

Entertaining slow burn, murder mystery set against the backdrop of a housewives-eques reality show. The main focus is on the Sicilian American Fontana family of Shady Pond, New Jersey.

When Hope Bennet marries Carmela’s brother Leo Fontana she not only becomes a wife but also a Garden State Goddess that his family is not so happy about. Eden Hope’s cousin is the one who introduced her to Leo and she’s the showrunner for the reality show.

There’s loads of crazy drama, shallowness, secret affairs and the closeted gay and bi characters.
Highly recommend this to RH show fans!

my cheat sheet:
Renee 43, single mom, Jewelry designer/Esty Shop
Ruby 13, Renee's daughter, wanna be singer superstar
Carmela 47, the sexy bitch! Nail salon owner, Married
Valerie 46, married, Leo’s sister, prosthetic foot, 3 sons
Birdie Clumsy/funny drunk, rich widow, age ?
Pierre 29 Birdie’s son, shallow, haughty gay, equestrian
Hope 33 singer-songwriter married to Leo, outsider
Leo 44 Pretty boy, Valerie's bro Carmela's bil
Eden 37 Hope’s cousin, showrunner
Bianca 18 Carmela's shy daughter

The Really Dead Housewives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl

Thank you @simonbooks and @asterixdahl for the gifted book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Synopsis:
Garden State Goddesses, one of Huzzah’s hottest reality shows, gets a shakeup when showrunner Eden Bennett ropes in her estranged cousin, Hope—a stunning, aspiring singer—to marry charming bachelor Leo Fontana and join the chaos. But Hope’s new sister-in-law Carmela isn’t buying her “too-good-to-be-true” act, while the rest of the Fontana clan brings their own brand of drama to the table. Things heat up when a goddess collapses at the ritzy Broke Not Broken gala, forcing Eden to untangle decades of simmering Fontana rivalries, dirty secrets, and major consequences—all while realizing she might’ve thrown her sweet cousin into a reality TV firestorm.

Thoughts:
The Really Dead Housewives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl is such a fun nod to reality TV, especially the dramatic confessionals. It’s all about a group of wild, messy, and super-rich women, and their secrets slowly unravel into a really entertaining mystery. The whole vibe is totally over-the-top in the best, satirical way, and Bravo fans are going to eat it up. I’d call it more of a campy mystery than a thriller, but it kept me hooked and guessing the whole time. It’s a fun, lighthearted read that’s seriously entertaining!

Thank you to Simon Books for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

I'm gonna be honest I'm not a Real Housewives fan so there are probably some things I missed in the book I would have enjoyed if I was. The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey is a fun mystery that involves a death on a Real Housewives-like show set in New Jersey. At the beginning of the novel we find out someone died, but who remains a mystery for the majority of the novel. I did enjoy the multi-media aspects of the book from numerous POV shown through chapters followed by interviews for the talking heads portion of the show. It helped to illustrate how orchestrated reality TV really is. I wanted something that was light and easy to read and this book fit the bill. If there is another book in the series, I'm honestly not sure if I'd read it. Although I do enjoy some catty behind-the-scenes action on reality TV shows every now and again. If you're like me and enjoy that, don't worry, The Really Dead Wives has that in store for you.

Alright so anything Housewives related, you know I am down. And a mystery/thriller at that? Count me in. I think it delivered a bit. You can definitely tell the author is a fan, I love the different housewives quote before each part. She also got many of the tropes right, from the Italian family to the older housewife who has a drug/alcohol problem, the taglines and even a gossip account! I'm so glad she included the confessionals at the end of most chapters, so much fun to get a peek "behind the scenes." Despite the name of the book, I was somehow not prepared for how many murders happened/how they happened! I had a fun time, I just wanted more I guess. And the big reveals of the killer and Shady Di just fell a little flat for me. I am intrigued if this might end up being a series from how the book ends... because I would definitely read more. I received an advance review copy for free and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

Drama in my own life? No thanks. Reality TV drama? Give me ALL OF IT!

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey was everything I enjoy about a reality show added in with a fun and exciting murder mystery read. I could not put this book down! I read it in two days and if it wasn’t for forcing myself to be a responsible adult I could have read it in one sitting. Being an Italian/Sicilian myself I loved reading about the Fontana family. The secrets, the drama, the rivalries and the romance were written as though I was watching this story unfold on my television. I loved the added layer of the confessionals throughout the book. The characters were fabulous, funny and fierce. I was able to guess the killer but that’s part of the fun of reading a mystery for me!

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey was a solid 4 star read and I highly recommend everyone adds it to their 2025 TBR!

The characters in this book were really the star of the show - the murder mystery in this ends up being a lot less of the plot than I expected. That being said, I did enjoy reading it but you have to go in expecting campy and shallow. If you do, you'll have some fun! I hadn't read any previous works by this author, but will probably pick up the sequel to this (which felt pretty clearly set up) for an easy beach read.

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl
#seventhbookof2025 #arc #thereallydeadwivesofnewjersey

CW: reality television, alcohol abuse and drug use, general discussion of religious cults,death, murder, fake pregnancy

From NetGalley: A propulsive page-turning thriller following the hit reality TV show Garden State Goddesses where secrets are uncovered, intense rivalries surface, and a startling murder propels a producer on a riveting quest for the truth. On this season of Garden State Goddesses: Getting canceled means getting killed. When Hope Bennett marries Carmela’s brother, Leo, she becomes not only a Fontana, but a Garden State Goddess—and not everyone is happy. Secrets will be revealed, decades-long rivalries will surface, and a sudden murder will lead to a reality reckoning no one is prepared for—least of all the show’s producer, Eden, who must race to catch a killer and save the most dramatic season of all time.

My thoughts: I don’t watch the Housewives shows, but I thought this one could be fun, and it probably would have been more entertaining if I was into those shows. It was interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of a show like that, even if Hope was the most boring star of a reality show ever. But then there was a hard turn into murder mystery halfway through, and that’s when it went off the rails. Everyone was pretty thinly drawn overall, and I had to think to remember who the show’s stars were. Ultimately I didn’t really care about any of them, and the ending was super abrupt. I also find it suspect that NetGalley is not listing the average rating as they usually do, and is only showing three featured reviews instead of the usual entire set of member reviews. 🤨

Thank you to @simonandschuster and @netgalley for the advance copy. (Pub date is today! 1/14/25)

I loved every second of this book. I caught myself laughing out loud so many times. The drama and the pettiness were great. Even if some of the characters were evil, they were still great and I loved them. They all were so different but for some reason their group just worked. I really enjoyed how this was a murder mystery along with being a comedy read and almost even a romance. I honestly couldn’t put it down. If you want to be entertained, I highly recommend this one.

I was super excited to read this. I don’t watch this type of reality TV but I do enjoy reality TV in general and loved this being the background of a murder mystery. The premise worked really well for about the first half, then it started to lose steam for me. I got more interested when the murder happened, but this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I thought this would have some Finlay Donovan silliness, but it was less than I was hoping for.

Look alive Girls, Gays, and Theys, we've got another Hot Girl Summer book on our hands. A murder mystery satire of a certain Bravo channel show, The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey, exhibits some really great and entertaining things:
-MESSY women who make no bones about that.
-Queerness and all its complexity on full, unflinching display.
-all the drama you could hope for from a trashy reality TV show, but in book form.

I expect to see anyone who is anyone reading this book on beaches, flights, and in-between sexy trists this year.

Anna Dorn, excuse me, Astrid Dahl, you've really nailed it again. (By the way, I'm hijacking my own review to insist that you read Perfume and Pain, Exalted, or anything else the author cooks up. You won't regret it!)

Thank you so much to the author, NetGalley, and Simon and Schuster for the ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

Reading this book truly does feel like binge watching a season of trashy reality TV: it delivers some fairly mindless entertainment, has plenty of dramatic moments and plot twists, and while sometimes it makes you roll your eyes a bit, you can't help but wanting more. The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey is the perfect example of a 'fun thriller'.

Now let's get into it (there will be spoilers from here on out, you have been warned!)

Characters- The Goddesses themselves are fine. Considering they are meant to be reality TV stars, it's not exactly a criticism to say that they feel a bit flat at times. I had a tough time understanding Carmela's character. She is meant to be the hot-headed "mean girl" of the show, but I wish we had been given a bit more time to truly get to know her before she dies. When we do spend time with her, she tends to rise to anger much faster than seems believable, which made her seem more like a caricature then I would have liked. She didn't feel BELEIVABLE. Honestly, I had a similar problem with most of the characters, and to some extent I could forgive this, I mean the book is a satirical take on reality TV, I wasn't expecting it to be full of fully fleshed characters. However, it would have been a nice subversion of the expectations that come with reality TV to have these characters be a bit deeper. Carmela was unrealistically angry, Vallerie was unrealistically stupid, Eden was unrealistically cold, etc. I kept finding myself hoping that these characters would surprise me by being more than one-note stereotypes, and sometimes I truly thought we were moving in that direction, but it just never happened. 2/5 for the characters.

Plot (and twists)- The concept of a trashy reality TV show turning into an accidental murder mystery is what initially drew me in to this book. I love a fresh, slightly off-the-rails plot like this, and I'd say that it delivered on this. The twists that this story takes absolutely do not hold back. I mean, killing off your main character halfway through the story? Who does that? There were so many times during this read when I found myself saying "wait, WHAT??" which resulted in a lot of strange looks from my fiancé (love you B). Now, not all of these twists worked for me, there were a few that felt a little contrived (the whole reveal with Luz, the Leo/Carmela Murder), and some that I had pegged from the beginning (Pierre drugging Birdie, Bianca being behind Shady Di). Honestly though, because of the sheer number of twists this story threw at me, I didn't mind that not all of them landed. The author decided to go all in on embracing the ridiculousness of this story and I can appreciate that! I give the plot a 4.5/5

Pacing- This is where one of my biggest issues with this story comes in. This book jumps around A LOT. It's difficult to tell just how much time is passing, but at different points throughout the book, the story just leaps forward and it's a bit disorienting. This makes my issues with the characters so much more obvious, because instead of unraveling the emotional journey they're going on, the author just has one of the characters info-dump what all gone down over then past weeks/months/whatever. This makes connecting with the characters SO MUCH HARDER. It feels a bit like the author was forced to shorten this book, so she had to just remove entire chunks of the story and reduce them to a quick recap. The worst instance of this comes just before Hope dies, when we learn that her concert did not go well, that her and Renee have been having an affair, that Hope has begun to adjust to being on the show, and that Hope is pregnant, all in one little burst. This is so much to take in all at once, and the way it's delivered is very unnatural. On top of this, it's next to impossible for me to care about Hope and Renee's relationship when we DONT GET TO SEE ANY OF IT. These two had some real chemistry and I'm so disappointed by the author's choice to just glaze over the entire relationship. Hope dies almost immediately after we learn about the affair, and for the rest of the book Renee is sad about losing this "love" of hers, but since the reader never got to see the two of them together in this context, it's hard to buy into this lament. I really dislike these jumps in the plot and would love to know why the author chose to include them. 1/5 on the pacing.

Writing- This book's POV was a bit too messy for me. We switch between a lot of different character's viewpoints, and it ends up being too much in my opinion. I enjoyed the inclusion of the confessionals, but I could have used a clearer direction in how this story was framed. I suppose that when your main character dies part way through the story, it's bound to mess with the perspective, but still, I think it could have been cleaned up. Also, this book got quite repetitive at times. One character would make a comment or have some insight, and then in the next few chapters, other characters would spit out the same idea, in almost the exact same way. It started to feel like there was a lack of distinction between how each character was written, and at times I really wish the author had done more 'showing' and less 'telling'. It's okay to let your audience piece some things together on their own, we don't need every detail chewed up into baby-sized bites for us, thanks. 3/5 in the writing department.

Ending- Okay, I was NOT a fan of Renee and Eden getting together, that felt disrespectful and weird to me. Renee talks about Hope as if she is the love of her life (although like I said, we don't get to see them together in that context, so it's hard to feel out the true nature of the relationship) so for her to hook up with Hope's cousin after she dies is wild. It feels like Renee (and the author) are just replacing Hope with Eden, and that didn't sit well with me. Altogether, the ending was a bit unsatisfying for me. It's implied that Eden is going to go back to working with Huzzah, essentially erasing all of her character building. And the mystery elements came together too quickly for me, making the end of this book seem rushed. I felt like this book peaked in the second half when all of the twists were dropping, and then it just didn't know how to bring it all together for a proper ending. It was a bit... half-baked? 2/5 for the ending.

Final thoughts- I enjoyed certain aspects of this story a lot more than others, and overall, this one is just a mixed bag for me. Despite its flaws, I would still recommend this book for the right audiences, namely, those looking for a quick thrill that doesn't require deep thinking. A beach read, maybe?
Astrid Dahl certainly has a lot of ideas bouncing around in her brain (I wish I could read a book about that.... oh wait) and I think with a bit more editing, this story could have been truly great. Still, I enjoyed my time with the Garden State Goddesses as is. 3/5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley for ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Let me just say I am a HUGE fan of reality tv, and this is what drew me to this book! Unfortunately, it fell flat. A lot of crazy stuff happened in this book that you would think would be entertaining, but it was all so unrealistic and by the time I got to the end I didn’t care what was happening. It all came so easily to the characters to figure out motives for the killers. I wish I could say I recommend this to people who enjoy reality tv, but I cannot.

"The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey" is an intriguing blend of mystery and humor that offers a unique take on the traditional whodunit. The story revolves around a group of women from New Jersey, each with their quirks and secrets, who find themselves entangled in the investigation of a murder that unexpectedly brings their pasts to light.
The dialogue is witty and often laugh-out-loud funny, effectively capturing the sarcasm and spirit of its setting. The characters are well-drawn, and while some come off as stereotypes, they’re crafted with enough depth to keep readers invested in their fates. However, the pacing can be uneven, with certain chapters dragging a bit, which disrupts the overall flow of the narrative.
The author’s ability to weave humor with darker themes is commendable, but at times it feels like the story oscillates between comedy and seriousness without fully committing to either. Despite its shortcomings, I found myself entertained and eager to solve the mystery alongside the characters. Overall, "The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey" is a fun read, especially for fans of cozy mysteries, but it could benefit from tighter pacing and more robust character development. A solid 3.5 stars!

I would like to thank Simon & Schuster for providing me with an electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is unhinged and so much fun! If you've ever watched the Real Housewives franchise, then grab this book! Being from New Jersey, the Jersey housewives were always my favorite, from the table flipping to the sprinkle cookies and the tax evasion. If you're looking for martini weilding, leopard wearing, loud, Italian women, then snag this book!

In opposition to being uncool, I requested this ARC from Simon & Schuster and found myself very well, indeed. This book did not make me want to flip any tables over.

It was my first Astrid Dahl novel, and she is definitely now on my list of authors! Set around the fictional sibling of the Housewives franchise, Garden State Goddesses, The Really Dead Wives of NJ focuses on the filming of a new season of the drama, deceit and delicacies of the wealthy and elite women of New Jersey. Established frenemies meet Hope, the newbie with a bag full of secrets and a past she’s on the run from. When mayhem leads to murder, the contrived television conflicts make way for something more sinister and real. And the show’s producer, Eden, is now in the position of resolution more than fabrication. But all of these women have claws, and more than a little bite. So who is responsible?

Reading like an amalgamation of various housewives franchises (though Jersey and Potomac linger on my mind), Dahl creates something queer, juicy, thrilling and new. It’s the type of book you read in one sitting and can’t put down. For fans of Housewives, it hits all the right notes from confessionals to title cards to table flipping. It’s a lot of fun, crackling with electricity and holding your attention throughout. There’s nothing like a messy woman with a secret. I certainly hope this one gets renewed.

This started as a fun, silly and then crazy read. If you’re a fan of any of the Real Housewives reality shows, you will likely enjoy parts of this, at the very least. The catty drama was great and very typical of this type of reality show. In fact, one incident reminded me of an actual scene from The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Ha! However, what starts as a bunch of rich women hanging out, being bitchy and bickering with each other morphs into a murder mystery. Unfortunately, the story somewhat lost me at this point. There isn’t much depth to the murder, the suspects or the investigation, and the death puts a damper on the entertaining and lighter vibe from earlier in the book. Still, if you’re a fan of the shows, it’s a quick read and probably worth checking out. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC.

As a lover of all things housewives, I jumped at this one. It was okay, but I didn’t really get into it until over half way through the book. The first half was just a retelling of actual housewives episodes, and there were plenty of predictable bits. Overall, it was fine, but not a love for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and Simon Shuster for an e arc in exchange for an honest review!
I don't even know where to start. I loved perfume and pain so much and have been craving a book that felt like this book forever and this was one of those books. I love reality tv and i love lesbians so this was perfect but i won't lie it didn't pick up for me till part two and once i got to part three i literally couldn't put the book down at all. cannot wait to see what more anna dorn and astrid dahl put out!

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey starts strong but doesn't quite stick the landing.

In this murder mystery set inside reality television there are interesting characters, satirical jabs at known reality tropes and a lot of tension.

Astrid Dahl does a beautiful job of setting the scene of the drama-- creating the players and the scenarios-- I read with heightened tension waiting to see who the victim was and who the suspects were, but in that last act the book falters a little.

There's the clear suspect and the clear red herring. And the hidden secrets we're striving to find along the way-- they just can't be as bad as what the reader created in their heads.

It's still a fun read, especially if you've watched reality shows.