Book Summary and Reviews of The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl

The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey

A Novel

by Astrid Dahl

  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2025, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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.

Meet the Garden State Goddesses, the cast of Huzzah's third most popular show:

"I may play for both teams, but when it comes to being real, I always bring my A game." —Renee Ricci

"When life gives me lemons, I make citron presse´ on my yacht in Saint-Tropez." —Birdie St. Clair

"I don't bite, but I do scratch, and these talons are 100 percent Italian." —Carmela Fontana

When Hope Bennett marries Carmela's brother Leo she not only becomes 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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Dahl, like her protagonist, proves to be an adept ringleader of this comedic circus, but readers will wish her players were slightly less stereotypical—for a novel so sympathetic to sapphic romance, for example, the lone gay male character is a surprisingly flat camp cartoon. Still, mystery fans with a taste for the absurd will have a frothy good time." —Publishers Weekly

"The over-the-top characters are a perfect representation of the wildly popular Real Housewives franchise. Some moments are genuinely shocking; readers will be surprised by the twists and turns throughout. Dahl's debut entertains from the first page." —Booklist

"Secrets, gallows humor, campy reality TV stars, and an Instagram gossip account called 'Shady Di'—Astrid Dahl's? The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey?is the kind of book I wanted to live inside. LOLing and gasping my way through, I nearly wished I'd written it myself!" —Anna Dorn, author of Perfume & Pain

"Astrid Dahl's The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey is just as deliciously soapy as the shows that inspired it. This book is catty, sexy, and may be fatally addictive." —Zan Romanoff, author of Look and Grace & the Fever

"Like the best, most addictive reality TV, The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey is about people behaving badly—lying, cheating, back-stabbing and worse. I started reading for all the juicy drama but it was the murder mystery that had me racing through pages at the end." —Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

This information about The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Trisha

shocking twists - read like a reality tv show
Shocking twists - reads just like a reality tv show!

To start, as soon as you crack the book - there's a character sheet with information. Just know that it's a lot at the start. You're intro'd to a whole family doing a reality tv show - and Eden, the director, has managed to get her cousin in the mix by one of the family falling for the cousin and marrying her.

This is the cousin's first day of filming (after their scheduled down time). The cousin, Hope, is not used to cameras, being miked up, or the drama of a large family. The wild times start there and completely derail soon after! The story is broken in 3 parts, each one more shocking than the last. As we got to each twist in part 2, my jaw was literally on the ground!

It really did hold my interest and kept me shocked and wondering what would happen next. Even though I guessed a few twists, and I didn't like a single character, I found myself sucked into the plot and where it was all going. It was a fun read, light and easy. I enjoyed it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

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Author Information

Astrid Dahl

Astrid Dahl is an author, fangirl, and law school dropout. She lives in Los Angeles, where she plans to die.

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