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The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey

A Novel

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
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.
"Juicy, gossipy, and deliciously vicious, one thing is certain: this New Jersey neighborhood has enough secrets to guarantee renewal. Readers will be clamoring for season two of this funny, dark guilty pleasure." —KATY HAYS, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters

"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

"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
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 28, 2024
      Fledgling showrunner Eden Bennett faces challenges too real for reality TV in this breezy whodunit from Dahl (a pseudonym for Perfume and Pain author Anna Dorn). Eden is taking over the reins of the New Jersey–set megahit Garden State Goddesses as it enters its third season. To shake things up, she introduces an outsider to the show’s insular Sicilian American cast: her Californian cousin, Hope, who has married into Garden State’s central family, the Fontanas, after Eden introduced her to her now-husband. But Eden may have underestimated the passions that hippie-ish Hope would arouse in everyone from her sharp-tongued new sister-in-law, Carmela, to fan favorite Renee, a jewelry designer who’s recently been outed as bisexual and nurtures a crush on Hope. At first, the new conflicts make for great TV; then someone gets killed, forcing Eden to add “gumshoe” to her job description. 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. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenberger Assoc.

    • Booklist

      January 1, 2025
      Eden is the showrunner for Garden State Goddesses, a popular reality-TV show on the Huzzah Network. While she likes her job, she has higher career aspirations and knows that a buzzworthy season will help land her a spot on a more popular series. She tries to shake things up by adding her mysterious cousin Hope as the newest cast member. Hope is nothing like the other goddesses: sisters-in-law Carmela and Valerie, single bisexual mom Renee, and Birdie, the wealthy matriarchal figure of the group. When one of the goddesses dies during filming, Eden believes foul play is involved. Determined to save her season, she decides to catch the killer herself. Just like enjoying reality TV, reading this soapy mystery requires suspension of disbelief. 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.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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