The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
‘Footage first, feelings never.’
Hope is the newest cast member on the popular reality television show, Garden State Goddesses.
After her cousin, Eden, the program’s showrunner, introduced her to Leo Fontana, of the show’s infamous Fontana family, the two fell in love and their wedding kicked off the first episode of this latest season.
Garden State Goddesses mainly focuses on the Fontana family, Sicilian-Americans located in Shady Grove, New Jersey.
Soft-spoken, doe-eyed singer/songwriter, Hope, who originally hails from Northern California, is a fish out of water amongst the rest of the cast. She’s struggling to find her place; uncertain and self-conscious.
Hope’s new sister-in-law, Carmela, is the Queen Bee of the family, and the show. She’s less than elated by Hope’s presence and doesn’t pull any punches, making Hope uncomfortable at every turn.
Drama is top on the menu throughout this story, until eventually, someone ends up dead. Everyone has motives. Everyone is acting suspicious, but whodunit and is anyone else in danger?
I was sucked into this story fairly quickly. The set-up was interesting and I loved meeting all the characters. Dahl had me grabbing my popcorn early and often.
I love how she chose to include Confessional sections, which makes perfect sense with regards to the reality show production. I thought Eden did a good job of digging information out of these cast members.
I felt like Hope was a bit of wet noodle, so I agreed with Carmela on that one, but it was fun watching her try to fit in and get along. It’s clear she had a bit of shady history and I liked watching as all that was revealed.
While some things I thought seemed obvious, I was never sure and loved guessing what was actually going on. It kept me engaged and flipping pages at a frantic pace.
Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where I was loving it for the first 80-85%, and then it lost my interest at the end. Admittedly, I was slightly-disappointed with the way it wrapped-up.
I did like some elements of the conclusion, including a last minute mini-reveal, but I also felt like certain aspects were drawn out unnecessarily.
For most of it though, oh my word, was I having fun. The ‘propulsive page-turner’ comment in the synopsis is spot-on. I never knew what was going to be revealed next.
I don’t watch reality television, but I can see how it could be addictive. I feel Dahl absolutely succeeded in bringing those vibes to the page. I would recommend this to Readers who enjoy OTT-drama and intrigue.
Thank you to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for providing me a copy to read and review. I appreciated how Dahl really leaned into the reality show concept. It was a lot of fun!