Thanks to PRH/Ballantine & NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It was kind of hard to stay with this book, despite its being decently written, because the characters are SO unlikeable. We open with Ciara's death (Murder?), then we go back in time to several weeks prior to suss out how we got here. Ciara is a supremely awful individual: she's terrible to her husband, Gerry; she's withholding to her own children; she singles out her neighbor, Lauren, for abuse after the two have an awkward first meeting *years* before. Her only friend is Mishti, and that's only because Mishti has no other friends as a newlywed who's moved to Ireland from India with her arranged husband, who treats Mishti like a house servant. And Ciara is terrible to Mishti as well. There's some explanation of her behavior (miserable childhood, absentee father, needy mother), but damn! The woman is essentially a sociopath who cares only for her social media image and the cash it brings her.

The supporting characters aren't much better. Mishti is likeable enough but is essentially a wet rag in her marriage and in her friendship with Ciara. Lauren is a strong character but her boyfriend is an absolute louse and I'm not entirely clear why she's with him other than "he's a great dad," (debatable) as he doesn't work, is old, refuses to commit, and f*cks other women.

Disha Bose has the makings of a good thriller writer, but I would have enjoyed the book much more if I'd given a sh*t about the person who died OR if there were some more relatable characters to focus on. The ending is annoyingly nebulous, too, as it's presented as NOT a murder, although one person clearly is responsible for the events that transpire (aside from Ciara herself).

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this story. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It's a Knots Landing style plot but set in Ireland. A group of neighbors and all the machinations of the love/hate relationship they share. Who's best friends this week, who's sleeping with someone else's spouse, the trials of raising kids. I was thrown off by the skipping around of the timeline The characters are ok but the backstories are not full. The ending is a letdown, was it one of the flashbacks or a new scene. In my opinion there was promise but it didn't deliver.

#netgalley #DirtyLaundry #DishaBose #BallantineBooks

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. We all have dirty laundry and one of the main characters in this book pays the ultimate price! The story is told from different perspectives before and after the murder which helps explain where everyone is coming from. Everyone's story behind closed doors is a lot different than what they put out for everyone to see.
This was a quick read. Would recommend.

I can picture each of these women in real life - their characters are so vividly written. A group of women who have come together simply because they have children. And as always, a group of women together usually falls apart.

I didn't expect things to work out the way they did - that was a welcomed surprise. I casually read this book over a week or so, taking my time and letting everything soak in. There are quite a few characters and as someone who is bad with names, that took me a few minutes to keep them straight, but the author did a good job of giving them unique personalities and I found myself having no issues.

If you're a fan of thrillers and in a mom group, this is the perfect book for you!

I wanted to love this so much but I could not get into it. I loved all the different cultures represented in the book and I felt like it was so rich with information and the thrilling part was hidden and couldn't shine through.

I’m a little on-the-fence about how I feel about this book. It’s a drama that takes place over a fairly short period of time in a neighborhood in a small Irish community. The three main characters are all young mothers but otherwise quite varied. I disliked one of them and felt something like pity for the others, so my relationship as the reader with them was uncomfortable. The development of these characters and their twisty dynamics made up the bulk of the book, and, while fairly interesting, also felt a bit depressing to me. I kept waiting for something big and character driven to happen. And then someone dies. Just like that. The unfolding of that piece of the plot was abrupt, as death sometimes is, and while the twist really moved the story along, the tone of the book shifted substantially from this point to the end. I enjoyed the ending, but I wanted more from that point forward. As a debut novel, it shows promise from a new author, and I’m glad I read it and am likely to read future novels by Bose. It certainly gets bonus points for sticking with me a bit!

This novel kept me entertained but I am not too sure about the ending. There were definitely some strange moments in this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61327484

I'm on the fence with this one...it definitely had it all for a neighborhood drama/thriller. Secrets and lies all over the place. I just didn't feel much for any of the characters. Ciara, the instagram famous mom with the picture perfect life, was not deep...there can be characters who you love to hate, but she was just yuck. I couldn't even tell you what exactly it is that makes a "good" unlike-able character, but she didn't have it. There was a lot going on in this book, and yet the main plot line felt too forced at times...but that being said, I gave it 3 stars because it held my attention and there were things I wanted to see resolved. I'll for sure be on the lookout for more books by Bose!

Thanks so much to Random House - Ballantine Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this!

This book was so frustrating to me. It was painfully slow and I found the characters to be so whiny and just boring to be quite honest. I wasn't even sure where it was going at many points and felt like it was almost like high school girls fighting and these were grown women! The last 10% or so of the book was feeling like it was redeeming it a little bit and then boom, it fell completely flat at the end. I had so many unanswered questions. It felt the like the author realized it was the end of the book and just done.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was not thrilled with this book. The characters were not interesting and not really likable. It took my a while to get through the book it was just an okay read.

Disha Bose takes us through the lives (and secrets) of three very different couples.. after one of the women is found dead.

We are centered around the perfect lives of Ciara and Gerry, and the not-so-perfect lives of Sean and Lauren, and Mishti and Parth. The questions going through your mind the whole time are who REALLY hates who, and who do you REALLY want to hate the most?

I must admit that I was skeptical going into this one, thinking it would just be another neighborhood/domestic thriller, but the development of the characters and their relationships was fantastic! I really enjoyed reading about the character's interactions with each other, and the way that they are written about was extremely intriguing. I will eagerly away Disha Bose's next book!

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author, and Random House.

I think this is very true to a genre that is popular right now—imperfect women leading normal lives with a major event connecting all. If you love Big Little Lies, you will love this. I couldn’t relate to the characters and didn’t particularly enjoy any of them, but the writing is very solid and the store is well paced. So while this wasn’t the perfect book for me, it will be a delight for others.

Loved this story of neighborhood drama centering around three women and their husbands and the drama that ensues between them. Good quick read that will keep the reader interested in the outcome of the story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Dirty Laundry tells the story of three neighborhood women that are all struggling with their own hidden secrets, desires, and feelings with one woman seeming to be the catalyst of it all.

Ciara seems to have her life in order. She is Instagram elite and the mom that all the neighborhood mothers look to for advice and recommendations. Mishti is the mother that is taken in by Ciara as her newly found best friend. However, really Ciara seems to treat Mishti more like a prized pet then a true friend. Then there is Lauren... there's always a Lauren by a different name in the Mom groups. The outcast, the one left on the sidelines all because the favorite mommy doesn't agree with her.

Since the start Lauren and Ciara never got a long. In some ways with reading Dirty Laundry it almost made me wonder if Ciara was just more so frustrated by the fact Lauren didn't adore her like everyone else did.

As the reader could assume and suspect, of course Ciara's life is not flawless. She is unhappy in her marriage and seeks attention outside of her marriage... probably not in the best of places either. Needless to say, Ciara has a wandering eye when it comes to the husbands of the neighborhood. Not even Mishti's husband is safe from Ciara's fascination.

In the true female rivalry story, you have Ciara and Lauren goal driven to come out on top with Mishti stuck in the middle of it all. Mishti seemed to be the only truly balanced character in this entire book. To be honest the men and almost all of the women in this book were unlikable.

Mishti's husband Parth talks down to her constantly, has a very confrontational personality, and is dismissive of his own wife. Lauren's boyfriend Sean is a serial cheater and Lauren acts like there's nothing wrong with this at all. The one time she comes to her senses she ends up feeling 'lonely' and 'cold' without Sean and takes him back. Gross. As for Ciara she is the epitome of the mean girl and the woman that can never be happy no matter what she has.

Besides Mishti maybe the only other tolerable saving grace of a human being in this entire story is Gerry, Ciara's husband. I get the book is called Dirty Laundry but honestly the personality of the majority of the characters made them downright trash. Maybe that is what Bose was going for but I found myself not really connecting with any of the characters save for Mishti. I wanted Mishti to have her happy ending and in the end of the book I had the feeling she would be back in meek world with her husband treating her like dirt.

As for the plot... it is the typical who killed the mean girl. The revelation of the killer was surprising and yet not. The end result and ending of the book was to me lackluster.

While I finished Dirty Laundry I'm not sure I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. I found most of the characters repulsive and their traits just so stereotypical of either the psychotic woman or the meek woman. It went from the cookie cutter depiction of the woman that needs everything and all eyes on her, the needy constant attention seeking woman with barely any morals to the woman that just needs a man and is to weak to carry her own. The men are as equally repulsive.

I don't know... perhaps it was the point of the novel was to come to the forefront with all the trash of morals and personality that some people hide deep within. If that was the purpose then the story succeeded in projecting that. However, for me the book was a tad lackluster. I certainly wasn't blown away. But... if knowing the Dirty Laundry of your neighbors is your cup of tea then Dirty Laundry is for you. Until next time, happy reading!

This book was picked by my book club. Half of the members loved it while the other half did not like it. The book is full of twists and turns. Claire is a social media know it all. People follow her page and even ask her advice. People think her life is wonderful but she has lots of problems.. This book makes you realize maybe we all hold and have our phones too much.

Unfortunately, drama in neighborhoods seems to be the norm and people often go after those that are seen as weaker. In addition, I think we often go along with someone we shouldn't simply so that we do not become their target. Those we see as perfect often are not, which is clear in this book. The only person I actually may have liked in this book was the lady from India. I really felt for her. I didn't really enjoy this book though. I try to stay away from the type of drama it contains. I doubt that I would recommend it to others.

You've probably read books similar to this one.
Three woman main characters. One is the perfect one. Perfect husband, children, house. All the woman in the neighborhood want to her friend. And they want to have the life she has.
Second character is a follower of the perfect one. She is insecure; the type who worries.
The third character grew up with the perfect one. She does not have fond memories. The perfect one shuns her.
Guess what happens next! The perfect one is found dead.
And then it becomes a who-dun-it with a believable cast of possible suspects.
No spoiler here! Read it yourself to find out who the murderer is.

It has been a while since I read a book that is painfully slow, and unfortunately, that is one of the issues I had with Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose. It starts out strong enough with someone being dead, but then we start from the beginning before it all happened, and things quickly petered out from there. I can't in good conscience even call this a thriller since besides the beginning, nothing really happens again until the end, although we do explore a lot of sensitive subjects such as cheating and abuse. There are a handful of different viewpoints, and I thought some of the most unlikeable characters I have read about in a long time. I don't think I liked a single person in this book, especially the men, and the story does a deep dive into each of the marriages of the couples and the various issues they are facing. All of this eventually leads us to what happened, but it didn't do a great job of holding my attention.

The audiobook is also one of my least favorites that I have listened to, and I don't know if it was an editing issue or the narrator herself Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, but it sounded like she was almost constantly sniffing in through her nose for the first half of the book and it was extremely annoying and distracting. That did eventually stop but then I could hear her taking breaths in through her mouth and while that wasn't worse, it was equally as annoying. Long story short, I do not recommend the audiobook and I think you would be better off reading words on a page. I stuck it out with the audio but if I had been reading, I would have been skimming, and I am clearly just not the target audience for this book. It is a decent debut and I'm sure others will love it, but it was just too slow for me, and the conclusion wasn’t able to make up for it.

Somewhat predictable, but still a fun read. The twists and turns do keep the reader interested and continue reading, but I felt like some of the twists were for shock value alone rather than the continuation of the plot. To me, this book was just okay.

This domestic drama ticks all of the boxes. With secrets and scandals galore, it will leave you turning pages for sure. I was mostly interested in Mishti’s story because I felt sorry for her, but the others were fascinating as well. There are some great character studies here. The ending did leave me a little dissatisfied because I’d hoped for more from Mishti and Lauren. I wanted to see the scorned wives get their due. Overall, though, I enjoyed the book.