General Thoughts 🤔

I am a sucker for a cover and it was exactly that which drew me to this book. I saw the cover and immediately thought suburban drama, gossip and devious characters. I was looking forward to indulging in a fictional Real Housewives with some murder thrown in which was kind of what I ended up getting, but it did fall a little bit short. The story started off promising and I was hooked quite quickly. However after a while, it did start to feel like a lot of the same thing in each chapter and not much really happened.

That said, I did still enjoy this book. I was a passive reader for sure and just followed along without having to think very much. I think I would have preferred something more dramatic and gripping, but this was an enjoyable book nonetheless.

Characters 👫👭👬

There were three women that this story followed closely; Ciara, Mishti and Lauren. Each of the women were very different and had very different backgrounds but I wasn’t really able to connect deeply to any of them. This may be because I genuinely had little in common with any of them or because the characters weren’t deep enough for me to get close to them. In reality, I think it was a mixture of the two.

Ciara annoyed the life out of me, but she was very much written as a character that we weren’t supposed to like. She had fallen victim to social media and she cared more about what her followers thought than what her nearest and dearest did. I did sympathise with Mishti as I thought she was quite an unhappy woman. She was in an arranged marriage and I think that given the choice, she would have left in a heart beat. I was hoping that Mishti would find her courage and do what was right for her and her daughter. Lauren struck me as the most sane woman in the story, but even she came with some drama. If I had to pick one of them to go for a drink with, it would have likely been her.

Writing Style ✍️

I definitely found this author’s writing easy going and laid back. I was entertained and enjoyed letting the story unfold and carry me along with it. I really liked that it started by letting me know what was going to happen in the end and then going back in time to take me on the journey leading to that unfortunate ending. My disappointment was that I think the reveal could have been a little more exciting. I felt a bit deflated when I found out what had actually happened.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Overall I found this book to be entertaining and easy to read. It started off with a bang and I was excited to see where the story was going to go, however I was left a little bit deflated by where the characters and the plot ended up. I think that there was potential for this plot to be super juicy and shocking, but it was a little bit more tame than I had expected. I did still enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and uncomplicated domestic thriller.

This was such a fantastic book! Adored the characters and the storyline was beautifully written. Would definitely recommend.

Move over Desperate Housewives this book had me hooked from the start. The stories main focus on 3 Housewives who live in a seemingly sleepy village but manage to get caught up in each other's dramas.

Ciara is the "Instaperfect mum", Lauren the loner who grew up in the village tried to leave but finds herself back and still an outcast and Mishti a woman from India in an arranged marriage she didn't really want.

All of there lives intertwine to make for a great domestic thriller. It's a slow burn and for the most part I wasn't able to put it down. The characters all have there moments of being likeable and unlikable but that's part of its charm.

I would say this is a very good debut and I would definitely recommend it to my friends and follow readers. Can't wait to see what this author does next!

Dirty Laundry

Disha Bose's debut novel, Dirty Laundry is a thriller, peeling back the layers of lives in a small village
Three women: Ciara - a social media influencer, Mishti - in a loveless marriage, in a new country and Lauren - an outcast for her unconventional life, all with young children and husbands who seem detached from family life, are friends caught in a web of lies, deceit, desire and murder.

They are trapped in lives that they thought they wanted but reality doesn't match their expectations - stuck at home with a young family, in a village where curtains twitch and the highlight of the week is going to the park for gossip. They all want more but can't break out of the roles they have found themselves in.

When Ciara is found dead, everyone is a suspect.

This dark suburban thriller is not only an addictive book to read with characters you can't help but like, but also explores the underbelly of a small village, social media's gaze on the perfect life and jealousy ripping apart families, friends and communities. All three women are looking for a sense of belonging which leads them all down a path that none of them will be able to come back from...

Not only is this about popularity but class and race and the way these rub against the push and pull of duty to families against a duty to the life we want to live.

Thank you to @netgalley for the ebook copy

Dirty Laundry is a fabulous suburban thriller set outside Cork, Ireland, which follows the domestic ins and outs of a collection of women who loathe/like each other and epitomise the phrase "frenemies". Each one of them has a murky past and secrets that lead them through the story: a whodunit with a bombastic ending.

What goes on behind closed doors with the mums from the playground.
Infidelity, bitching and even murder.
I enjoyed this but felt it ended very abruptly.
I was waiting on more!
Still worth reading.

I loved this book and found it a real page-turner. Small town lives, women's lives, complex and intertwined. Ciara, Mishty and Lauren, how their stories connect and cross over along with murder, secrets, lies and a bunch of pretty useless husbands. It zips along and you get to know them all very well. Plenty of humour, well worth a read.

I Really enjoyed this book about female relationships with different backgrounds and how everything evolves and is not as it seems on face value or social media. I raced through the book desperate to understand the outcome. I think it would make a good mini series also. Well recommended and I look forward to reading more of the authors books in the future.

An absolutely thrilling novel!

The storyline was excellent, perfectly paced and I loved the writing style.

I loved all three of the main female characters, who were surprisingly relatable.

This is my idea of a perfect book. I will be looking out for what Disha Bose writes next - highly recommended!

Ciara Dunphy has it all: a beautiful house, a handsome and successful husband, 2 photogenic children and an Instagram career. But it isn’t enough.

Mishti Guha is Ciara’s best friend. Neglected by her husband, Parth, Mishti misses her Calcutta home, the warmth of the sun and regrets the life she might have had if she had been braver.

Lauren is the misfit of the village, the Earth mother. She is devoted to her 3 children and to their feckless father, Sean.

Through the gaze of these 3 women and their partners we see behind the rural Irish idyll in a way familiar to fans of novelists such as Jo Spain and Lianne Moriarty. This is a sad reflection on society and relationships, with none of the relationships shown - a traditional marriage, an arranged marriage and a common law relationship - working. There is a slight element of satire and a whodunnit to hold your interest.

With thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, Penguin General, UK and the author, Disha Bose, for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Ciara seems to have everything, a loving husband, beautiful children and a lifestyle that she enjoys sharing on her social media channels but as we soon discover there are flaws aplenty in Ciara’s life and pretty soon we start to see not just her dirty laundry but everyone else’s dirty laundry being aired in public.

I enjoyed getting to know Ciara and although she not a very likeable character and as brittle as a cut glass vase there were times when I felt a modicum of sympathy for her. However, for me, it was Mishti who was the stand out character, she deserved so much more than life had given her. Lauren, with her Mother Earth qualities had her own vulnerabilities which added another fascinating dimension to this compelling story about motherhood, friendship and the difficulties of keeping your enemies closer than your friends.

There’s so much to enjoy in this suspenseful thriller that’s it’s difficult to share very much without giving the plot away and believe me this is one of those addictive stories which is better read with no preconceptions, as that way the twists and turns, when they come, will take you as much by surprise as they did me.

A real page turner from beginning to end.

This was a very enjoyable read, one that I struggled to put down, and the writing was very entertaining. Full of twists and turns, this book will definitely keep you enthralled and intrigued with a wry look at the world of mummy bloggers and social media followers. It will have you hooked and leave you in suspense even up to the final few pages.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced reading copy.

Dirty Laundry by @disha

Blurb
‘Ciara has it all - a loving husband, well-behaved children and an immaculate home. But behind the filters, her reality is far from what it seems.

Mishti is stuck in a loveless marriage, raising her daughter in a country that is too cold, among children who look nothing like her.

Lauren is mostly happy, despite being judged for letting her kids run naked, wild and free.

Then Ciara is found murdered in her pristine home and suddenly everyone is a suspect’

I loved how we got straight into the action with the death of the very unlikeable Ciara, we then go back in time with the author drip feeding us information to help us determine who the killer may be.

If you enjoy a domestic thriller would suggest you give this one a go.

If you enjoy a desperate housewives type thriller, filled with toxic friendships and a narcissist for a protagonist, then this will be up your street.

We have three main characters, Lauren, Ciara and Mishti. A death. An affair. A worried husband and a cuckolded husband. A woman scorned. And one betrayed. Ciara is vile, she manipulates everyone for her own benefit. But as much as I disliked her, there is always something quite captivating about a character like her as she's so far removed from how most of us approach life. We do get some insight into her psyche, but it's not enough to explain or excuse her selfishness. The saddest part is that as popular as she believes herself to be, her death brings nothing but relief to everyone closest to her.

The plot was not too far-fetched as to be ridiculous, it wasn't wholly predictable and it kept my attention throughout. I was frustrated with Lauren and Mishti being a bit pathetic but in the end the girls came good.

A really entertaining and impressive debut.

This one had so much potential for me but unfortunately it just fell flat.
I read a lot of thrillers and it didn't do anything different than any others. 3 friends, one dies and everyone is a suspect, everyone has secrets. Its been done before.

I didn't like the writing style but pleased I had the chance to read the book.

3 stars

I like when I’m discovering new to me authors that write a compelling domestic thriller with interesting characters and reliable ones most of all.
Being a mother myself and living in a small town in the Uk, I can relate with most of the topics discussed in here. Moreover, I’m a European immigrant and this story definitely touched topics that are bittersweet.
Ciara is the perfect famous Instagram person that will always show how happy and good her life is when we all know that’s just a façade.
Lauren looks like she’s not fitting into the neighbourhood while she’s in a non marriage relationship but raises her children the same way as the others and she’s definitely seen as the wild person in here.
Mishti is a Indian woman married off into an arrangement as per culture and is not happy with her life at all.
The story is told day by day in September and starts with the death of Ciara at the end of September. You can easily understand what follows next.
Like others , I found the story entertaining and with many elements of mean girls vibes and desperate housewives. I can’t say I got close to any of the characters because they all are so typical in their traits and I actually this that was a great move from the author to mix them as she did.
The ending wasn’t that shocking for me as I had my theories made up right from the beginning but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Dirty Laundry is a debut for Disha Bose, it’s sometimes a risk with the unknown with a debut book but this one was well written and held my attention throughout.
The book is based on three families and the difference between them is startling. We all think we are pretty similar but it turns out these three couldn’t be further apart. You have a ring leader and trend setter, bored looking after the children whilst husband is at work earning good money to keep them in the biggest house on the road. You have the outcast one who doesn’t fit in and is at times bullied by the ring leader, struggling to keep things afloat with a partner that doesn’t work and goes missing for hours on end leaving her to struggle with the children. Last is the ringleaders friend, she is torn between the other two women as would like to be friends with both. She has no relationship with her husband due to it being an arranged marriage and have nothing in common except their daughter.
This was a well written. book, it was a quick read as it was easy to follow. The characters were well developed and kept developing throughout the book. I enjoyed this and will keep my eye out for this author in the future.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin General UK, Fig Tree for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

An Irish village, three seemingly perfect couples and a dead body. The Irish version of Desperate Housewives. Secrets and dirty linen galore. Thoroughly enjoyable and so good for a debut book.

This is a really strong debut novel from Disha Bose which I think any thriller/ suspense/ murder mystery fan will enjoy. I felt like I was a fly on the wall of a housewives documentary most of the way through, which is testament to the writing of both characters and environment. In this domestic thriller we follow 3 very different couples in an small Irish village - there are layers of difference and 'complication' between all the characters, and this was really well executed.

We are introduced immediately to mum of two Ciara, a seemingly successful beauty and lifestyle influencer, who on the surface has it all...but what hides behind the front door is a mother who is knee deep in the harsh reality of having two very young children and the stress that comes along with trying to also keep up a house and instagram page whilst not completely losing it with your husband, or the other mums on 'that' whatsapp group - IYKYK.

However, Ciara is found dead and we start to learn more about Ciara, Mishti and Lauren and their husbands as the plot unravels. The three women have a complicated friendship - if even that at times, and the fractures start to appear as we learn more about the events leading up to Ciara's demise.

A definite one to pick up - especially if you are fan of other domestic thriller authors such as Lianne Moriarty, Shari Lapena or Celeste Ng.

I was definitely attracted firstly to this one by the title and the cover; then I stayed for the story!

Ciara, Mishti and Lauren all live in a village near to Cork, Ireland and they could not be more different. Ciara lives the 'perfect' life, or at least that's what she leads her Instagram followers to believe. Mishti was brought here by her husband after their arranged marriage; cold and loveless as it is, she stays for her young daughter. Lauren is back living in her Gran's house with her partner, and she encourages her children to run wild, enjoying their childhood. But below the surface, the dirty laundry stacks up . . .

I admit I found it hard to get into this one and wasn't sure it was doing it for me. However, unusually I took a break to read and review another novel and when I came back to this one it was like reading a different book so perhaps it was just me. It didn't take long for me to get involved in the lives of these women. For a debut novel, it is a very good read and the secrets just keep on coming! I shall certainly be happy to read more from Disha Bose; for this one, four stars.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.