For me this book never really got going and I was soon tired of the posts on social media, bitchiness and sad lives.

The three central women live near each other, Ciara, Lauren and Mishti and in each marriage there are downtrodden bits plus, of course, abusive parents in their background.

Not for me and DNF.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin General UK for the chance to read and review.

Washing dirty laundry has never been so gloomy and fascinating at the same time.

A seemingly quiet neighborhood is inhabited by young families, but behind every door lies at least one secret. Behind false kindness, you can find hostility, envy, adultery, and much more. All of common human nature congregated in one place.

Ciara, Lauren, and Mishti are three mothers and wives, and some of them are friends. But they are not the women you expect. Underneath the perfectly curated surface, a gigantic tension simmers, which soon erupts into murder.

A compelling novel with protagonists who express real feelings and thoughts. Totally believable.

I kind of miss a more cathartic ending.

3,5/5

I picked this up expecting a 'real housewives' vibe. One perhaps fitted the typecast, but it was more about the differences rather than similarities between the three leading women/mothers/neighbours in particular their different marriages - one an arranged marriage, one a marriage of convenience and one devoted to a philanderer. I liked that it started with a murder and then the goes back in time to describe the preceding events. Sadly though it never really took off from there. It was a bit all over the place - mixing past and present, and domestic drama with murder mystery - but without any real hooks or substance. The characters are very stereotypical too and I couldn't really warm to them or get invested in their unhappy marriages which didn't help. So overall a bit underwhelming sadly.

First off, I would like to thank NetGalley again for this ARC.

Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose - 3/5

I went in to this book with high expectations since seeing an ad of it months ago, sad to say it didn't really live up to it. I didn't necessarily dislike this book, it was an okay read for the most part. Although, what bothered me was how much effort it took for me to like the characters, and even with that I still didn't really like any of them. They were all just incredibly mean people being mean to each other, especially how women in this book treated each other.

The plot would have been great if executed properly, but in all honesty, all this book had was missed potential. We don't need any more stories about women being superficial, self absorbed, and made being mean their whole personality. I reckon that if it had the sort of narrative where these women were helping each other in a way and building each other up, it would have made a better read. The pace also felt dragging throughout and only picks up towards the end.

I generally avoid leaving reviews that are more on the negative/criticising side but I do prefer being honest when it comes to reading and reviewing ARCs. I just wasn't a big fan of it.

Neighbourhood friendships can be wonderful or catastrophic and this book is about how good times can turn into bad times if one of the people “go rogue”. Ciera is married to Gerry and they have two children. Gerry is a sort of non event really in the book. Ceira married him for his money and a comfortable live but that was not working out so well. They live in a big house and she likes to be the centre of everyone’s world and takes what she wants. This leads to an affair with a neighbour, Sean. Sean is living with his partner Lauren and three children. Then in comes Mishti and Parth into the mix. This is an arranged marriage and not a happy one. Mishti becomes close to Ciera. Ciera uses that friendship to be unkind to Lauren. Is that because she is having an affair with Sean? Ciera makes her own money, which Gerry supposedly does not know about, being a blogger. The women in the village follow her on Instagram and Ciera for whatever reason makes it clear in a subtle way that Lauren is not in their fold. This causes so much anguish and distraction that Lauren becomes hyper sensitive to her surroundings and becomes very unhappy. As always with social media and alcohol Ciera posts something on Instagram which suddenly becomes toxic and the rest of the story you will have to read. All the characters in this book have their own issues and when mixed it makes you wonder who will crack first. I did enjoy this book but did feel it had a slow start. A little disappointed with the ending

Story of three women and the perils of social media in a tight night community. Are they really who they appear to be? Interesting characters, predictable outcome ? Maybe

Really enjoyed reading this

This book has the feel of Desperate Housewives..cliques of wives, secrets, lies, affairs and young mums following their top hen on instagram. I don’t think you are meant to like any of the main characters, the women are vain, intelligent but emotionally stupid and their husbands are pathetic in so many ways. It’s an easy read and ticks along nicely with a couple of surprises on the way. A solid 4 stars from me.

Thank you to Netgalley the author and publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I read about this book on Penguin's Bookmarks site and I was desperate to read it. It seemed to have all the ingredients I like in a book: suspense, a mystery, characters who snipe at each other. From the description I thought I was getting something along the lines of Little, Big Lies.

The story is focalised through three women, Ciara, Lauren and Mishti. They live not far from Cork and are neighbours as well as knowing each other from their children's school. All are married, none of them happily.
Ciara is queen bee, she posts everything on Instagram and has so many followers she manages to make a living from being an influencer. Lauren is an outcast., unpopular with the other women since childhood, she doesn't make the cut when it comes to the cliques. She has a particular reason to dislike Ciara. Mishti is an immigrant, married with one child and yearning for a lost love. She is perhaps the most sympathetic character. The story opens with a death and then flashes back to what led up to it.

What I liked about the book. I love books which explore relationships and this does look at how these three women get on with each other. I liked the fact that we had a central character from another culture and I enjoyed the scenes set in India. I thought the bullying culture round the school playground was well done.

What I disliked: None of the characters are particularly likeable or sympathetic. Apart from the three main characters and their partners we don't really get a sense of other people in the book. It perhaps lacked a subplot or two to fill it out.

Overall I was a little disappointed in Dirty Laundry. There wasn't enough of a hook to keep me interested throughout and at times I felt it was a bit of a slog. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC>

The Suburban Dream?…
Dirty laundry is meant to be aired, right? Right - but perhaps not in public. Amidst a suburbia of pristine green lawns, picket fences and pretty homes surely everything is as it seems? Maybe not. For three women living the suburban dream, secrets lie in droves and things are about to get mutinous. Compelling, immersive domestic noir with a plot populated with well crafted characters, a subtle twist of dark humour and a thoroughly entertaining narrative.

This is a great page turner and would make a brilliant holiday read. The way that the author builds the story transitioning in time and building towards the crescendo that the reader knows is coming is handled effortlessly with characters who are for the most part identifiable. Some of the story lines are slightly questionable and the way in which certain characters behave a little overly dramatic but it makes for a lighthearted and enjoyable read.

Wow, I really, really loved this book! And check out that BEAUTIFUL cover (although I am so disappointed Canva cut out the top of the cover 🙄)!

The structure of this book is very different from what I usually read. We follow the lives of three very different women (stay-at-home mums) over the space of (I think it was) a month and a half?

This book piqued my interest straight away by telling us the major plot twist at the start, before going back and recounting all the events that have led to this moment.

This book was so, so good. It definitely aired the dirty laundry of all three of these women, I'm pretty sure at one point I hated them all. This is definitely not a typical 'mums gossip' book, this book had so many twists and turns it was hard to keep up sometimes and you were really pulled into the lives of these women. The women grabbed your sympathy, and then immediately threw that back in your face when you learned about some of their actions. This book honestly never stopped.

The only reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars is because of the ending - for such a massive build up to the end, the book ended suddenly and I would have loved to find out what happened next. Apart from this, I loved every single second reading.

I would really recommend this book, I loved it and I can't wait to read more from Disha!

Thank you again NetGalley, Disha Bose and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review also posted on Goodreads.

We know early on that one of the main characters is murdered and the story then goes back in time to describe the lead-up to the murder. Plentiful red herrings are strewn throughout and there's great potential for a gripping read but sadly it never really took off as I failed to get absorbed in the characters' dull, unhappy lives. Marital disharmony, school-mum rivalry and various insecurities mean that all the ingredients are there but despite this I found it an underwhelming read. None of the characters are likeable which just added to my lack of engagement.

This book was much better than I’d expected. I thought I was going to read about clique-y women and basically nothing else but a death changed everything.

Ciara Dunphy looks like she has it all, social media presence, adoring hanger-ons but the reality was very different.

It played an important message that despite how happy and wonderful everything seems on social media, behind the scenes might be quite the opposite.

Not what I’d normally choose to read but hey! I read 100 books!

Didn't take me very long to read and did draw me in from the start, not a bad storyline, but to be honest the cast of charecters weren't very likable, but all in all did keep me enthralled till the end

What a fabulous book! Disha Bose is a wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction.
This book is strangely relatable, engaging, dark and unique. I loved every page and I am gutted that I’ve finished it.
One of my favourites this year and I can’t wait to read more from this exciting new author.

I enjoyed this book although it wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be. Essentially the story of three women and their intertwined lives within a village setting, it has an element of a whodunnit, a bit of desperate housewives and a touch of instagram's reality versus social media veneer . I read it quickly and it's really well written but I felt a slight disconnect to the main characters. Having said that it's a page turner with a satisfying but rushed conclusion.

This books gives a depiction of the difference between real life and what we see on Instagram and the difficulties of parenthood. It explores the delicacy and hierarchy of mum friend groups and how isolating it can be to feel outside of the clique. The main character, Ciara, gets less likeable throughout the book
I liked the who-dunnit theme running throughout.

A completely absorbing and relatable portrayal of female life and friendships. I loved all three lead female characters and found each of their stories incredibly gripping and well developed. I loved the way the secrets slowly unravelled as the story went on and the pace was perfect. I particularly loved the ending, tragic for all three characters but powerful. Bose is a great new voice that I can't wait to see more of.

I think I'm being generous with the three stars here. Read as 2.5. Despite really wanting to like this novel, I found a bit disappointing. Now, I know it's a real achievement to write a novel at all, so there's that, and the premise is a good one, and, but the narrative style is just not compelling enough to carry it. There's no real hook, and there needs to be in a novel like this. The characters aren't believable either. Look, there is so much potential here that has been missed, which would otherwise have made this a real corker of a read, but on top of that, the pace of the narrative is incredibly slow at first, speeding up to a break-neck pace near the end. I dislike giving negative reviews, but I was kindly given this early copy by the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest one.

Flew through this book - I loved the characterisation, the light-hearted, almost comical style of writing in parts. Fans of Liane Moriarty will love this one. I felt the ending wasn't has climatic as I hoped but it was still satisfying and I'm very much looking forward to whatever Bose writes next.