‘Men want women to stay the same while women want men to change’ and ergo the underlying premise of The Husbands.

Nora is a litigation lawyer who is stretched all too thin. She is married, has a 4 year old daughter and a baby on the way. She loves her husband Hayden, but there’s a small part of her that wishes he was a little more helpful, a little more appreciative, and a little more responsible.

When Nora stumbles upon a house in a desired up market area, she begins to network with a group of formidable women. All seems kosher until she’s asked fo take on a case involving a wrongful death, connected to the women. The deeper Nora digs, the weirder things seem. It’s almost as if Nora is living in an alternate reality.

But Hayden is being helpful, appreciative and responsible … she’s not wrong to want that is she?

The Husbands has an eerie foreboding bent to it. Chapters are interspersed with blog and Twitter-esque posts about equity, equality, and the division of labour within relationships and families. The reader senses Nora getting in over her head ignoring some of the subtle internal messages of acknowledgment that the pieces of this jigsaw don’t quite fit.

Super interesting. Uber dysfunctional and a few WTF moments for kind in this one. And if I’m honest the occasional aha one as well.

Thanks to Hachette and netgalley for the complimentary copy to read and review.

3.5*
This book is so relatable in some parts I felt like the author knew me - I even read some lines of it to my husband!
Nora Spangler is a successful attorney, a wife and a mother. While her husband works fulltime and helps around the house by stacking the dishwasher (and not to forget who mows the lawn!) the mental load of scheduling appointments, sending in school notes, buying gifts and knowing where the where the extra paper towel rolls are falls to Nora (oh how familiar is this?!). He is a great husband and does do a lot more than some husbands but why is Nora still so exhausted and resentful towards him?
When Nora and her husband find a house in Dynasty Ranch (an exclusive suburban neighbourhood), they meet the local female residents - a tech CEO, a neurosurgeon, an award-winning therapist, a bestselling author, all of whom have incredibly supportive husbands who appear to have the weight of the mental load. When Nora agrees to help with a legal case for one of the residents, she is drawn into the lives of the women there.
A perfect summary of the book is found in the blurb: “The Husbands imagines a world where the burden of the "second shift" is equally shared--and what it may take to get there.”
This is the first book I have read of Chandler Baker’s and I enjoyed it. It took me a while to understand who in the neighbourhood was who – but I am not sure if that’s just me (books with lots of characters often confuse me!) or that the characters were not described enough for me to get to know them in detail. A fun read where we can all imagine ‘if only’….
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a perfect Book Club pick! It has soo many interesting and challenging topics to discuss. I can't wait to be able to discuss this one with my friends! This was a page-turner for me and I found myself laughing and also very angry at some parts. There must be a TV adaptation coming up... because this one will be perfect for that.

Unfortunately this work 'fiction' is a thinly veiled jibe at the general lack of male pro-active domestic enthusiasm As the author herself says in her notes the concept of a novel based on a "fair work between genders" ideology came to mind and the characters and plot were concocted to fit the theme. It doesn't work. Why not just produce another 'ME TOO' inspired non- fiction diatribe to fill the shelves of the second hand bookshops when that movement also becomes redundant?

I was so close to DNF'ing this book, because there wasn't any action. The only thing that kept me going was Nora's way of thinking. How she just wished her husband would pull his weight and do housework without being asked. And I wanted to know what a suspicious death could be linked to.

Nora Spangler, married to Hayden, already has one child and is pregnant with their second, and they are seeking a bigger home. The people at Dynasty Ranch seem to have it all, beautiful homes, a friendly neighbourhood and the husbands there are domestic housekeepers. Life sounds like bliss until Nora investigates a neighbour's husband's death.

About halfway through the book I started to piece together the ending, which I found made it boring.
Don't get me wrong I completely understand the concept of what Baker is depicting in her book. Women want to have equal rights not only in the workplace but as well as in the home. Parenting and housework should be split evenly or fairly between both people.

I found it like the movie The Stepford Wives except gender reversed, with a twist like The Therapist by B.A Therapist. If you like both then you probably would love this.

Thankyou Netgalley, Hachette and Chandler Baker for the gifting of this ebook for my honest opinion.

Whatever it takes…

Nora Spangler is a successful attorney: pregnant with her second child, in the running for partnership at her law firm, juggling domestic responsibilities and feeling exhausted. Her husband, Hayden, helps a bit but never really seems to take any initiative. Sigh.

With a second child on the way, the Spanglers need a bigger home. House hunting takes them to Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighbourhood, just outside Austin, Texas, where Nora meets a group of very successful women whose husbands seem incredibly supportive. So, what is different about Dynasty Ranch?

Keen to be accepted (there is an approval process for intending residents) Nora agrees to help one of the women with a wrongful death case. The more time Nora spends with the women of Dynasty Ranch the more impressed she is. Hayden may help her a bit, but the husbands at Dynasty Ranch are well, amazing. They seem to have picked up all the domestic responsibilities without complaint. What on earth has happened?

Well, there’s a couple of twists which may (or may not) surprise but I am not going to spoil the story. Suffice to say that not everything that glitters is gold.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This is one of the books that I grab without reading the synopsis. I trust @chandlerbakerbooks, this will be another smashing one 🎉
Dynasty Ranch, where all the wives are successful powerful career women with 'good' husbands. Way too good of husbands who pick up laundry, groceries, cooking for social-dinner, preparing kid's snacks, which is so unnatural 😁.

Nora, works in a law firm as personal injury lawyer and in process to be a partner. She juggles a lot between her professional work and being a mum. She's one of the women that feels her husband, Hayden, doesn't help much around the house. Nora and her husband in their house hunting process, have inspected one of the houses in Dynasty Ranch for their new future house. Another story, there was a fire in one of the houses in Dynasty Ranch and it ended up killing Richard, the owner of the house. Nora takes this wrongful death suit for Penny, Richard's wife, to help her progress making a partner in her law firm. Revealing this wrongful death suit leads Nora into the truth of Dynasty Ranch.

𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵?

This book is very unique, and the ending left me a bit second guessing, so I'm keen if anybody have read this ARC wants to chat with me 😁
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

loved this book! Chandler Baker is making a name for herself writing fresh and enjoyable novels about serious issues facing women, primarily inequality. She is now one of my must-read authors.

This book is so relatable. I am sure most (all?) women are familiar with the constant pressure and stress that comes from juggling the mental load of work and home and will identify with Nora. And the solution was such a fun and unexpected plot twist to include. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend.

The Husbands was a mind-boggling rollercoaster that kept me fascinated all the way until the very last page.

The story follows Nora, a very successful attorney who is getting fed up with the amount of responsibilities she has at home and the lack of support/initiative from her husband. When they go househunting in Dynasty Ranch, she meets a group of women who are all powerful and successful in their careers : a CEO, psychiatrist, famous writer and neurosurgeon. They're in charge of their careers, and their husbands are all over what needs to be done at home. It's a completely different world for Nora and she becomes infatuated with their way of life.

There was something sinister that I couldn't really put my finger on about the dynamics between the husbands and wives. The men were so obedient and the women so dismissive of household responsibilities it was bizarre. At first I was intrigued by the gender role reversal - imagine men telling their wives to just relax and they're running around the house vacuuming, tidying up and cleaning the dishes - but then I started to feel uncomfortable. The men didn't talk about anything other than things relating to their kids/household responsibilities. They seemed like robots to me.

I was hooked until the revelation at the end, which definitely answered some of my questions but the whole book wrapped up way too quickly for my liking. I honestly didn't guess the reveal considering the whole situation was so odd I had no idea where to even start with my guesses.

Overall, The Husbands was enjoyable and I can't wait to read more from Chandler Baker.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for an honest review.

The Husbands by Chandler Baker is a thriller about a normal couple looking for a new home. The wife, Nora is feeling increasingly overwhelmed and resentful towards her husband Hayden for not helping out at home. When a house becomes available in a new neighbourhood, Nora slowly gets drawn into a circle of women with what appear to be incredible, helpful and devoted husbands. But all is not as it seems...

I loved this book. It voices the frustration of working women everywhere where all housework/child related duties still seem to fall on them and what this frustration can lead to. Although I did guess at some of the ending I still really enjoyed following Nora as she became more and more aware of what was going on.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller!