"There are husbands everywhere…"

The Husbands is to working mothers what Happy and You Know It is to stay-at-home moms—a manifesto to the impossibility of “having it all,” and an anthem of solidarity and baddassery for the women who valiantly try anyway. This book spoke to me on a nearly cellular level. I have never felt so seen by a writer, by her characters, or by a narrative that captures so many things I have felt, but been unable to put into words.

"She sometimes stands at the kitchen sink, fantasizing about what would happen if she died. She doesn’t want to die, but she would certainly kill to see the look on his face when he realized how much work she does at home."

In The Husbands, Nora is a full-time attorney, full-time mom to a toddler, pregnant with Baby #2, and the partner in her marriage who is primarily responsible for managing the details of family life - groceries, laundry, school pictures, housework, lunch-packing, and the like. Her husband, Hayden, isn’t a terrible guy, but isn’t extremely helpful… until a new couple’s therapist recommends a therapy technique that produces some pretty astounding effects. But everything comes with a cost. What will it cost Nora to finally have what she thinks she wants?

"She has a different husband, a new as improved version. She wonders if she should feel guilty…"

A full-time working mom myself (and also an independent freelancer, PTA member, elementary-school room mom, church volunteer, book club host, and official Household Manager of All Things Home & Family), I know exactly what it feels like to be spread far too thin, aiming to meet expectations that feel impossibly out of reach. I know what it is to consider grocery shopping, with only one kid tagging along, as “me time,” while my husband plays 36 holes of golf a week… and, clearly, so does Chandler Baker.

"‘You were made for more’… More is a clever innovation of a society that has always felt better when it’s women could be controlled."

Through her characters and their lives, Baker points to undeniable (and often uncomfortable) truths about the struggles faced by working parents, the unequal distribution of the “invisible mental load” on women and wives, the societal expectations placed on mothers, and the difficulty of navigating female friendships. I was expecting a thriller, but The Husbands reads like more of a social commentary through the lens of contemporary fiction. The “mystery” aspects of the plot are essentially an afterthought when held up against the sociological issues raised, not really coming into play at all until the last 15-20% of the book.

"Motherhood is considered a ‘women’s issue,’ and women’s issues aren’t taken seriously… The work of motherhood is invisible, and therefore, it’s not a real problem."

A little bit devious, a little sarcastic, and oh-so-relatable, I devoured the 12-hour audiobook in 2 days. Baker kept me guessing, wondering who the “bad guy” was, or if it was all of them, or if there even was a villain at all - partly because the thriller-edge of the book took so long to pick up, and party because I liked and was rooting for everyone in the story all at once! (Judge me if you like, but I'll always cheer a little bit for a femme fatale!)

"She truly does love him. Loves him with her whole heart. Wants to strangle him with her love. Wants to love him until he’s dead, sometimes."

I loved this book and would recommend it to any woman (especially any mother!) who has ever felt overwhelmed, unsupported, or not enough. One caveat: the cast of this story is made up almost entirely of wealthy, successful, straight, cisgender women. Readers seeking more, in terms of diversity and representation, may feel a little let down, as the story isn’t written in a way that would lend itself well to LGBTQ+ inclusivity, or even nontraditional family structures. Just something to bear in mind, if that’s a factor for you. But, I’d give this 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5), as it spoke to meaningful issues for me, through an entertaining and relatable story.

"If men can’t see women’s pain, then it doesn’t exist."

——

A huge thank you to Chandler Baker, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Husbands by Chandler Baker 🎧

This story was addicting! This is a thriller and drama rolled into one. All about what it’s like to be a wife and mom and how quickly things can turn sideways if women are undervalued.

Nora and her family are interested in buying a house in an elite neighbourhood. After just looking at the house, she gets roped in to helping a prospective neighbour in a wrongful death lawsuit. This group of women that befriends her seems too good to be true. They all have perfect lives and overly helpful and appreciative husbands. This is a very slow burn type of thriller. It made a great audiobook, I could not turn it off!

Besides the thriller side of the storyline, I really appreciated Nora’s struggle with the emotional side of running a household, the repetitive tasks and the proactive side of raising a child. I related to how hard it was for her to communicate those feelings. It can be so difficult to put into words how hard it is to be a mother and to talk about all the unseen every day struggles.

I’m so curious to see what others think about this one! This is out on August 3rd! Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for my copy!

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The Husbands by Chandler Baker is the kind of audiobook I LOVE to sink my teeth into! Nora and her husband have super busy lives with a two year old and a baby on the way they're looking for a new home while Nora is trying to make partner at her law firm. She falls in love with a beautiful and affordable house in a neighborhood that *almost* seems too good to be true. What's more her potential new neighbors want to hire her for a potentially lucrative case. As Nora gets to digging she learns might not always be what they seem where the grass is greener. This is a must listen!

So I enjoyed this for the most part. I honestly think this would be more relatable for someone who is both married and a mother ( I am neither) because the reader in my opinion would be able to relate to more of what our main character Nora is going through throughout the story. I appreciated the conversations brought up around the dynamics between the roles of husband and wife, mother and father. Trying to juggle demanding careers while also taking care of a household and also having that sense of belonging. I felt slightly disappointed with the ending of this book and how abrupt it felt. The twist wasn't really that exciting and felt a tad bit rushed. Throughout this story we know Nora is work on a wrongful death case, but there is another sort of 'accident' that took place and when it was revealed it just left me feeling like 'that's it'. The ending just left me wanting more. I would still recommend, other readers could take away something that I might have missed. Still an enjoyable read!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan audio for providing me with an ARC of Chandler Baker's The Husbands.
This was a truly enjoyable listen. Allyson Ryan did a great job with the narration of this audiobook.
I was entertained right from the start and it kept my attention throughout.
But mostly, as a suburban wife and mother, I felt seen. "Why are you doing ME a favor, when you help with chores at home?" I may be paraphrasing this quote, but I am sure it still captures its essence, and this essence shook me to my core. Why indeed? What if domestic chores were more evenly distributed, and both partners felt equally responsible? So yes, I was fully invested and ready to see where this was going!
I do wonder, however, how a different audience would respond to this plot line... Is this something unmarried single guys and girls could relate to, or is this pretty specific to the modern housewife?
Either way, this was not a dark, high octane thriller, so if that is what you're looking for, it might not fit the bill, but if you are in the mood for a rather witty, sassy beach read with mild thrill factor and a lot of social commentary give it a go. Worked for me!

Dark, unpredictable, and so much fun!
This story brought up a concept that so many will relate to. The concept was that all relationships have a driver and a passenger. The driver is the one that keeps everything afloat. Not only do they work a traditional job, but at home they do laundry, bedtime routines, remember school picture days, all the small tasks that, while easily overlooked, keep everything running smoothly. The passenger is along for the ride. Sound familiar? What if you had the option to change that? You could train your partner. Level the playing field. Make life a little less overwhelming. Would you do it? This book was dark, unpredictable, and oh so fun! As a working Mom, I saw so much of myself in Nora. Highly recommend this book to all the drivers out there!

Domestic drama thriller. What would you do to have it all? That is the premise of this book about powerful women going to great lengths to be what they deem as successful in business, as a wife, as a mom.

At times funny, at times sad, Nora, a successful attorney, finds herself pregnant with her second child and married to a husband Hayden, who is selfish and self-absorbed. There is a disparity of marital responsibility which is causing Nora to be frustrated and pulled in many directions. Why does the woman have to do it all, she wonders? Nora seeks to move to a better neighborhood, Dynasty Ranch, and attracted to the residents where the wives seem to have it all and the husbands support their wives. However, Nora is drawn into a suburb of intrigue and asked to represent them in a wrongful death suit. Nora finds that there is a secret to having it all, but is it worth the price?

Listening to the narrator of this audiobook, the reader is invited into the story. Allyson Ryan, the narrator portrayed the characters so well. Th characters are well developed and more so as the narrator gives voice to them in a way that I could feel their personalities and experience their emotions. I loved this book that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. A well written mystery, this story also gives voice to modern women of today who are faced with the same challenges. A bestseller for sure!

Thanks to #netgalley #macmillanaudio for the opportunity to listen and review this book.

This is a fun book. right from the beginning I was intrigued. While its a slow mystery that unfolds, I wanted to keep reading to know more about the characters and why they are who they are. Nora's character thinks she knows what she wants, but does she? I liked the subtle feminism throughout too. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fantastic. Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read this great book!

Y'all. This book. I think there are about to be a lot of opinions on this one floating around. Here's mine: I LOVED it. Recommended for anyone who loved A SPECIAL PLACE FOR WOMEN. Thank you for my advanced copy, Flatiron books! Out 8/3.

Plot: Nora Spangler is trying to make partner at her law firm but is feeling overwhelmed by her domestic duties, despite her husband's claims that he does half the work. When the Spanglers go house hunting in an exclusive suburban neighborhood, Nora meets a group of high-powered women whose husbands happily help out at home. But as she spends more time in Dynasty Ranch, she realizes there may be more to the husbands' actions than what meets the eye.

I enjoyed every bit of this book: the writing was fantastic and the murder mystery had me guessing until the very end. The piece that makes it a five-star read for me, though, was how Chandler Baker perfectly captures a frustration that a lot of people don't talk about: the emotional, unseen labor of running a household. Throughout the book, Nora struggles to explain why she's mad at her husband. He helps take care of their child, but he isn't proactive about it, and he can't handle any household tasks without consulting her first. This reliance eventually drives Nora to an emotional peak that I think a lot of millennial women (moms and non-moms) will relate to.

TW: Death, conversations around conception and motherhood

Living in Austin, Texas I loved how I knew all the places mentioned in this book which is based in Austin. As the story started I wondered if Chandler Baker was a fly on the wall at my house because Nora is so relatable! Enjoyed being able to connect with Nora in some ways. The narrator was great! I will say that I was able to figure out what might be going on early into the book, but either way enjoyed listening to how it all concluded in the end. Also, that last line of the book definitely kept me wondering!!

Imagine a world where men picked up toys, made lunches, cooked, drove to play dates and valued your worth. It happened in this gated community of high profile women and their spouses. But how?
   The listener could come to an answer early on in the book but there were so many other revelations that came along to add to this Garden of Eden.  You did wonder why this very intelligent woman didn’t see through the smokescreen early on, but when you’re so impressed by your new life and its possibilities, you my turn a blind eye to what is actually happening.
   A tragic event, much like the stroke of midnight and Cinderella, results in the return to the busy, demanding, one sided life she resented so much.  She really misses the her idyllic life and the husband that made it that way. How can she get back to that world where she is valued and appreciated? It’s only a “click” away!
   The reader of this book provided a mental picture of each the characters of which there were many.

Chandler Baker has been listening to my conversations with my husband. Ok not really but wow she really got the day to day conversations between married people negotiating between household tasks.
The Husbands is a feminist thriller( that is a combo of stepped wives and pretty little lies) that follows Nora, a successful lawyer and mom. Nora is introduced to an exclusive neighborhood Dynasty Ranch where successful women and their husbands thrive, though we find later something is not quite….right.
The novel ultimately asks what lengths would you go to in order to get more support from your husband. I listened on audio and I was completely rapt. I listened straight through and was left wrapped up in wanting to know what would happen next.
There were some plot points I’d want developed more but I forgive that and really enjoyed this one, especially the commentary on emotional and physical labor of working moms. And really any mom in general.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the opportunity to review this book.

Wow, this book was a lot. While I think it started with a good message about the disparity between moms and dads, the execution of it was cringey. Maybe because I'm not a mom I couldn't relate, but Nora was never willing to let her husband slide on anything. This book was all over the place and them just... ended. There was almost no resolution and I was frustrated that I spent so much time for nothing. ⭐⭐💫 If you loves The Whisper Network (I didn't) you might like this too.

4.25⭐️

Nora is an attorney and a mom of one who is pregnant. Her husband is a good guy, but he could help more. But what to do?

Then one day, while house-hunting, Nora glimpses a neighborhood where the husbands are really helpful .
It seems too good to be true. And when she begins to investigate a house fire in the neighborhood, she realizes maybe all that glitters isn’t gold.

I loved this domestic thriller. It was Well-written, with great commentary on modern motherhood, and it felt fresh. The narrator was great, too.

You really kind of know how this book is going, and then suddenly toward the end, the whole plot swivels a little unexpectedly. I was feeling like I had every idea of what was going to happen. this audiobook was an incredible telling, and great narration. This is a fun retelling of a fairly classic trope, but with a twist.

With The Husbands, Baker inverts the trope of The Stepford Wives in a twisty tale of what happens when the perfect isn’t quite what it seems. What Chandler Baker does here is thrillerize those think pieces on the emotional labor/invisible work that women often disproportionately carry.

It’s a solid summer thriller for sure. It’s a book about gender roles coming from a white feminist lens. And, it does that well. It does however feel a bit less of the moment than what other writers are exploring with gender as a construct across genres currently.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Ooh a whole lot of people are going to be able to relate to this book! Especially mothers. I don't have kids myself, but could definitely still relate in some ways and the main character Nora's feelings have been the same as so many conversations I've had with my friends.

Nora is frustrated with her husband Hayden. She loves him dearly, but is struggling with the nonstop pace of her life as a full-time lawyer and a mom of one with another baby on the way. Hayden certainly does more than a lot of the husbands she knows, but not only is most of the work left to her (and pretty much all of the emotional labor!), but he acts like he's doing a favor of "helping" every time he does something for the family.

When they go to look at a house in a new exclusive neighborhood, Nora is struck by how successful all the wives are and how supportive all the husbands are. There's definitely major Stepford "Husband" vibes. She can't quite figure out what's going on, but when she agrees to be the lawyer for a woman in the neighborhood whose husband died in a house fire, she starts to discover a bit more.

I really enjoyed this book and especially enjoyed the audio version of it. The narrator is great and you'll likely find yourself nodding along to so many of Nora's thoughts and feelings. The Husbands is a "thriller," but not really a traditional/scary or overly creepy thriller. It felt a little deeper than most thrillers and I definitely enjoyed it more than I usually do thrillers. I wasn't wild about the ending as I was reading it, but after I had some time to digest it, I realized it's actually quite good. This book is going to be a movie and I can't wait!

The narrator of this book was GREAT! I am not one for audiobooks usually, unless it’s a memoir, because I have difficulty with auditory processing. I listened to a good chunk of this book on audiobook and was really able to get into the characters. I like how the voices changed to depict who was speaking, which I feel like I didn’t get in a different book I tried to listen to. I’m going to finish this book by reading it on my kindle because it’s easier for me to process the information. However, so far the book has been great! I love the theme this book surrounds and how we are immediately inside Nora’s head. If you’re into audiobooks, I think this one is perfect!

The Husbands by Chandler Baker is another great book about gender biases in the work place and women balancing careers with being moms. I was drawn into all the different moving parts of this story and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Stepford Wives you’ve got nothing on these Stepford Husbands! The amount of juggling a woman endures is completely exhausting. How are successful women able to do both without family life or your profession lagging in some form. We say if only our spouse could understand the load we carry, help out more and do things without being asked. Nora a pregnant lawyer on way to partner is trying to cover all her bases. While searching for a new home for her family, she find a community of powerhouse women. These women seem to have it all, including husbands who throw themselves into all the household and child rearing duties. Perfect right? She’s asked to help legally with a murder investigation and things aren’t what they seem in this perfect little community!

I really enjoyed this novel and could easily related to the parallels in my own life of endless to do lists. It was a fun thriller and I thought the narrator made it an easy to listen to.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of The Husbands.