I had high hopes for this book. At first, it read like an episode of The Real Housewives. Slowly though, I found myself losing interest.

Another Chandler Baker book where I am aggressively nodding in agreement.

My husband and I have been talking exhaustively about "the mental load." I quit my job to stay home with our kids, so while I've agreed to a heavier mental load, I cannot do and be everything for the kids and my husband, while also maintaining household chores and a shred of myself. And this is even more true for working mothers and single mothers. You run out of pieces to give.

So, have I considered brainwashing or some kind of Stepford Husband scenario? Perhaps. Maybe one of those nighttime books on tape, like they used to recommend to help people stop smoking.

This was a fun read, and I definitely felt SEEN as a mother who just wants help with the mental load (even recognition of the mental load.) It did feel a bit slow at times, but it is a worthy and interesting read.

I wanted to REALLY love this book. I was expecting a tongue-in-cheek Stepford Wives reversal with a suspenseful undercurrent. While the role reversal was there- I didn't love the execution. Honestly, I think this may be because I listened to the book on audio- but Nora's voice came off little too whiny for me. As a female, I totally understand her problems and occasionally even nodded my head at some of her complaints. Hey, I've been there! But sometimes they were too much. I just wanted to scream, "you're putting too much on yourself- actually ask for help. Tell your Husband what you need instead of assuming he should know!" Which I honestly believe is one of the biggest marital problems today. But I digress...Also- Hayden seemed like a decent guy and kinda doesn't deserve the treatment he ends up getting. And I won't completely spoil things- but, I feel like Nora never really learns anything from the whole ordeal.

The thriller part of the book was more of a slow build, but not bad. I wish it was a little quicker to come to fruition and that there was a little more action. But, overall I thought it was well thought out and executed in a way that still piqued my interest.

Overall, I did really like the book- and really think I would have liked this one a lot more had I actually read it- because then I would have been a little more responsible for the tone in which I was reading it. And in the end, it does make for an excellent Book Club selection, with lots of good questions. Like, what would you do in this situation? Would your life be improved by living in a place like Dynasty Ranch? I would love to hear everyone's answers!

First of thank you Netgalley for providing me with this audiobook!
If you are a mother struggling to keep a work/life balance, you might enjoy this books a little more. We see how much Nora is going through and having to deal with an almost absentee husband, I mean, he could truly have atleast helped in putting their child to sleep once in a while! But the mystery surrounding everything that was happening in this new place was so cool to see. Although, let me be real, it was so creepy!
This narrator had a lovely voice without making any of the voice changes odd, she still had a variety of different voices for each character!

After reading the synopsis, I knew I had to read this one. I enjoyed the premise of the book but felt like it was missing some action. At times it felt like it was dragging and I kept waiting for more.

I wanted to like this book. Kept going in the hopes that the action would pick up and the thriller-esque parts would happen. Didn’t happen. Women, and mom’s especially are expected to do so much of the heavy lifting. If you’ve been through it, you’ll relate to those parts but prepare to be in a bad mood. So men have to be programmed or tricked into doing their share? Ick.

This one drew me in by the Stepford Wives vibes but with the "traditional" domestic roles in reserve (childrearing, household management, etc) with a murder mystery woven in! Really enjoyed this gripping domestic thriller by Chandler Baker! Looking forward to reading more novels by her :)

I had the great joy of being able to listen to The Husbands by Chandler Baker. The narrator did a fabulous job of using the perfect soothing tone for narration. She was able to differentiate characters without using any annoying voice changes. I could listen to her voice all day and not find it irritating. I actually found myself looking for reasons to listen to this book. Nora is interested in moving to a new house in the Dynasty Ranch development. She is slowly drawn into the lives of the seemingly perfect families who are already living there. However, she soon discovers that all may not be as perfect as it appears. Secrets are revealed and Nora must ultimately make the best decision for her and her growing family. Read and enjoy!

I really liked the premise of this book. I liked the idea of taking Stepford Wives and turning it on its head. And bits of the execution was excellent. I liked the way the story was set up with the wide variety of careers the women had and using each other and that as a way to build a network and power, which is something many men do. I thought the story was setup well with many examples of all the ways big and small that women carry the load and all the ways big and small that they worry/think nonstop about life as a family and all of its bits. How they carry a disproportionate amount of the load by such a large margin.

And yet. I also thought it was more stereotypical than I would have liked it to be because when it's that two-dimensional the story doesn't have as much of an impact as it could. It makes it easier for people to write off the points the author was trying to make. I do wish there were more combinations of couples and marriages.

Overall, I liked the time I spent with this story. It was a fast, fun read.

with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audio in exchange for an honest review.

First there was Girls With Sharp Sticks, then there was the Hierarchies and now... The Husbands.

EXCEPT. In The Husbands, it is the women in control.... I can't finish that sentence without spoilers but if you've read the above you will have an idea of where I'm going. BUT that still won't spoil the spin with which Baker this take, but with the women in charge, with the Husbands.

Additionally, it is brilliant, insightful and brave in taking on the hard truths that women would get killed for speaking allowed re: women's rights... for one noting that it merely included additional or multiplication because when women went to work, men didn't pitch in.

They just assumed women would do everything they did before AND Now work, too. But as the author noted women, women can do anything, women can't do everything.


*note* it has been a long time since I've read a any book with a 3rd person POV. 1) It is written brilliantly- witty, dark and on point. Two, the narrator NAILS IT.

I really enjoyed Chandler Baker's first novel, The Whisper Network, so when I saw a new book by Baker, I was definitely intrigued. The Husbands is part crime/discovery novel, part The Stepford Wives role reversal. Nora, a lawyer vying for partner in her firm, and her husband Haydn, salesman, are expecting their second child and are constantly haunted by an accident involving their first child (don't worry, she's alive). While house hunting to find a place large enough for a growing family, they happen upon Dynasty Ranch. You're immediately gripped by this group of successful women with husbands that are more than eager to support their wives success. This is the part of the book that reading the back of the book or a basic review will give you. What was compelling to me was how Nora reacted to the husbands. When all of the pieces start coming together and she gets deeper into their world, she must decide which instinct to follow: this is wrong and I shouldn't treat my spouse this way... or wow it's really nice to not have to do everything around the house myself. As a working mom, I loved the constant uplift of working moms and how moms in general need help. There's a lot of brain power that goes into maintaining your family life, and it was awesome for fiction to acknowledge that. Overall, a fun read with a just the right amount of malice. Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced listener copy. Review posted to Goodreads.

Definitely a "be careful what you wish for" book!

Nora Spangler is tired. She's an attorney. A wife. A mom to a daughter. And is expecting her second child. Her husband works hard. Or so he keeps telling her. But why does she feel like she's doing it all?

They househunt and stumble upon Dynasty Ranch. It's sort of the Stepford Husbands there, but Nora is down for that. These men do it all - the groceries, the laundry, running kids to practice, etc. It seems too good to be true.

Nora starts to realize there is more to Dynasty Ranch and it may not be all good. The mystery draws her in deeper than she planned and it was one that kept me interested and listening! Nora (and I along with her) discover much more than I'm sure either of us ever saw coming.

Many thanks to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Husbands is a story fraught with material that psychologists would have a field day with. If you have a fascination with Stepford Wives, then let me introduce you to their counterpart... Stepford Husbands.

Nora Spangler is struggling. She is a super successful attorney, but it feels like she is also the sole executor of the domestic side of her life. All she wants is for her husband to help, but every time she asks, she feels like he ignores her. Her husband isn't a bad guy, but when they realize that Nora is pregnant with baby #2, she knows that it's time for her husband to step up or shut up.

When Nora and her husband start house hunting, they come across a house in the elusive and exclusive neighborhood, Dynasty Ranch. The residents of the neighborhood include a tight-knit group of friends consisting of a CEO, a neurosurgeon, a therapist, and an author -- all women with super supportive husbands (like... on the creepier end of supportive). Nora envies these women with their seemingly perfect lives and wonders what would happen if she were in the same boat. As she is sucked into their world, she begins to see the cracks in their facade.

I did enjoy this book a lot. Listening to it gave me the illusion of the creeps, just enough to make me feel uncomfortable, but I didn't want to stop. There were definitely moments where I felt like there was an overt amount of details and backstory that may not have been necessary. I found certain parts just dragged on, and it wasn't until about 60% of the way through that it seemed that anything major happened. I wish that the pacing of the last quarter of the book was consistent throughout the first 75%. I did enjoy the feminist message that Baker was trying to convey, but would have liked to see it executed just a bit tighter. Despite this, be sure to thank the moms in your life today... They probably need it.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 (rounded to 4)

The Husbands will be available for purchase on August 3rd. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf and see where it's available to buy. Also, be sure to check out Chandler Baker's website!

I was lucky enough to be able to listen to this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was a really fun, semi-creepy critique on work culture, sexism, capitalism and social order. I loved it, even though I’m not married or a mom. I especially enjoyed the use of blog, social media, and internet posts and user insights—I’m hoping this are either real with the names change or loosely based on real posts. It adds such a fun, modern and realistic discussion to the topics of this book and it is a creatively interesting device. Every parent should read The Husbands, as I’m sure they’d relate even harder to the subject matter than I did.

Having been a female attorney at a male dominated plaintiff’s firm run by three male partners, I definitely still felt very connected to Nora’s plight, the sometimes childish opposition she faces from her male coworkers, and her daily toils as a young, female attorney looking to grow her family and her professional life in direct proportions.

There’s also of course the engaging and slowly-unfolding mystery of the wrongful death case Nora is investigating throughout the novel. Lots to hold a reader’s interest within the pages of this fun, fast read.

Release date is August 3rd. I highly recommend the audiobook as the narration was excellent and engaging.

Thanks so much to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

First off, this would make for a fantastic book club selection. So much for the ladies to talk about!
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Nora and her husband Hayden are looking for a bigger home to accommodate their growing family. They attend an open house in a neighborhood that Nora immediately is drawn to but Hayden is on the fence. As Nora get involved with the ladies of the HOA she is taken in with how accomplished they are and how perfect their marriages seem. Nora and Hayden are struggling with work/life balance and Nora is desperate for help. The ladies of the neighborhood are very eager to help and Nora is sucked in. Anyway, things are definitely not as they seem.
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There isn’t much more I can say without major spoilers. The book is a little dark and doesn’t have the most satisfactory ending. Nora’s life is better off but not everyone gets what they deserve. The struggles Nora has trying to do absolutely everything while facing tremendous gender discrimination was interesting. I can’t say eye opening because it’s not.
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I really enjoyed the book. It’s mysterious, a little creepy, and relatable. Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for an advanced audiobook copy of this book. This book will be released on 8/3/21.

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to this audio to review.

Nora Spangler is an attorney trying to work extra hours to make partner in her law firm while juggling her 4 year old daughter Liv, a useless husband Hayden who she is trying to get to step up and help more, working on a wrongful death case, trying to buy a new house in a gated community. Dynasty Ranch while trying to figure out while all the successful women she met have helpful husband's.

I got the feel of the Stepford Wife role reversal. I also felt like I was reading bits of The Whisper Network from the corporate feminist office part. This book was engaging, brought up topics that should be talked about and are relevant, and enjoyed the narrator, but on the fence with this. Nora was a character that complained all the time and was all about her.

A little slow to start, however it was a very entertaining and interesting read. There were some really interesting observations about the disparity in the roles of husbands/fathers and wives/mothers, but also a little harsh/unfair to some of the great men out there!

Yet overall, this domestic drama is slow to start and then over the top in the end. I pretty much saw where this was going right away and found it a bit frustrating that no one else (particularly the main character Nora) even had a clue. I get it, this is supposed to be overly dramatic in order to prove its point, but personally, I think that more humor and less weirdness would have gone a long way to make it more entertaining and engaging.

The Husbands by Chandler Baker (Author), Allyson Ryan (Narrator)

I loved this book! It brought up important conversations around the role married couples have in the household. Do you ever wish your spouse took more responsibility taking care of the home/children/pets or does this mostly fall on one person. Are you tired of nagging and being responsible for delegating tasks / holding the headspace for everything in all of your lives? This book tells the story when a group of women get fed up and change their husbands through creative means. It was very entertaining and also made me think, which is one of my favorite things about the author.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book will remain with me long after I finished listening to it. It’s hard to put this book into one category, It’s a thriller, it’s women’s fiction and it’s a mystery. With amazing characters, truths about motherhood and a real mystery I would highly recommend this book!,

What happens when a utopia for a working mom ends up being the meanest dystopia? Curious? Well, this book has answers for you! Nora is looking for a new place for her growing family and she stuck on this house in kind of a gated community. Women living there are bold. Doing their jobs without distractions and they achieve amazing things. And most importantly their husbands are incredibly supportive. They do anything and everything.

Pressure is building on Nora: she is about to pop another baby but this is also her year for partner promotion. What does her husband doing btw? Sending her videos of their toddler throwing tantrums?! Supportive husband that is… Nora is getting more and more tangled into this prospective neighbor group as she agreed to look into a fatal fire happened on the premises. But this relationship didn’t stop at the professional level.

While Nora is trying trying so hard to be accepted as part of this group, she started to recognize things that she was blindly ignoring for a good deal of time. Now it is up to her to how to react and be the super mom that she intends to be