Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this advance listener's copy of The Husbands by Chandler Baker, narrated by Allyson Ryan.

The Husbands is the story of Nora, overworked mom of one, pregnant with a new baby and trying to make partner at her law firm. All she needs is more help from her husband, Hayden. When Nora falls in love with a new house in the exclusive community of Dynasty Ranch she falls in love with more than just the house. There's also the potential new neighbors, all successful professional women with devoted and supportive husbands. Nora is convinced that a move to Dynasty Ranch will be the answer to all of her marital woes. What lies behind the perfect facade of Dynasty Ranch may be more than Nora bargained for and a move to the perfect house may not be the answer to Nora's problems after all.

The Husbands has a lot to offer thriller fans. Complete with a creepy subdivision, sullen teenagers lurking in the shadows and an ineffectual husband, The Husbands has all of the ingredients to keep the reader entertained. I especially liked it that it was set in my hometown of Austin, Texas and referenced local landmarks enough to show me that the author really knows the territory that she is writing about. I didn't see the ending coming, which is a great thing for someone who reads as much as I do. I was a little disappointed in the choices that the main character makes in the end of the book but I understood Baker's motivation for writing it that way. The narration was very well-done, although it came off as kind of podcast-y sounding at times. Overall. a very good read. Well worth a listen while you're having a pool day.

The Husbands is a definitely beach read! The characters immediately draw you in and are extremely relatable! The more you go, the weirder things get and you are hooked! Nora is an overworked lawyer who wishes that her husband would do a lot more without her asking. As a couple they are living for a new home and stumble upon a private neighborhood which is full of secrets. When Nora is asked to represent one of the residents for a wrongful death suit, she starts to uncover just how weird things in this neighborhood get! I loved the step ford wives vibe that this book has, it really helped keep things interesting!

I listened to the audio version of The Husbands by Chandler Baker. First and foremost, I enjoyed the gender inequality issues discussed in this book. As a mother of small children and wife, there are so many things that I either could relate to or have seen friends struggle with. It is far and away the best part of the book. Better than the plot or characterizations. It was a bit obvious where the plot was going and frankly Nora, the main character, was always so riddled with angst or second guessing herself that it got tiresome at times. I would have liked to have gone deeper into either how marriages cope with the issues or other characters’ POVs. But that said, it was quick and easy and relevant to today’s times. The narrator of the audiobook was perfect for this character. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy in exchange for my review!

I listened to the audiobook version of this book. So good!!! I had ideas where I thought this was going and then was thrown in a totally different direction. The twist and turns kept me off kilter (just like Nora) the entire time. The characters are all completely relatable and I enjoyed the narrator very much. It was a quick read (listen) I finished it in a day because I had to know what was going on.

I really loved this book!! It had so many twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!! This was my first book by this Author, and it won’t be the last!! Quick read!! Highly recommended!! You won’t be disappointed!!

3.5 stars

Stepford Wives, shed your mind control; now, meet the Stepford Husbands! This is an easy women's fiction/thriller mashup that could work well as a beach read or even on a road trip, if your tummy can handle the reading-while-cruising scene.

Nora, the m.c., is an attorney, spouse, and mother of one (plus one on the way) in her mid-30s, and she has a lot of feelings about the generalized plight of women who have families and careers. I would have loved to see some more originality in this aspect of the novel, as she shares nothing new. Anyone picking up women's fiction is going to be familiar with the struggles women have - specifically (and maybe even more so at this stage of the pandemic) - with striking a balance in the face of judgement and misunderstanding. The conversation around these details feels endless and at times detracts from the action and forward motion of the plot. Get ready for a lot of interest in what her husband - Hayden - is not doing, where her mom guilt comes from, and how the older/cis/het/white dudes at her job will never understand why she is more productive than they are even when it appears she has a life outside of the office.

While Nora has a lot happening already, she finds herself in an unusual situation when Hayden and she tour a potential new home. This event snowballs into a new client and group of contacts, a possible husbands under mind control situation, and a whodunit murder query. But Nora always returns to home base: women's balancing acts.

All of these pieces fit together in an entertaining novel, but I found Nora - and perhaps this is due to the audiobook narrator's interpretation of this work even more than Baker's intentions - EXASPERATING. She's the kind of person who might let out passive aggressive deep breaths and sighs in place of transparent communication.

If you need an easy-to-follow and entertaining listen and are cool with the above caveats, pick up this audiobook.

I loved Chandler Baker's first novel, Whisper Network, and this one did not disappoint! It was utterly engrossing, timely, funny, and poignent . If you've ever wished your husband would take on a little more of the mental load then, oh my, this book is for you! I need everyone to read this book so I can discuss. A perfect read for bookclubs.

Pure entertainment! Nora is a lawyer married to Hayden. They have one child with another on the way. With Nora becoming increasingly frustrated (and whiny, in my opinion) with her workload and lack of help from her husband, she falls in with a new group of women. All of their husband’s are mysteriously over helpful and accommodating. Nora and Hayden become intertwined with this new community and Hayden suddenly and eerily becomes the “perfect husband”. With betrayal, death and murder, this was an entertaining summer read!

**huge thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ahhhh how badly I wanted to love this one... I wish it was a bit twistier though.

It's definitely got ALL the Stepford Wives feelings and I guess if you don't know that story, then this one would be so much more fun. I just kinda felt like I knew what was going on the whole time and was hoping for more of a twist on that concept, but it was just kinda, I dunno ... expected? I think there was a lot of unnecessary filler to get to that point, and the mixed in blog posts, feminist articles, comments, etc. ... felt a little ... um... too preachy?

Maybe I'd feel differently if I was a mom? But I did get sucked in right away and the audio was entertaining enough that was eager to see how it all played out. The little twist at the end was fun though. A little confusing... but I still liked it.

The narration for this book was good. Unfortunately, this "Stepford Husbands" story was an overall miss for me. The book started off just fine, and then I just got tired and bored - maybe the middle part could have been edited down a bit. I really struggled to make myself listen to this book, and found myself turning to podcasts over completing this book - audiobooks I really enjoy are finished quickly and I find excuses to listen. There are a lot of characters, and because my listening was staggered and because I often didn't care, it was hard for me to keep them all straight.

This book is clearly popular with many, and on the face of it, it should have been right up my alley as I was working towards tenure with two young children and a spouse who said "you just need to ask if you want me to do anything," but it just fell flat for me.

This was a really good thriller. Its in the vane of The Power and even a little splash of Vox in there which is great to see in a more recent thriller. I really enjoy books that challenge that house wife dynamic and this did that in a really cool way.
My complaint with this book is that it is way to similar to Jordan Peels movie Get Out in a lot of ways. It felt like the main idea for this book was just that but with genders and not race. I am not saying that is what happened but that is certainly the major vibe of this. It was still really cool but its certainly not a unique idea or take on these issues.
If the whole Get Out plus The Power vibe appeals to you then this is the book for you. Just don't expect anything groundbreaking.

It’s all an illusion. Women can BE anything they dream, but can they HAVE have everything? What’s the cost if they do, and to whom? What would you be willing to do get it? These are the questions Chandler Baker poses in her new psychological thriller, The Husbands.

Nora is a wife, a mother expecting another baby, a lawyer on the partner track, burning the candle on both ends and several points in between. She deeply loves her husband Hayden but like many women wonders why he isn’t more engaged, why the rules seem different, why she’s the default for remembering/doing/getting anything done and he ‘helps’. When they look at a home for sale in the idyllic neighborhood of Dynasty Ranch their lives take a turn. Nora is befriended by several women in the community, all with accomplished careers. Something is decidedly different there. There’s a supportive network of women Nora craves. What’s more their husbands are all very supportive of their wives. The husbands cook, clean, care for the children, and hold their own careers. How does Nora get in on this?! She’s offered an opportunity when one of the women needs legal council. As Nora and Hayden are folded into Dynasty Ranch changes in their marriage are subtle, helpful, but something isn’t setting right with Nora. As she continues her legal council and investigation what she uncovers could change everything.

Chandler Baker does an excellent job of pacing the narrative in such a way that we are drawn in, almost as Nora is. It’s seductive, insidious. We know something is up but the dialogue that continues throughout is so convincing we’re nodding along yes, yes, YES, with the explanations even when we know it’s terribly unsettling. It’s this disconnect that kept me off kilter the entire last part of the book. Nora’s internal monologue was so familiar, relatable. I’ve been in the grocery store after a long day at work, pregnant, trying to convince two tiny humans to be ‘cart boys’ when they insisted on being ‘walker boys’. Nora’s mention of her ‘strategic blowout’ had me doing fist pumps!

I listed to this on audiobook, narrated by Allyson Ryan, and highly recommend this platform. The nuance that she brings to her performance is fantastic, dark, deeply disturbing in its clinical distance at times. If I were reading in print I would have imparted infection, emotion on certain characters. Ryan’s portrayals really took the story to another level, giving greater depth to the individual characters. She was an excellent casting choice and I’ll be sure to look for other audiobooks she’s in.
I recommend The Husbands on audiobook to readers/listeners looking for a weekend great binge read, those that love psychological fiction, and think it would make an excellent book club pick because it’s highly discussable!
Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy. All opinions are my own.

This book stressed me out. When people ask me why I don't have kids, I feel like giving them books like these and saying, read this and then stop and think if you really need to ask me that question. Basically, this book is about how women are expected to put in 110% at work and still do everything at home while their husbands "help out" when they feel like it. So what to do about it? Well, the women in this book certainly find a solution, but it leaves me wondering if the real solution is to rethink the whole suburban dream of being married, owning a home, and having 2.5 kids. At least my cat can take care of himself while I cook dinner, answer emails, take a bath...

This is the second Chandler Baker thriller that I read this year and I hope to read even more. Baker is a witty writer who captures the truth of working mothers and the inanity of women trying to do / have it all. Nora is a busy lawyer, up for partner in her firm, with a toddler and another baby on the way. She has a great husband, Hayden, but he really isn’t a lot of help with the house or child. ( I know, big surprise! ) When Nora decides that a new house in the affluent Dynasty Ranch neighborhood is exactly what she needs, she gets pulled into a community of strong high -achieving women who run the HOA. This neighborhood appears to offer all the networking and support system Nora dreams of, but things are not quite as perfect as they seem. Unputdownable ! For fans of Liane Moriarty.
#NetGalley
#The Husbands

This book started out really good, but after a while it was so boring I couldn't finish it. If it was cut down and changed a bit, I may consider rereading.

This sharp critique of modern motherhood will grab any mom trying to “do it all.” I found myself laughing (and cringing) at the all too familiar thoughts Nora shares about her daily grind. The thriller elements were a bit transparent, but I still enjoyed watching it unfold. And those last few lines, shew, that got me.

This was well narrated but it did take me quite some time to get through it because I did not find the story as compelling as I thought I would. I found myself yelling at Nora more and more as the book progressed. I think may book clubs would like this book though!
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this arc audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The start of this book where the author asks the reader to use her imagination is hilarious and hooked me immediately. I have a husband of 33 years, so I know every one of those scenarios. Nora is every woman and I think anyone who is married with children can relate to her day-to-day life as an attorney, a wife and a mother.
This book is fun. I laughed a few times and smiled a lot. There’s a creepy mystery in there too with lots of sinister career women types to scare the reader in a fun way. I listened to the audio and the narrator did a great job with all their individual voices and personalities. I think if I’d read a text copy I might have enjoyed this book more as it got a bit repetitive and whiney in places and those sections I could have skimmed easier in print. If you like a lot of social commentary along with a decent plot, you’ll enjoy this entertaining read. The writing was clear and easy to listen to but a lot of the minutia of everyday life got tedious for this reader. We really are in Nora’s head the entire time and while I did empathize and quite like her as a character, I did tire of her perspective. Maybe because it’s too close to home?
The ending to this tale of husbands and wives is very clever and quite sinister. I really wanted to talk to someone about it and think this book would make a great book club pick. How far are we as wives willing to go to get our husbands to pull their weight?
Nora is every woman and I think anyone who is married with children can relate to her day-to-day life as an attorney. I’m not sure someone who has not been such a situation would enjoy this book as much. I enjoyed the Whisper Network and would recommend you read that one first to see how talented this author is.
Thank you for the review copy MacMillan and NetGalley. I really enjoyed this book and will be on the look out for more from this promising author.

This is a reverse Stepford wife story, where a community of women has begun training their husbands to be helpful to the point of ingratiating. This was an enjoyable read mostly because of the protagonist Nora Spangler stumbling through to the truth.

A couple of drawbacks: the faux-feminist rhetoric turned grating fairly early on, and Nora and Hayden’s relationship was a bit underdeveloped. It suffered from too much telling (Nora telling us she actually loves Hayden) and not enough showing (it really doesn’t seem like she does).

Overall, I had fun with this novel and the creepy, murderous Karen types.

3.5 stars, but rounding up to 4 for the enjoyability factor!

I am grateful to both the publisher and NetGalley for providing an Audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading Chandler Baker’s “The Whisper Network”, I was excited to see she was coming out with The Husbands. Chandler Baker’s The Husbands lived up to my expectations!

Nora is a relatable, married mom of one who feels like everything falls to her. When she falls in love with a house and it’s community in Dynasty Ranch, everything starts to change for the better…or does it? All of the husbands help around the house without complaint, but how? And how does Nora get her husband to do the same?

In this page-turning feminist mystery, readers will laugh out loud, nod in agreement, and think “wtf”. Married and unmarried, mothers and non-mothers alike can relate to this book.