Gosh! I related to a lot of this book, especially when my boys were younger. At times, I think it dug up some old wounds from disagreements with my husband on sharing the work load. There are so many things outside of cleaning, cooking and laundry that is overlooked and often fall on the Moms to cover. This book took being an empowered female to the extreme. It truly left me feeling angry some nights.

There is the mystery of someone in an elite neighborhood who has died. I felt like this book was BiG Little Lies with role reversals.

I really loved The Whisper Network by this author, but this book left me feeling frustrated.

The narrator did a great job in the audio version that I received.

3.5 Stars – Rounding to 4 stars for Goodreads

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillianaudio for a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

Such a relatable book! As a mom and wife, i can completely understand the frustrations and i have the same ones! As a mom, most things fall on your shoulders. Whether you want them to or not. And asking for help is difficult. Either you do and don’t get it. Or end up doing it yourself waiting for the help to ever come. I loved how i can put myself in the characters shoes. Although i did find it to get annoying after awhile. The constant annoyance of the husband and the inner complaining about him. I get it. But also it got to be a lot. And the mystery was interesting… but it was a bit of a back burner.

I think it was more about women shoulder a lot and feel unappreciated and how wonderful it would be to have more help without having to ask. Because everything shouldn’t all be on one persons shoulders and given the opportunity would you brain wash your partner to be more helpful?

This book was frustrating for me. It really felt like the book was too focused on how women feel that their husbands don’t do enough around the house to help. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was in a different stage of my life. I am currently single and do not have children. I am at a stage where a lot of my peers are working hard to find a husband so it felt strange to read a book that was so negative about husbands. However, as the book went on it seemed to shift from being negative to being more about some of the social differences between men and women (for example, women tend to talk more about their day while men tend not to share as many details). If it hadn’t been for the mystery about the fire investigation I probably would have stopped reading this book before reaching page 100. Ultimately I was glad I stuck with this book. The mystery aspect made it completely worth finishing. It was a great book overall, it just was geared toward a group at a different life stage than where I am at now. I am not saying the women’s feelings are not valid, just that it was strange for me reading with where I am at now in my life. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Husbands" and all opinions expressed are my own. I thought this book was okay. It was ... different. I think I just didn't like it about 3/4 of the way though. I ended up finishing but not thrilled with it.

What if stereotypical gender roles in marriages were reversed and men were the ones who carried most of the emotional weight, had to remember every birthday party, playdate, and important deadline, and also did all the cooking, cleaning, and childcare while the wives focused on their uber-successful careers?

Such is the world imagined in The Husbands, and attorney Nora Spangler doesn’t think this sounds all that bad. When she meets the wives of the Dynasty Ranch community, she knows right away something’s off, but it takes her a while to put her finger on it. It’s not just that the husbands are all so supportive of their wives, it’s almost like they’re perfect. She wonders if moving into the neighbourhood might help her husband pick up a little more empathy and helpfulness too.

As Nora digs into a case involving the death of one of Dynasty Ranch’s husband, she becomes entangled in a mind-blowing scheme that will either secure her future career goals or cost her everything she loves.

This is Such. A. Good. Book.

Seriously. I haven’t read a thriller in a LONG time, and this made me think it’s time to delve back into that genre.

Nora Spangler is like many working mothers, she has a successful career and still manages to juggle the majority of the cooking, cleaning, doctor appointments and taking charge everything that is necessary for making a household run smoothly, all while her husband does?? When she goes house hunting in an exclusive neighborhood, she quickly finds herself infused in a community where the women all have high powered jobs with Stepford husbands.
This domestic drama/thriller has a very culty feel to it. The lives of the women are intriguing. There are a few different mysteries that need to be uncovered along the way. I would not suggest listening to this audiobook on a trip with your husband - it may make you a little angry with him!

A great follow-up to the Whisper Network for this author. Funny and cringe worthy - will leave you happy it's not you! Strong female leads that get shit done, whatever the task is.

Nora is overwhelmed. She's educated, accomplished, but has way too much on her plate. (Sounds like my life!). To top it off, Nora's husband manages to disappear whenever she needs him the most. He just doesn't get it - he's just not paying attention (male privilege!). When Nora meets her potential neighbors at an open house she's impressed with their ability to balance it all. She has to find out what their secret is.

I was so excited about this book, had it marked on my TBR list for months, so I was super excited to receive an advanced copy right before an 15 hour drive to a vacation. Unfortunately I ended up so disappointed.

The premise of the novel is wonderful. "A Stepford Wives gender-swap". Imagine a world where all husband treat their wives careers with full respect, take on household tasks, child rearing, and the entire mental load of domestic life. Perhaps because I already have a husband who respects my career, time, and actively participates in household and child tasks (he's actually at a kids' doctors appointment now), but I couldn't relate to the overbearing women in the book, and the emasculated husbands. Surely there is a middle ground where this story could have gone, while still adding in a good mystery.

Perhaps it will resonate more with another reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

“Don’t you just love an organized cIoset?”

In Chandler Baker’s domestic thriller, The Husbands, Nora Spangler is a personal injury lawyer who puts in extra hours every chance she gets. She’s been long enough at the same firm to expect to be made partner, but her personal life often strains her professional commitments. She has one child, 4 year-old Liv, and is pregnant with a second. She’s the one who buys the groceries, goes to pediatric appointments, does 99% of the housework, and bathes and puts her toddler to bed, yet she still feels as though she’s a failure as a mother. Her husband, software salesman, Hayden, always says he will help, but somehow he always manages to disappear whenever he’s needed. Here she is juggling laundry, work, and a demanding toddler–all on a Sunday afternoon:

“Hayden!” she shouts, barely clinging to a note of self-control. “Hay-den!” She leans deep into the two syllables. She can’t help it. Her husband appears from the garage, tilting his head to remove his Airpods. “Where were you?” She sounds like a detective trying to intimidate a suspect into providing his alibi. She hates herself a little for it.

“Sorry.” He pours himself a glass of water, and a stream of it drips onto the front of the refrigerator where it will leave marks on the stainless steel and a puddle on the floor. “I was just working out. I had my headphones in. Did you need me?” He takes in her face. “What’s wrong?”

The thing with Hayden, is that he never refuses to help. He tells Nora that he’s happy to pitch in–“just tell me what to do” is a familiar refrain, but this puts Nora in the position of hunting Hayden down and telling him what needs to be done when more often than not, it’s pretty friggin’ obvious. No wonder Nora is worn out, frustrated and fed up by the sheer inequity of labour at home.


House-hunting for a one-storey home, Nora and Hayden take a look at a suburb called Dynasty Ranch. It’s full of successful, powerful women who are completely and utterly supported by their husbands. One of the women asks Nora to represent neighbour, author Penny, in a wrongful-death suit involving the death of her husband in a Dynasty Ranch home fire. At first, Nora declines the case but under pressure at work to beef up her numbers, she changes her mind.

Dynasty Ranch has a HOA and any new buyer must have a sponsor. After a get-to-know-you dinner party, Hayden is not so keen to move in–he finds he has little in common with the husbands who don’t use the golf course but instead ooze enthusiasm when discussing various ways to remove stains from clothing and the joys of closet organization. While the Spanglers can’t come to a decision on the purchase of the Dynasty Ranch house, thanks to the Penny’s case, Nora still has frequent contact with a handful of the resident wives. During a party, there’s a horrible scene between Hayden and Nora. Dynasty Ranch resident, psychiatrist Cornelia White suggests couples therapy, and so the games begin….

The Husbands is an entertaining read. Just what is afoot in Dynasty Ranch is the book’s big mystery, but another, subtler question concerns Hayden. Is he really clueless when it comes to recognizing how to help Nora? Or has he learned clever avoidance techniques which allow him to hold on to the label of ‘modern’ husband who is always there to help when the reality is that he’s just as hands-off childcare/housework as a 50s spouse? I know where my opinion lands, but Nora is still undecided and that’s where a lot of her problems lie. She feels that she’s nagging Hayden when she must repeatedly ask him for the most basic help, and since he’s so agreeable and reasonable about helping, she can’t quite pinpoint who is at fault here.

Loved the scene where Hayden sends Nora a video of Liv having a temper tantrum and demands that Nora leave work to come and deal with it as it’s “not normal.” One of Nora’s workmates identifies Hayden as the “lazy traveler” in the marriage, and the description rings true.

The lazy traveler. It’s a theory about couples. Two people are travelling together and no matter what their two individual personality types might be, one person will start doing, right? That person starts figuring out which way to the metro, what the day’s itinerary is, how to exchange currency. All that stuff and the other one, they sit back.

The demands of Nora’s life seem all too real–we may ask why they don’t hire a nanny–although there’s mention of difficulties getting childcare. The book addresses the dilemma faced by career women who’ve been told they can have it all. But all too often it means doing it all as well:

Part of her wants to murder feminism herself. Somebody please hand her the knife and Nora will be happy to stab that saucy bitch right in the back. The traitor.

This book was great fun, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I read a lot of reviews that the book is man bashing. It’s a story. It’s fiction, I’ve seen husband-father disconnect “just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it” umpteen times in virtuoso performances by men who can’t ‘get’ that they too can pick up dirty clothes etc. Learned uselessness. Plus I’ve seen other husbands pitch in. This is a story about husbands of professional women who don’t pitch in (or don’t pitch in enough) and how far a group of women are prepared to go to have ‘perfect’ supportive spouses. This tale has a great dark, twisty ending.

I listened to the audio version of this book. It was beautifully read by Allyson Ryan.

Review copy.

Holy Stepford Wives.

I loved Chandler Baker's first novel and was excited to read The Husbands. However, I think the book fell short for me as a whole.

While I love Baker's writing style and dry humor, I found the plot predictable and basic. I am still excited to read any future work that Chandler Baker produces, even if this book wasn't 100% for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC

I listened to The Husbands by Chandler Baker on audiobook. This was a domestic thriller that I was really excited about, but did not have that wow factor I was hoping for. Good story, but nothing spectacular.

It is hard to read any part of this book without comparing it to the Stepford Wives, albeit in reverse. While the reversal was interesting, it was also stereotypical and predictable. The ending was a bit of a mind-blower and iit was what made me raise the rating a star.

i really agreed with all the internal dialogue between the characters? the articulation of what is so frustrating with men? it was extra saddening when i saw how the author fell into the same trope of turning aggravated women into monsters and thought there was a justification for murder?

Nora and Hayden Spangler are your typical busy family. They both have successful, time-consuming careers and a toddler. And Nora is pregnant again. Nora loves her husband, but she just wishes that he would help more around the house. Nora just wishes that he would see just how exhausted she is. They talk about buying a bigger house. That will make it easier for Nora, right? Dynasty Ranch is the perfect community. The women are all successful working mothers, just like Nora. And all the husbands are doting, supportive spouses who take care of the home while their wives further their careers. Their real estate agent calls on Nora's legal abilities to help a recent widow in the neighborhood. And as she digs further into the cause of death, she realizes Dynasty Ranch may not be as perfect as it appears.

The Husbands is a new twist on an old book, The Stepford Wives. One thing I don't like about books like The Husbands is the way it plays into stereotypes. Not all men leave their wives to do everything. Not all men prioritize their career over their wife's. Some men don't need extreme measures in order to be good men. Hayden's behavior clearly frustrated Nora and I understand why. The fact there was an HOA approval was my first warning flag that Dynasty Ranch was not what it appeared. There is a reason I will never buy a home with an active HOA. Nothing about the end surprised me. Even the last sentence was predictable. CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS.


Bottom Line - If you aren't familiar with The Stepford Wives, I can see where The Husbands would be an innovative story. However, I found it annoyingly predictable.

Details:
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
On Instagram
Pages: 352
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: 8/3/2021
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

Most women would envy Nora Spangler. She is a successful attorney with a loving husband, a software designer. The couple have a young daughter and Nora is pregnant with their second child. They are looking for a new house as their family expands.
But Nora doesn't necessarily feel like someone who others should envy. She has all that but it seems like she is always running a hundred miles an hour to keep all the parts of her life going. She works long hours but still there is a suggestion at her law firm that she should be able to drop everything and work late or on weekends whenever the firm finds it necessary, which is often. Her daughter loves her school but school means monitoring projects, packing lunches, making sure there is a new cute outfit ready each day. The house still has to be cleaned, laundry has to be done, cooking the meals and cleaning up is a daily chore and then there are the other items such as grocery shopping, doctors' visits, dentist, playdates, birthday parties, school trips and parties. The list goes on and on. Dylan would say he helps and he does but the responsibility falls mainly on Nora.

The couple finds a great house in a subdivision called Dynasty Ranch. The house is great but Nora is even more impressed with the women she meets from the neighborhood. They are all highly successful, doctors, CEOs, and other professionals. Yet they seem calm and happy and they all have highly supportive husbands who take on an equal share of the second shit work if not the majority of it. Nora wonders how did they come to this arrangement? As she gets to know the women better, she realizes that this lifestyle is the one she wants. Or is it?

Chandler Baker has written a story that reverses the well known book, The Stepford Wives. The tension in the book builds slowly, from Nora meeting the other women to envying them to finally fearing them. Baker taps into the resentment that most married women with families feel; that they are shouldering the majority of the household work while men come home to relax, and that something needs to change in their lives. Many readers will be surprised at the book's ending and final twists. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

I wasn’t sure I was going to love the initial husband/man bashing that takes place in the beginning, but I thought the author did an excellent job balancing the issues facing modern day families/marriages in this reverse-stepford ish type thriller that kept me hooked! I listened to this in practically one day this summer because I had to know what happened!!

This reverse Stepford wives-ish vibe had me listening intently. I ultimately enjoyed this one and end the narrator does an excellent job on keeping you entertained and focused . I enjoyed the discussion of stereotypes and tropes . A fun one to listen to, a great beach read.

A really intriguing premise that fell short in the delivery. I kept waiting and waiting for this book to grab me and unfortunately, that never happened. The storyline re Nora and her husband bored me to tears as did the lifestyle of those living at the ranch. Seeing as I loved the Whisper Network I will tune into this author's next book, even though this one didn't quite made the grade.

not-so-thrilling thriller meets the whitest feminism. I disliked WHISPER NETWORK but disliked HUSBANDS more, meaning that I shouldn’t read any more Baker. while WHISPER NETWORK is white feminism in the workplace, HUSBANDS offers white-feminist issues within a marriage. not totally worthless thanks to compelling dialogue at times.

This is my second Chandler Baker book that I just couldn’t finishing I am so bummed to say this. I am so intrigued by the premise (as I was with Whisper Network), but simply could not get into it. Baker’s writing, while filled with talent, always feels a bit slow to me and I don’t find myself attached with the characters. For those who love Baker, they are sure to love The Husbands. It just didn’t do it for me.