I really enjoyed The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker and was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, I was annoyed througout most of the book. There was A LOT of complaining about husbands and while I agree that women typically handle far more than their share of home life this theme was too insistent.

It's a slow burn drama with a bit of a mystery as you really hope it's not going to end the way you're suspecting it will.

The narrator was fantastic!

I received an audio copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I usually don't enjoy fiction on audio but between the intriguing plot line and the incredible Allyson Ryan narrating, somehow the 12 hours flew by.

It's being described as a gender bending Stepford Wives. Nora, an attorney, goes house hunting with her husband in a neighborhood full of secrets, Dynasty Ranch. As a potential neighbor, she becomes even more involved while investigating a wrongful death via a mysterious house firer in the neighborhood. As she entrenches herself more in the community, she begins to notice that these women are not bogged down with the usual domestic complaints that come along with being a wife and a mother.

But why?

Why are their husbands so different from hers? Why are they ALL in some type of high powered career? Why are there so many more questions than answers?

I really enjoyed this book. The audio captivated me but I think it would be just as readable in another format. I have not read the Whisper Network so I cannot compare the two but after this read, I am eager to pick it up.

How much easier would it be for women to succeed if they had a partner who took on a fair share of domestic duties? If they didn’t have to be the only one organizing child care and meals and all of life’s daily admins that bog us all down. In short, what if women had a wife?

Such is the premise of The Husbands // Chandler Baker, an upside down Stepford Wives that introduces the exclusive suburb of Dynasty Ranch where the uber successful women have seemingly figured out how to make their husbands step up at home so they can step up in their careers. Add in a mysterious death, some sinister encounters and one seriously overwhelmed woman and you have a soapy, fun summer read.

As an unmarried, childless woman I probably didn’t relate to this story as much as some women will. Although, my partner and I have been together for ten years, so I definitely did relate to some of it. This book falls into the popular genre of “women’s” stories littered with really frustrating men. The main character’s husband was the weakest part of the story for me. For as much as she claimed to love him despite his many, many flaws, it was never satisfyingly explained what was keeping her with this man and the whole plot hinges on her staying with him.

Nitpick aside, this is a fun, easy read and I think a lot of people will enjoy it.

The Husbands by Chandler Baker is slow-burn domestic suspense in the spirit of Stepford Wives in reverse. The women of the upscale Dynasty Ranch neighborhood have high-achieving, demanding careers and their husbands do the grocery shopping, home cleaning, child rearing. and other household management tasks. While house hunting, Nora Spangler and her husband find a beautiful home that comes complete with very involved neighbors and a mystery. Nora, a successful attorney on the partnership track, is hired by a group of Dynasty Ranch women to assist Penny, a neighbor whose husband died as their home burned. The more Nora investigates and the closer she's drawn into the circle of these women, the greater her concerns become.

A big theme of this novel is the tremendous mental and physical load women carry in raising their children and running their home, and the typically unequal role men play in managing these important responsibilities. I don't have children (and have a pretty amazing husband) so I couldn't fully relate, but I'm sure many readers will appreciate this storyline. Generally, I enjoyed this but felt it was too long, and the ending (which I saw coming) was pretty outrageous.

I appreciated the audiobook narration by Allyson Ryan whose voice was perfect for the professional yet completely stressed out Nora. I really wish the NetGalley app was more user-friendly for a better audiobook listening experience.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the review copy; all thoughts are my own.

I really enjoyed The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker, and I’m a huge fan of The Stepford Wives, the satirical horror novel that influences this one. Chandler Baker, as always, writes beautifully and brings forth thoughtful contemporary feminist commentary and ideas. This time, she tackles the inequity most working women face in the homes — coming home from a long day of work, just as long as your husband’s, and then having to single-handedly manage the household and all of the children. What can be done about these inequities? Baker has a satirical answer.

I loved the premise of this book and the tone of the writing. As always, Baker is an excellent, smart, entertaining writer with great ideas. However, I felt this book moved pretty slowly and lacked the excitement and suspenseful plotting of her previous work, The Whisper Network. Also, despite my feminist interests this book may have hit differently for me because I am fortunate to have a husband who does more than his fair share of the housework, and I don’t have kids. So, the world described in this book was probably a little less fun/escapist for me than it might be for others.

All in all, I think Baker has fantastic and ambitious ideas and a huge amount of talent, but this book was just slow for me. I also note that this audiobook narrator, who is also very talented, takes a very overtly sarcastic and satirical tone throughout. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, because I’m one of the most sarcastic people you’ll ever meet, but that tone got a little tiring to listen to for hours.

I’ll definitely still snap up Chandler Baker’s next book and I’m still very excited to see what she comes up with next. But this one didn’t quite thrill me as much as The Whisper Network. 3.5 stars.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

A slow-burn domestic drama, set in a prestigious suburb of Austin, Texas. There was definite tension, created by a few secrets that were alluded to throughout, but ultimately for me it was just okay.

This book has some great commentary - mostly filtered through our narrator Nora’s inner dialogue - on the gender gap and inequities in many modern marriages. Baker does an excellent job in capturing the flawed notion of the “modern father” - how they do so much more than fathers of previous generations, but it still doesn’t quite add up to 50% because of the imbalance in emotional labor. I sometimes found myself nodding along vigorously while listening to these parts.

But ultimately I was expecting a thriller, and this was more of a dark drama. When the big reveal arrived toward the end, it felt very quick and also a bit disappointing. There were clues all along as to what was going on, so I’d hoped to be surprised by something more unexpected. I did like the darker twist on the very last page, though.

This story was a twist, on the Stepford wives, where in this rich neighborhood, the husbands now work and do all the chores and childcare and all the wives are very successful at their careers. Enter Nora, a lawyer, who is overworked and tired from caring for one child and pregnant with another and her hubby, who really isn’t that bad, just has bad timing.

Nora is looking for a new house and loves the neighborhood but gets this weird feeling about it. The plot was interesting and I liked what the author was trying to get at, although I must be one of the lucky ones because my hubby does everything I do and works as well. It is a slow burn, so you won’t get action right away and once the action starts it gets crazy. It makes me think of a popular movie that recently came out, I won’t say cause it will ruin the story but I kind of figured it out before it happened.

I really enjoyed this interesting social commentary on the roles and responsibilities of men and women. The Husbands centers on Nora and Hayden, a couple looking for a new home for their growing family. the idyllic neighborhood of Dynasty Ranch seems to check all of Nora’s boxes: beautiful houses, friendly neighbors, and…helpful husbands?! The high-powered, influential women of Dynasty Ranch have it all together. They’ve achieve what many women strive for in balancing their personal and professional lives. But is it all as it seems?

I listened to the audiobook and found myself identifying with Nora’s inner thoughts and struggles, even laughing out loud at things or saying to my husband “does this line sound familiar?” The narrator does a great job of keeping the pace of the story and adjusting her voice and tone as needed.

**Thank you to NetGalley, Chandler Baker, and Macmillan Audio for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I think this one a lot of people will love but. I wasn't in the right headspace for it when I picked it up. It was okay, but a bit slow for me and I had a hard time connecting with the material. Adding this one to the 'try again later' list!

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘The Husbands’ by Chandler Baker in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is narrated by Allyson Ryan. Its running time is 12 hours, 12 minutes at 1x sped.

I had enjoyed Baker’s 2019 ‘The Whisper Network’ and welcomed this opportunity to read another of her feminist thrillers.

Nora Spangler is a successful attorney, hoping to make partner though she’s struggling to balance her career with being a mother to four-year-old Liv. Her husband, Hayden, also has a demanding career but Nora feels that the burden of housework and parenting always seems to fall to her.

The Spanglers are considering buying a house in the exclusive Dynasty Ranch neighbourhood. Nora is introduced to a group of high-powered women, all of whom have enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to help one resident with a wrongful death suit, she finds herself pulled into the lives of these women. Nora begins to suspect that there's a dark secret at the heart of this seemingly perfect world.

This was quite an engaging novel even though I found it rather predictable, especially after seeing it compared with an iconic novel from the early 1970s about men wanting their wives to be compliant homemakers rather than have careers and interests.

Also, I did wonder why Nora and Hayden, who clearly had good incomes, just didn’t hire a nanny/au pair and a cleaner to take the pressure off themselves on the domestic front. I guess that if they’d done so there wouldn’t have been a novel as Nora wouldn’t have been under such pressure.

I recognise that I am someone who doesn’t necessarily relate to Nora’s situation with Hayden in ‘The Husbands’. Still, I can imagine this novel will appeal to women who are struggling to find a balance between work and home.

With the audiobook, I wasn’t familiar with Allyson Ryan previous work on audiobooks though she has recorded over 200 titles and won awards for her voice work. Her voice has a pleasing depth to it, perfect for a novel with mature characters.

Overall, I felt that ‘The Husbands’ was entertaining and that its conclusion was very clever.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Nora Spangler, an attorney, a wife and a mom, is struggling to keep her small family’s life together. Nora is feeling under more pressure then normal because, this year she is being reviewed by her firm for partner AND, her family is GROWING, ie., she’s expecting (could she possibly handle any MORE?).
Sadly, her beloved husband is “clueless”, when it comes to #cooperation. His idea of sharing the burden is emptying the garbage & mowing the lawn. He just does not get it.
Nora and Hayden visit Dynasty Ridge (a gated type community), to look at a home (for sale) for their growing family. The agent, takes Nora’s business card. Next thing you know, the agent calls Nora, looking for legal help for Penny (who lives in Dynasty), and whose house burned down & whose husband died in the fire 🔥. Nora is referred by the agent, to Cornelia, who lives in Dynasty and who will be handling the legal issues on Penny’s behalf. When Nora arrives at Cornelia’s, she is (pleasantly) surprised to be greeted at the door, by Cornelia’s husband. His acute understanding of his wife’s stress and his desire to help her any way he can, impresses Nora - “why can’t Hayden be LIKE THIS?”
Well maybe HE can be ….

The Husbands is a page turning thriller that you will not be able to put down! (@gmabookclub august book club pick). If you are looking for a very quick read this is it! I give #thehusbands by @chandlerbakerbooks #5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I listened to the #audiobook and narrator @allyryan13 does a great job! Great read (/ listen). I loved ❤️ it!

Thank you #netgalley and @macmillan.audio for my complimentary #audiobook in return for my honest review.

This book is amazing. I love how they have many cases of gender role reversal and gender role equality. This really shows how some couples really need to work on their distribution of their household tasks.
The strong women within this novel are inspiring and their bonds as women are genuine, but also beneficial to each person.

This is a solidly okay suspense read that speaks to the disparity between husbands and wives, particularly when it comes to childrearing. Much like with the author's last novel, this subject matter didn't particularly resonate with me, as I'm cloudless by choice and have never worked in a high pressure career. While I appreciate what the author is trying to say with this book, I didn't feel connected to any of the characters.

Allyson Ryan's audiobook narration was great. She adjusted her tone for each character, which kept me engaged in the story. I saw the "twists" coming early, which is always a bummer for me. The pacing of the story is extremely slow and drawn out. I was 70% through and wondering when some action might happen.

If you enjoyed The Whisper Network, you'll probably like this one a lot too. Otherwise, I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to. It's not a typical thriller, and is slow paced for suspense.

I really enjoyed Baker's adult debut, Whisper Network, and was looking forward to her follow up The Husbands. I listened to the audiobook, and it was the perfect option for me. The narrator is phenomenal - and that's a lot coming from me as I'm extremely picky when it comes to narrators. Narrator Allyson Ryan really brought these characters to life. There are parts of the book when Baker writes (main character) Nora with an almost stream-of-consciousness, and Allyson really did such a great job on those parts.

In addition to the narrator, The Husbands as a book itself was gripping and entertaining. I got creeped out at parts (which I think was Baker's intention!), laughed at others, and overall was just enthralled by the story. The social commentary on society's gender norms and roles placed on women (particularly in heterosexual relationships), made me think a lot about how I'd want a future partnership of my own to look like one day.

Lots of food for thought and discussion with this one. It'd be a great option for book clubs.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Stepford Wives, but make it dudes is an apt way to describe this premise. If that intrigues you, you might enjoy this story. NGL, it for sure rings true in the opening chapters: Nora is an overworked lawyer, trying to make partner. Too bad she's married to Hayden, who she loves but who seems intent on doing as little as possible when it comes to childcare. When Nora and Hayden go to a house showing in upscale Dynasty Ranch, Nora is suddenly thrown in with a group of the development's neighbors, in need of a personal injury lawyer (which just happens to be Nora's specialty). Nora desperately wants to be part of Dynasty Ranch and its coterie of smart, successful women, who all seem to have such loving, helpful husbands ...

Allyson Ryan does a capable job with the narration, but many of the female voices of the Dynasty Ranch women are difficult to discern from one another, making the dialog tough to follow in spots, and some of the intonations are flatly performed or with the accent on an odd syllable. Points for performing a credible child's voice, though (that's a rarity!). Nora starts out as a sympathetic character, but it's not long before you'll find yourself wanting to scream at her to not be so damn blind (has this woman never seen a Lifetime movie?). Not a bad story by any means, but somewhat disappointing in its relative predictability.

The Husbands is a novel that hit me in the gut. The early chapters sparked gritty memories of new motherhood that have been long buried beneath all of the glorious ones. This book took some unexpected twists that left me unsure of how I felt. The Husbands would make an excellent book club selection with no shortage of topics to discuss and debate. The audiobook was well executed and enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, publisher, and narrator for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

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This one is out TODAY and I highly recommend it. The Husbands is about Nora and her husband, Hayden, a typical couple with a young daughter and another baby on the way. They are constantly struggling to find balance as they both have demanding careers, but Nora finds herself managing 90% of the household and childcare demands on top of her high pressure job as a lawyer. This is a common issue for modern couples, but this book explores this dilemma to the n-th degree as Nora and Hayden search for a new home and come across a strange neighborhood called Dynasty Ranch where things look a little different- all of the women are hugely successful professionally, and they have seemingly perfect husbands who pick up all of the slack at home. The neighborhood and the group of women who live there have an obvious appeal for Nora, but a number of strange incidents, including a recent deadly house fire, begin to build a sinister tone as Nora gets sucked further and further into their circle.

I loved how this book had a fresh take on the impossible expectations society has come to demand of women- perfect careers AND perfect housekeeping- while it was simultaneously such a page turner- the ending keeps you guessing right down to the last page! I also liked that the characters were a little nuanced- for example, although Nora’s husband doesn’t “get it,” he is not a villain or a terrible guy- he is just oblivious to the amount of subtle work she puts in at home, which highlights the issues this book explores. I listened on audio and the pace of the book as well as the narrator made that a good fit for me, but I think it would be engaging either way.

Thank you to Net Galley, Flatiron Books, and the author for the early read!

When I saw this being compared to a "Stepford Wives" gender-swap, I knew I was interested and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed listening to this via audiobook rather than reading a physical book because I felt like I was in Nora's head processing all of her thoughts with her, especially her observations about her husband!

THE HUSBANDS is definitely an easy-read (or listen) that will make you laugh and cringe. If you're into dark and twisty thrillers, this probably wouldn't be your cup of tea, however, if you're into something a bit more light and humorously stirring -- The Husbands might be for you!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audiobook copy of this book! This book is released TODAY (August 3, 2021), so grab your copy and let me know your thoughts!

Nora Spangler is juggling a very demanding job as an attorney, has a one year old daughter Liv, is pregnant with her second child, and her husband Hayden is not the most helpful or supportive partner. They tour a house in Dynasty Ranch where the women there seem to have it all and the husbands happily help out around the house. As Nora spends more time around the women of Dynasty Ranch, she realizes there might be more than meets the eye.
I appreciated the inner dialogue of Nora and think she really nailed what it often feels like to be a wife and mother. Although this is considered a thriller, it was definitely a slow burn. I thought the first half of the book dragged on and could have been condensed. The second half of the book had me engaged and I really enjoyed the ending.
I think there are going to be a lot of women who really love this book. So many of the topics lend themselves to discussion and I can see this being a popular book club pick.

An interesting premise - I really enjoyed the mystery part of this book.

Unfortunately, there was so much preaching about what is expected of moms and how their male partners should be helping that it took away from the story. I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that was being expressed, but I read fiction to escape my real, everyday life, and this book forced me to dwell on it. At times, it even felt like I was reading a self-help type book rather than a novel.