I loved this - perfectly straddles genres of romance, science fiction, and literary fictions. The twist on the “Sliding Doors” concept was inventive and thought-provoking.

I thought the concept of The Husbands was really cool and mostly really well done. I did have a few small issues that made it a little harder for me to be engrossed in the story, but I did still quite enjoy it. I have a feeling our book club will love it, so we will be purchasing multiple copies.

The Husbands was a really pleasant surprise for me. I was honestly a little confused about how the author was going to carry this concept out, especially after I read the first couple chapters. But she somehow takes a strange and unbelievable situation and actually made me somewhat buy into it.

The novel begins with Lauren returning home to her London flat one evening and having her husband greet her. The only problem is that she doesn't have a husband. Lauren has been single for a while now, but this man definitely believes he's her husband and she quickly realizes they've built a life together and even have the wedding photos to prove it. While Lauren is trying to figure out how the heck this happened (even her family and her friends know she's married!), her husband goes into the attic and a different husband comes down.

And thus she realizes that something is happening with her attic that every time her husband goes up, a different one comes down. And it appears that these men are all husbands in alternate versions of her life. I mean, maybe you have to read it to totally get it?

All I know is that I was super impressed with how the story flowed and I found it to be a really enjoyable reading experience.

I can't totally decide how I feel about the ending, but I also spent much of the book wondering how it was going to end. And I'm not really sure how she could have written it in a way that would have been more satisfying to me.

Honestly, hats off to Holly Gramazio for tackling this plot... And as her debut, too. And now, I want to see it turned into a movie!

Holly Gramazio is a new author to me and the premise of The Husbands sounds so different and fun that I couldn't help but be excited to start it.

Lauren comes home one night to find she is married (to Michael). The only problem is that she isn't married and has no idea who the man is. Just as she is figuring out that she really *is* married, Michael goes up in the attic to change a lightbulb and a *different* husband comes back down. Something in the attic changes husbands (but doesn't affect her). She doesn't like the second husband at all, So sends him up in the attic to exchange him for a different husband. And another, and another....

However fun the premise of this book was, the book didn't work for me and I couldn't finish it. I stopped before I was 1/2 way through it.

I loved the premise but the book didn't live up to my expectations. I couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to settle into the story.

This is the best book I've read in the genre of "what if I lived my life differently"? The premise sounds simple and shallow, but in fact the main character, Lauren, evolves in depth as she experiments with the opportunity to try out different husbands and lifestyles. The author has good control over the plot, forcing Lauren into a terrific combination of both thoughtful and absurd scenarios that had to be hard to write although the transitions between husbands and plot twists are fun to read and seem perfectly sensible. Best of all, the end was a complete surprise to me. I'm recommending this book to anyone who comes into the library looking for escape reading, magical realism, or a novel that truly depicts relationships between friends, sisters, and romantic partners.

You can’t deny that the premise of this book is a lot of fun: Lauren comes home from a bachelorette party to find out she’s now married (question mark?)… but she wasn’t prior to the party. And she can exchange her husband for a new one by sending them into the attic. Reset her life, open new possibilities, rearrange the people and places of her life. I did enjoy it but it felt too long and I’d have loved to see certain parts of the story take more shape.

Oh The Husbands! So many different husbands to choose from! This book was so cute and different - when you read a lot of books sometimes they start to mimick one another with the same tropes and themes. Not this one! This was really sweet and uplifting.

Such a unique book! Lauren is single and lives alone so she's surprised to find a strange man in her house when she comes home one night. He happens to be her husband Michael and even though she doesn't remember him, there are photos of them together and her friends and family seem to know him. When he goes into the attic to change a light bulb, a different man comes down the stairs. Lauren sends him back up to look for Michael and a different man comes down the stairs. Anytime a man goes into Lauren's attic, a different man appears who is her husband. With the ability to change husbands without much trouble, how will Lauren ever decide which man is the correct husband for her?

I received a copy from Netgalley for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this book and could hardly put it down! A real page turner, I just kept wanting to know what was going to happen next!
This is a fun romp that answers the question of how our lives would turn out with different partners. How would our friends, house, job be different if we were on a divergent path? She gets to find out in a very unique way!
Give this book a go, you won't be disappointed!

Holly Gramazio has written an unusual book that shows what can happen when you have the opportunity to switch husbands via a magic attic. Lauren lives in a flat in London, and has never been married. Yet she returns home after her friend's hen party to a husband. She discovers that a different husband returns from the attic each time they go into it. She tries to talk to her friend Elena about it, but knows that she's not believed. To everyone else in her life, each husband is known and accepted. Her own life varies depending on who her husband is. How does she know which one is the right one for her?

I savored this book. The characters are richly drawn and add to the plot. I gave 5 stars to the novel because it kept me engaged from the start, and the ending was satisfying. I hope to read more from the author in the future.

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Husbands is a quirky read that explores the notion of “the one.” When Lauren comes home to find an unfamiliar man in her apartment, she is shocked to learn this man is her husband, as confirmed by texts and photos evidencing a life she doesn’t remember living. Lauren is then even further shocked when her husband goes into the attic to search for something and a new unfamiliar man emerges, claiming again to be Lauren’s husband. She soon realizes that her attic can produce an infinite supply of husbands, with the disappearance of one into the attic bringing the emergence of another. With each new husband, Lauren steps into a life already in progress - the contours of which differ in conjunction with the choices made leading to and within her marriage.

The Husbands is such an interesting exploration of how to determine whether a potential partner is “the one” and whether “the one” even exists. If there is always another option around the corner, how do we settle into one relationship? How do our relationships shape who we are and who we become? And how does who we decide to be with shape the path our lives take?

I really enjoyed the experience of The Husbands and I don’t doubt that I will be thinking about its themes for a while. At points, it dragged and it ended up going in a different direction than I anticipated, but I think I liked that, actually. I recommend The Husbands if you are looking for something original and quirky but with deeper themes.

As always, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy!

SO. GOOD. This is an incredibly special book that I could swear is a short story, only because it took me a day to read it. I couldn't put it down.

As someone who has been married for almost a decade, I do wonder sometimes what my life would be like in a parallel universe, married to someone else. "The Husbands" is equal parts fiction, fantasy, and a hypothetical study of how one person could choose multiple spouses, and how that might end up.

I just adored this book.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio was a cute read about the possibility of the magical, stressful, unwelcome rotation of husbands descending the attic staircase of a 30-something year old’s flat.

Lauren is bewildered to come home from a late night of partying to find she is suddenly married to a man she has never met. Upon further investigation, she finds she can get a brand new husband by sending the current one into the attic, only for a new one to descend into her confused embrace. Our main character tries to navigate this never ending carousel of men by trying to find the perfect husband to keep around for good, but is finding your perfect match really all there is to life?

Ok, so I didn’t love Lauren as our protagonist just because I didn’t care for the choices she was making. But, I enjoyed watching her struggle through the many marriages while trying to figure out how to stop the maddening rotation and get her old life back. I too fell in love with some of the men that came into her life and felt that aching sadness when they ultimately went away. But that ending!!! Really great.

I think the ultimate takeaway of this fun little novel is something that I learned when making my own decision to get married: you could make a wonderful marriage work with several different candidates in life, and the choice as to who you pick will lead you down a different path. But there doesn't have to necessarily be THE ONE path that is the ONLY way you will find happiness. You just have to choose the person you want to love for the rest of your life. Of course, please make sure you are choosing someone who shares your values, treats you well, ect… Love is, ultimately, a choice.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio is a unique and often funny story. Lauren, a single woman in London comes home from a bachelorette party to a man that she's never met who claims (and her friends and family confirm) is her husband. She discovers that her attic supplies her with a never-ending supply of new husbands. I laughed out loud at times as Lauren works through hundreds of husbands as she tries to figure out who to settle down with and what life suits her best. Overall enjoyable, but perhaps too long for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Double Day Books for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

BUT FOR THE ENDING! Gahhhh! You know how I feel about a good ending for a book, and this one, well, this one left me wanting a bit more. BUT. I really, really enjoyed this book (thanks to the publisher for the ARC!), a lot more than I thought I would. From the opening chapter I was trying to figure out the "why" and the "how," but as the story moved along I got caught up in the ins and outs of what was happening; and it turns out I really liked this weird, unrealistic story. I will say there were some loose ends I didn't love, and no real explanation for the "how" and "why," and I did not love the ending. But such is life, right?

When single Londoner Lauren's attic starts making husbands appear, she is thrown into a journey of different life paths. While some husbands will stay for a while, others she dismisses by sending up to the attic again. What does make a great partner? How does it affect life? How do you know when you find the right one? It was a fun journey with Lauren as the attic's rotation of husbands leads to a clarifying conclusion. This original read will appeal to fans of The Midnight Library.

The premise of this book had me hooked from page one. I was completely wrapped up in the shock of Lauren finding the first husband in her apartment. Her decision-making process was fun to be a part of... until it wasn't. By the end of the book I was just irritated because it felt so very repetitive when it didn't have to be. And, the ending? That was one of the most abrupt endings EVER. I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't.

The Husbands is a brilliant concept-- wholly original and ambitious in scope-- with decent execution by debut author Holly Gramazio. If it feels a bit like a video game, it may be because it's eerily similar to the endless swiping so many of us do on apps, but it may also be because Gramazio is a game designer in her real life. The book is a fun, if anxiety-inducing, romp through the love(ish) life of a London woman named Lauren, as she cycles through husband after husband, trying to find a connection with an ideal partner and simultaneously trying to find herself-- what circumstances led her to marry these men? But where the novel struggles is in character development. Despite its length, which did start to drag in the middle, it does little to develop the main character and even less to develop the various husbands who pop in and out of her life, many in a matter of moments. Though I do think this frustration with the repetition (as a reader) does help to place you in her head; the dread she feels as yet another husband descends the ladder from her attic is definitely felt, whether for better or for worse. Even with its stumbling blocks, overall, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it.

The Husbands is being marketed as one of the big books of 2024, which would imply it has broad appeal. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. The plot (an abundance of interchangeable husbands for our heroine) flirts with the genres of absurdism and magic realism that was challenging for me as a reader of mostly realistic fiction. The premise just felt like... too much. I'm sure this book will find its audience and will be loved by some readers but I just don't think it contained enough general appeal for the average reader. That is certainly ok, and not necessarily a fault, it just wasn't for me.