This book was such a delight. It felt like both exactly what I wanted to read in the moment, as well as a pretty universally appealing book for a wide audience. The writing was sharp, and funny, and the protagonist was deeply relatable in so many ways. It was a refreshing take on marriage, too—a neat reflection of the time invested in a relationship prior to marriage, and the thousand little ways you get acclimatized to any person you live with.

This may not be one of the most impactful books of my year, but I have a hunch it will be one of my most-recommended.

Thank you to Doubleday Books for the opportunity to read and review!

Thanks from #NetGalley and #RandomHouse

The concept of this book is what attracted me to it. The Husbands by Holly Gramazio is cute, with twists and insight. This would make a great movie. In truth, if I arrived home to a man claiming to be my husband, I would have freaked out as well. Yet, every time I sent my husband to the attic a new man appeared as my husband. How does you keep the one you want for going to the attic or is there a just one more to choose from? You will have to pick up this well crafted novel

I love magical realism so I will always give those books a try. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 is also a read with Jenna pick for April. The concept of a revolving attic and the idea of multiple husbands definitely piqued my interest!

This is a funny debut novel that combines elements of magical realism with an entertaining fantasy plot. The protagonist, Lauren, finds herself in a fascinating predicament with a revolving door of husbands, or shall we say a revolving attic? Once she tires of one, or becomes annoyed for any number of reasons, back to the attic they go. There are hundreds of husbands and the only characters that remain constant are Lauren’s family and her closest friends.

I love a sliding-door story, but I did become disengaged with this story at several times because of the constant revolving door of husbands. However I did love the book once the early husbands cycled through, and literally laughed out loud at some of Lauren’s predicaments.

The blend of magical realism and fantasy elements adds a touch of whimsy to the narrative, making 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 a light and entertaining read. I would definitely recommend the audiobook version of this book, as I found it very enjoyable. If you're a fan of magical realism and enjoy pondering the "what-ifs" in life, you will enjoy this book.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing review copies in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts are my own.

Quirky and funny. I have never been so happy to pick my husband up from the airport… My one and only husband— I hope!

This books makes you literally laugh out loud and is absolutely ridiculous at times! But for this reader: The messaging was received! Loved the book.

I’m off to enjoy all of the things in my life I’ve loved (and not loved) and give a giant sigh of relief that I even got to experience any of it at all to begin with! Great debut novel.

Super quirky and a creative fun read.

I really enjoyed this one. A magical attic that swaps out husbands? Why not! Magical realism is one of my favorite genres so when I read the premise, I had to have this one. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. I laughed out loud so many times during this book. If you like realistic fiction with just a bit of the unbelievable, this one will not disappoint. Similar to The midnight library in that the main character has the opportunity to live her life with various husbands mixed in.

What a fun journey!

This book was hilarious, ridiculous, absolutely wild, and surprisingly emotional at times? I really enjoyed the reading experience, but it felt like something was missing when I got to the end.

I do think this book had a strong concept and it was well executed for sure. The one thing I'm unsure about is the ending. It felt like it was kind of unfinished in an unsatisfying way, and it definitely knocked my rating down a bit and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I'm clearly conflicted about this one, but I will say that I'm glad I read it and would definitely give this author another shot to wow me, because I think she totally has the potential to!

WOW. First of all, what a stunner of a concept—Gramazio found a way to perfectly illustrate the dilemmas millennials are facing today (and I'm sure other generations too, but especially this early 30s "where am I going with my life" struggle!). Just when I thought the conceit would get old, she threw in a perfect twist that let us explore the themes and characters more deeply. I laughed out loud and was left satisfied and reflective by the ending, which, after sitting with it for a minute, feels just right. I'm recommending it to everyone I know!

Lauren returns home from a bachelorette party to be greeted by her husband, Michael, except she doesn’t remember being married, now or ever. Every time her husband goes in the attic, he is replaced by a new one. As Lauren peruses her seemingly endless options, she must consider which life is the right one for her.

I did enjoy the premise of The Husbands, but it lost steam for me. There were so! many husbands and the revolving door of them began to grow repetitive. At one point, I thought I was close to the end of the book, only to see on my iPad that I was just 57% through the story. While I enjoyed the originality and parts of The Husbands, overall I hoped to like it more than I did.

3.5 stars

Such an interesting concept. Loved this but it became very repetitive and I wasn’t a fan of the ending. I needed a reason why…or at least for her to find out why it was happening/what set it off to start in the first place. Was it just her?…or the attic? Did it happen to her grandma too?
A great book to discuss.

This was a delight to read. The witty dialogue and the enchanting attic which mysteriously produced husbands had me captivated. I loved the quirky, unpredictable Lauren. I read it in one sitting. The attic husbands were a hoot. What an imaginative story! I can’t wait for this to be adapted into a screenplay or miniseries. This fun, cute book is highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley for the free review opportunity.

I enjoyed reading and listening to the book The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher. As well as an audio version from the publisher.

I loved every minute of this book. It helped me to escape a very tough time and really allowed me to just get into a book. Exactly what books are meant to be.

Having the actor narrate as well as I read along digitally helped my dyslexia anxiety be able to devour this read in the way it was meant to be devoured.



This is my honest and personal review. Happy Reading!

3.5 rounding up!
Pros: fantastic premise and original concept, good balance of wit and seriousness, some points about love and who we choose could be made through this story

Cons: too long - would have worked better as a short story or novella, ending felt very abrupt, and I felt like we didn’t know enough about Sam to justify him being the final husband, but I guess that’s sort of the point.

When Lauren returns home drunk from her friend's hen do, she is greeted by her husband Michael coming out of the attic.... but when she left for the party, she wasn't married. But there are wedding pictures in her apartment and text messages from Michael on her phone. Then Michael goes back into the attic, and a new husband comes out with new changes to the flat and new pictures and texts on her phone. As Lauren learns about her magic attic, she cycles through husbands trying to find one to keep, and along the way she learns about herself and what it means to be a good partner.

Overall, I liked this one, but didn't love it. Lauren is a relatable and likable character and I enjoy a little magical realism. The premise was fun and there were enough little twists along the way to not let the process of her cycling through husbands get too boring. But there wasn't as much depth to the story as I was expecting given how many people I've heard talking about it. I've seen this title labeled as romance, and I wouldn't necessarily call it a romance because the central story isn't her relationship with one character.

Rating 4/5

3.5 stars

In this lighter and more single-tracked version of The Midnight Library, Lauren is able to swap her husband by sending him up into her attic and a new one comes down. It’s a cute conceit but runs out of steam a bit in the middle before coming to a slightly obvious conclusion.

When Lauren gets home after a girls’ night out, she discovers she suddenly has a husband who she has never met before. When she goes through her phone, it becomes clear that her past has changed and she’s now in this new present in which she’s married to Michael. But when he goes into the attic, a new husband emerges and her past resets.

She quickly discovers she can send a husband back if he doesn’t meet her criteria and she takes advantage of this over and again. We spend time with a few of the husbands including one that she thinks might be The One and there's some interesting ideas about married love versus falling in love love. But when you think you have infinite choice, how are you going to decide which one to commit to?

This is a fairly obvious satire of contemporary swipe left/right dating culture in which people make rapid decisions on suitability based on the flimsiest reasons. The premise isn’t quite as well worked through as that of The Midnight Library: there’s no explanation of why this suddenly happens, why other things change but others are consistent, and no thought about what happens to the husbands after they’re rejected.

Like Midnight Library, Lauren eventually has a husband who has been swapping wives/husbands so they can compare notes and (somehow) keep in touch even when the past resets. Neither of them seem particularly interested in why/how the swapping happens.

The author does try and mix things up to stretch the novel out, but some husbands seem quite unlikely, given that past-Lauren has actually chosen and married them. Having started with a really fun premise, the novel does flounder a bit and get a little repetitive before Lauren finally realizes after 200+ husbands that she can’t keep doing this. The novel draws to a close with a not startlingly original but satisfying message for those of us without a magic attic.

Thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Oh the concept of this book was wonderful, unfortunately for me, it fell flat. It took a bit to long to get to the point and in the end I don’t even think she learned anything but just resigned herself to her life.

In The Husbands we meet a girl, her magic attic, and an endless supply of husbands. What follows is an abstracted, cheeky take on searching for “the one” in the modern era.

This read will hold a certain appeal to those who enjoy the idea of trying on different versions of a life, similar and refracted based to the choices you make. In Lauren’s case, this comes in the form of a randomly generated Husband emerging down the stairs of her attic.

At one point, Lauren reflects on how our personalities soften in those early days of a relationship, shaping and changing in tandem with another other person. And I felt this was the thesis of this whole piece - that she wasn’t just trying on husbands, but trying on lives; potential versions of herself.

What’s great, too, about Lauren as a character as at most points you can totally relate to her and her logic, but then she’ll throw a curveball and make the most chaotic and deranged choice possible in the moment that makes you worried about her. Like, there must be a slightly better way to handle the situation at hand, Lauren!. She had me STRESSED.

Truly wasn’t sure how this one would wrap-up, and the ending both surprised me and left me feeling like it was the only way it COULD end.

Despite the occasional criticism of the repetitive nature of Lauren’s encounters with various husbands, I found myself fully engaged with the story and invested in the greater message it conveys. Much like “Temporary” by Hilary Leichter, “The Husbands” serves as a whimsical allegory for the complexities of our real lives, inviting readers to ponder the nature of choice and identity.

I saw a lot of hype for The Husbands on social media back in the fall. The premise was intriguing and I was very excited to get approved for an advanced copy of it. I'm happy to say that for me, it lived up to the hype.

The premise of The Husbands is: On the night of her best friend's bachelorette party, Lauren returns to her apartment, only to find a man she doesn't know inside. But wait--is this her apartment? The picture frames are different, the furniture rearranged, nothing quite like what she left it. Lauren realizes that this man is in fact her husband, and just as she's adjusting to that reality, the husband goes into the attic, only to come back down a different husband entirely. And around and around we go.

Some of the husbands are nice, some are less so. Lauren quickly realizes though, that it isn't just the husbands that change. Each time a new husband appears, so do the details of her life rearrange. Lauren works different jobs, has different relationships with her college best friend, even her sister's marriage or lack-there-of, adjust based on the status of Lauren's revolving door of husbands.

About 30% of the way through the story, I began to wonder if the premise was too thin to carry the rest of the book, after all. how many times could you go through more or less the same scenario, but Gramazio did a good job carrying it to the finish line. I found the ending a bit abrupt but otherwise, this was an enjoyable read that will be the perfect book to pack for summer vacations.

Unfortunately as much as I was looking forward to this book, I didn’t really enjoy it. I felt like I was mindlessly thumbing through tinder and never messaging anyone. The husbands were like a carousel not ever getting to know anyone as an individual or as a couple with Lauren. Like what was the story exactly?

Thank you to NetGalley & the publishers for this ARC!!




"It's not a competition, we can both be really sad about our husbands if you like."

Imagine after a night of fun with your soon-to-be married bestie coming home to a strange man, not only coming home to a strange man but you're actually married to this man & the only one who is strange here is you.

Lauren experiences this, her life off in a tizzy & before she can even come to terms with it the mysterious man goes into the attic & out comes yet another STRANGE MAN. Over the course of days, she soon discovers this magic that lies dormant in the attic until a husband pops out & her life resets. She meets every type of man she could imagine; some are naked when they pop down, some are dressed as medieval men in crushed velvet, some are rich & some are so deeply in debt she gives no time to them. But as time goes by & husbands become faceless, nameless figures passed like ships in the night she wonders why everyone else gets to live their life linearly around her. Her friends are still getting married, working, selling their flat or even dipping their toe into the swinger lifestyle. Lauren can't seem to find a footing in any of the lives she's cycled through, it seems harder & harder to give up the magic property of the attic, its allure of skipping work & getting to cycle out new jobs with little to no extra work from her.

But can anyone actually sustain a life like this? I guess that's something that Lauren has to find out on her own.

Obsessed with this premise. Fascinating way to explore one of the worst part of dating apps: endless options that make it so hard to commit. Without spoilers, I’ll say the ending felt a bit rushed, I would have liked to dive in more. Also cover art is perfection!