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!

I enjoyed reading the book The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher. This is my honest and personal review. Happy Reading!

I was not sure how I felt about the ending of this book when I finished it, and I’m not sure now, a week or so later. But what I do know is that it kept me entertained and not in utter despair as a stomach bug descended on our house and I was up until 2 a.m. two nights in a row cleaning up puke. That’s quite the accomplishment. It was funny, but at times quite reflective, and though the ending felt quite sudden at the time, I think I decided that it was fitting. There’s quite a bit of underlying commentary on dating and finding “the one” and settling that I found really interesting as well, and the metaphors (at least that’s how I read them) made the book work really well for me. I think I saw @shelfbyshelf post about this book ages ago, and it was one of my most anticipated of the year! So glad it lived up to the hype.

🪜Book Review🪜
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Summary: When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts: this book just sounded so good, I had such high hopes for the premise. I love a good magical realism book. This one started off really strong but the premise grew pretty repetitive. At some point she was sending her husbands back into the attic for petty reasons like not being attracted to them or for the way they chew. The main problem is that the FMC was just not very likable and didn’t really learn a lesson about herself at the end. I feel like by the end she really needed to change and in my opinion she did not. Overall a very cool book idea the first half was great but after husband 200 plus it just got repetitive !
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QOTD- do you like magical realism ? Give me a recommendation if you do! My favorite is other birds 😍
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#thehusbands

It is a bit strange that my fiancé put me on to this book about alternate timelines with different husbands. He’s the kind of (future) husband who keeps an eye out for books I might like. So, I looked into it and requested an ARC on NetGalley. I was genuinely excited when it was approved. I started reading and found the exposition a bit underdeveloped and was initially disappointed. I wanted more reflection from this character who is suddenly able to generate new husbands, and lives, in her attic. I became as bored with the constant rotation as the protagonist. It wasn’t until nearly halfway through that I stopped being able to guess at what would happen next. This coincided with the main character’s experience as well. The last quarter especially had us both rattled. By the end, I can confidently say that I really enjoyed this book. It was a great one-two punch of exciting plot and reflective character development. Keep reading, you might just find what you’re looking for.

I received an advance digital copy of this book from Doubleday an imprint of Penguin Randomhouse and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I throughly enjoyed this title. I thought it struck a great balance of science fiction and romance for those that don’t normally read fiction that relies heavily on some form of a romance storyline. I felt like it also referenced a Groundhog’s Day type narrative without being too close to that kind of a storyline. I think the only gripe I had with this story is that there didn’t seem to be much explanation why the main character happened to be stuck in this loop. I would have liked to be included in on a bit more of that side of the storyline. But otherwise, a very enjoyable read!

This debut novel’s bananas premise makes for a humorous read with themes of choice, relationships, and self-love. Lauren returns home from a hen (bachelorette) party to find her husband waiting at home in her flat. Thing is, she’s not married, and she’s never seen this guy before. Turns out, Lauren has a surreal problem. As soon as she sends Husband No. 1 back into the attic, a new hubby descends. “My weird attic is magic,” she says. “It’s been creating a whole bunch of husbands, and I don’t know what to do.” The novel brings us along on Lauren’s process of figuring out what she can control and what she can’t, who and what she gets to choose for herself. The ending had me scratching my head, but I enjoyed arriving there.

[Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

—— Review

Thank you for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

The cover really pulled me in and then to be told it was a story about a magical attic that produces endless husbands! I am such such a sucker for these magical realism stories. I really went in thinking this would take a “love the one your with” trope and was intrigued that it felt quite unique the first half of the book!
Lauren, who has never been married, comes home to discover her attic is producing endless amounts of husbands. It was quite comical and I really liked the main characters stream of consciousness that reminded me a bit of lit-fic.
The last 1/2 of the book kinda slowed and dragged testing out a million men and I lost my interest and the ability to keep names straight reading the physical copy (so I’m not sure I would recommend audio). The side characters felt so distant and flat. It felt rather anticlimactic with an abrupt ending that I liked the moral of, but could have been fleshed out more.
Not for me, really seeing a lot of mixed reviews on this one! If you read and posted a review, comment below I really want to read and share!


Ps) I am a star rater. I don’t tag authors. Stars are half its a good book half vibes. I think booksta community really need to chill on making them more than they really are with everyone’s philosophical takes on them. Most of book sales are predicted before even published & sales don’t represent “good books” always.

2⭐️

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio is an entertaining story about choice and relationships.

When I first read the synopsis for The Husbands by Holly Gramazio—a story about a woman, a magical attic and an endless supply of husbands—I thought it sounded charming and fun. And it is! But like many of these kind of time loop type stories, it gets a little repetitive at times. However, overall I did quite enjoy it.

This is a fun and entertaining read. It doesn’t ponder as much about oneself like others in the genre. It also leans much into humor, and never really takes itself or the scenario too seriously.

If you’re looking for a cute and easy read, this is a good choice.

Lauren returns home after a night out to find a man in her apartment claiming to be her husband but Lauren is single and has never met this man in her life. When he crawls up into the attic and a different husband climbs down, Lauren discovers that her attic produces an infinite supply of husbands. By the halfway mark of the book, Lauren has gone through over 100 different husbands. I was drawn in by the unique premise and stayed for the laughs. I found Lauren’s experience highly entertaining and it had me thinking about which flaws I’d be willing to tolerate in a partner. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one and thought Gramazio stuck the landing with the ending.