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The Husbands

A Novel

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The Husbands

Written by: Chandler Baker
Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
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About this listen

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

“Chandler Baker, queen of the feminist thriller, has delivered once again! The Husbands is a poignant exploration of what it would take for women to have it all." (Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister)

Chandler Baker, the New York Times best-selling author of Whisper Network, is back with The Husbands, a novel that asks: to what lengths will a woman go for a little more help from her husband?

Nora Spangler is a successful attorney but when it comes to domestic life, she packs the lunches, schedules the doctor appointments, knows where the extra paper towel rolls are, and designs and orders the holiday cards. Her husband works hard, too...but why does it seem like she is always working so much harder?

When the Spanglers go house hunting in Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighborhood, Nora meets a group of high-powered women - a tech CEO, a neurosurgeon, an award-winning therapist, a bestselling author - with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to help with a resident’s wrongful death case, she is pulled into the lives of the women there. She finds the air is different in Dynasty Ranch. The women aren’t hanging on by a thread.

But as the case unravels, Nora uncovers a plot that may explain the secret to having-it-all. One that’s worth killing for. Calling to mind a Stepford Wives gender-swap, The Husbands imagines a world where the burden of the “second shift” is equally shared- and what it may take to get there.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

"The Husbands is both a gripping, well-crafted mystery and an insightful critique of motherhood and marriage in the modern age - working mothers everywhere will feel seen in the best possible way.” (Kimberly McCreight, New York Times best-selling author of Reconstructing Amelia and A Good Marriage)

©2021 Chandler Baker (P)2021 Macmillan Audio
Domestic Thrillers Fiction Genre Fiction Psychological Thriller Marriage Suspense Mystery
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Married women with children

This book was a disappointing one for me and boring (perhaps this is because I am a single female with no children). I found much of the book to be focused on married life and how the women in the book work so hard, seeing that they are are in high powered positions in the workforce. Much of the book also focuses on Nora Spangler’s envy for how these high powered women have their husbands doing all the domestic work and catering to their wives. There was a lot of potential here to focus more on the plot and less about Nora’s resentment towards her husband Hayden’s lack of assistance at home.

I got excited with the mention of the wrongful death suit in the beginning, thinking “it’s about to get good.” Unfortunately, the excitement never came for me. Parts toward the end seemed interesting, especially once you discover what this big secret is that Nora keeps from the audience until the end. I did not expect the secret to be anything exciting, but this turned out to be the most exciting part for me. The rest of the discovery about the burned down house and the death of a husband in the process did not thrill me at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

A disappointing read for me, but it can be good read for those that could maybe relate more to Nora and/ or the other characters.

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first half was good, second half was ridiculous.

The main character was annoying and difficult to root for; She's an "attorney", yet her job has her running around like cheesy detective from a bad movie. The other characters became cartoonishly evil by the end of the book. What started as a compelling story, became wildly ridiculous and nearly impossible to finish. By the last few chapters, I just didn't care. There was too many villains for anything to be remotely plausible. Too many loose ends needed to be tied up and it felt like a frantic climactic peak, with a poor resolution.

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