Married To A Cave Man by Damien Owens is about three couples going through difficult times in their relationships.

I'm sad that I wasn't able to read this book, because it was too much at the same time. I guess that his book was amazing and I would love to try and read it.
Now i will have to buy one!

Married to a Cave Man is a cute lighthearted read that delves deep into struggles that most of us face, marriage and infertility. I love how the author was able to make these sometimes tougher subjects seem light.

Thank You to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story of three married couples as they try to deal with various different aspects in their married life. What ends up tying them all together is 'the man cave', that little area for the men to relax, unwind, whatever they may need.

What I liked at the very start was how the author introduced the couples, which was of course their first meeting, I loved this because although a short introductory chapter it gives you a vital piece of history as well as letting you know what everyone thought of each other at first glance. For me that really drew me into the story, most likely as I'm incredible nosy and love to find out how things turn out.

After we did get past the initial meetings and onto the real nitty gritty parts, I did find it hard at times to keep up with who was who, now there are six characters main characters to follow and just for the first few chapters at least I did struggle a tad to remember who was married to who. Once I did figure all that out, it was easy to see the different dynamics, different struggles and different personalities which were all fairly fleshed out. It did also lead to a lot more internal screaming towards every single character as no one was able to see any of the problems their spouses were facing. Now this might just be because as a reader it can be pretty easy to tell what's going on, especially with all that internal dialogue, but my goodness I was definitely getting more than a little irritated at times.

It did however give a pretty good and pretty honest depiction of what a relationship can really be like, without all the romance and when life really decides to kick you while your down. It also gives a valid depiction of what can happen in a relationship when both partners let pride get in the way and stubbornness of course. Now even though this was a well written book, I just couldn't really lose myself in it and I can't really pinpoint why, I feel as if the points the author was going for were well received, as mentioned it gives an accurate depiction of struggles people face, but it didn't have the certain factor that allowed me to completely lose myself in the book. This may just be me though. I was really hoping that the ending would knock my socks of and all would be forgiven but I only kind of liked how one couple was able to resolve their problems. If anything I wouldn't of minded an epilogue to find out how the characters were doing down the road, but once again that may just be my overall nosiness!

I'm going to be the grinch here (again) - well, there has to be one, doesn't there? So far all the other reviews have been very positive, with 4 stars being the lowest rating, but this just didn't do it for me. I requested it from NetGalley partly because it sounded fun and entertaining and partly because it's set in Dublin and written by an Irish author (I'm aiming to read more Irish authors/material this year). It's readable, but just a bit too lightweight. There were some amusing lines, but it all felt like the author was trying too hard to be clever, and I found the characters too stereotyped to form a connection. Sorry!

Funny and light, without being trite.

If you have ever wanted to bash your significant other around the head with a blunt instrument one moment and in the next instance wondered if you might actually be married to a real life superhero because you are so in awe of them, then you will identify with this book. We all love our other halves, right? But crikey oh blimey they know how to push our buttons.



So many “romance books” (not sure this entirely falls into that category, but for argument's sake) are about the chase. They are about the 'boy meets girl', the desperate tumble into love, the overcoming of inevitable disaster, etc. What I loved about this book is that it picks up where most others end off. We meet these 3 couples when they’ve done the falling in love part a long time ago and are now well into the humdrum of daily life.



And so this book, in a funny but delicate way, looks at the trials and tribulations of marriage and family life. How couples support each other through some of life’s biggest challenges. How they wonder what the hell they have got themselves into. How children will find a battery to put in their mouths, no matter how hard you watch them.



Owens captures that special brand of light sarcasm that every long term couple seems to have developed with each other - the one that can turn barbed at a moment's notice. And he paints family life in such wonderful, technicolour hilarity. Several times I had a fit of the sniggers and had to compose myself while reading on the bus.



And then it deals with the big issues. Whether being a stay at home dad makes you less of a man (spoiler alert - it doesn’t), whether infertility makes it OK to get secretly mad at pregnant ladies (it does, just a little bit) and if it is entirely legitimate to turn your garage into a games room (the jury is out on that one).



I just loved every cotton-picking minute of it. It was a quick but gorgeous read. And its out now, so go get your hands on it.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Married to a Cave Man is OUT NOW by Unbound

I knew Damien was a great writer before I started this book but if I hadn't known that before I would be aware now. Damien Owens is a master of dialogue and this book is no exception. Beautifully written and an absolute pleasure to read.

Would translate well into a tv series. I'd love to see these characters on screen.

I didn't want this book to end.

* Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I became drawn to this book mostly due to the cover and also the fact that it is a contemporary fiction about marriage written by a male author, which I feel is not very common.

When all of the characters were introduced at the beginning of the novel, I felt that I might get confused between them. However, this was not the case and I found that they were all distinct and had their own personalities. Each member of the three couples that the story follows almost seemed like a stereotype usually found in romantic comedies but portrayed in a much more realistic way. I felt that the dramas that happened were understandable and were resolved in relatively realistic ways.

This contemporary novel takes the idea of a man cave and uses it to study these three couples and I really enjoyed that. It seemed very current and I would recommend it to both male and female readers as I don't think the author focused on either gender over the other. Also I liked that one of the characters was a stay-at-home father as this is something that I've rarely seen in fiction.