I had high hopes for this book based on the synopsis, unfortunately I did not enjoy it in the least. I found the characters unlikeable and the storyline rather flat.

Great Book!

Didn't realise this was a follow up from Has Anyone seen my Sex Life so I definitely have to read that one now.
This one focuses on Emma and her Shite of an Ex Husband, Simon! 🙄
Simon is a complete tit who you love to hate but Lucy's hatred of him is on another (hilarious) level 🤣

Lucy, the youngest of Emma's 3 sisters, OMG Lucy! I don't think I've ever read a character so Funny, she was just pure LOL all the way through and she totally made this book for me!

I really hope she gets her own story.

Thank you #netgalley and #bookouture for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. LOVED IT!!!
OUT ON 19TH JUNE
A MUST READ for when you could do with a laugh!

What a fun cheeky romp! I loved the dialogue between the characters and the situational comedy. I found myself absorbing every page. The plot is predictable; however, the comedy carries the book. Emma's relationship to Jag felt secondary to the overall story, but I think that was on purpose. I previously read Has Anyone Seen My Sex Life?, so I knew where things were going with the relationship. I felt happy to see growth in Emma and to watch her hand off that knowledge to another character towards the end of the book. Ultimately, the best part of this book is the family bond between Emma and her sisters.

Currently, I am struggling with getting into a book...any book. Can I Give My Husband Back? sucked me in and held me there. So much fun!

A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy and the opportunity to review this book!

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So thank you to them and the publisher for accepting my request to read the book early.

Firstly, I loved the cover of this book. I’d not heard of ‘Has Anyone Seen My Sex Life’ but after reading ‘Can I Give My Husband Back’, I’ll be sure to check it out. I really enjoyed Kristen Bailey’s writing style and found this to be a well paced read.

My favourite part of the book was the relationship between Emma and her sisters, it reminded me of myself and my siblings and how I’d defend them until the end. Lucy particularly is a highlight of the story with her cutthroat lines and utter contempt of Simon.

Simon...what a scumbag. That is all on that one.

There were times when I couldn’t quite understand why Emma put up with what she did, there didn’t seem to be many, if any redeemable factors to Simon’s character but she lives and breathes for her family so in that aspect it makes sense.

If you get chance to read this book, definitely do. I really enjoyed it. There’ll be moments that make you laugh, moments that make you angry (whenever Simon speaks) and ultimately moments that make you root for Emma and her journey of rediscovering herself.

"I thought I was sorted on the life front. I was a heart surgeon with a loving partner and two gorgeous little girls. Except my husband’s version of ‘loving’ is lying, cheating and sleeping his way around London. Which means I definitely deserve a refund.

Unfortunately, moving on isn’t that simple. Just because I know how to operate on a heart doesn’t mean I know how to fix my broken one. Plus, I lost the receipt for him years ago so I’m definitely getting short changed."

When I first started reading this I was a little bit lost and it did take me a couple of chapters to get into the book, I think it was the introduction to Lucy that really sparked it for me. Despite not being the main character in this book she's balsy, says things as they are and is the sister/best friend that everyone needs.

This book actually had me chuckling out loud and I think I almost actually jumped off my chair at one point. You feel the frustration, anger and sheer happiness that the characters go through which really brings the book to life. I really did enjoy reading it and it was a shame to reach the end - definitely need a sequel into the adventures of all of the sisters. I feel like there could be a few more stories to be written!!

My only reason for not giving this the full 5 stars was the epilogue. I think this actually really set the scene for the whole story, and while it actually fitted really well as 'it never really is [the end]' I feel like personally I would have preferred for this to be the prologue.

Oh my, what a delightful book! I already had one author on my list of 'writes hilarious books', but this author most certainly deserves a place on it too.

She already had me in stiches while I read 'Has Anyone Seen My Sex Life?' where she focusses on Meg, the eldest of 5 sisters. Now it's time to put the spotlight on Emma, but the other family members are very much present as well. 

The women are all great, but Lucy is my favorite. She tells it like it is and takes no prisoners, but she is also very kind and protective towards her loved ones.

Every ending is the beginning of something new, but starting over is not so simple. You are afraid to get hurt again and you rather like to hide in your own little safe shell. It would be no problem, if you had no sisters like Emma has. Although they are sometimes (well often actually) quite pushy, they do it with only the best intentions. What does not kill you makes you stronger and Emma blossoms without a doubt. 

She changes from a little mouse into a tigress, but she keeps her heart of gold.

I suppose the author will write stories about the 3 remaining sisters too. That means I still have 3 funny books to look forward to. I can't wait. 5 stars, of course.

Thank you, Kristen Bailey and Bookouture

“Can I Give My Husband Back?” is an extremely easy to read novel with perfect doses of humour, sarcasm, romance and heartaches. It has done a great job in highlighting the bond between siblings and how exactly they are ready to kill you or for you.
Emma is a paediatric heart surgeon – with two lovely daughters and cheater of a husband, Simon.It was on the Christmas of 2017 that she finally had the guts to confront her husband and end their marriage. Her sisters stood by her side ready to pounce on Simon. The story is told as a narrative of Emma, called as Ems by her close ones.

The novel is full of jokes and I really adored this book and devoured those humorous statements. Wish have read it at a bit slower pace! This book has it all-its hilarious and filled to the brim with moments that literally made me laugh out loud, has a wonderful cast of characters (who are all very realistic and relatable), fun family dynamics, deals with relationships and romantic mishaps.

My favourite character was Lucy, the youngest of the Callaghan sisters. She through her glaring at Simon, sneaky comments and her enthusiastic nature added a new dimension to the book. The book also deals with the aftermath of a divorce and the toll it takes on not only the people getting separated but also the children born out of that once a happy marriage. Emma ‘s daughters were brave and adapted to the arrangement quite easily and little Iris spilled on information that helped Lucy to spy on Simon. From the dragon of a mother to sisters and secretary wanting Emma to get her love life back in track.
Hands down this book is a great source of laughter and amusement. Kristen Bailey did a great job in creating the characters, building the plot and filling it with funny moments at the right places, at right sentences. I really enjoyed reading the book! Thanks to Net Galley and Bookouture for providing me with the review copy! Go grab your copy now!

It’s normal to prefer getting a filling at the dentist’s to spending time with your husband, right?

I thought I was sorted on the life front. I was a heart surgeon with a loving partner and two gorgeous little girls. Except my husband’s version of ‘loving’ is lying, cheating and sleeping his way around London. Which means I definitely deserve a refund.

Unfortunately, moving on isn’t that simple. Just because I know how to operate on a heart doesn’t mean I know how to fix my broken one. Plus, I lost the receipt for him years ago so I’m definitely getting short changed.

But now I’m single, am I ready to mingle? There are a few minor issues:

1) The last time I went on a date double denim was in fashion and my eyebrows were horrendously overplucked.

2) Men wear stupidly skinny jeans now.

3) I don’t know how to use dating apps but at least I don’t have to get changed out of my pyjamas.

4) Sometimes the most promising thing you have in common with a guy is a shared love of prawns.

5) I don’t know whether to open a date with ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ or ‘hey’ and once I ended up saying ‘howdy’.

Everything happens for a reason, they say. There’s plenty more fish in the sea. But what happens when everything falls apart and you haven’t got a clue how to go fishing?

I loved this book, so heart warming and funny. I laughed so much while reading this.
The characters were likeable and relatable, and I loved how the sisters balanced out each other.
This is the first time I have read this author but I will be definitely reading more of her books.
I will be recommending this book to everyone.

This book was a fun read. It was very well written and easy to get through. At first I was kind of intimidated but how long the book was, but towards the end I was wishing it was longer. I liked the main character and her sisters (they reminded me of my own!). I truly fell into the world of these characters.

The book follows the story of the main character Emma and her life after divorce- learning what’s its like to have fun and love again. Her ex-husband was a piece of work and even two years after the divorce he continues to be just the absolute worst. It was interesting to see her perspective on how her marriage fell apart (by no fault of her own!). Its an interesting to read about what a mother would do to keep her own kids happy.

I truly enjoyed this book.

4.5 stars

This was such a great book! It was funny, relatable, and grabbed my attention from the get-go.

Honestly, I felt bad for Emma at first because her ex-husband was such a d*ck, but dear lord, how many affairs does it take before you finally kick him to the curb?! That was really the only thing that bothered me about this story. It was quite apparent that he’d had multiple affairs, even while she was pregnant, so the fact that she stuck it out as long as she did was surprising to me.

I was glad to see Emma put herself out there and try to move on, even if there were a few duds along the way. Tag seemed like a decent guy, but I wasn’t really feeling enough of a connection between him and Emma. I think they got along well, but I didn’t get any amorous vibes between them.

Emma’s sister, Lucy, was by far my favorite. She had me cracking up left and right, and I would love to see her get her own story.

Overall it was a quick and enjoyable read. Highly recommend this one!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3344467742

I enjoyed this book. It had funny parts and light hearted moments but it had some very heartfelt, poignant moments and events too. Emma is one of 5 sisters and I loved the family dynamics and the strong female characters. The pace moved forward nicely, the story was believable and relatable (I hope I never meet Simon in real life!), I rated this book 4⭐️ and would recommend it as a great summer read. I will definitely be looking for more by this author in future.

Emma and Simon are divorced. We hate Simon. He’s a sleaze ball, lying, wife cheater that thinks he has done no wrong. Emma has 4 sisters, each with fabulously unique personalities, that will defend her to the ends of the earth.
When Emma has decided to dip her toe into the dating pool she finds dating ain’t easy anymore. She has two sweet girls at home to think of and she is just happy being a pediatric heart surgeon.
We follow her on the ups and downs of dating, dealing with struggling of Simon and his ‘women’ and life with her sisters.
Many, many laughs...

What a great book! I enjoyed the large family dynamic and navigating the ups and downs of life after divorce as a professional woman with 2 small kids. I wanted to strangle the ex-husband several times, mostly because he reminded me of my own ex. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

This is a new author for me. What a fun book it was with some laugh out loud moments. Well worth a read

I loved this book! It’s about Emma a recently divorced doctor (go girl) who is trying to get back in the dating scene regardless of her pain in the bottom ex husband (eye roll) and the help of her funny relatable sister Lucy who is so funny she had me in stitches. This book highlights the importance of family, new beginnings and love. Also Emma’s sisters are so unique and give off different vibes which made the book a delight. I loved it so much *smiley face*. Huge thanks to bookouture and NetGalley for my ARC

Such a funny LOL book. It's totally hilarious. Definitely for anyone who has ever gone through a bad relationship... This book says so much what I feel sometimes but it is said in the funniest way... I Love it!!!

This review is going live on the below-mentioned blog and other social media on the 29th of May.

Book Title: Can I Give My Husband Back

Author: Kristen Bailey

genre: Humor/Fiction

Publishing Date: 19 June 2020

Line Summary :

This story is about Emma’s life after divorcing her cheating husband and the love and bonding between her and her 4 sisters.

My Review :

A lovely, humorous, emotional story that engages from the very first chapter through the end! The narration is witty, often made us laugh! The characters are lovely, natural, and make us hook into the story! This book has a dash of humor, romance, sentiment, family drama! And each emotion settled very deeply into us! Sometimes I feel Emma's character is too noble for human but that’s a very negligible part. Like in “Marian Keyes” books, I love the way the author captures the sibling love and that makes me envy about it! The very sensitive subjects divorce, cheating, adoption had been handled very carefully in an entertaining way by the author! I highly recommend it for a summer read!

Thoughts While Reading :

This section has some subtle spoilers,

The initial chapters were too witty and I often laugh out loud!
But it’s not a humorous story alone, I often felt sad for Emma and mad at Simon. it’s a very mixed emotional story.
 I appreciate the way Emma handled the situations at her best but delivered the other women’s kid and paying her lawyer fee and all too much for me to consider as practical.

Isn’t it portray divorced women should follow her noble way instead of showing their raw bitter emotions ??!! I can’t avoid the rising question of how practical Emma's character for real?

On the other hand, I like it though it’s not practical or natural! It’s refreshing to read a female lead who is mature not loony and handled her emotions so well and did all the good things !! It’s often the other way and so I highly appreciate it!

The sibling love is so cute as I mentioned above. I often think I should have at least one sister and so the love between 5 sisters made me escape into their life! I enjoyed this kind of sister's life stories in my favorite author Marian Keyes ! after her this is the first story that I adore about sisters' love/life!

But it totally got spoiled on the scene of Lucy gave bikini cut to her sister! Ewww ... isn’t it too much ??!!
I like the way the author captured the Indian culture wedding though it’s a very small portion of the story. I feel proud and she definitely did her homework about it!

But I hate the way the character Jag Kohli defined. He is more like a puppy around Emma rather than a partner! Disappointed!

And the other divorced couple Leo and Fray where Fray vilified, why should mock her veganism and eco-friendly remarriage? That's my least favorite!

Finally this book made me feel good and relaxed even though it handled such a emotional sensitive subject! That’s the victory of the author!

Thanks to #netgalley and the publishers #bookouture for this ARC. This review is straight from my heart not biased in any way!

As a huge fan of this author’s previous book I was extremely excited for this and could not wait to tuck in! I absolutely loved the main character in this Emma, she has been through so much and we see all the highs and lows she goes through and you can’t help but feel for her. I really enjoyed the involvement of her sisters they just make the story sound so real and they are hilarious some of the things they come of with. This book is jam packed with so so many laugh out loud moments honestly I just couldn’t stop laughing. Also I found this very easy to read and it only took me 2 days to read itbwas that good I just flew through it.
I must say Kristen Bailey is being to be one of my favourite authors and I can’t wait to read her next book - fingers crossed we don’t have to wait long!

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 4 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

"Shoes are important. Like if he wore Crocs then I would tell you to kick him to the curb"

That was some wise advice from an eight years old boy. Only for that line the author has my complete devotion forever and ever!

"Can I give my husband back?" Who hasn't said that some time? I've certainly done specially after two months in confinement being together 24/7, but after reading this book I can consider myself lucky and will not be giving him back just yet.

Having loved "Has anyone seen my sex life?" I couldn't be happier when I learnt that in "Can I give my husband back?" we would meet again the Callaghan family as I loved all the dynamics between the sisters (it reminded me of Marian Keyes' Walsh family series).

This time the main character is Emma whom we already met in Meg's story. She's recently divorced and dealing with two kids, her new single life and what must be one of the most despicable characters I've ever read, her ex-husband Simon (I found myself calling him names all the time. He truly is a See You Next Tuesday!). It was disheartening reading about the way he treated Emma during their marriage but a joy seeing her grow up throughout the story and standing her ground when it came to dealing with his bulls**t.

I loved the cast of secondary characters, specially Lucy. I can't wait to read her story (yayyy, there will be three more books of the Callaghan sisters according to the author's note). There were some pretty funny scenes where I found myself laughing out loud (the Frozen Contest, the body hair scene...) and some that made me teared up (I just know there's gonna be tears with Grace's story).

As it overlaps with Meg's storyline there were some situations we had already read about in "Have anyone..." so it felt a bit repetitive.

I've never gone through a divorce myself but I think the aftermath was pretty well depicted and I liked how, even in spite everything Simon put her trough, Emma never badmouthed him to her kids so that alone deserves some respect (I'm not sure I would have been able to do that).

All in all, 4,5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.