This is a difficult book for me to review, mainly because for the most part I really struggled to enjoy it.
You jump headfirst into the story right from the first sentence and usually I find this a good thing. However in this I felt like I had no clue who the characters were or what was actually happening. This lack of connection and investment unfortunately carried on throughout. Not helped by the fact that this is written in third person, which I find really distances me from the characters. It felt almost like I was watching the story from above rather than feeling connected to it.
The magical realism element took me a good 30% of the book to wrap my head around.
The main character of Lauren I didn't care about so ultimately didn't care about what would happen.
There was such an opportunity here for some humour but this lacked any. There wasn't even a little bit.
BUT.
After the 30% mark something clicked for me and I started to tune into the writing style and plot and I did get more interested in it. The more I read the more it started to win me over.
BUT.
Then my interest seemed to drop off again. This was because it was all starting to feel a bit repetitive and felt to be dragging. I feel like this story was longer than it should have been and could easily have been told a lot quicker.
So, this was a weird one for me. Parts I liked, but unfortunately this was mostly a miss for me.
If you enjoy magical realism (something I admit, I haven't read a lot of) mixed with women's fiction, this might be one for you.

A revolving door of husbands, without ever leaving home or having to go through the trauma of planning a wedding. Sounds ideal, right?
When I first read the synopsis of The Husbands, I was intrigued: how would the author execute this daring conceit?
For the books intents, the husbands would all be real people. And how can relationships between real people not get messy and complicated?
I was so excited to read this book!

“Sooner or later, somebody has to want something, and then admit to it.”

That’s the thing about “settling down”: once you’ve decided you want to do it, you have to make a wholehearted effort.
For Lauren, who is fast becoming The Last Single One in her circle of friends and family, that push to settle down comes in the form of a magical attic that offers her husband after husband, showing her all the possible lives she could lead.
One of the main things that stood out to me about Lauren is how she wants to be settled, but does not have a grasp on the meaning of commitment. After she comes to terms with the fact that the dark upper room of her house is a portal into the hundreds of relationships she could live in, Lauren takes the opportunity to answer the question, “what if?”

What if she is the kind of woman who can marry an incredibly kind but otherwise boring man? What if she had married that one terrible ex-boyfriend? Is there such a thing as a husband who is too perfect, with his handsome face/ helpful attitude/ endless riches?

The attic seems to be supplying men at random, sending a new one down just as soon as the last one’s foot disappears off the last rung of the ladder. I believe it is giving Lauren all the men she thinks she would want, letting her live her life with them, showing her how each relationship would change her – sometimes making her a worse version of herself – and forcing her to commit.

Lauren is caught up in the malaise of dating that settles over the life of any woman who has been trying to lock down a partner with little to no success.
She’s happy for her friends in a sincere if obligatory way: they’ve found their partners. She will find hers. Right? Because that’s what she wants? That’s the right thing to do?

As Lauren learns to be okay with men coming in and out of her life on a magical whim, she still has to deal with all her own insecurities. Who is she? Who is she in a relationship? Is she fulfilled, generally?
The author takes us through these thoughts in Lauren’s mind, inviting us to also answer the questions for ourselves.

Though Lauren does not make any big gestures towards the end, for most of the part I had the impression that she didn’t really know what love was. She was familiar with the idea of safety and comfort in a relationship, but it was only when she met a starry-eyed, open-hearted American potential husband that she started to display any signs of being in love. And, later, the signs of being obsessed, or desperate to bring back the one that got away. The Carter episodes were my favourite.

After a fiasco with a husband that included drugs, lies and an air rifle, Lauren is shaken to her core. She decides that the next husband – whatever quirks he may have, whatever flaws his behaviour might highlight in herself – is the one she will keep.

Because while endless swiping might occupy your time and maybe provide a thrill every now and then, it’s no way to live a life.

In texts where there is one person who is travelling through time or otherwise exploring parallel realities, an interesting thing for me is to see how that experience affects everyone else in the character’s world. If you tell them you’re from the future, does that change their present? Whenever you jump universes, does everyone else feel it too, or is it just a normal Tuesday for them?
In this book, there was not much focus on the mechanics; it was more about thinking through the events and consequences. Which is okay, because many things are often ruined by focusing too much on “details”.
That said, I thought it was creative of the author to introduce Bohai, a fellow “traveller” into Lauren’s story. Every main character needs a confidant, and while Bohai was a bit of a wild card, he did show Lauren a way forward.


In the end, Lauren cuts off her possibilities in a very dramatic way. There is a lot of really interesting build-up that reminded me of those early 2000s movies where someone was always having to defuse a bomb. But then the story ended not with a bang, but with a puff.
I suppose I would have liked for Lauren to spend more time really reckoning with the way the experience with the husbands changed her, what it did to her definitions of love and of commitment.
But she also could have just resigned herself to an endless carousel of husbands, learning nothing and never being fulfilled. So I guess that’s the lesson.

Overall The Husbands is a well-written novel with a twist on an idea that we are all always thinking about.

I was looking forward to reading this book but I am afraid it certainly did not live up to the expectation.

Lauren come home from a night out to discover she has a husband she has no idea where he came from. She then discovers that if a husband goes up to the attic a different husband comes down.

I found the book ok but did not captivate me and was a bit boring in places.

I would have wanted to like it.

An interesting concept but not really my cup of tea. Some very funny moments with some of the husbands, but I felt I wanted something more to happen. #netgalley #TheHusbands

This book is based on a very original premise, where the main character - who is single - comes home from a big night out to find her husband waiting for her. She discovers that she can swap husband by sending him into the attic. Each time she has to work out who the new husband is and the story of their history and relationship.
It sounds like it could be repetitive, but it’s not. This is a very well written story with original ideas and interest maintained throughout.
It’s a very entertaining read, and interesting too.

Between requesting and reading this book I'd forgotten the premise, so when I started reading it felt like I was in the same position as the main character, Lauren. Who was this man? Where had he come from? How come she didn't remember him? Why had her flat decor changed? I really enjoyed this feeling, and it was a great way to read the book.

I loved this book, I loved that it got straight into it from page one, it hooked me straight from the start and I love the characters developed as it went through and changed depending on the circumstances.

I did wonder how it would end, and I was not disappointed I really feel that it was a great ending and perfect for everyone.

The writing was amazing and I genuinely can't wait to head more from Holly. I've already recommended it to several friends as I need to talk about it with everyone.

I'm also nervous about sending my husband into the loft!

REVIEW
When Lauren returns home from a night out to a stranger claiming to be her husband, she's understandably confused. But when he goes into her attic and a new husband appears, then another, she starts to wonder what is happening to her.
I was immediately intrigued by the blurb, and loved this original premise.
Sadly, it was all over the place. I didn’t care for the writing style, which felt superficial and I think the story would have worked much better with a LOT fewer husband 'options' so that we could truly focus on a few of the men. I did empathise with Lauren's initial confusion, and then her panic, followed by her fear when the 'angry' husband appeared. But I'm afraid I pretty much lost interest at the point where the next one whipped off his underwear and they became intimate because 'it's been a few months'. Her commentary was so passive. And it was commentary. Not an actual story, with real emotional responses and thought processes.
I continued reading for several more chapters, but I felt the execution was severely lacking and couldn't bring myself to continue.
DNF at 22%

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️ (for the originality of the premise)

A funny debut novel.
Loved the unique premise - Lauren comes home to find a strange man in her flat, who turns out to be her husband
He’s not the only one - anytime her husband goes up to the attic a different husband comes back.
She goes through various husbands, trying to select the one she wants to spend the rest of life with - some last only 3 minutes while others last months
Clever, witty and so engaging with lots of laugh out loud moments
“She’s had so many lives. And some of them were bad, but a lot of them were good and maybe there isn’t a single best path forward that she has to find.”
How can you ever truly know you’ve made the right choice, when there are endless options
A modern satire on dating apps culture, where you’re trained to think there’s something better and not invest in the relationship.
It was a great concept but did find it a bit repetitive and felt Lauren could have explored her connection to some of her husbands a bit more - had a Groundhog Day vibe about it.
But I kept reading as I wanted to find out what Lauren decides to do
A fabulous new contemporary fiction which would be perfect as a Book Club read
The author even has a husband generator on her website - go on try it.
Thanks @holly_gramazio, @vintagebooks & @netgalley for the funny interesting read.

What a strange and wonderful book this was! I really enjoy reading magical realism and this book does a fantastic job at balancing the real world with the fantastical. This book is full of twists I didn't see coming and always kept me intrigued. I felt every emotion whilst reading this book; humour, horror, sadness and shock. I think Lauren was also very relatable and was a great main character.
I think for me I was *a tad* let down by the ending I think. It just wrapped up a bit too quickly, I think an epilogue would have been wonderful for this book? But overall it wasn't 'unsatisfying' and it didn't change my overall enjoyment of the story.
This is a fantastic debut, the writing is really great with good pacing and chapter length for me. I will definitely keep an eye out for this author in the future. This book is easy to recommend to a wide audience of readers, and I'm looking forward to owning a final copy of this book too.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Vintage and Holly Gramazio for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Review posted to Goodreads and release information to be posted to Instagram Stories.

The Husbands has, simply, one of the best hooks I've come across in a really long time: a woman's magic attic starts creating husbands, who remember her, but she doesn't remember them.
Lauren is single but one day she comes home after a big night out. Michael is in her flat: Michael is both Lauren's husband and a complete stranger. She's never seen him before in her life, but her phone shows a life built together over years. The cause is her attic - it's a husband portal, and every time she sends a husband away, a new one arrives in his place. Gramazio doesn't try to explain the attic, and Lauren doesn't seem overly interested in figuring it out - she's too busy dealing with her brand-new husbands and indeed new lives! Every husband brings new changes; from her flat walls changing colour to one frightening reality where Lauren's beloved niece and nephew no longer exist. Gramazio has great fun bending the rules of Lauren's life just enough that it never feels ridiculous; despite this sci-fi concept, this is a story firmly grounded in reality.

Surprising no one, Lauren's life devolves into chaos. Many readers have said that she's not especially likeable, especially given the speed at which she sends husbands away - but you know what, I don't know if I'd react much differently in her situation! She effectively stops working (slay) and spends money frivilously, safe in the knowledge that she can reboot her world whenever she needs. There's no Spider-man style "with great power comes great responsibility" here; Lauren fritters away thousands of hours and thousands of pounds living her hundreds of alterntive livess. What sucks for Lauren is that she never seems to fall in love her husbands - some she is fond of, and one she feels she definitely could fall for - but none of them ever feel right. Lauren, like anyone, gets sick of this - and I found that really refreshing! Eventually, she starts longing for stability and normalcy, as any of us would, but only after a long run on the merry-go-round. Lauren is written as extremely human, with all her flaws. I really loved her.

This is a debut novel, and it's not perfect, but it is an extremely good time. The concept is so original - I haven't read anything like this, even though I read a good bit of high-concept romance. The many, many husbands didn't get old for me - the different versions of a man that Lauren could love made for hilarious reading, and it never gets dark, which I aprpeciated as this could be a really grim concept. I found the novel ended a bit abruptly, but in fairness, unless Gramazio wanted to hard left-turn into science fiction/detective fiction and have Lauren trying to figure out how the attic works, I don't know how else it could hve gone.

Absurd, hilarious and refreshing - I hope The Husbands is a big hit.

The Husbands is the best thing I have read in absolute ages, and manages to tie a very readable and fascinating high concept, with a very enjoyable authorial voice and consistently funny comic tone. There is a problem with original high-concept ideas that the central idea is either not developed enough to satisfy the intellectual demands of the concept, or that the idea doesn't necessarily mean that the narrative built around it is as interesting as the premise itself. The Husbands solves both of these problems with breezy ease, and also manages perhaps the hardest thing once all its wheels are set into motion; it has a satisfying ending that feels correct.

The set-up: Lauren is single, has a nice London flat that she owns with her (now married and moved out) sister and some downstairs lodgers. She arrives home after a wedding to discover a complete stranger in her flat who claims to be her husband. And the rest rest of the world agrees; her bills, photos, her sister and downstairs neighbours. It is as if she has turned up in a parallel universe, and it obviously freaks her out. And then when she is trying to make a go of it, he pops into the attic and another completely different husband comes down, and this new world shifts around the her married to him. And repeat. Every time a husband goes in the attic, he gets replaced - whether she likes it or not.

What is great about this scenario is that it gives Gramazio the opportunity to sketch a plethora of modern men, one-paragraph comic summaries which show the breadth (or dearth) of the field in modern London. Like a cosmic Tinder she can work through them, often finding plenty of positive traits before finding their flaws, hoping for something better next time, or - as in one scenario - accidentally losing one she really, really liked. There is a lightness of touch to the writing that always keeps things fun even when deeper philosophical questions are popping up (its a scenario that can deal with loveless marriages, depression and coercive control), and a number of running gags that hit perfectly. Lauren is a well-drawn and relatable protagonist, and the secret of the book's success is how Gramazio unfolds the rules of her husband swops almost in perfect synchronicity with the audience raising another question. Lauren tests the scenario in various ways, tries to work out what is happening in the attic, and the more she understands the more the world unfolds for us as readers. It is a multiverse novel without being a multiverse novel, where the only variable is her getting married a few years back, but all the husbands are plausible: ones who got away, a few times her skeezy ex, and its instructive to see how being with someone changes her life and relationships with others. Slowly but surely Gramazio adds more wrinkles to the magic (and much like most Groundhog Day scenarios, the why is never explained and doesn't need to be). I've not read anything that could happily sit as comic novel, state of the nation, chick lit, and fantasy sci-fi so comfortably and also so addicting to read. A real triumph, it deserves to be a big hit.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren is single but one day she comes home and there is a man in her flat, and he's her husband, as countless photos prove. Somehow her attic acts like a magic husband portal, and as soon as she sends one back, a new one emerges. Why is never explained - Lauren just has to deal with a neverending stream of blokes.

I'm not sure whether the prospect of an endless supply of husbands from the loft is thrilling or disturbing - especially as they feel like arranged marriages, but with a great return guarantee - you don't like the way he chews? Just send him into the attic.

A new husband always means a new life - sometimes it's only subtle wall colour changes, sometimes more profound. The people around her, neighbours, friends, family seem to stay the same at least.

Unfortunately, it brings out the worst in Lauren, she hardly goes to work anymore as she knows she can just reboot her life with the next guy, and if there is just the tiniest problem, she just sends the current husband into the attic, consequence-free.

I really started to dislike Lauren - she makes no attempt to be a good wife, just judges her husbands and sends them back, sometimes within minutes. Her life becomes an exhausting, chaotic mess. I doubt she remembers anymore where she is supposed to work nor how much money she has or what her husband's name is. In all this, she never seems to once fall in love with any of them, though she likes some more than others. The situation is becoming a curse and she knows she needs to take drastic action if she ever wants this scenario to end.

This is a debut novel and for that it's quite accomplished but maybe we could have had more time with fewer husbands to make it less repetitive. The ending is a bit abrupt, and I can't say we get a great love story - just a resigned "love the one you're with" realisation. Points for originality though.

3.5 - This was a fun, decent read but I struggled to see ‘the point’ or where it was headed. I didn’t connect with the main character and felt like we should have had more time with a select few husbands to root for a favorite? It got repetitive and I’d have preferred less husbands and more impact from a select few to feel like there was more ‘point’ to the story.

I really enjoyed this tale of changing your husband when you are fed up of him, or even when you don't like the look of him. Or how you are with him. Every time Holly's husband (that she didn't recall marrying) went up the attic, a new one returned. This was a lightweight story but with heart.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Lauren comes home one night and finds a husband coming down from the attic in her flat! She doesn't know him and doesn't remember getting married but her phone contains photos and messages that confirm it to be true. Even more bizarre is the fact that when the husband goes back into the attic he is replaced by another one... and repeat... Lauren has over 200 husbands over the course of a year before a shocking event makes her question everything.

Wow what an AMAZING book, I absolutely loved it! Such an original idea and brilliantly executed. Fresh, funny, wise... one of my favourite books of the year so far. Very VERY highly recommended.

I LOVED this. At first, I didn't think I would - it could so easily have drifted along a comedic path, but Gramazio keeps it bang on point with her careful storytelling, taking us down a myriad of paths and ways it could go.
The concept is magical - but in the best of dark ways. No fairy tales here, our heroine is faced with choices, danger, chaos, comedy and those moments we all have experienced - oh no, not again... #eyeroll. Her response is beautifully mapped out for us - we learn what's important in her life, and that never falters. She is a very, very, normal woman, dealing with something very, very abnormal - and responding in a way few of us might manage ourselves.
And in the end, she makes a decision - and perhaps it's the decision we all of us who have a partner eventually make.

I so wanted to like this book... Kept reading and hoping something would click, something would explain the attic, Lauren would have some kind of revelation, something would be made clear (like why else would she get a magic attic making husbands for her? There must be a cosmic reason or lesson) Alas, none of that. It was all funny until it started getting repetitive and then not funny and just plain dragging along. Plus Lauren doesn't change, doesn't grow, doesn't learn anything, and the flippancy with which she swaps the husbands felt off at times.
So much potential, but it just went nowhere throughout, and then the ending left me completely baffled

When Lauren returns home from a girls night out to find her husband waiting up for her she is confused, mainly because when she left for the evening, she wasn't even married!

Strange enough and taking a bit of getting used to, until he goes up into the attic and a different 'husband' comes down. And so begins a veritable revolving door of husbands who are sent back for varying degrees of triggers in the hope of finding the right one.

A quirky and thought-provoking read!

Original and very funny and a really quick read. Absurd storyline but it sort of works in a weird kind of way. Makes Elizabeth Taylor look kind of almost conservative with her number of marriages. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

Mixed review! It's been a while.

This is a really clever idea. Possibly-infinite husbands! A chance to try them all out! Do anything you want with your life and then just erase it afterwards! (Drugs and air rifle not recommended.)

I feel like Lauren wasn't curious/terrified enough about why this was happening. I'm probably thinking about this more than I should, but was she moving realities or were the husbands? Why her attic? Why her? What about (spoiler)?

However, none of this occurred to me while I was reading! I was just enjoying the read (and, admittedly, wishing there were fewer husbands who lasted longer; I got whiplash with the speed she switched some of them, and it made it hard to care about the husbands when she so clearly didn't. She mostly called them 'the husband' for Pete's sake!

It is a really good read, though, and it does have a good message hidden away. Overall, I recommend it - I think it'll do well. I can practically picture the Hallmark version!