When Lauren returns home from a night out with friends, she enters her flat to find her husband waiting for her. The only thing is that Lauren is not married and has no clue who this guy is. But according to her friends and family and photos on her phone, he’s her husband and they’ve been married for a while. Lauren doesn’t understand what’s happening and then her husband goes into the attic to change the lightbulb and disappears. Instead, a new husband descends from the attic stairs. Somehow Lauren’s attic is creating husbands for her – as soon as one goes up into the attic, a new one appears in his place. What’s a woman to do with an endless supply of husbands?
I came across this book when I wandered into a bookstore while on vacation earlier this year and it’s been on my list to read since. I was intrigued by the magic attic and what it would bring Lauren. I thought this book was cute and fun but it was nothing like I thought it would be.
There’s almost a Groundhog Day vibe to the story, in that each time a new husband appears, Lauren’s life “resets” and changes to what her life would be like had she always been married to the new husband. So she can spend all her money and take out loans and then, when a new husband appears, the money is back and the loans are gone. She can call out sick to work or quit her job and, with the next husband, she’ll have either the same job and all her PTO will be replenished or she might even have a new job.
The way Lauren’s whole life changes with each new husband was interesting. Not just decorations around her apartment but also her hairstyle or the clothes that she wears would be different as well. When she is married to a rich older guy she is in better shape, because she regularly goes to the gym, and her skin looks better, because she gets Botox. Her friends could change depending on who she was married to. Additionally, her relationship with her neighbors is different with each new husband.
Lauren went through so many husbands that she would quickly “send them back” if she didn’t like the way they looked or acted in the first few minutes. Honestly, I didn’t expect her to go through so many husbands. It was in the hundreds by the end of the book. I actually think the book would be better with fewer husbands so that we had an opportunity to really get to know them.
Lauren definitely does some questionable things in trying to get the husbands to go back into the attic but I guess we are supposed to think that since the husbands are not “real” it doesn’t matter? As soon as Lauren’s life resets, the husband is thrust into another life and what Lauren had done is wiped clean but that still doesn’t mean she didn’t do those things. I had some trouble with her actions.
I’m not sure what genre I would put this book in. I wouldn’t consider it a romance because there’s not much romance in it. I guess I might call it magical realism or speculative fiction, or even chick lit (is that still a thing?). The book was funny at times but it didn’t seem to go in any direction. There is an ending and conclusion but no real journey for Lauren. I’m not quite sure if Lauren was supposed to learn something or come to a big epiphany or what she was supposed to get out of it.
This book was a cute read but not what I was hoping for.
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