A Second-Hand Husband
by Claire Calman

Amazon / B&N / GP / BB

Natalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already.

Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it.

Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl’s ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia’s palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them…

Antonia is Little Wyford’s Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organizer of the Christmas Fair, and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn’t fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as ‘Our Husband’, Natalie’s dreams of happily-ever-after take another nosedive.

Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed… Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever?

Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman’s tour de force.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

‘That’s so old!’ Her face looks completely horrified, as if I have borrowed a frock from Miss Havisham and it’s covered in cobwebs.

There aren’t any family heirlooms because our family never owned anything significant to hand down to the next generation, other than a predisposition to bowel cancer and bad colds.

And – by the way, it is not OK for you to talk to me like that. You’re not my boss, and if you were my boss and spoke to me like that, I’d be taking you to an industrial tribunal. Be angry if you want to be, but there’s no excuse to talk to me as if I’m a bit of dogshit on your shoe. Do it again and I will be out the door in two seconds and heading for the M20 in my van – and you know I mean it. Do you hear me?

My Review:

My first Claire Calman experience and I am enamored with her delightfully clever wit, which was often the delivery system for keenly observant insights as well as a day of pleasant entertainment. Her character development and wordcraft were stellar and kept me invested and engaged as I alternated between smirking, giggle-snorting, and chewing my cuticles. The spiky secondary characters were as actively involved and germane to the various story threads and more amusingly drawn than the featured couple.

I was ever hopeful the main character of Natalie would eventually locate her spine while I gleefully enjoyed her inner dialog along her route to tracking it down. I wasn’t sure I could get on board with her hasty choice of second-hand husband as Carl showed sparks of promise but he was often a thoughtless asshat who deserved a few swift applications of my crocs to his posterior to dislodge his lost cranium. I had faith the author would get them there and my trust was not ill-placed.

I have a new author to add to my Favorites list and Ms. Calman has a new fangirl as I added her entire Goodreads listing to my TBR shortly after finishing this one.

About the Author

Claire Calman is a writer and broadcaster known for her novels that combine wit and pathos, including the bestseller Love is a Four-Letter Word. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Loose Ends. Her first book for Boldwood was published in June 2020.

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