No Girl Needs a Husband Seven Days a Week: A Bold, Funny Romance About Three Women Redefining Marriage and Independence

by Nina Foxx

A husband can be good for a number of things: Marie needs her "stay-at-home husband" to clean the house and babysit the kids, so she can take care of business coast-to-coast . . . and enjoy some harmless flirting on the side. Mai's perfectly content to be the perfect wife to a successful corporate superstar—throwing lavish parties and organizing gala charity fundraisers. But it's funny how quickly everything can change with just a single phone call . . . from prison! And high-powered ad exec Kennedy believes the best husband is no husband at all. Hot encounters with a succession of studs keep her going strong as she climbs to the top of her profession. A spouse is fine as long as he doesn't screw up the rest of your life. Now three lovely ladies who think they have this "husband" thing all worked out are about to learn that, when it comes to love and marriage, "perfection" can always be improved upon. And it's going to be one wild ride!

Genres: Romance, Fiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2007

About the author

I'm a storyteller, and my stories manifest themselves in novels, plays, films and fiber. I make things and always have projects going in all of these areas, and sometimes more than one of them intersect. I travel to feed my stories. I teach yoga for conferences, events and online a few times a week. Shivasana is my favorite pose, because, well, who doesn't like to lay down?!

In addition to authoring over 20 narrative publications, I've written three plays, a few films, and have authored sereval Industrial Design Patents. I work a day job in tech--because I love it. I am a frequent speaker at conferences about being A Blerd (Black Girl Nerd), Black in Technology, Women's Health and other topics.

My work has been nominated for several awards, including an NAACP Image Award, A Doctorow Award for Innovative Fiction, and several African American Literary Awards.

I am the founder of The Writing Sisters Summit, a writing and wellness retreat for Women of Color, and am currently an Artist-In-Residence at Brown Soul Productions.
I am originally from Jamaica, New York, but now live in the Seattle Area for most of the year.

Reviews

[April Entrekin]

For the genre this is a fairly good one. The characters are like women you know…folks who are going through stuff. I would have liked it to be a little more developed but it’s a good read for something quick and light.

[Lorielyn Brillante]

it was a good story but it's not that like sad that will make you cry, not too funny that'll make you laugh hard. More of a reality story I would say.

[Danna]

No Girl Needs A Husband Seven Days A Week by Nina Foxx

No Girl Needs A Husband Seven Days A Week is a refreshing addition to an expanding collection of books that reflect the modern lives and relationships of African-American women.

As a single feminist without sorority affiliation, I thought it would be difficult to relate to Nina Foxx's novel of three sorority sisters and longtime friends who have grown up to face problems in their romantic relationships, which strain their friendships. I also thought Nina Foxx's latest novel would beg comparison to Terry McMillan's iconic Waiting to Exhale.

However, Foxx defies comparison to McMillan while exploring the relationship dynamics of all three protagonists in good detail, and I appreciated the well-rounded characters, in particular Kennedy.

Foxx evades superficiality and adds some depth and mystery to the subplots. The career ambitious but commitment shy Kennedy lives with her father, who tries to live independently despite being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Seemingly perfect housewife Mai's preoccupation with a dishonest husband and an increasing dependence on prescription pills leads to a strained relationship with her oldest daughter, resulting in climatic teenage rebellion. The possible other woman who could threaten the flirtatious career wife Marie's marriage is painted a bit broad for my taste, "Fatal Attraction" style, but as a whole, Foxx's portrait of what can go wrong if we neglect an essential part of our lives is steeped in hot drama.

From one female reader's perspective, the title could have used a substitution for "girl", and the truncated resolution with single sister Kennedy seemed too... pat, almost resistant to the idea that a single woman could be happy alone, and not lonely. But the characters rang true as smart, privileged, and complex women who might be seen having lunch with the author.

No Girl Needs A Husband... is perfect bedtime reading, or ideal if you're sitting in a salon, bored with the drama of daytime television. It's not a Nina Foxx masterpiece, but an entertaining novel with a few bold strokes of insight into the lives of modern black women.

[Cheryl]

I came across this book on Goodreads. This is the first book i've read by Nina Foxx and I loved it! I want to read more of her books. There isn't anything about this book that I didn't like or think could have been done different. This book was a quick read and very entertaining.

Kennedy is the kind of woman that goes from man to man and doesn't want to settle for just one man. She meets Troy, and he just won't give up. Here is a quote about Kennedy (p3):

"It had been way to long, so long, in fact, that Kennedy was sure that if the wind blew hard enough, dust would fly from underneath her skirt, and she was ready for some spring cleaning."

Marie travels a lot for work and she flirts with men, but doesn't go any farther than flirting. Her husband is the landlord of apartments and a stay at home dad. One of the tenants in the apartments is really trying to get him to notice her. He has ideas of what his wife does on her business trips, but does he stay faithful?

Mai and her husband seem to have a perfect life together, but then she gets a call that he needs to be bailed out of prison. He is afraid to tell her what is really going on. Their daughter Lishelle is also having problems at school. Mai has a little problem herself that nobody really knows about. I thought for sure Lishelle and her dad would notice each other at the truck stop! Here is a quote from Lishelle (p181)

"One thing she's learned from her parents. The difference between being upstanding citizens, rather than a junkie and a womanizer, was that the upstanding citizens kept all their shit undercover. Likewise, the difference between a good girl and a bad girl was that the good girl didn't get caught."

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars!

[Kristyn]

When I bought this book, I was intrigued, but my interest in the book decreased as I flipped the pages. The characters were interesting, and I'm sure the readers could relate to one of them, whether it's Kennedy who's been hurt by an ex who had a wife, and now enjoys keeping men at arms length, Mai who is a stay-at-home mom to three children, who has a husband who ends up in jail, or Marie who is married with two children, but has a stay-at-home husband, while she flirts ALOT on her business trips. I enjoyed the male and female perspectives in each chapter, because I was able to see both sides of the relationship. However, it was an extremely slow book and it grew boring at times. There was poor editing, and several times the author mixed up the names of the characters.

I became frustrated, not only with the author, but with the characters, when the women in the story couldn't communicate with their husbands. I guess that has to do with my personality though, because I have no problem communicating my feelings or thoughts to Sal. Halfway through the book there seemed to be more secrets and deception than anything. Towards the end, it was predictable what would occur, and everything bad happened to everyone at once.

I finished in a day, because it wasn't worth anymore time than that.

[Ebony]

I don’t read a lot of fiction just new stuff from my favorite authors and stuff that comes highly recommended. A book club I plan on attending is reading No Girl Needs a Husband Seven Days a Week so I read it. For most of the book, I had no idea how the title applied but it became clear as the story picked up. It was a perfectly fine novel. We get to know the characters then the action kicks in and then it builds and builds and I’m thinking how is all of this getting resolved in 15 pages, but Foxx pulls it off adeptly. As Ice Cube would say, the novel does what it’s supposed to do. It is a great literary masterpiece, no. Is it a perfectly pleasant way to spend an afternoon and think more about the meaning of marriage and commitment for a relationship researcher, yes. Absolutely.

[Toni N]

I absolutely loved this book! In fact, I read it in just over 24 hours. Although I couldn't see myself as any one of the female characters, I could see a little of each character in myself over the years of my adult life.

I have a tendency not to read African American literature, although I am a black woman. I often find it to be too smutty/risque. (I like love scenes, but I'm not always in the mood for "lust scenes.") But, Nina Foxx is now one of my favorites. I can't wait to read more of her work!

[LaRhonda]

ok This was a pretty good book. There was one couple that kind of annoyed me some, but the stories were well developed. I read the book in one day. It really grabbed my attention, just because I wanted to know how each relationship was going to end. I was not diappointed! Think I will look into reading another Nina Foxx book real soon!

[L.J.]

Nina Foxx has skills. I enjoyed this contemporary story that focused on the relationships of three women. There was one instance where I felt Marie should have been more sympathetic with Mai's dilemma. I thought she handled Mai's situation a little harshly.

[Sheila]

Fun fun fun and I have heard the author read from her works and so I have a clear memory of her voice saying, (as she paraphrased something that her sister told her) "Girl, no girl needs a husband seven days a week!"

[Qiana]

I loved it. I really liked the way the three friends lives intertwined. I liked that you couldn't always see what was coming. The ending was unforeseen. For married women there were a lot of cautionary flags and good advice from the characters.

[Cari Schaeffer]

Eh - not very good. There were important issues to cover, but it wasn't done well. I did not appreciate the explicit sex scene masqueraded as a "date." I have never "dated" in such a skanky way and would never want any of my children to "date" like that, either.

[Laura]

I loved the title!

[Damika]

This book almost made me not want to get married!!

[Shannon]

Such a fun read of a group of friends, you learn about each of them and the craziness in their own lives, and how they bond together even after keeping their craziness to themselves.

[Kimberly]

I have this book but with the 1 star rating I don't know if I will read it.

[Crystal]

This was a quick read. I read the whole thing Sat-Sun. I couldn't really identify with any of the characters, but it was a quick chick-lit sort of read.

[Maria]

Kind of sucked.....:(

[Keshia]

this was a good page turner...

[Erin]

Read this laying on a beach in Cuba.

Interesting story lines and variety of characters. Some plot holes-- but recommend as a "summer read".

[Sarah pattison]

this book was ok I wished it had been longer it was too short it was a weekend read