The Husband Experiment: The Series and Reading Order

People ask me where to start with The Husband Experiment, and whether the books have to be read in order. They do. Each one is a record of one stage in the same search, and each ends where the next begins. This page sets out the reading order and what you'll find in each book.

All three books are based on a true story. All three are free to read, here on noravellick.com and on Amazon Kindle. Each takes about fifteen minutes.

What The Husband Experiment is

For years a story went around a certain kind of dinner party. A woman, five men and an experiment nobody could quite explain. Every version was different. Every woman who swore she had been real was the kind of woman who doesn't make things up.

It took me nine months and three countries to find her. The Husband Experiment is what I was able to publish: three records of the search, the people around her, and the rules she eventually gave me. It is about desire, power and choice, and about what people hide, including from themselves.

The Husband Experiment reading order

1. Before

The Husband Experiment: Before is the first record. It begins with one sentence in a wine bar and follows the search: the women who would talk, the point where every one of them stopped, the house she grew up in and the one week she has never told anyone about. More in Before: Where The Husband Experiment Begins.

2. The Trail

The Husband Experiment: The Trail is the second record, the story of what it cost to find her. Three cities, a journalist who spent four years on the same woman and never published a word, and a meeting on a Thursday that she didn't come to. More in The Trail: Book Two.

3. Five Rules

The Husband Experiment: Five Rules is the third record: the rules she gave across three evenings, in an order she said was part of the meaning. Four of them can change a life. The fifth is the one she almost kept to herself. More in Five Rules: Book Three.

How long the series takes to read

Together the three books run to about 80 pages and 8,100 words. Most readers can finish the whole series in under an hour, and many read it in one sitting. Because each book is short, the order matters even more: the ending of each record is the opening of the next.

Where the books come from

The series grew out of the notes I keep on The Record. Many of its questions, about what women want from men and what they are really choosing, I first wrote about there: in The Broken Man Fantasy, What Papi Means and The Provider Problem.

If you'd like to know which role you take when attraction enters the room, there is also a short quiz based on the women in the series.

Why new books are only sold here

Someone has been passing off fake copies of my books. From now on, every new Nora Vellick book is published only on noravellick.com. The first three records are also free on Amazon Kindle. Anything new sold anywhere else did not come from me.

Questions people ask

In what order should I read The Husband Experiment?

Read Before first, then The Trail, then Five Rules. Each book picks up where the previous one ends.

Is The Husband Experiment based on a true story?

Yes. All three books are based on a true story that Nora Vellick spent nine months and three countries investigating.

Are The Husband Experiment books free?

Yes. All three are free to download on noravellick.com and are also free on Amazon Kindle.

Who are the books for?

Readers 18 and over. Each book is a PDF of 25 to 28 pages and takes around fifteen minutes to read.