Wonderfully written saga addressing some of the realities that the spouses/families that remain behind when their partners/parent go off to serve their country face. This is told from the view point of one of "The Military Wife". When a family member serves, the entire family serves too, each in their own way. We find out about the loneliness, lack of jobs outside the home, depression, guilt, etc. that the partners of deployed troops deal with. It is a difficult dynamic to make work.

The characters are well written. I felt as if I was with the main character, Harper, as the story progressed. We meet her and her eccentric, retired librarian, mother, her friends and other family members. We are brought along on a journey with Harper through the highs and lows of being a military family. I liked how the author switched between past and present as chapters in order to fill the reader in on the lives of the 2 main characters.

Thank to NetGallery, the publisher and author, Laura Trentham, for the opportunity to read the arc of “The Military Wife.” This is a new author to me and one I will make sure to keep in mind when looking for a book to read.
I have to say I really liked this book! I was raised from infancy in a military family and married a military man.....much of what I read in this book, I could relate to.
“The Military Wife” is a very sweet and heartwarming story. Once you start reading it, you won’t want to stop. The Author touched on so many issues that the military member faces (PTSD) and spouses face trying to figure out where they stand in their spouses life.
This story touched my heart in so many ways.... ways I have experienced first hand.
I highly recommend this book, it is beautifully written.

The Military Wife a great start to a new series by Laura Trentham. Book one in the Heart of a Hero series. A heart felt story. It swept me in from the first page and didn't want to let me go. The author wrote a great story. Bringing her characters together. I look forward to reading the next book in this series and more books by this author.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book but I really enjoyed it. A little sad in places but a nice love story and a glimpse at what military wives and families must go through all the time. I liked the writing and the character development and once I got into it I finished the book in one sitting.

I definitely recommend this book, and I see this is book #1. If there are more books to come I'm looking forward to reading them. Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin's and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sad, emotional and heartbreaking...but ultimately uplifting. Laura Trentham takes us into to the world of military wives and their families, and having to deal with separation and death along with the very real problem of PTSD that faces our military today.
Harper and Noah meet just before he leaves for SEAL training. They are immediately attracted to each other and eventually are married.Shortly after she becomes pregnant she receives the visit no military wife wants to get.
Five years later she is a single mom living with her mother when fate leads her to Bennett...Noah's best friend and SEAL brother. As Harper and Bennett are drawn to each other it becomes evident that Bennett is living with deep pain connected to Noah's death. Harper needs to know what happened but knows she must give Bennett time to deal with his pain. What follows is a beautiful story about love and family and hope for the future.
I really, really liked this book. This is the first book by Laura Trentham that I've read and I was totally engaged in her storytelling and in her character development. I look forward to reading more by her.
Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy of this book.

The Military Wife by Laura Trentham is the first book in her A Heart of A Hero series. This book tells the story of Harper Lee Wilcox and Bennett Caldwell and their journey to a Happily Ever After. Harper is a war widow with a five-year-old son, Ben. She is floundering with what to do with her life when the story begins, five years after her SEAL husband's death overseas. Bennett is a former Navy SEAL and was best friends with Harper's deceased husband, Noah. He runs Caldwell Survival School which suits him quite well as he is a bit of a loaner. Seems Noah made Bennett promise to take care of his wife and child if anything ever happened to him. This promise will bring Harper and Bennett together.

This story is told with alternating chapters between the present and the past. It took me a while to get used to this style of storytelling but I can see why the author took this approach. It was very effective in explaining the complicated backgrounds of the main characters. This is a very emotional, poignant story. The author expressed these feelings as well as the other happy and sad feelings of the characters quite well. I really enjoyed her in-depth characters and how well the storyline flowed. What a blockbuster beginning to a new series.

This is a romantic read with some hard issues. PTSD is talked about sympathetically and it is good that it is being talked about. Veterans do need help. Overall the book is too light a read for me to give it anymore than 3 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Copy received from publisher via Netgalley for an honest review

I have adored Ms Trentham's Cottonbloom series, and even though this is a big departure from what I have read of hers previously, I knew I was going to enjoy The Military Wife.

And I was hooked on Harper's story right from the start.

From the blurb, you know that she is a military widow, surviving daily life but struggling to move forward.

An unexpected revelation takes her on a journey that she would never have expected. And it is as unexpected for her late husband's "brother" Bennett.

Though there is that spark between our lovelies, sexual tension that burns through the pages, this is more about the emotions both of them are feeling.

And as I continued reading, I just knew that they would be what each other needed to heal.

There is a wonderful cast of secondary characters, including Harper's mother, her son and her best friend.

And oh the tears some of these stories brought me to.

Raw, emotional, hopeful. The Military Wife had a bit of it all.

I now can't wait to see where this series takes us next.

While such a good romance, this book also covers important topics about military life and also about life after the military.

The first book of the series and I LOVE IT!

The shifting of timeline from past to present gave this book the push to give it a 5 star rating. And the way the adult scenes were written.

Military wife open ups to the lives of the women who married to a man wearing a uniform. Since I do not know anyone who was in the position, this plot gave us a glimpse on how they live. I love the words, the scenes. and the lines. I find myself crying due to the situation.

The words Ms. Laura Trentham weaves will make you smile, curse, and cry. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

<i>I received a free, advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. </i>

"The Military Wife" by Laura Trentham
A busy contemporary romance with happy times, and, heart wrenching sadness. Read the publishers blurb, then if you want a read that you will not want to put down even if you are scrambling for a tissue.. grab your copy of this book and get reading. Can you tell I loved this story? I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this story the publisher shared with me via NetGalley. This story is scheduled for publication in February 2019.. watch for it !!

A book that intrigued me from the minute I was pitched it to review. I am a wife of a police officer and I always wonder how close and far apart the life of a wife of a military personnel was compared to a police officer. I am not sure that I have had my eyes open and looking, but I was unaware of any other book that solely looks at life through the lens of a military wife.

The main narrator is Harper Lee Wilcox and her husband died serving in Afghanistan and she is still trying to put her life in order after his death. The story has two time lines, the current moment where she is doing the single mom life and then the past where it tells of the story of her meeting her future husband and their relationship. I liked getting that viewpoint of the past coming to meet the present.

The thing that I loved most about this book was the honesty. This book gave a few viewpoints of different military wives with husbands with different reactions to the war and the honesty of each of these women just felt so real and raw. I loved getting to know each of them and it felt as though I could be friends in the trenches with these ladies.

I loved this book and would love to read more books like this that expand my worldview and giving me a honest perspective of a life of another person.

This is the story of Harper and Noah who meet on a warm summer afternoon. Harper is working her final summer before heading off to college and Noah is heading to SEAL training.

Their story follows them through college and training then through the early years of their marriage before Noah dies in the line of duty.

Widowed and pregnant, Harper struggles to come to terms with her husband's death.

Bennett Caldwell met Noah during SEAL training and they quickly became friends and team mates. When Noah is injured, Bennett promises to look after Harper and their unborn baby.

Many years later Harper decides to look for Bennett, a team mate she never met, to attempt to find out the circumstances surrounding Noah's death. With a second chance to find her HEA Harper and Bennett explore their new found relationship.

Despite the tragedy of Noah's death this is essentially a story of love, grief, moving on and the military community. The deployments experienced by both the personnel and their spouses and the rehabilitation to family life following those deployments all form part of this, at times, heartbreaking love story.

Military Wife is the first novel by Laura Trentham that I've read but it won't be my last.

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
This was an exceptionally emotional and moving read which I loved from the very first page. The characters were so real and their troubles so beautifully described that I felt like I knew them personally.
A story of hope, new beginnings and love set amongst the military. For me it highlighted the trials and tribulations of being a military wife. Something which I know nothing about but fills me with admiration.
Another excellent read by this author. 4.5****

This is an achingly poignant story that provides a realistic view of the military life, the struggles of both the military member and their families. The military are trained to focus on the assignment and then not share the details or emotions of what they’ve seen and done. There’s also the issue of the men being seen as weak and affecting their career if they share their concerns, so many don’t seek help and everyone suffers.

This story resonated with me as a former military spouse and I was married to my husband 18 of his 20 years in the service, plus several years afterwards. My former husband deployed fairly often with his squadron and while he wasn’t injured in war nor did he suffer from PTSD, there were many difficulties with that type of life. His deployments varied from a week up to six months at a time. I had just given birth to our second child when he left for six months. I also had to deal with job issues since employer’s believed I wouldn’t stay in one place very long. Each move left me starting from entry level positions, while my ex-husband kept his rank, pay, benefits, and later his retirement. I also understand the difficulties as a wife and having to handle all of the details of daily living, raising children, working and many other things and then expected to defer to my husband when he returned.

Harper and Noah meet as she is heading to college and he to Navy Seal training. Living on opposite coasts and a long distance relationship, I was surprised that Noah felt so strongly about Harper and being married. I loved the past portions of the story, to learn more about Noah and Harper’s life, experiences, and struggles. She had just completed dual degrees and yet, couldn’t find a job. Noah thought she could just find volunteer or part-time work without really understanding how hard she had worked and wanted to use her education. Several years later when Harper decided to start a new business and include other military wives, it served as a way to bond and to help as the women struggled to find their own worth aside from their military spouses.

The past and present are interlinked in several ways and I felt these were seamless transitions and helped move the story forward. The dual POV from Harper and Bennett, also a previous Navy Seal and best friend of her husband, helped me understand their thoughts, fears, and struggles better.

There are so many wonderful characters in this story, the most precious children, and a loving and loyal dog. Every person/couple/family struggles in life but the military has many additional concerns that many civilians may not understand. I felt so many emotions while reading this story from the heartbreaking losses and suffering, to watching a child grow and finding a new love.

After five years of grieving the loss of her husband and raising their son, Harper meets Bennett, her husband’s best friend and there seems to be an instant connection. Many of the Seals developed close bonds and described each other as brothers and would protect them at all costs. Both Harper and Bennett struggle with grieving over the loss of Noah, guilt, and unsure of moving forward. Their struggles are realistic in a potential relationship. I was so emotional reading what Bennett had dealt with from a young child to an adult, who became a loner with no love or connections except for Noah.

After reading about the struggles between husbands and wives over PTSD and other issues, I wonder how Harper and Noah would have handled these types of concerns if he had returned. It seems that many couples are at a loss on how to move forward and end up divorcing.

I love epilogues and this one was especially moving and full of hope and joy. I would love to see this story as a movie! Ms. Trentham is a new-to-me author and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thanks to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story.

You can never go wrong when you pick up a book by this very talented author. This one proved my point.
This time the author took a little detour to her usual method. Yes, there is romance, but the main topic of the story was about the wives and significant others left behind, of the brave soldiers that are willing to give up their lives to keep us safe. And then we also have those men and women that are home , but are now facing PTSD and/or physical injuries.
Either by deployment or widowhood those left have to continue their lives as mothers, caretakers etc. Not an easy task for only one person to carry along.
In comes Harper Lee Wilcox, a widow with a five year old boy, and her business idea. And let us not forget her husband’s former SEAL teammate Bennett Caldwell. While the attraction seems mutual both face a certain amount of guilt for living.
Another wonderful story by this author. One that is at times heartbreaking but also heartwarming. Kudos to the author for reminding us the struggles these brave men and women as well as their families endure to keep us all safe.
I was entrusted a copy of this book by Netgalley and St Martin’s. The opinions expressed are solely my own.

The Military Wife will make you laugh and cry and every emotion in between. It will also make you so happy that you took the time to read it. i loved the characters and the writting. The story held my interest till the end.I am so glad netgalley chose to receive an arc of this great story. The review is my own opinion.

Loved it! I laughed. I cried. Two delightful love stories. Interesting descriptions of life as a military spouse and that of a SEAL. Children and a dog add to the tale. I look forward to reading the next one.

THE MILITARY WIFE swept me up quickly into Harper's life and story. Harper was a military widow and what was unusual about her tale was that she was five years down the line from being widowed. She was forever changed by her experiences, sad at times but she was also functional and optimistic about life ahead.

This story is told in a past/present chapter approach. Whilst I really did want to be focused in the present and what was happening there, I did appreciate the need to know the story underpinning the 'now'.

A strange revelation in Harper's life threw her into the path of her late husband's closest 'brother' and Bennett is reluctant to see or communicate with Harper. Bennett was a large, interesting but quiet man and Harper was persistent, getting under his skin. What develops between these two is slow-burning and beautiful. Although there was heat, the focus was very much on the emotionality of the connection and this intensity was fantastic.

There was a cast of strong secondary characters including another military family who were in crisis, Harper's son and her mother. The stories around these characters were strong and interwoven inexplicably into Harper and Bennett's tale. This all made for a rich and deep story.

This is my first time reading Laura Trentham but I literally can't wait for more of this series. I will also be perusing her other books as I wait.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

The Military Wife is an emotional novel about Harper Lee Wilcox, a widow with a young son. She’s still coming to grips with the tragic loss of her husband while trying to provide a normal life for her son. When she meets with a man who survived the mission that claimed her husband she hopes to find the answers she’s sought for so many years. She’ll find much more. Along the way she gets an opportunity to repay a kindness to another military wife and that opens up the possibility to help more. The Military Wife is a story of honor, loss and second chances. I really liked it and look forward to the next book since this is billed as the first of a series.