'The Women' is a gripping and heart-wrenching novel set in Vietnam, shedding light on the lives of courageous nurses treating the wounded during the war. . The characters' struggles and sacrifices will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

Every emotion was felt while reading this. It was so well written, researched and descriptive. While I knew some of the Vietnam War, I didn’t fully grasp the depth of it. This will truly open your eyes.

“The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm's way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. Women can be hero’s, too”

Seriously you need to keep this book on your radar for it’s February 6th debut!

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins press for my ARC.

I was honored to read The Women by Kristin Hannah as she is telling the story of the Women who served in Viet Nam in the Army Nurse Corps. The story is about a young nurse from a privileged family, who enlists to Serve after her brother was killed In action. This decision which will define & impact the rest of her life, takes us through the unimaginable horrors that the men and women experienced in Nam.

The second part of the book speaks to the suffering the Veterans were subjected to by an ungrateful and angry country. It deals with the problems of addiction, alcoholism and PTSD that these brave men & women had to deal with in a nation that was not prepared to address.

As someone who had this experience within my own family I am grateful for the extensive amount of research the author did to show the awful treatment these hero’s had to face when returning home.

This is a beautifully written, sad but ultimately hopeful book that every single American should read!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Matin’s Press and Kristin Hannah for allowing me yo review this book.

I am so lucky I was given an ARC to this. Kristin Hannah has done it again! This was such an emotional story. It made me angry, sad, pissed, sad, livid, sad...you get the point. I cried three times reading this and could not put it down.

Get your tissues and punching bag ready!!

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC!!!!

Another 5-star read from the amazing Kristin Hannah. This book tells the story of the women who served in Vietnam as combat nurses. This is a part of the Vietnam war history that I did not know. Even after serving their time under unbearable conditions these women returned to the US and were not even acknowledged. The stock answer was that no women served in Vietnam.

I was captivated with Frankie and her story from the first page until the final line. Kristin Hannah writes amazing stories of resilience and perseverance in the absolute worst of times and conditions.

This book will be huge when it comes out in February and all accolades will be well deserved!!! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book!!!

A huge thank you to St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of The Women by Kristin Hannah. I was so excited when I got this early and had a 10-hour flight a few days later because I knew I could immerse myself into this book and WOW! it was incredible!

Kristin Hannah is such a wonderful storyteller and from the first few pages, I was captivated. The Women is a story about Frankie who impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps in 1965 to go to Vietnam and is a coming of age during the tumultuous 1960s and 70s both in her experience as a surgical nurse and her experience once she's returned home. The first part of the book is Frankie's experience in Vietnam, showing the horrors of war she saw and the friendship formed with her fellow nurses. The second part is what happens once she's returned home and the PTSD she faces especially when she tries to get help and is told " there were no women in Vietnam" and how her parents treat her and her service.

I loved seeing Frankie grow from a privileged upper middle-class college graduate to a combat nurse and then trying to find herself post-Vietnam. The way her character is written as well as Ethel and Barbs is so well done. I loved the friendship with Ethel and Barb, especially over the years!

I think the hardest part of this book was reading about Frankie's despair and when she tried to get help and knowing that there were thousands of men and women coming home from Vietnam who felt the same way and how they were treated. I sobbed through a lot of this book (like every KH book) and I'm so glad we are starting to see more of this era.

I immediately went down the rabbit hole about the women in Vietnam and my next book is Healing Wounds by Diane Carlson Evans as she recounts her experience to get the Vietnam Women’s Memorial added to the Vietnam Memorial. I want to read more about these women.

This book is about so much more than Vietnam and about sacrifice and honor and heroes.

You need to read this when it comes out in 2024.

Frankie wants nothing more than to please her parents, make them proud, and be featured on her father’s wall of heroes among the photos of men in the family who served their country. Her brother is fighting in Vietnam and she decides that she will join him and the war efforts and serve as an Army nurse. It doesn’t take long for Frankie to realize that nothing could have prepared her for what she finds in Vietnam.

If you’ve read a Kristin Hannah novel before, you know that she has the most incredible ability to paint a picture, break your heart, and put it all back together in the span of a book. This book is no different. This story tells the important but often forgotten role that women played in Vietnam. While doing so, it also portrays the difficulties many women face in life- being undervalued, expected to be quiet and well behaved, and not discuss difficult topics. This book was enlightening, powerful, emotional, and breathtaking the whole way through. I’d recommend it to everyone as it’s a beautifully written, poignant story. Given the difficult topics present, I’d encourage anyone who needs to check content warnings to do so prior to reading.

Thank you to Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Women who served in the Vietnam War are not often addressed as the main characters in historical fiction, and this book focuses on a young woman who enlists as a nurse. It covers an important and tumultuous time in United States history, including not only the years of her service but her experiences returning home after her tours of duty.

This is a painful book to read, and the main character experiences multiple tragedies and heartbreaks. The story can sometimes border on feeling like a soap opera because it seems that every possible thing that could befall a woman did, and sometimes multiple times.

However, this was a very engaging read and I think many readers are going to love this. I particularly liked the strong female friendships in this book and the emotional reality that the women who served were generally not considered combat vets and therefore ignored and misunderstood upon returning to the states, even by male veterans of that war. I think that this time period is brought to life by the author very well. I hope that this book brings healing and further discussion relevant to this era and the impact by and on women. I received an ARC from the publisher.

I received an advanced copy of The Women from Net Galley and finished it nearly in one sitting. It’s an intense story of a young woman in the late 60s who finds her calling as a nurse in the throes of the Vietnam war. As you can imagine the book covers a lot of the stories and issues that arose during/from the war. It was striking to me how much of the sentiment of the times then are comparable to our current environment in the US.

The book is deep and kind of dark taking you into the mind of veterans and addiction. It’s not an easy read but it’s well worth the emotional investment.

Kristin Hannah has tackled the hard subject of the Vietnam war from the perspective of a young, idealistic nurse Frankie McGrath. Frankie enlists to make her family proud but soon finds out that her family can’t face the idea of women in war zones. Frankie is totally unprepared for her war experience but survives and becomes an outstanding nurse with the help of her two friends, Betty and Edith.
But upon ending her two tours of duty, she returns to an America torn apart by the divisiveness of the war and, most importantly, a family who will not even discuss her experiences and she find that her father was ashamed of her service. She begins a spiral into depression, drug and alcohol use, and self condemnation that leads her to many unwise choices and some disastrous consequences.
Hannah has done extensive research and communicates effectively the horrors of the war and the predicament of military returning with PTSD before it was even diagnosed.
Recommended for fans of historical fiction especially those interested in the women’s role in the Vietnam conflict.

On the one hand, The Women was extremely enjoyable, well researched, well documented, and well written. There was history with a compelling story along with it. On the other hand, it was extremely disturbing, because that’s how it really was.

This book was emotional — love, passion, pride, loss, healing, and more. It was also powerful and moving — albeit gut-wrenchingly raw — in its entirety, beginning with what the army nurses dealt with in Viet Nam to their harsh adjustments to life back home.

The mental anguish was overwhelming. “Every time she closed her eyes, images of Viet Nam assaulted her.” The love stories were realistic and not sappy or eye-rolly, sometimes happy, sometimes painful to read.

The Women is such a personal account — the torment, the suffering — I would think that the author experienced it all herself. She nailed it. Well done, Ms. Hannah. Extremely well done.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity and privilege to read and review The Women. I loved it (too small a words).

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Women! Wow, what an AMAZING book! This is easily the best book I’ve read this year, and quite possibly one of the best I’ve ever read. The story of Frankie will stay with me for a long time. I literally stayed up all night so I could finish reading this book.

The Women tells the story of Frankie McGrath and the other women who served as nurses in the Vietnam War. I wasn’t alive then and only knew what little they teach in school. I knew that veterans weren’t given a warm welcome home following the war, but this account of the suffering that occurred was difficult to read.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s one you won’t forget. Thank you to Kristin Hannah, NetGalley, and the publisher for the privilege to read this amazing book.

Thanks to NetGalley for this advance reader copy of The Women in exchange for a fair review. These opinions stated here are of my own. This review will appear on Goodreads.

The author explained that she came up with this idea in her early days as a writer but she put it on hold so she could mature enough to tackle the subject matter. I am glad she did.

I was a toddler during Vietnam but had a brother old enough to serve. I didn't understand anything going on, but remember the news and the discussions around the dinner table. I knew about Nixon, Jane Fonda, and the Hanoi Hilton. I am old enough now to really read about it and comprehend what America went through in those dark days.
The Women chronicles mainly one woman, trying to find her father's respect, trying to survive a war, and trying to integrate back into society. The book is nearly 500 pages but doesn't feel like it at all. It moves really well. I usually read so fast but wanted to savor this one, as if reading it quickly would somehow disappoint on the other side. I mean, I'd have to wait another 3 years for a first time reading of a Hannah book!
Hannah's books are far from cheery - so pack your emotions and a few tissues. Hannah taps into the emotions of family, friends, longing, love, loss, heartbreak, and hope. You'll learn a few things. You'll laugh and cheer and yell and sob. It's a powerful read.
There are trigger warnings that have to do with war and everything that goes along.
There is language but if I was in a war, I would swear like a sailor too.
The book clubs in my library system will be fighting over this future best seller.
Cue the music from Miss Saigon, the Broadway musical, who's playbill cover resembles this book cover. Dance like it's the last night of the world.
4.5 rounded up to 5*

I am grateful to NetGalley and the incredibly talented author, Kristin Hannah, for the absolute privilege of being given the opportunity to read and review an Advanced Reader Copy of “The Women”. Forgive me if this is long, but there is much to say. This book was incredible!

As the daughter of a Vietnam Vet, I seek out opportunities to learn about that period in our nation’s history. Though born after the war, I vividly remember trips to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. with my dad as a child. I remember the melancholic, moving and powerful moment of seeing my reflection among the names of our nation’s forgotten heroes etched in the cold, black stone. I remember wondering as I saw my strong, heroic dad cry with abandon. I remember crying myself and the deep sense of sadness I felt as I witnessed him kiss the names of his brothers in arms. I remember gazing upon the Vietnam Women’s Memorial and wondering, “What were their stories?” As an avid reader, I often seek out books about this time period. As a huge fan of Kristin Hannah (She is one of my favorite authors), imagine my excitement when I heard about “The Women.” I cannot recall a time when I was more excited for a book to be released, and, let me tell you, Kristin Hannah absolutely delivered with this gripping, emotional and beautiful novel.

“The Women” is an historical fiction coming-of-age story that follows the life of Frankie McGrath. Frankie lives a sheltered, protected and privileged life on Coronado Island and reaches adulthood in the throes of one of the most tumultuous times in United States history: the Vietnam War. A brother at war, youthful ambition as well as impulsiveness, and five lifechanging words, “Women can be heroes, too,” do far more than simply nudge Frankie toward joining the Army Nurse Corps; they propel her. Her decision to join the Army as a nurse is the single most defining moment in her young life and ultimately changes the trajectory of her entire life. Kristin Hannah takes the reader through these moments and emotions and the very specific difficulties women in Vietnam faced in and upon return with grace, dignity and respect. The story begins in Frankie’s youth and culminates at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Kristin Hannah explores these years of Frankie’s life elegantly and full of raw emotion.

There is such complexity to this story but Hannah weaves it all together so well and cohesively. I, as a reader, did not want to put this book down. I became Frankie’s biggest cheerleader, and I found myself craving and looking forward to reading more.

It is worth noting that there are very difficult topics explored in this novel: war and all its horrible atrocities (obviously), suicide, love and love lost, pregnancy loss, addiction, PTSD. There is a significant amount of deep trauma, but I would think that would be expected with any book that explores the Vietnam War. However, out of this trauma rises unmatchable beauty and the reader will be deeply touched at the outcome.

Kristin Hannah clearly did her research and did it well with this novel. It is worth pointing out that she pulled the music into and would often state what song they were listening to. I know from my dad that the music was and still is highly important to Vietnam Vets, and I think the fact that Hannah wove this element of that era into the novel shows the great amount of thought, care, research and respect that she put into writing “The Women.” She cares about what our vets care about, even to the most minute detail.

This book is emotionally moving from the dedication to the very last page. Even the author’s notes will tug your heartstrings.

This novel is compelling.

It is heartbreaking.

It is uplifting.

It is complex.

It is necessary.

It is long overdue.

It requires about 400 boxes of tissues.

I felt such a plethora of emotions while reading “The Women,” and I felt them deeply. Kristin Hannah has a way of using the right words in just the right way to make the reader really feel what they are reading. I will never understand what our Vietnam Vets went through answering their country’s call, after they arrived home to a divided and unwelcoming nation and even still the lingering effects they feel today. But this book brings me one step closer. Though the fictional account of one woman’s story as a nurse in Vietnam, this book represents so many. The heroism of that generation of warriors, both men and women alike, is unmatched, and Kristin Hannah did them a good service, especially the women, by bringing their story to the forefront.

The book ends with Frankie visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. – the place I visited so many times with my own veteran dad. And I sit her wondering, was there ever a silent woman warrior beside me as I stared at my own reflection among the names? I can only hope I have been in the presence of such selfless heroism.

I am thankful Kristin Hannah felt compelled to write this novel. She tackled a difficult, under told story with grace, respect and dignity all the while uplifting our nation’s heroes. “The Women” is a must read. It is a very important story. But be warned, tissues are required. God bless our Vietnam Vets. God bless the women.

P.S. I am officially in a book hangover. How am I ever going to beat this book? Truly amazing!

Kristin Hannah has written another amazing book highlighting strong women, who seem to have been left out of the history books. In The Women, the focus is on the women nurses who served in the Army during Vietnam, specifically a young Frances "Frankie" McGrath. Frankie's story had so many highs and lows throughout her time in Vietnam and afterwards. This book was unputdownable except I had to be a functioning adult who has a job.. It was a reminder that it wasn't too long ago that women were invisible and forgotten in the wake of the political division that happened during the Vietnam War. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an opportunity to read this ARC in exchanges for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to be one of the first 1000 readers of this phenomenal book! This is my top read of 2023 and it doesn't even get published until 2024!!

I've read plenty of works about WWII but this was the first historical fiction I've read centered around the Vietnam War. Kristin Hannah did an incredible amount of work to make this as historically accurate as possible and it's very clear on each and every page.

Frankie's character ARC was spectacularly laid out and I felt like the readers really got to feel what she was feeling: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her story was so impactful and deserved to be told, similarly to all the real women who served in Vietnam. They were there.

I can't recommend this book enough.

Frances McGrath is unforgettable. This character is written with such heart you feel for her every step in life.
Reminiscent of M.A.S.H, without the humor. The setting is well researched and believable. It also brings to
mind Forest Gump with references to music of the period, This emotional tale builds toward the goal of recognizing the women that served, unrecognized, in the View Nam war. Highly recommended.

One of the best books that I have read this year. Set in the turbulent years of the Vietnam War, the reader is introduced to Frankie, a nurse who has volunteered to go to Vietnam. Because of her family history's of proudly serving in the military, she enlists to follow her brother to the war zone. What follows is a heartwretching novel of the nurses who served in that war and how it effected their lives forever. A must read for all, a book to be discussed at all book clubs. I have been reading Kristin Hannah for years and I am constantly amazed at how she comes up with new ideas for novels. Bravo for another great book!

Kristin Hannah is a wonderful writer, and storyteller. She proved that with the amazing THE NIGHTINGALE. Now with THE WOMEN she might have topped that. It’s the 1960s and the Viet Nam War in raging. Frankie McGrath has finished her nursing degree and impulsively joins the US ARMY to follow her brother to Viet Nam. Even before her arrival ‘in country,’ her brother is killed and Frankie finds herself in way over her head, working in field hospitals, patching up severely mangled soldiers, and trying to stay alive. Through friendships and a pair of love interests, she survives and returns home to idyllic Coronado, California. But, everything has changed. Her baggage includes a duffle full of smelly clothes, PTSD, and a drug and alcohol addiction. Then, her survival struggles truly begin. Faced with backlash from her family—“women don’t go to war”—and from a public fed up with all things Viet Nam, Frankie spirals into a life of gut-wrenching ups and downs. This story is so well-written and engaging I could not put it down. A true masterpiece that everyone should read.


DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series

I couldn’t wait to dive in to The Women by Kristin Hannah. Even at close to 500 pages I couldn’t put it down and read it in under twenty-four hours! It was absolutely the best book I’ve read all year.

I loved Frankie’s story and learning about the women who served in Vietnam as nurses. The Women was so well researched and true to Kristin Hannah style the story was broke your heart and put it back together again and again.

I was a history major in undergrad and spent a lot of time studying the 1960s and Hannah weaved together history, music, pop culture and the terrors of war so seamlessly it made this time period come alive.

My only complaint is that the book ended. I could have kept reading Frankie’s story. I cannot wait to recommend The Women to anyone who will listen!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.