Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors. Growing up I knew a few Vietnam vets and I never fully understood what that meant for them or even why they had the problems they had. I feel like this novel really shines a light onto a sad time in our American history but also a great way to look at how far we have come but also how we can and should do better.
I loved the relationship between Frankie, Ethel and Barb and I wish there was even more with them. I also loved Henry and wished that part of the book would have gone differently.
Not my favorite by Hannah but considering her other books, that’s a very tall order!

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is another one of Kristin Hannah's 5 star books. This is about a young woman who wants more for her life than the average house wife. When her brother joins the service, she sees all the recognition he is getting and figures out that the only way to get that kind of reaction from her family is to also join the service because, Why can't a lady join? So she devotes herself to becoming a nurse and is quickly shipped to Vietnam where is told she will not be in the front lines. However, Many struggles and grief come across her on the journey. This is the story about those wonderful ladies that serve along side the soldiers in the Vietnam war.

A book about women's military roles in Vietnam.
Guess I had really never thought much about it until I read this novel

Thanks so much for the eye opener.

Wow. Just wow. I was enthralled from word one. Frankie McGrath, a newly graduated nurse signs up to be an Army nurse - following her brother to Vietnam. Her well-to-do family has a long history of military service and she is excited and eager to serve and join the Hero's Wall in her dad's study. Her excitement is short lived when she finds out her brother was killed in action and she now has to leave her parents to join the war that took their eldest child.

Frankie is green as green can be and her first day of nursing in Vietnam is a rude awakening to her as she finds out what the war is really like and that her nursing skills are sub-par. Hannah takes you along Frankie's journey of personal and professional growth throughout the book and you are there as she encounters love, loss, horror, pain, and every emotion in between. Frankie is in for yet another rude awakening when she returns stateside after her service and is greeted with an almost literal slap in the face. Her service is not appreciated, she finds she needs help coping with the aftermath of war and is turned away from Veterans' Services again and again as she is told 'there were no women in Vietnam'.

Frankie struggles with her family accepting her for who she is now, but she will always have the support of her fellow nurses who come to her and pull her through the worst of it. This book is a journey of a woman becoming her true self and the bonds that women make that are unbreakable, AND THAT THERE WERE WOMEN IN VIETNAM!!!

Kristin Hannah's writing draws me in every time! Once I start a book written by her I cannot put it down until I have finished it and it was true for The Women. It is a book that makes you feel all of the emotions. The topic and situations are difficult but the story is so compelling that I did not want to put the book down.

Frankie is at a party celebrating her Naval Academy graduate brother before he ships out to Vietnam when she hears "women can be heroes too." Her father has a wall of family heroes that is all men so she never believed it possible that she could be a hero or on that wall. A recent nursing school graduate she decides to join up and much to the dismay of her family is on her way to Vietnam. What she finds there is horrific but she also finds support, friendship, herself, and maybe even love. Returning home is a shock. Will she lose everything she found in Vietnam? Will she be recognized as a hero? Heartbreaking, inspiring, and oh so compelling.

What a story! As an avid reader of historical fiction, I can say I was pleasantly pleased with my first read inside the world of Vietnam. I had yet to come across anything about this war. It was heartbreaking and eyeopening. As always, Kristin Hannah finds a way to engross you into a world that is dark and scary in such an heartfelt way. Five stars for yet another Kristin Hannah novel! Thank you for the ARC copy.

Kristin Hannah has such a gift for immersing you in time and place that it leaves a mark. The Women is about the nurses who served in Vietnam. Frankie decides to enlist after her brother dies in the war. She’s determined to do something with her life that will make her father proud. But war changes you.

Ok, so I’m shocked that I didn’t end up giving this one a solid 5 stars, but hear me out.

The first half of the book features new nurse Frankie as she joins the army corps of nurses and is sent to Vietnam. This part of the book was definitely 5🌟 worthy.

I loved learning about Vietnam, a time that I know nothing about outside of Forest Gump. This part was brutal to read about, but dynamic and captivating.

I was still highly interested in the middle. Seeing how Frankie returned to the states and was treated as a vet infuriated me. Her own VA didn’t recognize her service. She was spit on and called baby killer or told she was lying because “there were no women in Vietnam”. The fact that this is true makes me so mad.

It was the last third that lost me a tad. It got a little repetitive and slow. I appreciated learning how Frankie’s life turned out, but it got a bit less exciting to read.

So no 5🌟 on this one, but still a 4.75 rating. Still loved it, still highly recommend it, just didn’t beat out The Nightengale or The Great Alone. (Much much better than Four Winds though 😂)

The Women has been on my to-read list since I read the first synopsis of it months ago. While I tend to read more older historical fiction, the idea of a novel of the Vietnam War sounded quite interesting, especially one featuring female Army nurses. As an active duty family, we're fairly used to the idea of women soldiers, even women in combat, but that was not always the case. I had often heard that there were few women in Vietnam.

In The Women, Frankie is the daughter of a San Diego family with longtime ties to the Navy. Her older brother is at Annapolis, slotted for Vietnam after graduation, while she attends nursing school as a means of occupying herself until her one day marriage. Bored with her life, she chooses to enlist in the US Army Nurse Corps in order to be sent to Vietnam as well. None of her nursing experience prepares her for the reality of a field hospital in Vietnam nor how she will be received once she returns to the United States.

Kristin Hannah has done it again--another meticulously researched and executed historical fiction novel. From page 1, I was hooked on Frankie's story, especially because the Vietnam War isn't one of my typical historical fiction reads. Seeing her journey to even entering the service, to serving in a war zone, to coming home to a different conflict really emphasized what the rare women serving at the time went through. As bad as Vietnam was, her struggle with her homecoming and acceptance of her service was quite heart wrenching as there were simply no resources available to her at the time, due to the lack of those and due to her gender. It made for a very hard read, yet compelling, read. I've already recommended it to everyone I talk books too.

Kristin Hannah knows how to tug at your heartstrings and hit you right in the feels. The Women is such a heroic tale about the strength and the struggles of the nurses who served in Vietnam and the friendships formed between those overseas. Frankie is a young inexperienced nurse and she signs up to be an army nurse after her naval brother ships off determined to follow him over there a be a hero when the whole world tells her she’s not.

Once in country, Frankie struggles but is taken under the wings of Ethel and Barb and they form a deep friendship forged through blood, sweat and tears. Their friendship becomes so important for her survival there and when she returns home- everyone needs friends like that no matter what you’re going through. Their friendship was probably my favorite relationship aspect of the book because of the deep understanding and love they shared for each other.

While overseas Frankie experienced more heartbreak than she could ever imagine and the reality of what she saw was not lost on her when she returned home unwelcome. Frankie struggled adjusting greatly to her new life from her family’s shame of her service, to being unappreciated at work, and heartache for the ones she lost and the future she envisioned leading her to make reckless decisions until it all came crashing down.

The struggles Frankie experienced were not uncommon and honestly a lot of times way worst for the women returning home compared to the men because so many times they were told there were no women in Vietnam or she didn’t see combat so she couldn’t possibly understand what they were going through. I know the amount of research Kristin Hannah put into this book to do right and pay tribute to the brave nurses and it shows throughout.


Thank you @stmartinspress and @kristinhannahauthor for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Frankie McGrath was living in luxury on Catalina Island, preparing to say goodbye to her older brother Finley, who was shipping out for Viet Nam. Frankie knew how important military service was to her family, in fact, her father maintained a “Hero’s Wall” where he kept pictures of the men in the family who had been in the service. Talking to Finley’s best friend Rye gave her the idea that yes, women can be heroes, too.

Frankie finishes her nursing degree and applies to various branches of the service, eager to impress her father and get her picture on the “Hero’s Wall.” The only branch that would accept her was the Army, and soon Frankie was shipped out to Viet Nam.

This book! It tore my heart out and made me cry several times, but laugh many more. Frankie’s experiences were horrific, though I loved the way the women looked out for one another. And then to come home and be told there were no women in Viet Nam by the VA who really should have known better added insult to injury. It’s an awesome book and I loved every word.

I have always been a huge fan of Kristin Hannah's books, though I have found her past few have not been homeruns for me. While she is an incredible writer and clearly does her research, I find the pacing has been off for her past couple of books. I know many will love this, but I found it too melodramatic and contrived.

This is a wonderful book. I lived this era and I couldn’t put it down. I was up very late. Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation.It changes her life and the dynamic with her family. A recent graduate from nursing school she enlists in the army nursing corp to be close to her brother in Vietnam. He is killed but she becomes the best surgical nurse they’ve seen. Ms. Hannah does a fantastic job of showing the war through Frankie’s young innocent eyes. Death seems to follow her in her personal life, not only is her brother killed but her best friend, a doctor and her lover are also gone. The second half of the book deals with her homecoming and the army’s treatment of the women who served. “No women went to Vietnam” was always there answer when she went for help. I always have liked Kristin Hannah’s books but this one is 10 stars.

I think this is Kristin Hannah's best book yet. I was completely engrossed from start to finish, although I did love the first half more than the second. I learned so much about the Vietnam War that I didn't know about before. When I was finished I immediately wanted to start it over again. Frankie is such a memorable character and I enjoyed my time with her.

The Women by Kristin Hannah: 5 out of 5 stars.

They were there. For so long, the American public didn’t know or didn’t care that women were in Vietnam, but they were there.

This story follows Frankie McGrath as enters the Vietnam war, her time in-country, and what it was like for her and so many other veterans once they returned home. I’ve read some reviews that said Frankie was unlikeable, but I disagree- Frankie is flawed and human. She makes some bad choices, but who among us hasn’t done something we’ve regretted? There are times when I like to read about perfect characters making perfect choices, but to have Frankie be that character would’ve been a disservice to all the Vietnam vets who struggled (and continue to struggle) once they were home.

My favorite aspect of this book was the found family between Frankie and her fellow veteran nurses Ethel and Barb. Their friendship is so true and full of love.

I’ve loved this time in American history but have never heard anyone mention women who served in Vietnam, and I’m excited to learn more.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this digital ARC.

3.5 stars

Women’s wartime contributions is a topic I’ve been interested in for awhile now. For this historical fiction novel, I was pleased to see Kristin Hannah chose to focus on the nurses who served during the Vietnam War. She was able to capture the extreme working conditions as well as post war life. Its well-known veterans during this time period were not exactly welcomed back with open arms due to public sentiment about the war. Female veterans also didn’t receive much support from fellow veterans or even the US government.

Unfortunately, the story has a soap opera quality to it at times. The main character, Frances “Frankie” McGrath, has an interesting character arc but there is one particular storyline that could have been eliminated. Doing so serves the overall story better as the ending would pack more of an emotional punch. (Yes, I’m trying to be vague so I don’t dip into spoiler territory.)

Even though The Women isn’t my favorite book by this author, it still was a good read because of the historical content and depiction of women who served during this time period.

Women can be heroes, this line has stayed with me since finishing the book. In true Hannah fashion The Women is emotinal rollercoaster.

Ugh, Kristin Hannah knows how to hit you hard!! LOVED this book, as I knew I would. So well researched, and loved learning about a topic I really didn't know much about. So thankful for the women that served as nurses during the Vietnam war. Tough and heartbreaking, but such a lovely book.

The Women is the very moving and illuminating story of Frankie, a young woman who makes the decision to join the Army to serve as a nurse in Vietnam. Frankie’s journey during her time in country is wrought with heartache after heartache. Hannah crafts a stunning story that takes readers on a journey with Frankie while she deals with her personal struggles while trying to endure being in war torn Vietnam, as well as the important time of her return home. It’s a story of grief, hope, perseverance, friendships, and love.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC of Kristin Hannah’s new book, The Women.

I've never read a book focusing on Vietnam and had such a great time reading this. Kristin has done it again!