It was her father’s wall of heroes that inspired Frankie McGrath to join the army. With her brother’s picture added to those ancestors who had served our country, she decided to use her nursing degree and follow him to Vietnam. Her father rejects her decision and before she leaves they receive notice of her brother's death. Frankie is unprepared for what she is thrown into in Nam. She makes it through with the help of two fellow nurses who became lifelong friends, bound by their experiences. With the help of one of the doctors she also hones her skills. She experiences love and loss and after a second tour she realizes that it is time to go home. Her mother’s letters often referred to the protests and opposition to the war back home. She is shocked to be spit on and called a baby killer. What hurts even more is her discovery that her father told everyone that she was studying in Florence rather than admitting that she was saving lives in Vietnam. It isn’t until she hits rock bottom that she finally finds help for her PTSD, which is only beginning to be recognized.

Kristin Hannah’s scenes in Vietnam are disturbingly realistic. From the operating rooms to the villagers devastated by napalm, she paints a heartbreaking picture of what the nurses faced. Upon returning there was little support from the VA. Frankie is told that no women served in the war since no women were assigned combat roles. She is a nurse who is dedicated to those who need help. By finding a way to help those women who served and creating her own wall of heroes she begins her own road to healing. Hannah has once again written a story that allows you to become emotionally involved with her characters. It is a beautiful tribute to the women who served and a story that I will revisit often. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book or my review.

This is my first Kristin Hannah book (yes, I live under a rock) and it will not be my last. A truly powerful story of the heroic women who served in Vietnam

Kristin Hannah has done it again. Her writing pulls you in from the very beginning and you can’t help but fall in love with the characters and learn history along the way. We have all heard the stories of the men but have you heard of the women who served?

Frankie is from a very proud patriotic military family. So when her brother Fin joins the military and is sent to Vietnam everyone could be more pleased. Frankie is so overwhelmed thinking what can she do and comes to answer why can’t I?

Vietnam is nothing what it is portrayed to be. The media is vastly fabricating this war. A story of survival becomes the day to day life. Being pushed physically and mentally. Of forming friendships that become family.

Will Frankie make her family proud? Does she come home and start a family like she always dreamed of?

When I see a book written by Kristin Hannah, there is no reluctance to read it. I have enjoyed so many of her stories and they normally come in as a 5-star read. This one was no exception. Contrary to all the WWII and WWI books I’ve read, very few have been about the Vietnam war. Her research and writing is stellar.

The first 50% of the book gives a true vision of the war experiences and the comradery that develops for the nurses and the soldiers. When Frankie comes back home, I was wondering what could fill in for the next 50%. I should not have questioned it; she proceeded to keep my attention and educate me on this time in the US. In the early 1970’s, in my teens, I lived in a rural area, oblivious to the riots and conflicts going on.

The way she told of Frankie’s trials and tribulations, bringing in PTSD was done very well. The military had not acknowledged or choose to ignore this fallout from war experiences of our men and women. Shellshock is what they called it; it was much worse. I highly recommend; it is a good read with a lot of education behind it. High 5 stars. Thank you, Ms. Hannah, for your time.

St. Martin's Press and NetGalley provided this Galley edition for no requirement other than my offer to provide an unbiased review. This one comes in with 5 stars..

The Women by Kristin Hannah is one woman’s story as she goes to war and must fight to have her and other women’s contributions in the war recognized. Twenty year old Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a nursing student who wants to make her family proud. So proud to be worthy of the heroes wall which serves as a memorial to the war heroes in the McGrath family. Someone tells her that even women can be heroes which brings a revelation, she will take her nursing skills to the war effort. She joins the Army Nurse Corps and she is not prepared for what she will encounter. With the help of her fellow nurses, Ethel and Barb, Frankie sees firsthand the chaos and destruction of war, the gamble of life and death. Little does she know that the war is just beginning as she heads home and finds a country even more divided, angry protesters as her contributions are essentially forgotten.
I have loved Kristin Hannah’s stories since I first picked up Firefly Lane (2008). The Women is a hard hitting, gut wrenching, emotional story that shines a light on the women who put their lives on the line to serve their country only to have their country deny they were even there. It is a story of friendships and courage under fire. Part 1 focuses on the war itself as Frankie is not prepared for the carnage. It is emotional and heartbreaking, filled with moments of gasps and plenty of tears. Part 2 focuses on her return home and her struggles to return to civilian life. I was shocked to learn that for the longest time, no one knew or no one would acknowledge that women served in Vietnam. It pains me to know that the male veterans were vilified and yet the women were ignored and forgotten. Overall, The Women is another amazing story from Kristin Hannah. I highly, highly recommend it.


The Women is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

KH has done it again with a spectacular historical fiction! It’s getting so difficult to pick a favorite of hers. I love how her books keep me locked in, only pausing to stop and look up information or photos.

Frankie is a beast. The war made her into a person she never thought she could be. She’s tough and strong, but broken in a way no one back home could understand. This book really opens your eyes to events I know I didn’t know about. Watching Frankie suffer after the war was heartbreaking. KH shines a light on the Vietnam vets showing readers what life was truly like for them coming home.

The friendships in this story were inspiring and I’m still left thinking about them. These women, strangers, truly became sisters. They were there for each other when no one else was, when no one would recognize they too fought in that war.

Absolutely amazing, and heartbreaking at the same time. They never teach about the women who served during Vietnam. Heck, my history classes all skimmed over this war. It was eye opening to read this fictional story of one woman’s account of what she experienced both in and after the war, and to realize this was what women actually went through just made me sad. Once again, Kristen Hannah has created a historical novel that is a must read! This will definitely be high on my recommendation list!

I’m a sucker for a well written FMC (female main character), and Kristin Hannah has that down to an art form. I also appreciate that she’s not afraid of putting her readers through an emotional gauntlet. Highly recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of historical-fiction, but who is burnt out on WWII books. There’s not a lot out there on the Vietnam War, and even less highlighting the contributions of the women who served. That alone should put this pretty high up on your TBR list.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Frances McGrath grew up with the "Heroes Wall" in her father's den--an illustration of the men of the family who had served in the military during wars. Reminded by her brother's friend, Rye, that women can be heroes too, Frances volunteers to serve as a nurse in Vietnam. But nothing has prepared her for what she will see and experience. As her nursing skills improve, she recognizes her own contributions and volunteers for a second term.

When she returns to the US, instead of a hero's welcome, she is treated as a pariah. Her wealthy, conservative father told people she was studying in Florence, and steadfastly refuses to add her to his heroes wall. Her mother is too caught up in her country club life and worrying about what people will think to realize how much help her daughter needs.

As someone who grew up during the Vietnam War--too young to understand what was going on and mystified over the divisions it created (and living with a family member with undiagnosed PTSD from WWII)--this novel was so illuminating and really resonated. I admit it was not always easy to read with its unrelenting realism but it was well worth the effort. The ending seemed a bit abrupt after the long buildup and managed to be happyish. I would have liked to see what happened with Frankie and the vet she is unexpectedly reunited with at the dedication of the Wall in Washington, DC. #KristinHannah #NetGalley

Kristin Hannah delivers again! The Women follows Frankie McGrath, a 20 year old nursing student, raised in Southern California. Shortly after her brother is sent to Vietnam for the war, Frankie joins the Army Nurse Corps and is sent there herself.

Frankie is very green and couldn’t have prepared for what she got herself into, but in time, finds her way, forming bonds with others serving in Vietnam. She does what she can to help, but it’s overwhelming and her experience includes deep loss.

When she returns to the US, Frankie is shocked by the lack of support for military personnel and the war, even from her own family. It was infuriating to read how many times Frankie was dismissed by men, veteran organizations, and others, especially with, “There weren’t women in Vietnam.” Imagine seeing horrific scenes in person, full of death, trying to help and being disregarded or silenced when trying to enlighten others who have no idea about you went through. Frankie didn’t always make good decisions once she returned home but I was rooting for her.

I know very little about the Vietnam war and had no idea about the disdain and lack of support in the US during that time. This story was informative in that regard, and sad to hear what Frankie and others experienced upon returning home.

In true KH fashion, The Women is a powerful story shining a light on an often forgotten but essential group of women — 4.5 stars

Unpopular opinion time…I know Kristin Hannah is a beloved author, but this one didn’t really work for me. 😬 This was my first time reading one of her books and I can’t say it made me excited to pick up another one of hers.

WHAT I LIKED
🪖 This was the first historical fiction novel I’ve read about the Vietnam War and I appreciated the focus Hannah put on veterans, especially female veterans, and how their service and sacrifice was not always appreciated by the American public. It gave me a new perspective on the Vietnam War and the years following it.
🪖 I also liked the emphasis on female friendship and how Frankie and her fellow nurses, Barb and Ethel, lifted each other up, during and after the war.
🪖 The final chapter was really moving and I, for the most part, felt like it was a great full circle moment for Frankie and the other characters.

WHAT I DISLIKED
🪖 The entire story felt very shallow. It was almost as if Hannah was working off a checklist of historical events/plot points she needed to slot in at various places, which resulted in a lot of jumping around without really exploring what was happening. This lack of depth made it harder for the emotional moments to really hit.
🪖 The shallowness was compounded by repetitiveness. I think some of the repetition was intentional, but it bogged the story down in some places.
🪖 From the minute she sets foot in Vietnam, Frankie has men falling all over her. Why I don’t know as there is no explanation for this. Not much is said about who Frankie is beyond why she enlisted and, as a result, the romance was really forced because there was no clear reason as to why Frankie and her various suitors would be a good couple.
🪖 So much telling instead of showing!!!!!
🪖 Lots of plot points felt very convenient and unbelievable. No spoilers, but there is something absolutely bonkers that happens, not once, but TWICE, that had me asking why, since these events didn’t add much to the plot.


The Women is out now. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story of Frankie McGrath, who became a nurse, enlisted in the Army, and served in Vietnam during the war, is a heartwarming and engaging one. Beautifully written and seemingly very well researched, this novel hauntingly portrays the women who served in this war, most of whom have never been given the recognition they so much deserved. And, although a few of the happenings along the way definitely stretched the willing suspension of disbelief (and seemed just a bit too incredulous), this was a totally absorbing read and a real page-turner. I definitely enjoyed it.

Kristin Hannah does it again! This book was so good - informative and heart wrenching! This take place during and after Vietnam and delves into the atrocities the soldiers and the women who served as nurses went thru - during the war and upon their return to the US. Such a great book!

These characters stayed with me and made me appreciate even more our service men and women. Especially women. Somewhat predictable in parts but the overall novel overcomes that with its character development and research evident in the era and setting. Well paced with action and a few love stories. Vietnam era women's rights narrative is relative today. Hannah fans rejoice along with historical fiction fans as there is a great book to embrace!

Cop provided by the publisher and NetGalley

“The war no one wants to remember.”

4.5 out of 5 stars (4.5 / 5) Kristin Hannah is the queen of bringing historical fiction to life. She has the ability to make it sincere and personal making the reader feel as if they’ve lived it.

The Women is no different. Starting in 1965 at the beginning of the Vietnam war, Hannah guides us through Frankie’s life where she sees her brother signing up to fight, then makes the life-altering decision to sign up herself as a nurse.

While Vietnam tends to be a less-talked about war, I’ve always been intrigued by the details, the atrocities and the United States role. This story filled me with details I was not aware of and expanded my need to know more.

One of the things I love about Hannah is the continuation of the story long after it feels it should have ended. She gives us the details of after the war and what the vets went through. Having this come from a female veterans perspective was redefining to all information I’ve read before.

“The world changes for men. For women it stays pretty much the same.”

The shocking differences of how women were treated vs. men when they returned was astonishing. They were not treated as heroes but as killers and many were shunned.

My only complaint is the book length. While all those details are crucial to understanding the depth of the story, it did tend to weigh on being too long. Would I take any of those details out? Absolutely not. I just found myself feeling like the book had finished when it hadn’t. Kristin Hannah continues to be a favorite historical fiction writer with deeply moving stories and she will always be an auto-buy author for me.

AUDIO REVIEW: Well done! What a nice surprise to have my favorite narrator, Julia Whelan. She always makes the story so enjoyable!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the copies!

The book releases February 6, 2024.

In 1965, having grown up on Coronado Island in Southern California, Frankie is a “society girl” whose parents expect her to marry well and for her brother, Finley to join the military and have his picture displayed on their father’s “hero wall”. But Frankie, as a 20 year old graduate nurse, decides to defy her parents and joins the Army Medical Corps and requests to be sent to Vietnam. She is quickly initiated into a world of trauma and tragedy but develops deep friendships with her colleagues who help each other survive if possible. After serving two tours, Frankie’s nursing skills are excellent but she has lost lovers and friends and seen too much death. She returns to a home that she no longer recognizes. As with many Vietnam veterans, she is called names and spit on at the airport, her employer treats her as a new unskilled nurse and her parents are embarrassed by her military service. Over the next few years, Frankie struggles with her nightmares, flashbacks, multiple losses and addiction and when seeking help, she is told that women didn’t serve in Vietnam so treatment is unavailable.
This is a really powerful story and well written historical fiction based on facts and incidents that we rarely hear about. Frankie’s story is tragic from the perspective of her suffering, the attitude of her family and society at the time and being denied the help she needs. I found the book to be very informative and accurate in the description of events and the PTSD aftermath. The emotional ups and downs were difficult to read but the friendships developed by experiences in common were inspirational. The author accurately portrayed the experiences of veterans, especially in the Vietnam era and did an excellent job explaining how they can often only relate to people who have had the same experiences. A tough read but a really important book - highly recommend!

The Women is an intense, emotional, unflinching account of the horrors of the Vietnam War and its lasting effects on those who served especially the women. Frankie is one of the best female protagonists I’ve read about. I fell in love with her and all of the supporting characters who served with her. The scenes involving the wounded were sometimes hard to read but necessary to understand Frankie’s struggles with PTSD after the war. Kristin Hannah makes the reader feel like they are there with Frankie in wartime and in the aftermath. This book is a must read for any historical fiction fan that will stay with you long after the last page.

The Women deserves all the stars. I haven’t been able to read historical fiction in a while but Kristin Hannah always manages to pull me out of a rut. I had a book hangover after this book. I knew very little about the Vietnam War before reading and now want to learn more. Buy this book for all the fabulous women in your lives!

Thank you to Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kristin has done it again. A phenomenal historical fiction set in the 70s.
We read a lot of women nurses in the war, but I loved the fact this was set during theVietnam War. One thing that stood out was the common repetition of the phrase, there were no women in Vietnam. Kristen describes in great detail of these women hero’s and what they went through. They may not have been fighting with guns, but they fought for then men and their lives.
This is a must read!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC I’m exchange for an honest review.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Erica Martirano at St. Martin's Press, and Kristin Hannah for an ARC of this book!**

"A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until you put her in hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Frances "Frankie" McGrath knows that nursing school is just the beginning for her...but the men in her life don't quite agree. With her brother heading out to Vietnam to follow in the footsteps of the men in McGrath family, his goodbye party is a wake-up call to Frankie...and she feels a pull she just can't ignore. Why aren't any WOMEN featured on her father's 'Wall of Heroes?" In the words of the poet Dylan, the times were 'a changin' and a 'safe' and sheltered life at home in the California sun just doesn't seem like the right fit for Frankie. She feels compelled to put her skills to use overseas, and to be the first McGrath woman to serve her country as part of the medical corps. Despite her family's protests, Frankie ends up enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps and proudly takes her place alongside other brave men and women ready to save lives - no matter the cost.

But Frankie's innocence and lack of experience lead to a rude awakening the minute she hits the soil: her two roommates (who will become besties) Barb and Ethel quickly show her the ropes and remind her not to drink the water...and that the prim and pristine nurse outfits that might work in the States have no place here. Her hooch (slang for a 'thatched hut or improvised living space' is not exactly a cabin from summer camp...and Frankie learns that the type of horrors she's going to see on a daily basis....well, they weren't exactly depicted in her nursing school textbooks. Dealing with the constant threat of ending up a casualty, and learning how to perform surgical procedures on the fly, Frankie has her hands full...and throw in a questionable romantic entanglement or two, and it's CERTAINLY more than she bargained for...

Eventually, Frankie's tour comes to an end, and she looks forward to the warm embrace of the family she left behind...but nothing could have prepared her for what she finds when she returns to the States. Not only is she not afforded a hero's welcome...she's met with scorn, ridicule, and a family that seems ashamed of her service. The country itself is divided, and because so many believe the war itself to be a mistake, there are protests, anger, and vitriol coursing through the veins of the citizens of the United States. Frankie is even met with statements like "There were no women in Vietnam," leaving her floored, hurt, and terrified about what a return to civilian life will be like for her and her friends. As tensions continue to rise and Frankie fights for her rights as a Vietnam veteran AND a female in a rapidly changing environment, a flood of mental health struggles threaten to disrupt her life...permanently. Can Frankie learn to process her trauma, fight for her rights AND discover what life after the war looks like for her...or will the aftershocks of a senseless war keep her mired in pain and unable to move forward...at all?

If there's one thing that's evident in all of Kristin Hannah's historical fiction, it's that she's spent FAR longer than many of her contemporaries burying herself in research about the time period (and oftentimes, the battle) at hand. Her books have a specific feel to them, one that is simply bursting with detail about the sights, sounds, smells, and look of the scenery in play. However, with all of this detail teeming from each page, I've found that at times it feels like Hannah is OVER explaining and almost justifying what time period we are in a bit TOO often, while simultaneously expecting the reader to have the level of familiarity she does with some of the background of the time period. A great example of this: TaB is mentioned as a beverage of choice many times throughout the book...as if to say, "Remember? It's the 1960s!"...but when intricacies of wartime life and vocabulary a reader who may not be familiar with the Vietnam War much at all (such as myself) such as the aforementioned "hooch" are presented with little explanation...it feels like a missed opportunity. I realize Hannah's books are fiction and not a textbook: however. coming into this book with little context about the war itself and what the day-to-day looked like in Vietnam, THAT would have been interesting to learn, rather than to just surmise what I THOUGHT it might be via context clues.

There's a second hallmark of Hannah's writing that was certainly present here: she leans into telling stories of strong women battling the patriarchy, and demonstrating that they are as powerful as men, if not more so. Frankie certainly fits the bill at first glance: she's smart, determined, brave, and even a bit headstrong, and as a reader, at the beginning of the book, I was all in with her journey. However, once you get to actually KNOW Frankie...she's a bit of a mess when it comes to decision making, and to be honest, it made it incredibly hard to empathize with her at times. For a woman so determined to forge her own path and be independent, she relies HEAVILY on her friends to bail her out time and time again (which due to the magic of fiction and storytelling, they are consistently able to drop everything at a moment's notice), and despite CONSISTENT clues that men in her life are toxic, Frankie ignores this information and continues to pursue these options. NOT TO MENTION when she ends up with a wonderful man in her life later on, she basically treats him like The Backup Guy and drops him like a bad habit. This sort of disparity in our MC made her more than a bit unlikable, and despite the empathy I felt towards her overall situation, I also felt like she purposefully got in her own way FAR more than was necessary to make the drama in the story work.

There's also the small fact that Frankie is the ONLY person we hear from....for the ENTIRE book. All 480 pages of it. With fascinating side characters like Frankie's two pals Barb and Ethel, and even some of the people she meets after returning home from war that seemed...to be blunt, more likable than Frankie, we only see the turn of events from her perspective. This book felt more like it could have been called "The WOMAN," in all honesty. Aside from not hearing from Frankie's pals, another glaring opportunity that was missed was the chance to hear from ANY of the women in VIETNAM in a real way. There are very few interactions between Frankie and these characters...but I don't see why this needed to be the case. As an author who has made it her mission to tell these type of stories, a way to flesh out this book (and still probably cut down on page count!) would have been to include the perspective of some of the women fighting for survival in their own country, at LEAST in the first half of the book. I would have gladly dropped some of the seemingly endless descriptions of bombs, blood, and some of Frankie's mooning over the aforementioned Bad Guy to hear more of THESE stories.

Perhaps the final 'hallmark' of a Hannah book in and of itself is tragedy: there WILL be deaths, and plenty of them. This is also a bit of a pain point for me personally when reading her books, because at times it can be easy to telegraph exactly who will meet their demise...and even sometimes WHEN, for the benefit of the plot. I don't mind a couple of these 'predictable' instances, but with Hannah's books, they can have the feel of a thriller that just didn't know when to quit and has a few too MANY twists. Despite these areas for opportunity in this particular novel, Hannah continues to forge ahead with her long-standing mission of exploring the other side of the coin: rather than a male-dominated, patriarchal view of all things war-related, it is the bold and brilliant women who were the backbone of many a turbulent time. She perhaps could not have picked a more complex conflict to explore, and with such divide about what it means to be a true patriot still ringing true today, this quote from MLK perhaps sums up the ramifications of a nation still feeling the aftershocks today: "The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit."

And if there's anyone with the strength to cure ANY malady...who better than a nurse?

4 stars