Thank you so much to NetGalley and Kristen Hannah for my ARC copy! I was so excited to see the email saying I was approved for it! In fact it is my first 5 star read of 2024.

This book is raw and emotional. It will make you feel every emotion possible. It’s an easy 5 star read. You do not have to love historical fiction to love this book. Frankie’s character may be my favorite I’ve ever read. She is so strong and broken at the same time.

If you have ever read a Kristen Hannah book, then you know how much time and research she puts into each story. This one is no different. This book is filled with so many emotions and feelings so I highly recommend looking up trigger warnings before you read.

Frances has finally become a nurse and is feeling underwhelmed with the menial tasks she is asked to do. Her father has always spoken highly of the men in the family who have served in the military and when she learns that the Vietnam War needs nurses … she signs up. All she has under her belt is her schooling, but war is a fast teacher and she becomes a very competent trauma nurse. War might be hard, but Frances quickly learns that coming home has its own problems. Those who are protesting the war are also protesting the veterans. When she asks for help for her nightmares, first she is told that only men were in Vietnam … then she is told that she didn’t see combat and didn’t need services.

The Women is a historical fiction story that had me shaking my head at some of the actions of the supportive characters. I don’t know if that is because we are 50+ years after these events or if it is because I am a female who served in the military during the 1990s. This book is great to read by yourself, but I also think this would make an excellent book club book so readers have a platform to discuss the varied issues. I don’t give many books 5 stars … but this one is definitely a 2024 5-star book!

Thank you all for this early gifted copy of The Women by Kristin Hannah.

When I tell you I screamed when I got approved for a copy of this book, I’m not lying. Kristin’s historical fiction stories have stolen my heart over the years, and I always knows I’m going to fall in love. This book was no different. An easy 5 stars for an heart wrenching, breathtaking story.

Frankie is a character unlike any I’ve ever read. She is strong and brave, caring and loyal, but hurting and broken at the same time. I loved following her story through the trenches, literally and figuratively, and watching her find her family, as well as herself. Barb, Frankie and Ethel’s characters were so well written, it felt like I had know them for years (and truly want to be one of their girlfriends). The way they cared for each other from the very start was so heart warming.

This book holds STRONG themes of female war representation and awareness, found family, grief, life after trauma, romance and mental health. The entire books emulates raw emotion.

If you’ve ever read a Kristin Hannah book, you know that it’s full of detail and research, and this book is no different. While this book is fiction (yet felt so real), the stories that inspired the story are true and real. It is a HEAVY story, and I strongly recommend looking into the trigger warnings as needed.

Lastly, I want to say thank you, to you Kristin, for the emphasis you’ve put on the importance of care and concern around the struggles of PTSD for those who have experienced severe trauma through things like combat. As a former first responder’s wife, I know first hand the terror PTSD can bring to those dealing with extreme situations on a regular basis, and how still today those men and women are encouraged to just move on, forget and act like it never happened. The way you wrote the pain, and yet the strength when choosing to fight for yourself, was pure and perfect. Characters like Henry and Barb, and the emphasis you put on things like therapy and help brought a message to your story that I hope will help those who need it—I hope that anyone who reads this book knows that there is more to life than the terror of the past, that “you can get better. It starts here in these chairs, reminding ourselves and each other that we are not alone.”

Kristin Hannah can draw character like nobody else. Her latest novel, The Women, tells the story of Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a young woman from an upper middle class family that follows her brother to Vietnam, serving as an army nurse. Frankie is a character that will stay with me long after I read dozens of other novels, and this experience is made even more memorable by the talented Julia Whelan, the voice actor that narrates the audio version. My thanks go to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the review copies. It will be available to the public February 6, 2024.

Frankie is twenty years old when we meet her, and her family is throwing a party for her big brother and best friend, Finley, who is leaving to serve in the U.S. Navy. Kennedy is in the White House, and most Americans still bear an implicit trust in their government. But Frankie is worried about Fin, and doesn’t like that he is about to put himself in harm’s way. He reassures her, “It isn’t dangerous, Frankie. Trust me. I’m a Naval Academy graduate, an officer with a cushy assignment on a ship. I’ll be back in no time. You’ll hardly have time to miss me.”

Frankie completes her nurse’s training, then signs on to join her brother, but before she is even packed, the telegram arrives. Finley is dead; killed in action.

The plot itself is unremarkable. Yes, war is hell; yes, friends die. And yes, a married man that sees an attractive, vulnerable American woman in a place where they are scarce, will lie like a rug in order to get close to her. But in Hannah’s hands, every joy and every sorrow are real and visceral, because we believe.

Frankie serves as a combat nurse at the front, and works in every possible hard situation. Sometimes the lights go out during surgery because a bomb has fallen; at one point her sleeping quarters is bombed and has to be rebuilt. She works for days on end without sleep when it’s necessary. And the trauma follows her home.

My only quibble with this otherwise outstanding story is the emphasis Hannah places on the abuse of returning troops by the public. She brings in the old saw about them being spat upon and called baby killers, even though an easy search confirms what I remember: this is mostly myth. Just as women weren’t really burning bras, most troops were not greeted with abuse. It’s true that the wildly patriotic parades that greeted the troops that returned from World War Two are not there for these men and women, but then, the Korean War vets didn’t see them, either. Historical fiction should honor history, not rewrite it.

With this caveat, I recommend this book to you. Do read it; it’s a damn fine novel. But do so critically, because you can’t always believe everything you read.

I am absolutely blown away. I was almost speechless after finishing this book. I had to sit there for a while and just gather my thoughts and let it sink in. I experienced every emotion possible while reading this book. It is absolutely beautiful, in a gut-wrenching way. You don’t have to love historical fiction to love this book. Kristin Hannah has a way with words and you won’t be able to put it down once you pick it up. And oh how important it is for you to pick this book up. It is one of my top five favorite books of all time. Please don’t sleep on this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

Kristin Hannah has done it again with The Women; it is a fabulous read with plenty of twists to keep the reader engaged while accurately reflecting history, women’s roles in Vietnam and the soldier’s experience of returning home. The impact of death, familial relationships, PTSD, and the lack of awareness of women in Vietnam are all addressed. I particularly appreciated how PTSD was represented and managed throughout the book as well as mental health care. I feel like this book addressed the Vietnam War and women in a very different way than other books written about these issues. Well done!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Kristin Hannah does it again! Her books never disappoint. This book was raw and real. Her telling of the women of the Vietnam war was exceptional. This is a must read.

Kristin Hannah has done it again, another fantastic read!

Frankie's family is a military family, well at least the men, and when her brother is killed in action, she decides to join the army as a nurse. Women in Vietnam did that really happen? Does her family approve of this decision? Can she get the help she needs when she returns? Will her past forever haunt her?

This was such a powerful read.

When choosing books I tend to prefer reading women's fiction over historical fiction, but, especially in her recent historical fiction, Kristin Hannah has written strong female characters and kept the narrative about their experience, blending the two genres perfectly.
Oh my goodness. I could not put this book down while reading this consistently propulsive plot! Frances (Frankie) is twenty years old on Coronado Island in 1966, and her older brother Finley, a Naval Academy graduate, is leaving for Vietnam. Frankie bumps into one of his buddies during his going away party who says, “Women can be heroes,” a sentiment Frankie had not previously considered. Frankie finishes her studies and begins working as a nurse, where a chance encounter brings her in contact with a patient who is a Vietnam Veteran. He tells her about the nurse in an evacuation hospital in Vietnam who helped him make it out. Frankie feels compelled to volunteer, and although the Navy and Air Force won’t take her due to her lack of experience, she signs on with the Army. Her parents are upset (they are a Navy family in Coronado - plus she’s a woman!), but Frankie feels like she is doing something important.
The book follows Frankie’s time in Vietnam and after. I was born after the Vietnam War (fun fact - my birth date was the day after the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, opened, which I did not know until reading this book), and I sadly do not know enough about the war and its effects on the population, both those who were in Vietnam and those who were not. I learned a lot while reading The Women, and I am so glad the author’s note included some nonfiction sources to read for additional information.
Finally, I have to mention that when this book was first announced, I thought the title was too vague. After reading, I can promise you the title is exactly what it should be - good work proving me wrong, Kristin Hannah!
Thank you to St Martin’s Press for the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you also to Macmillan Audio for an ALC by narrator extraordinaire Julia Whelan - I plan to listen and revisit the story closer to pub date. This book will be available February 6th, and I know everyone will be talking about it, so get to your preorders and library holds ASAP!

I’ve been an off and on fan of Kristin Hannah’s books, but was particularly interested in The Women when I read that the story began in Southern California in the mid-1960’s, then moved to Vietnam. I graduated from San Clemente High School in 1965 and then got married in ’68, right after my husband-to-be returned from a second tour in Vietnam. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley, I received a copy of The Women in exchange for my honest review, and IT IS TERRIFIC!

Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a 20-year-old nursing student when she and one of her older brother’s friends are looking at the “heroes wall” of photos in her father’s study during a party to celebrate her brother’s departure to join the military. Their conservative parents had raised Frankie and her brother to do the right thing, and for her brother that meant signing up to serve, hoping to earn a place on the “heroes wall.” When Frankie notes that all the pictures are of men, the friend says “women can be heroes,” and this motivates Frankie to join up as a nurse and go where her brother goes. It’s 1965, and their conservative wealthy parents had raised them both to “do the right thing,” but the idea of a woman joining the military is appalling, and they are outspoken in their disapproval, to say the least (in fact they tell people she is off in Europe studying art—clearly there’s no way she could ever be included on the heroes wall).

Frankie is incredibly unprepared for Vietnam, both in terms of the nursing and the war itself. Writing a letter home, she relates her realization that “…no one really knows who the enemy is over here and our boys are being killed by jungle snipers…dangerous to be scared all the time.” And everything clashes with her privileged upbringing: “the horror she saw here every day made the rules of polite society seem unimportant.”

At first, Frankie is rah-rah, believing the fight is to stop the spread of communism, but in time her view changed: “Whatever doubt—or hope—she’d once held was gone now: the American government was lying about the war—betrayal was as shocking as the assassination of Kennedy had been, an upheaval of right and wrong.” When she and her friends return to the U.S., they find protesters who berate them to their faces and a country that doesn’t want to hear anything about Vietnam.

When I read and reviewed Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, I noted that “Kristin Hannah’s books are beloved by millions (think The Nightingale), partly for their vivid descriptions of both place and people. They also evoke strong emotional responses to situations and relationships that may not be part of the reader’s everyday experience, but yet seem completely familiar because of the author’s skillful writing.” That is totally true for The Women. Yes, is the story of one woman, but also addresses all the brave women who went to war and were largely forgotten for too long.

Personally, I found Vietnam to be a shock to my entire generation. I’ve never been able to adequately express what the war did to those who were there and those who experienced what the war had done to them AND us, while we were waiting back home. Ms. Hannah’s book definitely captured so much of how it felt: after two tours in Vietnam, Frankie realizes that “We were the last believers, my generation. We trusted that our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the American myth of equality and justice and honor.”

I’m looking forward to talking with others about this one! Five stars.

I am writing this review almost immediately after finishing this book, and I am wrecked. I don’t know if a book has ever made me sob as much as this one did. Also cry, but mostly sob. I thought I was all out of tears at the end of part 1, but part 2 proved me wrong.

I knew very little about the Vietnam War prior to going into this book. While I live in the US now, I did not grow up here so it wasn’t something I learned about in history class like I assume Americans did. So I didn’t know that women really weren’t talked about as vets, however unfortunately I am not surprised. So I really am glad that Kristin Hannah wrote this book and told their stories.

This wasn’t a 5 star for me for a couple reasons. I have read books by this author before, and I knew that she wrote heavy and emotional books but this surprisingly felt even more so than usual. I was nearing the end of the book and looking at the amount of pages left, wondering if there was going to be some hope and positivity coming. It just isn’t my personal preference for the book to remain heavy for so long without some sort of reprieve for the reader. There’s a lot of trigger warnings and tragedies in this book. I know this was a different time but I didn’t like the amount of cheating / talk of cheating that occurred. It surprised me that multiple things with Jamie and Rye ended up being so similar in the story.

My feelings were a bit torn as I got close to the end of this book but I really, really liked the last few pages of this book. It surprised me, but in a great way, and the ending felt hopeful and satisfying. I am glad I read this, but maybe it’s a good thing that this author only puts out books every few years, I used up at least a year's supply of tissues reading this.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book! I voluntarily read this book, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book had me gripped from start to finish. Kristin Hannah can do no wrong. I loved reading about Frankie's journey to Vietnam and the horrors that she dealt with there. It was fascinating to learn more about this part of history from a woman's perspective. I would recommend this book to readers of historical fiction and fans of Kristin's previous books. I wish I could go back and read it again for the first time and get lost in the story.

What an incredibly moving story! Kristin Hannah has done it yet again. The emotions I felt for Frankie and the other women in this novel were a roller coaster. At times, the trauma they experienced was overwhelming, but to see the story arc come to resolution was so satisfying. I do not know how Hannah consistently tells such heartbreaking stories in such an impactful way. Every book she writes rips my heart out and meticulously puts it back together.

Frankie McGrath has grown up admiring her fathers “heroes’ wall,” a wall of pictures of men in army uniforms … and women in wedding dresses. So when her brother Finley joins the US Navy to go fight in Vietnam, thus securing his spot on the wall, Frankie dreads being separated from him. Someone tells her that women can be heroes too, so an idea takes root in her: she’ll become an Army nurse. She signs up for Vietnam, first for one tour, then a second. Over there, she meets great people and has some good times, but also finds trauma and heartbreak. And when she comes back, hoping for a spot on her father’s wall, she is welcomed with hate, disdain, mistrust and embarrassment. She has to deal with her trauma alone because, according to even the VA, “There were no women in ’Nam.”It will take years before the women in Vietnam are recognized as the heroes they were.

“Heartbreaking” is the word that comes to mind when describing this book, both during Frankie’s tours in Vietnam and after her return to California. Heartbreaking, but also profoundly touching; everything is described so vividly, from the intense friendships to the intense griefs, from the emergency surgeries in a blackout during a mortar attack to the afternoon spent waterskiing with colleagues on the river. You feel like you’re there with them, in the good and the bad.

So much happens in the book, but not in a bad way. Nothing ever feels rushed or too condensed, you get to know every character, and there’s never a dull moment. This was a fantastic read for me to start the year with, it sets the bar very high for everything that will follow.

Me reading this 480 page book in nearly one sitting should tell you everything you need to know. Kristin Hannah paints an incredibly vivid picture, through what I imagine was v thorough research, of the unsung heroes of the Vietnam War- the Women. It's an epic war story, a coming of age tale, a champion of female friendship and veterans, and a look at a v complicated and heartbreaking time in our country. Made me fall back in love with historical fiction! All that praise aside, it did feet a little predictable at times and could have been shorter (but it was pretty fast paced for its length).

I’m so excited to read The Women by Kristin Hannah. Thank you NetGalley for this complimentary copy! My review will be updated once I’ve finished.

Kristin Hannah writes historical fiction so well. Most historical fiction books about war that I’ve read are set during World War 2 with the occasional World War 1 story. So I was very excited to find a historical fiction story set during the Vietnam War.

The Women follows the story of Frankie McGrath, a nursing student who, wanting to show that women can be heroes too, joins the Army Nurse Corps to serve in Vietnam. This book gives a striking and bloody glimpse at what life was like in the army hospitals, frontlines, and villages of Vietnam during the war. The Women also explores Frankie’s struggles when she returns to civilian life. Due to the political unrest, her service is unappreciated and due to being a woman her service is unacknowledged and she is told multiple times that there were no women in Vietnam. She is left try to deal with her trauma and readjust on her own.

This book is not the easiest read and deals with some heavy topics like PTSD and the many atrocities committed in Vietnam, but it was very hard to put down. I highly recommend this book for historical fiction fans looking for a unique perspective on the Vietnam War. While I didn’t love the romance/relationships plot line, I still really liked this book overall and was invested in learning about the characters and their experiences. Thank you the NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

I am not usually a historical fiction reader, but Kristin Hannah has such a talent in creating heart-wrenching stories that transport you to another time. This story centers around Frankie, a young woman who decides to become an Army Nurse in the Vietnam war after her older brother is drafted. I loved how this book gave a voice to the women of the time that experienced the same loss, grief, and trauma that a lot of male American soldiers experienced. From start to finish, this book was thoughtful, well written, and kept me glued to the pages. I loved the themes of found family and the bond and strength of the nurses. As a mentioned, this is not typically my genre of choice, but I was truly entranced by this beautiful and gripping story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the pu lisher for allowing me early access to this book.
The Women tells the story of women in the Vietnam War. On the ground, working women who are quite often overlooked. This covered times in Vietnam, good and bad, and life choices made afterwards, many choices which were impacted by the war experiences. Highly recommend.

This book is incredibly hard for me to rate and review. The subject matter is overwhelmingly important and I truly treasure what this book taught me about Vietnam. However, I had a harder time connecting with the main character than I have in every other Kristin Hannah book. I can't quite put my finger on it, but maybe it's just because Frankie's experiences were so tough that it's hard to imagine going through those things myself. Either way, I do believe this book and story will stick with me, and I hope it inspires readers to learn more about this important era of our country's history.