This book follows Frankie McGrath who volunteers as a nurse during the Vietnam War. We watch her grow into herself through her terrible and beautiful time there and also how she deals with the aftermath of her return home from the war.

I enjoyed the story - especially Frankie's relationship with her friends. The book covers so many complex topics and does a great job showing some of that during her time in Vietnam as well as her healing journey. I do feel like some of topics were just thrown in there. I didn't get a chance to feel the emotions surrounding some really hard things, because there were so many things thrown at you so quickly & not given time to develop.

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Two fake deaths. Really?! Ugh.

The Women
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wow Kristin does it again. A Fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. I loved it so much I'm going to listen to the Audio next. Go runnnnn & get it. She takes on great hard issues all the time that are fresh & alive! Stories that need to be told. Stories that EVERYONE needs to know & read!!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of “The Women: A Novel” by Kristin Hannah. I loved Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a socialite who joined the Army Nurse Corps and followed her brother’s path to serve in Vietnam. Frankie is unforgettable, and the reader feels her optimism, heartbreak, struggles, and pain throughout the story. Frankie truly believes women can be heroes, too, but when she returns to the States, she discovers that female heroes are unknown and nurses stationed in Vietnam are the Army’s best-kept secret. I was a teenager during the Vietnam War and never thought about the nurses who were deployed and assisting with the medical needs of soldiers. It was not until “Mash” came on TV in September 1972 that I made the connection that women served during the war. How sad that our country never fully recognized the nurses and soldiers who served in this horrifying war.

“The Women: A Novel” is a visceral novel, and Ms. Hannah takes you into the surgical tents and describes the men with severed appendages whom Frankie, a surgical nurse, and her fellow nurses triaged; there are lots of graphic scenes. Frankie had beautiful friendships with fellow nurses Ethel and Barb. Their relationship was supportive in Vietnam and continued when Frankie returned to the States. Ethel and Barb nurtured and supported Frankie as she struggled with reentry to daily life, indifference from her parents, guilt, betrayal, PTSD, alcoholism, and drugs. “The Women: A Novel” is an informative novel that everyone should read. This novel is a long-overdue tribute to the women who served in this war. Thank you, Ms. Hannah, for taking me on this journey with Frankie McGrath. This novel has a publication date of February 6, 2024, so please purchase this book on this date. “The Women: A Novel” was one of my top ten books for 2023.

4 stars
“We are the women who went to war – the nurses of Vietnam – and many of us felt silenced at home. We lost who we were, who we wanted to be.”
“The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn’t quite yet ready to hear it.”

Historical fiction writer, Kristen Hannah, dives into complex subjects, women serving in Vietnam, PTSD and family relationships. Starting in 1966, we follow Francie, who had been told for years that “nursing was an excellent profession for a woman. Teacher. Nurse. Secretary. These were acceptable futures for a girl like her… You’re, only going to be a nurse until you get married.”

Vietnam, the OR, and dying men were a shock to Francie. The war made the women she worked with friends, life-long comrades, sisters. “There was no winning in war. Not this war, anyway. There was just pain and death and destruction; good men coming home either broken beyond repair or in body bags, and bombs dropping on civilians, and a generation of children being orphaned.” (I sadly note, nothing new, still happening, just in different places.)

The book covers decades, but the pacing is moves forward quickly. I connected to the characters more after they returned home. “Had Mom always been a shadow woman, held together by vodka and hair spray?” Frankie has PTSD, before it was an acronym. “Her anxiety and anger had surged, come out of nowhere, and suffocated her…She knew that enforced silence added to her anxiety, increase her anger, but it was undeniably true that even her own family was ashamed of her service.” Vets received no support upon returning home and many people didn’t even realize women had served in Vietnam.

I loved the many references to the soundtrack of the 60’s, phrases, and memories from my teenage years: “a piece of Wonder Bread slathered with butter and sprinkled with sugar,” “listening to Credence, Vanilla Fudge, Cream, Janis, the Beatles, the Animals, Dylan, the Doors. The music of Vietman. The music of their generation.”

The Women sheds light on little known parts of the 1960s. Highly recommended. I hope it becomes a limited TV series. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Kristin Hannah hits it out of the park yet again. Her books are always phenomenal and addicting.

I really enjoyed this one. I was sucked into Frankie’s story after the first chapter, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget her or her bravery.

Two things. I would’ve liked this even better if it focused on her time in Vietnam just a bit more. She comes home halfway through the book, and I found the second half dragging just a bit. Second thing: there were some discrepancies with Rye… sometimes it said he was her brother’s new friend, and sometimes it said they’d been childhood best friends. A little confusing, but not central to the plot or anything, just something I noticed.

I loved this book. It is a war story; it is complex and touching and thought provoking. It is a difficult book, keep the tissues nearby. I love books that teach me about history as they are spinning an engrossing story and this one doest that beautifully.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing my access to an advance readers copy of this book.

Their story began with three simple words - " We were there..."

I never imagined this author could top the emotions I felt after reading The Nightingale, but Hannah latest novel, The Women, has shown me emotions I never knew existed for War no one speaks about. The heartbreaking subject matter of the Vietnam War provides the backdrop to the story about a young women who served two tours and returns to country that's hostile toward her service.

Frankie is a suffering which leads her to bad decisions after her two years in Vietnam. She's seen loss, grieved loved ones and longs for a family that acknowledges she served in a war. The friendships Frankie forms are lifelong lifelines for survival. While struggling majority of the story, Frankie demonstrates such perseverance as she constantly shouts for everyone to see those that fought for their country.

This is a war that started before I was born, and ended when I was a toddler. The Vietnam War was glossed over in my history courses. Hannah's research was incredibly eye-opening and educational.

Tears openly flowed numerous times throughout the read. The ending is everything!

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy.

Good read! I usually have to get myself in the right mindset to read a Kristin Hannah book. Her books take you deep into the psyche and life of her main characters. You feel so very much of what they're going through that sometimes the books are emotionally rough on a reader. Frankie is no different. She's beautifully created and portrayed. She's young and naive and trying to make her father proud and fill her brother's shoes when she volunteers as an Army Nurse Corps nurse in Vietnam. A tough prospect, especially for a woman who has been raised to be a lady above all else.
I appreciate that this was written about the Vietnam war instead of WWII. You're drawn into the jungle with Frankie as she navigates life as a new adult at war. I enjoyed the historical aspect of this book and you can tell a ton of research was done to make this a realistic read.
This book was very well written and I'm grateful to the publisher for a prepub copy in return for my honest review. I would definitely recommend this book for a book club, as historical fiction, as a girl power book, and as a book for recovery.

I usually don't enjoy books about military or war, but Kristin Hannah did a great job bringing the main character Frankie to life. The entire book is centered around the Vietnam war and the fact that women are generally unrecognized for their military service. The 'heroes' of war were the men, not women.

I felt so bad for Frankie throughout this book. She had one devastating thing happen to her after another, over and over again. It seemed like the girl could never get a break. After she enlists in the Army Nursing Corps, she is thrust into the war. Then after coming home, Frankie has to deal with the aftermath. Poor Frankie.

Hannah did a great job describing the Vietnam landscape and the medical station that Frankie lived and worked at. There are a lot of gory details of people with horrific injuries. It seems like this is a war that is rarely talked about, and after hearing about all the cover ups and American military massacres of civilians, I can see why people don't want to talk about it. I loved the research that went into writing this book. KH really made the landscape and people come to life. It is definitely a memorable book!

I was invited to read this via marketing email. I'm not sure I would have picked this up to read otherwise. I did read one of her prior novels "The Great Alone" and respected her writing. I'm not a fan of reading about wartime situations, but the nursing aspect piqued my interest as I worked in the medical field since 1988. There's nothing more riveting and real than life and death hanging in the balance.

The book is almost 500 pages. About 20% into the book I wasn't connecting with the story and actually contemplated the "Did Not Finish" route and nearly abandoned it. However, I stayed with it and found some meaningful moments. The parts that pulled me in were when Frankie was a nurse in Vietnam and she was thrown into utter chaos in a surgical capacity. The descriptions were horrific, but Frankie was able to get into "the zone" and with urgent commands from the overseeing doctor was able to perform surgical routines like tracheotomies, closing up after surgeries, and even performing a splenectomy. There wasn't all the oversight and worrying about legalities of what you were allowed to do. This was literally life and death on steroids and you did what you had to do just to save a life in wartime hell. I was cheering for Frankie when she exceeded her own expectations and shone as a surgical nurse and was happy for the self-worth it gave her. I also admired the compassion she showed to dying soldiers in their last moments.

The parts of the book I didn't like were the poor choices Frankie made in her love life, the self-medicating with liquor and pills, and some of the foolhardy things her parents did that weren't helpful. I felt Frankie's frustration when her masterful nursing skills honed in Vietnam weren't recognized back in the USA. I was very young when the Vietnam War was going on, so it's a remote subject in my mind. For someone like me, this book was quite instructive of why so many Vietnam War Vets were riddled with PTSD, not only from their frontline war experiences but the negativity thrust at them once they returned home. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been to cope with.

I respect the good writing and the weighty subject matter, but I am once again on Outlier Island and giving this a "Good" rating of three stars. This book has received rave reviews from scores of others, but for my overall reading experience alone this was a good and not great read.

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press for providing an advance reader's copy via NetGalley.

The Women is a coming of age story set during a time of great conflict during the Vietnam War. Hannah expertly researched the history of Vietnam and tells the story through the eyes of the women who were there.

Frankie McGrath enlists as a nurse in the Army in the hopes of impressing her father and joining her brother in Vietnam. Before she can even begin basic training, the family receives word that her brother is killed in action. Frankie excels in her job caring for soldiers wounded in the war and creates a lifelong friendship with fellow nurses, Ethel and Barb. When Frankie returns home she is met with tumultuous times in the country as people oppose the war. Combined with her parents' indifference and shame for her time of service and a lack of appreciation for the nurses contributions from the military, Frankie is plagued by PTSD and resorts to pills and alcohol.

The war scenes depicting the hospital during raids and bombings are told with such detail the reader will feel the urgency and terror of the moments. Frankie’s love interests and friendships illustrate the unique and deep level of relationships that develop under turbulent circumstances. Her reliance on her friends to adjust to civilian life is poignantly told as they repeatedly support each other as they re-acclimate at home.

Fans of Hannah’s will love this heart wrenching and poignant story. While historical fiction fans will appreciate the unique women’s angle of the Vietnam war. Overall, a dramatic and vivid retelling of the female contributions to the Vietnam war.

this book quite literally destroyed me. the women is very possibly the best book i have ever read. i am simply blown away. there are not sufficient words for the beauty and tragedy of this phenomenal story. my heart was in tatters the whole way through, and i loved this book with an unceasing passion. following the life of lieutenant frankie mcgrath was tumultuous and difficult, yet unbelievably eye-opening. i felt each loss and love story in this book so deeply. this book is an incredible piece on the forgotten women of vietnam. to learn what they went through and how their experiences were dismissed will evoke deep anger. to then see how this, like in the case of so many male veterans, led to permanent mental health damage and never before heard of suicide rates will place a heavy cloud on the heart. i am so grateful to have read this book and feel genuinely changed by the perspective i have taken on. this is a book that i believe every person should read at some point in their life.

Whew. This was a long book. And hard to read. A lot of death, including babies. It was war after all. A miscarriage. Some happy points and so glad that Frankie had Barb and Ethel but mostly this was a heavy, heavy book. I hated how the women were treated stateside after serving. Not being trusted with their nursing skills, not being able to get mental health access from the VA because they weren't in "combat." Umm, their bases were bombed. They dealt with pieces of men all day every day. I mostly liked where the story ended up. I hated that Jamie came back to life. It was more understandable for Rye to come back to life because he was a POW so no one really knew if he was alive or not but Frankie literally watched Jamie "die" so that was dumb. And to use that fake-out twice?! Lame.

Another 5 star read from Kristin Hannah and one her best book to date. I loved her telling of the main character Frankie from before the Vietnam War, during and after the war.

My first book of 2024 and it is so amazing!!! Wow! Wow! Wow! Kristan Hannah’s latest book The Women is PHENOMENAL!!! It’s all about the forgotten women during the Vietnam War and I will not forget this book anytime soon! She captured everything and I had all the feelings with this book! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review. To be published February 2024.

The Women
By Kristin Hannah

Number 44
5/5 ⭐️

Big thanks to @netgalley for giving me an ARC copy of Kristin Hannah’s newest book! Kristin Hannah is already an auto-buy author for me so I was excited to get my hands on her book early. The Women follows a young girl, Frankie McGrath, on her journey in-country as an army nurse. Despite the hardships faced in Vietnam, Frankie faced even more upon returning home. For a well-written story about adversity, courage, and finding yourself during trying times - pick up The Women out on February 6th!

The Women by Kristin Hannah comes out February 6th, 2024. The book will draw you to tears again and again and it will make you angry again and again. The novel will help you understand what happened to women in Vietnam during the war, even if most people tell you there were no women there. It will not let the woman be forgotten any more. This book is one of those timeless novels that allow you to recognize and accept things you might have heard - or things you might have learned, but this will help you know.

The story focuses on Frankie (Frances) McGrath. In 1965, she left her family in Southern California and joined the Army Nurse Corps and was shipped over to Vietnam. She was a registered nurse, but totally unprepared for her new job. Frankie participated in two tours, one with a front line unit with bombs, incoming fire, and horrible burns. Quickly, Frankie learned how to handle the trauma of each day, the constant dirt, rain and fear.

Only to return home to Frankie faced demonstrations, mistreatment and disbelief. People didn’t believe women were in Vietnam. People blamed the returning servicemen/women for the war. It is at this point that the story becomes more poignant as Frankie had to learn to live in a non-war situation.

This is not an easy book to read, but it is easily one of the best books I have ever read. The Women by Kristin Hannah is well written, thoughtful, and full of information presented under the auspices as fiction. I feel like with each new book Kristin Hannah writes her stories have become more powerful and bring crucial information to light to her audience. The Women By Kristin Hannah is a great book to read!

I'm honored that this was my last book of 2023. There are some books that you pick up and when you start reading you just know the story is going to mean something. This story was overwhelming and heartbreaking and uplifting and encouraging. I wept, laughed, yelled outloud, and cheered. Not for the faint of heart, but wow is it wonderful. Kristin Hannah has done it again. I can't wait for all the rewards this will win.

Wow! I have been very fortunate to read two five-star books back to back. Kristin Hannah wows with her new book. Set in the late 60s/early 70s, this book tells the story of Frances (Frankie) McGrath, a young woman from a rich California coast family, who signs up as a Combat Nurse in the Vietnam War. But Frankie's experience during the war, while gruesome and horrific are just the beginning for Frankie, who comes home after two tours abroad and struggles to deal with the trials and tribulations that often face combat and war veterans. It is a story of survival, regrets, challenges, chances and hope. It is a story that Hannah tells masterfully, with the readers needing to know what will happen to Frankie next. Unexpected turns, loyal friendships, and honest truths about the war all come out in this new book. I am rating this book 5 stars, and am extremely gracious to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book ahead of it's scheduled release.

This was my first time reading a book by Kristin Hannah, and it definitely won't be my last. This was also my first historical fiction read about the Vietnam War. It was a story that focused on the women who served as nurses during the war, how they were treated upon their return home, and how they grappled with the reality of what they saw during the war and how it affected the rest of their lives. This was one of the few top reads of 2023, and I highly recommend it.

I received a digital ARC thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.