I usually don’t give star ratings, but if I did this would get 5 shiny polished stars! Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for gifting me the opportunity to meet Frankie. Her journey as a nurse during the Vietnam War really brought into focus the struggles faced by all those who served.

You need to read this book!

This book was incredible. I am a fan of Kristin Hannah in general, the Nightingale and Four winds are my favorites from her before reading The Women. This book hands down is my new favorite.

I listened to the audio book and the narrator did such a great job conveying the emotional rollercoaster you embark on with Frankie. The authors note, read by the author at the end of the book was also a really nice touch.

I had to take a few days before I could formulate an opinion. The writing here is top shelf, the world building and scenes are perfection. This book goes from zero to sixty in the first chapter and doesn't stop until the end of the book when she beautifully shatters your heart back together again. About halfway through, so much had happened that I thought for sure I was almost done with it. I was wrong. It's long, but it has to be.

Frankie a 19-year-old has her foundational views changed when her brother's best friend tells her that women can be heroes too. Raised in a wealthy family in California and a new nursing degree Frankie decides to throw community culture and standards out the window and follow her brother to Vietnam. Volunteering for service with the Army nurses.

You follow Frankie through her time in Vietnam and the author paints the horrors so vividly. Through love and loss and hurts you watch Frankie change, and you begin to feel her concerns about being able to go back to the good catholic girl she was before she left for the war. How could she go from the daily devastation back to luncheons at the country club.

This book also shows the turmoil of our country at the time, the lies the government spread via the media and the efforts to divide our country once again. Once the war is over and she returns stateside you see the horrible welcome the people of this country gave them. You see that the government spread the Rederick of "there are no women in nam" so well that when I was sharing this book with my husband who is 9 years old than my 35 years he still said, wait, is this real? I thought there were no women. I don't remember even learning about the Vietnam war in school. They glazed over it and so reading this book was a huge eye opener. Watching Frankie constantly suffer from hurt and failures because of lack of support from her family, the VA and fellow Americans was absolutely heart breaking.

The end of the book brought it all together and heeled my broken heart. I will be buying this book, and it will live proudly on my favorites shelf.

Kristin Hannah introduces us to Frankie McGrath, a young woman from a privileged California family who serves in Vietnam as a nurse. We are with Frankie during her tumultuous introduction to nursing in a combat zone and through the happy times she has with all of the new people she meets. Not only does this book capture the horrors of war, but also the trauma endured by veterans when they arrive home. Especially the female nurses, who even Vietnam vets said didn't serve because there were no women in Vietnam. But, they were there. This well-researched and beautifully told story will resonate with everyone who reads it.

DNF -- This is going to be an unexpected take, I'm sure, but I couldn't get through this one.

That is NOT a knock at Kristin Hannah's writing and definitely not a knock at Julia Whelan's narration, either.

This book was just way too intense for me and that just goes to show how fantastic a writer Kristin Hannah is!

This was my first book by her and she can really paint a picture. So much so that my empathy for the characters and the horrifying things they were seeing was so intense, my anxiety was spiking and I JUST. KEPT. CRYING. I couldn't get through one sitting of this book without crying at least once, and that's just not what I need right now!

I have a print copy of this book and a few others by Kristin Hannah, and I look forward to giving more of her books a try at a different moment in my life. I can tell that Kristin Hannah is a fantastic writer and I can totally see the hype behind her.

Starting this read with a skeptical spirit, having lived through this era, and known those who spent time in Vietnam, witnessing scars carried forward, I believed a horror such as that couldn't be given a credible view through a window this far away. Still, I read. At the end of the read, with tears aplenty, I admit my belief was unfounded.

Frankie, her family, her support group - were real to me, gathered my sympathies and kept me reading through the night. The steamy jungles, the thwacking copters, the blood, the yelling, the smells, I was there. All those bullets had me ducking. All that death and outrage tore open the spaces of my memories, hearing Walter Cronkite disillusioned before our eyes and politicians protesting mightily while the coffins came off the planes night after night after night. The confusing change about fighting morphing from a great idea to a stupid one. Kristin Hannah brought it all back, with a new nugget we didn't even think about: The Women. damn! My rage at Frankie's dad for the hero wall and his discounting his girl's service? Argh! All Heroes Walls need to have Every.One who served in that pride of place. No women "served" in Vietnam?! Not So. (Humph. That dicey matter of translation/interpretation raises its hoary head.)

So, for all the Frankies - women and men - who went and didn't get what they needed, or went and did - thank you for your Service and Sacrifice for me and mine, you and yours, this country and the world.

Thank you, Kristin Hannah, for putting this book on our shelves to remind us that heartbreaking times are never really over - they are through-going, requiring acknowledgment and recognition in order to emerge reshaped and ready for whatever the hell is next.

*A sincere thank you to Kristin Hannah, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #Kristin Hannah #NetGalley

This is one of my new favorite books! It is a great book on an overlooked group of people, the women of Vietnam. They served their country and deserved the recognition of that service. It is well written. The majority of the characters are very likable. And disturbing situations were handled well.

This was an amazing story with themes of friendship, love, trauma and recovery.

What I loved:
- The main character is authentically portrayed and admirable.
- The side characters are likable for the most part.
- The friendship between the 3 women is wonderful.
- The plotline about the Vietnam War is the only one I've read about that time/event.
- The plotline after she comes home from the war was hard to "watch" but it felt authentic.

What I didn't love:
- It was so long and parts of it after she comes home could have been shorter.

This was my first experience with a Kristin Hannah book. I didn't NOT like it; however, it felt as there was such pressure to add literally every Vietnam War stereotype in setting, characters and narrative that, for me, it was a little exhausting finishing Frankie's story. There is just a little too much drama, a little too much coincidence for me to give this higher than 3 stars. I think the story would have benefited from following Frankie's friends Bard and Ethel more and putting less emphasis on just Frankie.

However, after finishing this, I do think I will go back to watch an episode or two of China Beach.

Kristin Hannah just doesn't miss. Paired with the narration of Julia Whelan, I knew I was in for a treat.

I believe this is my first time reading about The Vietnam war and the focus on the women who served our country was gripping. The way the veterans were maligned is well documented but never have I read (nor considered) the double whammy the women suffered in the aftermath of this tumultuous event. This book was well written, well narrated, poignant and at times, very intense.

I was invested in Frankie McGrath, her account of the Vietnam war effects on the nurses, doctors, and their families at home. She was a hero and so resilient, I was proud of her and my heart also hurt for her. This book opened my eyes, and it is definitely going to stay with me. The way this story was told kept me emotionally engaged the entire time. I will be encouraging everyone to read this book, as it was so enlightening to a forgotten female heroes.

Hannah has transported readers to Vietnam where combat nurse, Frankie, is on the frontlines of the Vietnam War. She gives us a searing tale of life as a nurse during and after the war, as Frankie learns how to nurse, bonds with her fellow medical staff, and even falls in love during wartime.

The second half of the book explores what it was like to return home to a country divided over if the war should even be fought. It was shocking to see how people treated returning vets, and how they refused to acknowledge that women were in ‘nam.

Once again, Hannah’s portrayal of PTSD had me gasping and feeling deeply for the characters within the story – particularly Frankie. This fast-paced story had my heart thumping throughout. It did get quite heavy at times and I had to have a lighter book on hand for breaks.

Why We Loved it: The ending had me in tears of happiness, though tears of frustration, anger, and sadness also flowed at various times while I was reading.

“Women can be heroes.”

You’re going to see a lot of brilliant reviews for this book and I’m really not sure what I can add to the mix. Kristin Hannah is a masterful storyteller so it’s no surprise this book is beautiful. It’s also very heavy from beginning to end and took me over a month to read.

Admittedly (embarrassingly?), I didn’t know much about the Vietnam War going into this. I learned so much reading this book but one of the best parts was the conversations it sparked with my relatives.

Finally, THE WOMEN made me really proud of my profession and the nurses who came before me.

🎧 Julia Whalen narrates this and in my mind, there’s really no better narrator. That being said, I actually read almost all of this book on my kindle. Audiobooks always hit me harder emotionally (I mean, listening to Julia read an Emily Henry book makes me emo) and there were big chunks of this that were really hard for me to listen to. Basically anytime I could think “those soldiers, they’re just kids” I was pausing the audio.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted audiobook and ebook. All opinions (and every emotion I felt while reading) are my own.

I feel just amazed at how absolutely fantastic Kristen Hannah’s The Women is and amazed at how well this incredible audio captures this important piece of history. This book takes a hard and unflinching look at the Vietnam war from a very unusual perspective. Army nurse Frankie McGrath, who sees the war, the heroism and the horrors as well as the homecoming and the trauma brought along. This was written fabulously and I still had to take a couple of days before reviewing this book to let it fully sink in and I know I’ll be thinking about this one for a while! I am glad I get to discuss it with my bookclub - it is definitely worthy of discussion.

I loved this book. Simple as that and I can’t say it enough. It was heartbreaking, the author does not shy away from the gory and darker details of this war. She sheds light on the shame that veterans faced coming home from the war, given how controversial it became. How especially the women even faced being told there were no women in Vietnam - their sacrifices were not valued. This story was so moving and it taught me a lot.

The book itself I thought was paced so very well and Kristin Hannah’s propulsive writing and the excellent narration kept me engaged and listening. The characters were endearing and I was rooting for their survival and perseverance - for them to fulfill their dreams. Things just had to turn around for them. There are a lot of tough subjects touched upon in this story if you are sensitive or fear you may be I’d recommend reading trigger warnings and allowing yourself breaks as needed to digest the contents. But, I also think this is an important book to read or listen to and I was left thinking, contemplating

Fans of Kristen Hannah will not be disappointed, this is a must read or listen for 2024!

THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah
This is the 1st book I have devoured by Kristin Hannah, but it certainly won't be the last. This story is so well written, addictive, angst filled, it is emotional, has wonderful relationships between the women, and the characters are so well fleshed out. I know Kristin has really done her homework about the history of the time period. My heart breaks for the women being treated as they were. I was young when Vietnam was going on, but I sure remember the news every night.
This was narrated by Julia Whelan, and she does a wonderful job with it. This is a definite 5 star story.

I struggled with this one. This is an incredibly important story that needs to be told and shared but I found it way too long and felt I was constantly jerked back into a love story that ended traumatically.

There were some good twists that drew me back in, I switched to audio early on and I absolutely love Julia Whelan. Her voice is captivating and she does the different characters so well. I’m not confident I would have finished this one if I didn’t have the audio version.

I’d recommend listening to this book, because of Julia Whelan's strong narration.

The Women was one of the most emotional books I have ever read. I am the same age as Frankie. Married at 19 to an army officer who spent a year in Vietnam. I remember what it was like when he can home. Kristin Hannah made Frankie's war experiences and her life in post was years so real. I hurt for her. I highly recommend this book especially to those who lived through the Vietnam war years and those who don't know much about that time. A good look at the war and postwar through one woman's life experiences. 5 star rating. I would give more if I could. Keep a Kleenex handy.

This was the best read of 2024! This book grabbed me from the very beginning! Kristin tells the story of the women of war and what life becomes after the war., struggles , love, lust and lessons follow with addiction. My dad served as a medic in the army in Vietnam and I could picture him over there. Three cheers for this 5 star read!

Wow! I have not been so moved by a story in a long time.
To be honest this is not at all what I was expecting. What a lovely surprise though. You travel to Vietnam and see things through Frankie’s eyes was just incredible. Hannah made you feel the heartbreak as well as the moments of joy that the girls clung on to. She brought the battles to life, but also the dances and parties that were so needed to remain sane.
The battle continued when Frankie came home, and that too brought tears to my eyes. My disgust at the lack of acknowledgement and support from the general public, my elation at the understanding of her friends, my disappointment and sadness at the reaction of her family — my emotions bounced around like a rubber ball as Hannah brought Frankie to life in such a vivid manner.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐡

My first favorite book of the year 👏🏼 What an unforgettable story about the important women during the vietnam war and the aftermath they faced. I learned so much in this story and was truly so invested in Frankie’s journey as she decides to serve as a nurse in the war, the trauma during the war, and all the struggles afterwards.

👍🏼: I absolutely love that Kristin Hannah transports us to a different world with each novel she gives us. I felt so invested in the storyline, characters & time period. I also love learning in books & I truly learned so much about the women during this war and how heroic they truly were. I read/ listened to this one slowly and savored it all because of the beautiful writing and story telling. Despite this story being about war and trauma, there was also love, my favorite love being amongst the female friendships made through such a tough time 🫶🏼

👎🏼: I don’t have anything negative to say about the story! 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m sure it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve truly loved everything I’ve read by KH!

Obviously I recommend this one!!! Especially if you’ve loved @kristinhannahauthor’s other stories in the past. They are so memorable, powerful & some of the only historical fiction that I read ❤️ I definitely recommend picking this story up when it publishes on 2/6 & it’s also a @bookofthemonth pick as well!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book will break your heart, build it back up, and then break it again a few times over. This is my third Kristin Hannah book and I thought nothing could top the Nightingale, but this one has topped my list. I felt like I was alongside Frankie through her patriotic journey, and learned so much about Vietnam and the thankless service that service men and women had to endure.

Incredible. Incredibly well researched. Incredible writing. INCREDIBLE narration by Julia Whelan.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the honor of listening to this audiobook.

FIVE BIG STARS.

I really enjoyed reading about underappreciated women in history. I couldn't read fast enough I devoured this book! Such an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC. And to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.