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.

The Women by Kristin Hannah is utterly phenomenal! I wish I could give more than five stars to this book. The Women provides a narrative for the women heroes who served in Vietnam who were silenced, shamed, and denied the honor they deserved. The Women left its mark on my heart with all the emotions addressed in it. I will be thinking about this book for years to come. Please do yourself a favor and read this story immediately. We all need to learn more about the Vietnam War and how it impacted our history. I want to have another conversation with my dear family friend who served in the Vietnam War. Now, I can listen to him with more understanding and compassion. Julia Whelan is the audiobook narration queen with this narration perfection!

Oh my goodness, I think this may end up being my favorite book of the year! What a PHENOMENAL story! I learned so much about the experience for Vets after the Vietnam War and was so moved by this look at the women’s experience serving in the war. I was instantly swept up in this story and the narration by Julia Whelan was beyond incredible!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of The Women in exchange for an honest review.

I've read a number of Kristin Hannah's books, and her latest, The Women, worked very well as an audiobook. The Women follows Frankie McGrath, a nurse who joins the army to deploy to Vietnam and take her place on her family's "hero's wall" of photographs. The first 40 percent is the best part, when Frankie is serving two tours of duty in Vietnam. She learns on the ground, as being a combat nurse is something no one could adequately prepare her for. She makes friends in fellow nurses and falls in love a few times, all while working to save lives. The horrors of Vietnam, as well as those rare moments of fun and relaxation the medical staff enjoyed, are expertly detailed.

When Frankie returns home, she sees firsthand how violently most Americans oppose the war. She also must deal with being dismissed as vet; she is constantly told "there were no women in Vietnam" -- when there were over 10,000 women serving in Vietnam in various military and civilian capacities. Frankie suffers from PTSD, which is again often doubly dismissed. As someone for whom Vietnam has always been history, I can only imagine how difficult it was for the men and women who returned home to find themselves vilified instead of lauded, or at least understood and treated sympathetically.

I have often found Kristin Hannah's work to become a bit long in the tooth and suffer pacing issues in the last 100 pages. While I did find The Women a little longer than necessary and repetitive in certain phrases, I found the pacing more than adequate throughout. Jenna Whalen's narration was excellent and I was consistently intrigued by the story, especially the portion in Vietnam itself.

Overall, this novel was interesting, heartbreaking, and moving. If the entire novel had been as compelling as the first half, it would easily have been 5 stars for me.

This book was everything, Real, Raw, Emotional, but also hopeful. I Loved Frankie and I am so happy she was able to overcome all of the difficult life and the war threw at her. This may be my favorite book of the year.

5/5 from me!

Kristin Hannah took my heart from my chest with this one. I cried ugly tears and lots of them. Historical Fiction is still a genre that I’m dipping my toes into but my oh my did KH deliver. I was completely enamored from start to finish. Putting this book down felt like an Olympic sport, I never wanted to walk away from it.

This book transports you to the late 60s as we follow France’s “Frankie” McGrath on her journey, starting fresh out of school for nursing, Frankie decides to join the Army as a combat nurse in hopes of touring and working with her brother who joined the Navy and earn her rightful spot in the Heroes wall in her Dad’s office. This book follows Frankie as she leaves the safety of her family’s estate and finds herself smack dab in the middle of the Vietnam War. Working excruciatingly long hours, holding the hands of the fatally wounded as they breathe their last breathes.

There are so many gut wrenching moments in this book that will have you covering every last tissue in the box. It will break you and rebuild you, wow! Incredible.


‘Huge thank you to Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Women is the story of Frankie, a young woman who follows her brother in enlisting in the Vietnam War as a nurse where she is consumed by a life of death, betrayal, loss, and friendships that only mark the beginning of the trauma of her wartime experience.

I found it fascinating to read a wartime fiction centred on the Vietnam War as it’s one of which I don’t know much of the history. It was viscerally heartbreaking to hear it from the perspective of the female veteran experience, enduring unfathomable horrors while dedicating themselves in blind faith to a country that denied the very existence of these brave women who were essentially gaslit by an entire nation.

Early on in the book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. Frankie seemed so desperate to please her family and earn their love and that’s such a trigger for me, but she eventually finds herself and her calling in the war, learning to live for herself, and she continues this personal growth in the years that follow the war, so I got over it 🙌🏻

I went in blind to this one without reading the synopsis, so the scope of the book caught me off guard in the best possible way. Kristin manages to not only capture life for females enlisted in the Vietnam War, but also the struggle in the aftermath upon their return, both from without and within. She covers so many important themes - the female wartime experience, post-war fallout, mental health, addiction, female friendships, family, self-discovery, and failure of healthcare systems - somehow managing to give ample time and care to each, despite being under 500 pages. As someone who works with those with mental illness/trauma, I particularly found her portrayal of PTSD and the path to managing it to be very realistic and well done.

I would recommend this one for anyone who is looking for a historical fiction read with a fresh perspective and more expansive scope or who enjoys stories about healthy female friendships or realistic portrayals of mental health and addiction.

Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress for my advanced copy!

Don’t grab a tissue, grab the whole darn box! ❤️‍🔥 We all know Kristin Hannah can write, but this may be her best yet.

By now, you’ll have all seen many reviews on this beautifully written historical fiction novel. Here’s my two cents worth 📖

I, like many, know very little about the Vietnam War other than from books and movies. It wasn’t taught in our Australian curriculum (not when I was in school anyway).

While this is a fictional account of the war, the book focuses not just on the strength of women and their roles, but rather the challenges all veterans faced when arriving home to America. The hate and vitriol they endured. The lack of empathy from American civilians, the lack of assistance and gaslighting from the US government. The horrific mental health and PTSD legacy the war left them with.

“This war has … stretched the generation gap so wide that it threatens to pull the country apart.”

Without turning this into a dissertation - all I’ll say is that Frankie (our MC) and this book, will live rent free in my mind for a very long time ❤️

Do yourself a favour and grab this one! Also be prepared to be spirited down the google rabbit hole - I (sadly) learnt so much … A true indicator of a brilliant book.

Sincere thanks to @macmillan audio for the audiobook 🎧 Julia Whelan’s narration was simply incredible ❤️❤️

No one tells a story like Kristin Hannah does. Every story she writes captures my heart and leaves me thinking about it long after I finish the last page. I didn’t think there was any way Hannah could possibly outdo herself, but The Women is absolutely outstanding, definitely my favorite read of January, and I say with confidence it will be one of my favorites of 2024!

Hannah’s novels are always well researched & it’s clear she did her homework when it comes to the Vietnam War, both in terms of what those who served our country experienced while they were there, as well as what they returned home to find, which was a divided nation, many of whom furious at them for serving.

Where Hannah’s writing truly shines though is when she combines that sweeping story of our nation’s reaction to the war with a more intimate portrait of one woman’s journey when she makes the choice to serve as a combat nurse in Vietnam. It’s a coming of age story in that nurse Frankie McGrath really comes into her own while trying to save lives in Vietnam. She is a hero in every sense of the word, which makes it all the more frustrating when she returns home to not only hatred from war protesters, but also denial that any women served in Vietnam. My heart broke for her every time she turned to someone for help with her PTSD, only to be told “There were no women in Vietnam.”

Thank goodness for the nurses who served with her. While I cried tears of frustration for Frankie several times, this sisterhood of “ride or die” nurses with whom Frankie served brought tears of relief and joy to my ears. They are always there to pick her up when no one else seems to care.

Filled with heartbreak and healing, The Women shines a light on those brave women who answered the call to serve and affirms that whether anyone wants to believe it or not, “They were there...”

I alternated between the ebook & audio & found them both captivating. Julia Whelan’s narration, as always, is exquisite.

Kristin Hannah is such a talented writer. The Great Alone is one of my all time favorite books ever written. So I know she is amazing.

The Women fell flat for me, in comparison to others I’ve read from her. Not to say that this book was awful, because it was not! It was an important story that deserves to be told.
I think where it fell flat for me, personally, was that it mainly covered the story of one woman. Frankie.
This could have been sooo much more, with in-depth stories about all of the women characters we got to know.

Julia Whelan is an OUTSTANDING narrator! Her talent to give personality to characters that are men and women, young and old is truly top notch. 10/10!!

The emotions were there, the facts were there, the heartbreak was there, but I wanted some more of the other women.

I will of course read more from Hannah. This one just fell a little short for me.

This book is so well written. I love Kristin Hannah’s books because like this one they tell you a story while telling you so much about history. Kristin Hanna does an amazing job at researching and delivering such well written materials. Frankie’s story is the story of many that were in Vietnam and we owe it to them to honor and remember their service and sacrifice.

Kristin Hannah has perfected her craft. What an incredible ode to the women of the Vietnam war, and a powerful example of women’s tenacity, resilience, and purpose. Five glowing stars!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was blessed with an early copy of the Women through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions. I was already a fan of Kristin Hannah’s work after reading The Four Winds, and was just as encaptured by her newest novel.

In The Women, we follow our heroine Frankie, determined to make her family proud by enlisting as a Nurse in Vietnam. Frankie and her fellow nurses illustrate the very real experiences about a woman’s life over seas, and the aftermath of coming home and adjusting to life after war, and growing up in an age where the country became more and more divided and untrustworthy.

I knew very little about the Vietnam war prior to this book, and now I feel emotionally attached to these women and their experiences. While this books foundation is war, Kristin Hannah does well to write an un-biased account, focusing on the feelings of many characters, and how their backgrounds impacted their view of the war at the time.

Julia Whalen is a powerful narrator, and really brought this story to life. She gives unique personalities to each character, and clearly communicates emotion through her narration. We’ll done!

Thank you again to #netgalley, @kristinhannah, and #macmillanaudio for the early audio copy. I loved it!

"The Women" is a heart-wrenching story about Frankie McGrath, who served her country in the Vietnam War as an Army nurse. The book follows her journey of signing up for the army, learning to survive and thrive in the war zone, and trying to put her life together after returning home from serving two terms.

The story also highlights how Frankie was treated by the American people, her parents, and the VA. It sheds light on her struggles of reaching out for help repeatedly, taking two steps forward and three steps back. The book is emotionally intense and will move you to tears. Therefore, it's recommended to keep tissues handy while reading it.

Despite the emotional impact, the book is incredibly well-researched and written. Kristin Hannah has done an outstanding job with "The Women," and it's a must-read for everyone. Once you finish reading it, you will not be the same. Thank you Macmillian Audio for gifting me a free audio copy for an honest review. I can not thank you enough.

Twenty-one-year-old, barely-a-nurse, Frankie goes to Vietnam. Her story is everything you think it will be. It will rake your heart through the coals before you finish first quarter of the book and will not stop there. It’s raw, and personal, and messy, and bloody, and easy to read, but difficult to process.
It’s split in half with “during” and “after”, and while I thought I’d be annoyed, but I found it really brought the story together. The aftermath and the return for those who served, made life back home a new kind of hell. It’s that perfect piece of historical fiction that wakes you up to a tiny slice of timeline in the textbooks. I find, I know shamefully little about certain important pockets of history, and books like this one help bridge the gap, even if just a little bit.
You get the range of every life emotion, family, friends, heartbreak during the war and after. The characters are far perfect, and I suppose that’s what makes them so painfully alive. I’ll also say, I’m grateful for the resolution at the end - a slither of hope over the darkest of days.
If Vietnam War is of particular interest to you – read it. If you are in the medical field – read it. If you want something that will keep you awake (and sob, and curse, and feel) – read it.

I was a teenager during the most severe years of the Vietnam War. and spent countless hours attending protests, watching the horrors on TV and interacting with returning vets, most of whom were shadows of their former selves. Had I not had this background knowledge, I don't know if this book would have resonated with me the way that it did. I read reviews that were mixed or not all that complementary, but I felt that this novel was solid and clearly depicted the intensity and the tremendous losses of those years and beyond.

I did not, however, know anything about the Arm,y nurses who served in Vietnam, so reading about the protagonist, Frankie McGrath's, experiences as a woman in Vietnam, were enlightening and horrendous at the same time. Frankie chooses to serve (against the objections of her parents) as a nurse in Vietnam in part so that she could join her brother, a Navy officer, over there. What she finds in Vietnam is a situation that is far from what she ever expected and tests her to her max in all ways.

Once she returns to the US from two tours in Vietnam, Frankie faces full fledged PTSD (a term not yet known or used at the time), Once proud of her service to her country, she begins to see the country through the eyes of the Vietnam Vets Against the War, despite the fact that many of them doubt her service and maintain the belief that there were no women in Vietnam. Frankie falls into unhealthy patterns of behavior, including addiction and struggles with her romantic life, which includes men who were with her in Vietnam,.

This book, for me, primarily was about the Vietnam war. It brought back a lot of hard memories from that time period, and reminded me how devastating the war was for the US and especially for those who served there, and how this useless war did not serve to enlighten future politicians, who have continued to involve its citizens in the military and foreign wars.. The Women also highlighted the role of the female nurses who were heroes in their own right, and then were forgotten by their country.. The story of Frankie was interesting and symbolic in many ways, although it was, at time, melodramatic. The book is very long, but in a sense, there is so much going on in Frankie's life, that it takes a lot of pages to tell this story. I highly recommend this book!

#netgalley #netgalleyaudiobooks

I veered off my usual path with this historical fiction book and found my way to the Vietnam war. Kristin Hannah delivers a novel full of punch. She covers romance, tragedies, casualties, trauma, addiction, civil rights, women's rights, and PTSD. This was an era when soldiers were often forgotten by everyone but especially the women. The characters are rich, the friendships are deep, and the family dynamics need work. Hannah, has you turning the pages (in my case – listening as fast as I could) to see what will happen next.
Julia Whelan does a superb job narrating the novel, she really helped bring the story to life.


I enjoyed listening to the author’s note at the end as well as her acknowledgments. Kristin Hannah told how this story came to be (and how long she worked on this), in addition about the POW bracelet she wore in middle school.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kristen Hannah does it again! Another book that is a captivating, emotional and powerful story that I couldn’t put down. The story follows Frankie McGrath in her journey to prove that “women can be heroes” too. The horrors that she experiences as an army nurse during the Vietnam War and in the aftermath where no one was willing to help her, is tragic. This is a story that will stick with me for a long time. Every character had such depth and I truly felt for each one of them. The combination of action-filled, and vivid descriptions mixed with a love story and finding one’s true self makes way for a great book. The amount of research that is put into creating this work of art is unreal. This was a beautiful historical fiction novel about the power of friendship, trauma, and being true to yourself. Kristen Hannah has been and will be a favorite writer of mine for years to come.

Kristin Hannah never disappoints me. The Women was a beautifully tragic and uplifting tale of the strength of women. I have never seen any other media address women serving in the Vietnam War and so I never realized the struggle they had while serving and also when returning. Not only did they not fit back into the civilian life from all they saw and experienced, but they also didn't have a place amongst the male veterans, who didn't recognize the trauma the women also experienced. One thing though, is that the women had each other. The friendships in this book were so well-written. These women made it through the war and life afterwards due to the support they offered one another. No other person could understand what they experienced.

I'm always so impressed with Kristin Hannah's extensive research she does for her books and her historical romances always prompt me to do my own research about these times in history that I had little to no knowledge about. Of course, I'll always recommend having Kleenex handy when reading any Kristin Hannah book. She possesses the ability to pull such strong emotions from me and reading her books is always such an experience.

This book was a poignant novel about the women who served in Vietnam that were never given the respect and acknowledgment they deserved for serving their country. I was born shortly after the Vietnam war, and grew up hearing about how the vets were mistreated when they returned home. My father was one of those soldiers and becasue of that this book touched me on a very personal level.

Synopsis:
When Francess (Frankie) McGrath, a young nursing student heard a friend say women can be heroes, she took this advice to heart. Raised in sunny California surrounded by a life of privilege she was sheltered by here conservative parents. Frankie was very close to her older brother and When he enlisted in the Navy Frankie wanted to join him by joining the Army Nurse Corps. While there she saw mass casualties, innocent villiages being destroyed, fell in love and made the best friends who would become “forever friends” and found her true calling as a nurse.

When she returned to America after two tours she was lost. Along with others that had served their country she was looked down on and disrespected. She suffered from PTSD and the worst part was when she went to her government for help they refused to give it to her because according to them she didn’t see any real combat. It was like a train wreck you couldn’t look away from. Frankie kept making bad decidiiosn for her life and seeking solace in the wrong places all because her country failed to give her the support she needed. Not to mention her family took a long time to come around and support her because they were still reeling from the loss that the war had brought on.

I did this as an audiobook, and who more perfect to narrate than Julia Whelan for this powerful book.! I particularly enjoyed the author’s note Hannah included. She states”she wanted to wait until she had the maturity as an author to do this topic justice” Well I’m here to tell you she knocked it out of the ball park once again! She has a real gift for writing