… will def be rereading with my eyeballs when I can get my hands on a paperback next year!! What a great read, KH has the incredible ability to put you right in the middle of the action feeling what her characters felt.

Kristin Hannah has done it again with this poignant, heartbreaking tale that follows the life of a Vietnam War Nurse. The main character is a heroine that will steal your heart and have you rooting for her from page 1. To say that she has her fair share of challenges and turmoil is putting it lightly. But through it all, she stays true to herself and faces every curveball thrown her way.
A huge thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This was one of the best books I have experienced in years. While there are many stories about the Vietnam War, there are few that are told about the female nurses who served at hospitals and dealt with combat victims. The Women does an amazing job of telling these stories, elaborating on the long term impacts of war, and demonstrating how poorly these women were treated by friends, family, and even the VA when they returned home.

The Women is not just a war story; it is also a story of growing from a sheltered young woman to one jaded by life experiences...and there were just so many that the protagonist Frankie had to deal with.

This book will make you laugh, cry, and scream at the characters (maybe just in your head though?). I received an audiobook ARC, but I will be purchasing it as a hard copy once the book come out in February because it will be worth the revisit.

Kristin Hannah has another best seller with The Women. The novel follows Frankie a privileged gal from Coranodo Beach, CA. who enlist into the Army following her brother into Vietnam. She is part of the Army’s Nursing Corps during the height of the war. The audiobook with Julia Whelan narrating is phenomenal. It will tear you up and have you cheering. A must read/listen. Thank you #NetGalley, #MacmillanAudio, #KristinHannah and #JuliaWhelan for the advance copy for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to check this one out early!

This compulsively readable novel by Kristin Hanna follows Frankie, a young woman who decides to follow her brother to Vietnam by joining the Army nurse corp.
I was so engrossed in her experience as a nurse in Vietnam as she gained confidence and competence in her skills in the setting of the horrors and chaos of war, which ultimately brought her a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Not only do we follow her experience during the war, but also explores what comes after.
Totally engrossing read, excellent audio narrator. I was immediately invested in this character and cared about what would happen. I loved the strong female friendships and complex family relationships. I was so frustrated and angry at how the system failed her upon her return.
There is loss, grief, devastation, war, and trauma. But also growth, friendship, loyalty, courage, love, and hope.
This brought out so many emotions--Bring tissues!

This was a great book, but it was really hard to read at times. Frankie is a nurse who ends up joining the Army to go over to Vietnam; she wants to be there with her brother, but perhaps most of all, I think she wants to earn a place on her father’s “Heroes Wall.” Well, because this is a historical novel, we know that the Vietnam veterans didn’t return to a grateful country welcoming them with open arms, but I really had never considered how being a woman made the situation worse, in some ways. We first get to know Frankie well during her stint in the hospitals in Vietnam, where she makes friends, works to save lives and comfort the wounded, and is just trying to survive. However, when Frankie comes home her entire outlook has shifted, and she is just trying to find her footing in the world, and find her place in her family.

This story was so filled of twists and turns - some I sort of feared coming, and some I didn’t quite expect. While I was rooting for Frankie, there were times it was really hard to read. That being said, growing up as the child of a Vietnam War era vet (as were the fathers of many of my friends), it definitely gave me some perspective on some of my experiences growing up. (Many of our nation’s Vietnam Vets are still around today, and there are many ways you can now show your support of them- for a few, you can check out Soldiers’ Angels or Honor Flight, or even your local VFW post).

The narrator was amazing, I couldn’t put it down, and I think it is such an important story to tell. Bravo, Kristin Hannah, and thank you for writing this amazing and thought-provoking story.

Just clear your schedule. I could not stop listening to this book once I started. The main character, Francis's development throughout the book is amazing. She goes from a naive girl to a war veteran who has lived through the toughest times imaginable. I love historical fiction that puts me in a place and lets me step into someone's shoes. This book accomplished that and was spectacularly narrated by Julia Whelan. At times, I thought I knew where this book was going and while I might be partially right, I was always surprised at the twists and how much they fit the story. "Women can be heroes too." Thank you to all of our veterans and especially the women who have served and are serving now. Thank you to Kristin Hannah for another spectacular novel and thank you to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the audio ARC.

Julia Whelan is a national treasure and should have her own holiday. Her narration is the actual best and it's a hill I will die on.

I loved the Great Alone. The Four Winds was super hard. I was nervous about The Women. j

The Women is the story of Frankie, a society girl turned war nurse during the Vietnam war. What she sees, the trauma and loss that she experiences and how she recovers are all played out on page with a brutal honesty that was at both times hard to read and also completely page turning. My favorite parts of the story included her relationship with Ethel and Barb. Those life long female friendships are priceless and when they are displayed on page it's the best.

This book has tough times. It's not easy to read in places, but know that it all comes together in the end and you will leave feeling ok.

Kristin Hannah has another bestseller on her hands. I was so excited to read this. The Women is about Frankie, a young girl from California, who decides pretty much on a whim, to go to Vietnam, using her new nursing degree. What happens over there is heartbreaking, sad, real! She decides to stay in Vietnam for a second tour. She grows up, falls in love, twice, sees horrible things happen in the ER, and watches people die., lots of people die! And then on returning home to the US, she is spit on and not appreciated from her tours in the war. It was the early 1970's, and it was a time of hippies, drugs, and peace, love and understanding. No one respected the people that had gone to fight Communism, fight a war that should have never happened! Fight a war that was a lie! Frankie has a lot of issues living in America as a war veteran. Ms. Hannah has written one heck of a tome on this era. It is absolutely brilliant, eloquent in verse, and intelligent in context. Her research is incredible to me. And then there is the black granite Wall at the end! WHAT A BOOK! This review comes with the HIGHEST ACCOLADES....just make sure you have a box of Kleenex with you! and the ending!!!....OMG!! Brava, Ms. Hannah!!!!!
I give this book 25 out of 10 stars! The Women Rocks! and do read the Author's note.

FYI..the audio of this book was terrific!

First, anything Julia Whelan narrates is 20% better for it. And she does not disappoint here. As for the story: well, there are some cheesy elements, but I suspect that's par for the course for a coming of age novel. But, overall, it was solid.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Women
By: Kristin Hannah
5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was an emotional one for me as my dad was in Vietnam.

This one is about the nurses in the Vietnam war and all that they went through.

21-year-old Frankie McGrath decided to go to Vietnam and signed up to be a nurse in the Army Nurses Corp. She lost her brother Finlay and her parents did not think women belonged in the war. They had a special place in their home for all the men who served. Women were expected to be wives and mothers, so she was disappointing her parents.

We follow Frankie as she navigates the difficult job, relationships, death, betrayal and PTSD, and trying to navigate life after the war.

It took Frankie several years to get back her life again and for the nurses to get recognition. I know the Vietnam War and the soldiers, nurses and everyone had a hard to adjusting to life back home as with the wars since.

The mention of Agent Orange was personal to me.

Get your tissue ready! This one was long but absolute a must for Hannah fans. Thank you to all who have served in the military. I come from a long line of military and know what it’s like to be home while someone is out there fighting for our freedom.

Thank you Patty Majors for this lovely ARC and beautiful bookmark from your trip to Portugal. Also Thank you to Macmillan audio for the audiobook. I am blessed.
#thewomen, #kristinhannah, #stmartinspress, #bookreview, #netgalley, #macmillianaudio, #audioreview, #stamperlady50, #booksconnectus

This is one of those audiobooks that you just can't stop listening to! The narrator presents a believable voice for the characters in this book. I felt like I was listening to a play or a film dialogue being read aloud. Kristin Hannah has a true talent for writing historical fiction to make it feel like the reader is experiencing everything for themself. I had so many emotions listening to The Women. If you enjoy reading historical fiction, in particular stories about the Vietnam War, you'll definitely want to pick this one up. I appreciated the author's note at the end talking about how this story has began as an idea she had over 20 years ago, and it has grown and evolved with the author herself.

Wow. I read The Women via an audio edition. How to start? Not everyone will be able to read this book. It is raw and for many of us who were old enough to be US citizens during the Vietnam War and the years that followed it, this brings home so many issues, some that made me feel devastated all over: I wrote my first anti-war poem about "Johnson's war" in 1966. That's the year this novel begins with Finley McGrath, Francis (Frankie) McGrath's big brother's farewell party. A graduate of Annapolis, he's heading to Vietnam. Frankie is in nursing school. Their dad, who was disqualified from serving in WWII values men who served the country in the military. He honors them on his "heroes wall."

Women are to become good Catholic wives and raise these heroes. But Frankie feels drawn to serve and soon after she graduates from nursing school she signs up to go to Vietnam as a combat nurse for the Army. I was and remain opposed to that war and will to my dying day despise the government's decisions relating to Vietnam. But I always respected the guys who were drafted or those who signed up because they believed it was the right thing to do. I only condemned those service people who committed war crimes, not those who served in general. In any event, Kristen Hannah masterfully captures three things that I found stupendously brilliant: (1) The experience first hand of what it meant to serve in Vietnam. It rings true with accounts I've heard over the years from men who were there; (2) The dramatic cultural, social and political changes that characterized the country between 1966 and 1973. Those I lived; and (3) The music of the era, which I remember well. This book has given me scads of earworms. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" anyone? What an ingenious way to plant us on the spot where a song we all know is spinning.

Central to the story is the close friendships Frankie makes with two other nurses, Barb who is an activist Black woman with a Black Panther Vietnam Veteran brother and Ethel, who plans to return to her farm in rural West Virginia and study to be a veterinarian. Frankie, raised in a well to do family housed on a beach front property on Coronado Island near San Diego is naive and inexperienced. Suddenly she is caring for men with parts blown off and dealing with the attention of various kinds of guys while learning how to be a nurse in conditions that are primitive and patients with injuries that are unimaginable. As Ethel warned her when she first encountered amorous officers, she was to be careful because the men "lie and they die."

Eventually, we follow Frankie home and live through her experience with the hostility of some Americans to returning vets. Her family is uncertain how to take the new Frankie with war stories to tell. Notably, she finds that no one seems to get that women served in Vietnam and most people don't care too much about how any veterans are treated. As we all know, many were (and still are) suffering emotional trauma, addiction and physical issues arising from being Vietnam Veterans. Frankie is not spared.

We are exposed to the aftermath of the battles, the attacks, the villagers burned by napalm, the lack of foliage due to agent orange, the burgeoning recognition that there is a problem with all the chemicals being used in Vietnam that will impact all those who were there, the outsiders and the natives. The hospital scenes are written so brilliantly that I had to turn off the recording to take some deep breaths along the way. This is not MASH, although the fun parts of MASH are there in the officer's club on R & R and at going away parties. The radio guy who is the "Radar" character is called "Talk Back." The characters are well drawn, including Frankie's family and their country club/Naval Base set; Frankie's various friends and colleagues overseas; the villagers and children, civilian victims of war; those populating organizations like Vietnam Veterans Against The War and the various peace organizations; the US government and the Veteran's Administration.

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to listen to this novel. It is memorable. It is realistic. It portrays a balanced view of what it was like to take sides about this war and to change one's mind along the way. It helps explain what drove some privileged Americans to join in while others figured out every possible way to avoid the draft. Until the college exemptions were removed and every eligible man was subject to a draft lottery It was largely people of color and those from poor backgrounds who fought this war. It is painful to remember but also so important not to forget.

This book is immersive. It should be a movie. The narration in the audio version is excellent. It would also be a good print read.

By far the best book I've read this year. An incredible story of a woman going to war and finding herself then coming home from war and having to find herself all over again. An incredible view into 2hqt it was like for military during the Vietnam war and after the struggles they went through and how little respect people had for them. A very hard subject, but so very important to learn about.

The ability that Kristin Hannah has to transport you to a time, place, and feeling is one of the reasons I love her books, and with her latest, The Women, the master has done it again. I listened to the audio version of this book, as beautifully narrated by Julia Whelan, a first for me with a Kristin Hannah novel and it was a great experience.
We first meet main character, Frances "Frankie" McGrath in 1965 as her brother gears up to head off to war in Vietnam. Raised in a conservative California home, Frankie's father is incredibly proud of his son for his service to the country, and when Frankie decides she will use her skills as a nurse to help the effort and joins the army, her service is not met with the same admiration from her family. As only Kristin Hannah does, the pages that follow are filled with emotion as Frankie navigates deplorable conditions, forms unshakeable connections, and perseveres to tell us the story of not just Frankie, but many of The Women, who served our country during this time, and did not receive the recognition, appreciation, and admiration they deserved especially once they returned home. One of my favorite things about the genre of historical fiction, is how an author can make me feel invested in a character experiencing a hardship while also teaching me about a period in time I may not be well educated on. With Frankie I felt her desperation, I felt her frustration in so many circumstances, and I felt her strong female friendships that were always there for her. I learned so much about our country and the countless ways our veterans deserve our thanks not just back then, but continuously. I have a strong admiration for all who serve, but especially these women in a time where they were not recognized by most. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook version of this novel, all opinions are my own. Thank you to Kristin Hannah for telling the story of The Women, it is an inspiring story filled with several twists I did not see coming and it is a story I won't soon forget. I highly recommend the audio version of this novel as it includes not only a beautifully told story, but the dedication, author's note, and acknowledgments are read by the author herself, which transported me back to the joy I felt meeting her on most recent tour when she stopped in Maine. A night I will never forget. Do yourself a favor and preorder this now, The Women is out February 6, 2024.

This is my favorite read from Kristin Hannah so far. What a powerful story giving us a window into the lives of our Vietnam soldiers and nurses.

Part 1 gives us an inside look at army nursing on a battlefield through the eyes of Frankie McGrath. Deplorable living conditions, incoming wounded at all hours, and having to say good bye to patients who die on the table, those who return stateside, and the coworkers who end their tours and go back to their old lives. No one prepares Frankie for her return home. She is spit upon, yelled at, and even her parents pretended she was abroad rather than tell their friends what she was really doing.

Part 2 is Frankie's continued unravelling as even the VA turns her away when she asks for help. She hears over and over that there weren't any women in Vietnam! Every veteran is unique and Frankie simply could not move ahead in the same way that her best friends had.

What is so clear is the need for our veterans to talk about their experiences -- especially with others who have been there, too. A few years ago I heard a Vietnam nurse talk about a group she has been working with to help veterans heal by taking them back in country with other vets. Her name is Lou Eisenbrandt and I highly recommend her book: Vietnam Nurse which won a Silver Medal Award from the Military Writers Society of America. I also want to commend Julia Whelan for her excellent performance in narrating this new release.

A big thank you to St. Martins Press and Macmillan Audio for both digital and audio ARCs of this new title in exchange for an honest review.
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Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this audio ARC.

Julia Whelan is a goddess and should narrate everything always!!!!

This book was wonderful. And hard. I’m pretty sure I felt an entire dictionary worth of emotions, particularly rage. It is relevant and powerful, especially given the state of women’s rights and challenges we face still today.

Pro tip: kleenex. You will need it.

What a story. Spoiler, I loved it. Right from the start it sucked me in. I felt for Frankie, I loved the audio and felt like I was there. I loved her two friends she met along the way who always stood by her side. I cannot wait to get a copy and re read it in print. Love the title. How fitting and that author’s note 😭

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan audio for the advance copy.

Publish date: February 6, 2024

Kristin Hannah always does a great job of finding an interesting/women in history topic and delivering a thought provoking set of themes and contexts but... it's the same story, a naive woman finds herself in a space where she has to learn quickly to adapt/becomes stronger than she realizes, encounters a range of challenges and tragedies, complicated romance issues arise, and she has to show resilience in the face of trauma and adversity and comes out some how stronger but damaged for all that she endured. Does this work for many readers? Sure and that's great, it just feels like the settings and real world history, and more diverse identities...., need more that the run through the big and expected themes.

“Women can be heroes too”…these words change everything that young nursing student Frankie thought she knew. It’s the 1960s, the country is changing and the war in Vietnam is raging. Though Frankie has always prided herself on being a good girl and doing what her parents expect of her, she impulsively joins the Army Nursing Corp after her brother ships out to Vietnam. She is shocked by what she encounters - why is the savage reality of the war so very different from what the American Media has been reporting? Frankie learns quickly and by the time her tour is over, she doesn’t know how to function back home. Worse still, the country’s opinion of the war has changed drastically from when she left. The returning heroes are treated like criminals. Throughout the years, she struggles to find a place in the world but nothing seems right anymore.

Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite writers. Her books always draw me in with their carefully crafted plots, complex characters and so much humanity and emotion. “The Women” is no different. Told from Frankie’s perspective, we follow her to Vietnam, back home and on a long journey of self-discovery and healing. Her story was so emotionally charged and I thought Hannah did a very respectful job describing what it must feel like for a veteran returning to regular life after seeing the atrocities of war. As Frankie heard repeatedly, “there were no women in Vietnam”, but there were - they were nursing, right down in the thick of it alongside the men. It was so frustrating to see her dismissed over and over again, and I was rooting so hard for her to find her way. In “The Women”, Kristin Hannah brings a time in history alive so beautifully. Don’t skip the author’s note at the end, as she explains why this part of history is so dear to her. I am SO glad I had the audio for this (narrated by January LaVoy with an appearance from Kristin Hannah too), because I simply could not stop until I knew how the story ended! Easily a contender for book of the year.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Kristin Hannah for the ARC! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly.