What a fabulous book! The Military Wife has everything I look for in a novel. My attention was grabbed from the very beginning and I was hooked. I loved every single thing about this book. Laura Trentham pulled every emotion from me, and I loved it! She did a spectacular job depicting the life of the military and the struggles they face.

I know this book will stay with me for a very long time, and one I will definitely read again and again. This was also my first book by Laura Trentham and most certainly will not be the last.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and St. Martin Press for the advanced copy and these are my unbiased and honest opinions. Also, thank you for introducing me to a fantastic new author!

ARC for honest review with no compensation received from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press.

The Military Wife: Heart of a Hero written by Laura Trentham is a second chance romance written from the heart of the military.

Harper Wilcox is a young widow raising her young son after the death of her military husband Noah, and now after 5 years, still living with her mother she is restless and afraid to move forward because she might be leaving the memories of Noah behind...but when her best friend and fellow military wife Allison struggles with her own husband’s PTSD, Harper decides to help them both find their way back to each other and maybe find a way to help other wives who have some of the same issues with their returning husbands from war.

While in pursuit of her dreams and helping others she runs into Bennett Caldwell, her deceased husband’s best friend and teammate. Bennett made a promise to Noah to watch over Harper and their son but his growing attraction to Harper feels like a betrayal to his best friend.

Can these two move beyond the past and built a future together or will the past be ever present and keep the, from finding a HEA??

Let me first say that I truly loved this book. I became so involved with the characters and their stories, more so than I have before. I felt their emotions, all the ups and downs, and found myself wanting it to all turn out right.
It is a well written story of love, friendship, camaraderie, sacrifice and survival. The use of alternating between the past and the present, allows the story to move forward while providing the characters with a backstory. This makes the characters real and relatable.
I highly recommend this book. I will be following this new series by Ms. Trentham.
Thank you to #Netgalley and #StMartinsGriffin for approving my request. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

Emotionally Charged!

This book literally held my heart in it’s pages.

I was very thoroughly captivated and engrossed in this novel! So full of emotions.

This book was about heartbreak, healing and love.

And ugly crying! Lots of ugly crying on my part.

An amazing read by an amazing author. Laura Trentham puts it all out there in this one. I am SO excited for what comes next.

Absolute must read!

Favorite Quotes:

“He’s been gone five years, sweetheart, and you haven’t gone on so much as a date.” “That’s not true. I went to lunch with Whit a few weeks ago.” “He was trying to sell you life insurance. Doesn’t count.”

He got out a pot and pulled down three cans. She moved close enough to see two were chili and one was dog food. She hoped she rated the chili.

Without thinking beyond the moment, she scooched closer and put her arm around him from behind. It was like hugging a gargoyle, and she half-expected him to shove her arm away as if comfort were a communicable disease.

Unable to unstick her gaze from him, she nodded, aware of him in ways that made parts of her tingle. Or was that the beginnings of frostbite?

His smile was like the sighting of a rare bird, and it filled her with the same kind of wonder.

And, in my mom’s eyes, you are officially the favorite of all my boyfriends. Although it’s not like the competition was steep. Not being a public nose picker put you in the lead.

I love bargaining. My husband says I can talk the devil down on buying a soul.

Time to push, Harper dear, but softly. We don’t want baby to squirt out and shoot across the room.


My Review:

This cleverly written book plumbed all the feels and insightfully covered several important and vexing societal issues with grace and finesse while bringing honor and recognition to some of the stressors bedeviling families that sacrifice to serve their country. The storylines were active and cleverly nuanced, highly relevant, emotive, evocative, and beautifully written with agility and artistry while well balanced with levity and witty quips. Ms. Trentham is a recent discovery for me with her delightfully appealing Cottonbloom series, and I have repeatedly noticed her special ninja-like talent for creating unique and complex characters who are unfailingly endearing yet extremely complicated, deeply flawed, and impossible not to love. Bennett and Harper included.

I received a free, ARC of this book from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

The author explores not only the mind set and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform when they are deployed and of their spouses and families at home but also what happens when they come with physical and mental injuries. The skillfully penned book is written with compassion about the reality of the lives of those who chose to risk their lives to protect us at home.

Harper Lee Frazier and Noah Wilcox meet the summer before Harper started at the University of North Carolina. He was about to begin BUD/S training for the Navy SEALs. What might have been a short summer romance, turned into four years of correspondence and eventually marriage. During BUD/S, Noah had become best friends with the older and taciturn Bennett Caldwell. After marriage, moving onto base, Harper became friends with Allison, the wife of Noah and Bennett's officer, Darren. Harper became unsettled living on the base, not using the skills that she had earn at university, and feared having a baby, but found out she was pregnant shortly after Noah deployed. However, Noah never got to see his son, as he was killed on a mission, but before he died had Bennett promise he would be godfather to his child and take care of both of them. However, Bennett had grown up in the foster care system, did not know how to do anything but make up a bogus post humous cash award to provide financial aid for Harper and her son Ben, named after Bennett. Eventually, Harper finds out from Allison that the award is bogus, and tracks him down for the truth of what happened to Noah. By masterfully developing the characters, the author captures the struggles that Harper, Bennett, Allison, Darren, their children and the other military wives live through. Wounded Warriors is mentioned several times in the book and there are many Wounded Warrior charities out there. Check Charity Navigator before you donate to any, as there are some that spend less then they should on actually programs for our veterans.

Emotionally enchanting! With a delve into a different type of story line than her norm, Laura Trentham brings us a realistic look into the lives of a group of military wives and how they learn to pick up the pieces of life after deployments, moves, injuries and even death. The plot was thick with emotions and the characters were interesting. I was not fond of the back and forth in time span, and I felt like there were a few plot holes, but overall an enjoyable read.

Harper Lee Wilcox has just been scooting by with life since her husband Noah's death five years ago. She returned home to Kitty Hawk, NC to be close to her Mom as she gave birth to the son her husband always wanted and never got to see. She's finally coming out of the cocoon she surrounded herself with in order to survive, and she's noticing things around her again.

Here best friend Allison Teague is fighting her own demons. With three young children, and a husband who returned from war more emotionally wounded than ever before, she's not sure how long she can walk on the eggshells her house has become. Something's got to give, and she hopes it will be her husbands resistance to admitting the PTSD is out of control this time and he needs to get help.

With the reawakening of her realism that things happened that she never got answers about, Harper seeks out Noah's best friend Bennett Caldwell. Bennett was with Noah at the end and made promises he's never forgotten, but in admitting the things that are awakening inside him, he'll be coming close to betraying the best friend he ever had's trust. Can he step up and fill the shoes of the man he'll never forget?

Harper is struggling to over come the death of her husband, a Navy Seal. She really has no idea where her life is headed. She is afraid to move forward in fear she will leave her husband behind. Then she touches base with her friend Allison. Allison is dealing with 3 kids and a husband which is suffering from PTSD. Harper heads to the rescue only to realize she is the one being rescued.

Harper understands Allison’s predicament better than most. Being the widow of a Navy Seal, she knows spouses of the Military servers have their own set of problems. Harper recognizes a need and she is bound and determined to fix it. Enter Bennett! Wow! He is one perfect, hot shot! He and Allison really struggle in the beginning of their relationship. Bennett was a best friend with her husband, so there is a little bit of guilt undermining their relationship. But when these two decide to throw caution to the wind….oooolala!

What a perfect palate cleanser! I enjoyed so many aspects of this novel, Especially, my all time favorite character…Allison’s mother. She cracked me up. NAKED PAINTING. You must read this story to find out.

I adore a book which has a serious side and is interwoven with a not so serious side. Just makes it all work!

I received this novel from St. Martin’s Press for a honest review.

Harper has been barely living. After the tragic death of her husband while serving overseas, she takes a strange kind of comfort in the endless routine of sleep, work and home.

Her brightest light comes from her young son, Ben. He was never able to meet the father that he looks so much alike and every time she sees him smile, the pain in her heart eases just a little.
She’s finally come to understand that to heal completely, she has to know what happened when Noah was killed. And the only man that tell her that is Bennett “Grizzly” Caldwell.

“Call me Harper, please.” She advanced again and this time he didn’t give any ground, even leaning forward to loom over her. “Considering I unwittingly named my son after you, Bennett, it’s only fitting.”
“You what?” He abandoned his casually aggressive stance and grabbed hold of the counter.
Time to press her advantage while he was unsteady. “Noah suggested the name Ben our last night together. I could tell it was attached to someone important. Just didn’t realize it was you. Now, why did you make up a fake bravery award in order to give me a truckload of money?”

The SEAL team that he served with was the only family that Bennett ever really knew. He was passed from home to home while in foster care until finding his way to the US Navy.

He and Noah forged an unbreakable bond during their hellish training. Sometimes at night, Noah would read the letters from his girlfriend out loud just so they could feel a little closer to home. She was surprisingly funny, smart and unlike any other girl that Bennett had ever encountered. And that was when he secretly fell in love with his best friend’s girl.

He made a promise to Noah that he would take care of his family if anything ever happened to him. It was the one promise that he wished he didn’t have to keep.

He never thought that she would ever come looking for him and the answers that would expose him. But now that she has, he never wants to let her go.

Bennett had spent the last three years avoiding coming face-to-face with Noah’s wife. He’d made sure he was committed for SEAL business the weekend of their wedding, even though Noah had asked him to be best man, and had never accepted an invite to social functions involving the families.
His constant refusals made him seem like an antisocial SOB, which wasn’t that far off the mark, to be honest. Even if he had attended one of the company barbeques, he’d have spent it holding up a corner with a beer in hand. Maybe even double-fisting it.
No, he avoided Harper Wilcox partly because he was afraid she’d never live up to the picture he’d formed of her from her letters. But mostly he was downright terrified she’d far surpass his expectations. His fascination with his best friend’s wife was inappropriate at best and a betrayal at worst.

Reading The Military Wife swamped me so many emotions that it was hard for my heart to keep up! Laura Trentham deals honestly with the immense burden placed on those serving and their families all while weaving an achingly tender love story.

Her characters are so alive and complex that I simply forgot time and immersed myself in their world. I laughed and I cried. And I was reminded of why it's so important to treasure every single moment…

A Heart of a Hero #1, Laura Trentham is wonderful when it comes to small town romance, with this new series it's more Women's Fiction with a romance. What I loved about this book was the alternating of past and present it was a nice touch you get to see all the best and the worst memories Harper and Bennett had with Noah at the same time you get to see Harper and Bennett fall in love and Harper finally finds what she was meant to do with her life. Told in the third person but switches perspective between Harper and Bennett.

We also meet Allison and Darren. Darren is an officer and Allison is his wife, mother of three, and Harper's best friend. Darren is feeling the effects of PTSD but too ashamed to admit he needs help doesn't feel like he deserves the help. Harper can tell Allison needs someone to really talk to and goes to visit her on that visit she attends one of the group meetings for the wives and hears the same stuff she heard when she was in their shoes so she comes up with a plan to help out military wives who feel like they need to do more than just fill the time. Harper has the start up money she was given a large sum when Noah died. But when Allison tells her one of the guys on the team gave her that money and not the NAVY Harper tracks down Bennett Caldwell to return the money.

Bennett meet Noah in BUDs and they formed a fast friendship, they became brother's in every way except blood. When Noah found out Harper was pregnant he had Bennett promise him if anything should happen he would take care of Harper and the baby. The entire friendship Bennett avoided meeting Harper, through all the emails and letter that Noah shared Bennett had fallen in love with her. He left the SEALs after Noah died and thought that giving Harper all that money would be enough to take care of the baby and herself. He never expected to see her again after handing over the money but here she is five years later trying to give it back.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was such an emotional journey not just for Harper and Bennett but for Allison and Darren too. This book made me cry and laugh and cry. This was a wonderful second chance romance and a wonderful story of a woman helping other women and finally getting on with her life and moving on. A lot of lessons in this too, like learning how to accept help and learning to let go of guilt.

THE MILITARY WIFE is such an emotionally realistic story yet it’s not only about a romance with another chance at love it’s also about survival, moving forward when your heart wants to stay in the past. It’s stunning in its message and with a past/present point of view, we get a much more complete picture of Harper’s journey to today.

I was easily caught up in Harper’s world, actually her past and her present. We get to see the younger Harper with the challenges of the military life of her husband, and the strong woman she’s become in the five years since her husband’s death. Her idea/plan for a way to support military families across the country is unique and I can easily see it becoming a success. The secondary characters in THE MILITARY WIFE will touch your heart with their struggles and engage you in their stories as well.

This is a story that should be experienced firsthand for there is no way that I can truly convey the emotions that you will feel, the eye-opening truths you may discover or the way the future holds so much promise once the past is settled into place. I completely enjoyed myself in Ms. Trentham’s world and I’m looking forward to the next book. I would not hesitate to recommend THE MILITARY WIFE to any reader, even if Romance is not your first love – you will be touched, engaged and entertained by this story.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Every book by Laura Trentham is a joy. You laugh, you cry, you put your hand over your heart and say, “Ooohhh.” They are always sweet stories with a lot of love and a good amount of heat and some serious situations that the characters have to work through. So before I even started reading The Military Wife I was certain that I would love it.

But this time, in a genre that she stated is new to her, author Laura Trentham has outdone herself. This book touched me; it found a place in my heart and wouldn’t leave. I am the wife of a retired airman and the mother of a retired sailor and the grandmother of an active duty soldier. And I can tell you that The Military Wife nails it on all counts. I felt like I was back on base, in a wives’ group, enduring a deployment. I could feel the pain of the servicemember and the frustration of the spouse left behind, trying to simultaneously be strong and supportive while at the same time wanting to have a career or a fulfilling purpose in life beyond the military walls.

Harper is strong, but stuck in life, afraid to move forward, not wanting to leave Noah’s memory behind. Bennett is damaged not only by everything he experienced in the military but also by his early life, and he is determined to keep the doors shut to further heartache. There is conflict and animosity between them but at the same time an attraction that, much to Harper’s dismay, feels stronger in some ways and somehow more adult than what she had with Noah. Harper’s friend Allison and her former SEAL husband Darren are experiencing something not at all uncommon to military families – he is desperately trying to cope – stoically alone – with the effects of things he has done and seen, and she is desperately trying to support him without prying, without making him feel worse, and without letting any of it affect their family. None of that is really possible and that makes for some tough times.

The Military Wife seems very different from this author’s Cottonbloom series, more serious, a totally different atmosphere and environment. But in the ways that count it is very much the same: strong, compelling well-developed characters, a storyline and smooth, easy-flowing plot that move quickly and pull you along so that you can’t put the book down, intrigue, love, joy sadness, with satisfying situations and relationships that give you a hint and promise of what’s to come, leaving you wanting more. All in all just a fantastic read.

The Military Wife is the first in Laura Trentham’s new A Heart of a Hero series. I am looking forward to many more stories in this series. I received a copy of this book from the publisher St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own – I loved The Military Wife and highly recommend it.

Harper and Bennett's love story was beautifully written. I loved that the chapters alternated between past and present giving details of their backstories. I would definitely recommend The Military Wife.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley.

There is something almost magical in how Laura Trentham can pull me into a story. She’s my only contemporary “auto-buy” author, and I devoured The Military Wife in one sitting. She writes her characters in such a way that their struggles actually feel true and are relatable. This story is not weepy sentimentality, but an almost joyful look at why things might happen in our lives, and how we keep moving forward. Anyone who has ever had to struggle with any kind of hardship, military related or no, can empathize with these characters struggles to simply keep moving forward.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Military Wife is a different story from what I am accustomed to reading by Laura Trentham. It still has romantic elements but is also veering into women’s fiction. With that said, I liked it, I liked it a lot.

The story is well told with the different military wives’ experiences and struggles so empathically shown. It also has flesh and blood characters who are so human in their thoughts and actions. However, it also shows them rising to the occasion to honor those who have served while conquering their misguided guilt so that they can move on in life. The kind of life that they need and deserve, where love is part of the total package to living a fulfilled life. The subplot was as moving as the main story-line of Harper, her family and Bennett.

The setting is a place I am familiar with making it of interest to me. It is not a huge part of the story but the descriptions and people were realistically portrayed, making the story a more authentic read. Still the focus is on the relationships, past and present, which is heartbreaking at times and inspiring at others. Well-done, Laura Trentham.

Harper and Bennett may have had an irregular path to romance, but they were clearly made for each other. I loved her entrepreneurial spirit and feistiness. Bennett needed healing, and he found what he needed. Great story.

Harper Lee Wilcox does not feel her life has any meaning since her husband, Noah, was killed. Her son who was born after his father’s death is the love of her life. Still, something is missing.

As she gives friends support, she comes up against the full force of Bennett Caldwell. Conflicting emotions war between the two as they perform a dance with the ghost of Noah leading.

Laura Trentham has written a book for both romance readers and military fans. She manages to convey some of the effects of war on our military without being preachy or dry. She shows the effect of atrocities in a caring and supportive manner. Kudos to her honoring of veterans.

The story itself catches you in the first chapter and draws you into a love story that will make you cry, as well as belly laugh. I have always liked Ms. Tretham as an author. This book confirms that she is an one to keep on your to be read list.


I received an ARC from St. Martin Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book.

What an amazing read. This book I would say is a little different, the author writes both the present and the pass, you don't have to guess the author labels each chapter. I loved how you get the current story and the back story but its broken up. This book was super emotional, super powerful and very healing. I loved how each character was super strong, but also had a brokenness to them that made them feel very read. I loved how each character was very much connectable. I loved the role the kids played they added a huge fun element to a very serious book. I loved everything about this book. I will say there is some strong language and some very much adult topics in this book. I can't wait to read more from this series and see what other plans to author has for these character.
This book was hard to put down and I seemed to fly through it, because it was just that good. You can't go wrong with this amazing read.

The Military Wife is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read! And if you have ever read a Laura Trentham book you would have experienced the beautifully crafted work that she produces and the emotional roller-coaster you would be embarking on, and The Military Wife is no different. It is truly one of those books that gets into your soul and you can never forget it.

This heartwarming story is about Harper Lee Wilcox and her young son Ben, and their life in Harper's hometown of Kitty Hawk N.C. after her husband's death while serving in the Army. Harper struggles with the fact that time has moved on, and so have they, especially as Ben will never know his father, as Harper was pregnant with Ben when Noah died. And after a call from her best friend Allison, whose own family is struggling with her husband's PTSD, that took Harper to the base she last lived with her husband. It provoked a memory of an award that Noah had won, and how things Harper was told about Noah's death didn’t quite seem right. So she reached out to the one man that has all the secrets...also the one man she had never met, Bennett Caldwell.

Bennett Caldwell retired from the Army, with more guilt he could ever face! He lost his best friend, and the man that was about to become a father, and he felt responsible, that he should have been taken instead, but Bennett also had a long term secret that he could never face, so he did the best thing he could, and went and shut himself off from the world, until the one person in the world he would ever expect turns up on his doorstep!

And with that, we set off on a journey of self-discovery, of releasing guilt and tackling the big issues of PTSD, suicide, survivors guilt and so much more! And this book seems to tackle the big issues, while also keeping the story down to earth and so beautifully written.

I absolutely loved this book. It was so perfectly written. Every one of my emotions got satisfied reading this book and the characters are so real. Thank you so much for writing such a great book!