Emotional, beautiful, heartwarming and heartbreaking all in one book. This book takes you through every emotion. It shows a woman’s strength and resilience through a truly tough time.
Thanks for NetGalley and St Martins Press for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I really loved this book. Laura Trentham always delivers great reads. This book was written from the perspective of her Navy Seal husbands Nowah’s experience, and who struggled with PTSD before his death. Harper Lee Wilcox deals with her husband’s death, moves in with her mother and deals with delivering a son Ben, whom her husband will never meet. She struggles with being alone as a widow with a young son, she feels guilty moving on as she loved her husband home, but he is gone. Her friend Allison Teague has a husband who won’t go for help who is a danger to their home as he deals with the PTSD. Harper comes up with a way to help the military wives to find jobs and support their husbands that need help. She meets her husbands’ best friend and retired Navy Seal Bennet Caldwell, looking for answers on how her husband died, only to find that Bennet is talking and doesn’t want to spend any time around her. She finds a way to push the envelope and they find that they have a connection that both of the have problems with. The book is a sweet romance, has interesting information included on what it takes to become a SEAL and what it’s like to become a #MilitaryWife.

I received this book through #NetGalley.com and St. Martin’s Press. #TheMilitaryWife I received this free in kindle format in the hopes that I would write a review of my feelings on the book as I am doing here.

Description as found on NetGalley.com

A young widow embraces a second chance at life when she reconnects with those who understand the sacrifices made by American soldiers and their families in award-winning author Laura Trentham’s The Military Wife.
Harper Lee Wilcox has been marking time in her hometown of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina since her husband, Noah Wilcox’s death, nearly five years earlier. With her son Ben turning five and living at home with her mother, Harper fights a growing restlessness, worried that moving on means leaving the memory of her husband behind.
Her best friend, Allison Teague, is dealing with struggles of her own. Her husband, a former SEAL that served with Noah, was injured while deployed and has come home physically healed but fighting PTSD. With three children under foot and unable to help her husband, Allison is at her wit’s end.
In an effort to reenergize her own life, Harper sees an opportunity to help not only Allison but a network of other military wives eager to support her idea of starting a string of coffee houses close to military bases around the country.
In her pursuit of her dream, Harper crosses paths with Bennett Caldwell, Noah’s best friend and SEAL brother. A man who has a promise to keep, entangling their lives in ways neither of them can foresee. As her business grows so does an unexpected relationship with Bennett. Can Harper let go of her grief and build a future with Bennett even as the man they both loved haunts their pasts?

I liked this book very much and will be looking for other books by this author.
We have read many books re the trials and hardships our Military go through (and they do) but this book also put a lot of emphasis on the family of a Military Vet. Shows how they are affected when their spouse or father has been through such ordeals as war and being away from family.
I would recommend this book to friends whether they are a Military family or not

Thank you, Netgalley, for offering an ARC of this book. I had never read anything by Laura Trentham, but I thought this was really well done. I grew up an Army brat and while that isn't the same as a military wife, I distinctly remember the loneliness and anxiety my mother experienced one of the years my father was away in Vietnam. I thought Laura Trentham did an excellent job of describing the various challenges modern military wives face not only with the dangers some of their husband's face, but also with the need some of them have to have careers of their own. Her novel was a great mix of humor, romance, and reality.

If you liked the Lifetime drama "Army Wives" or the CBS drama "SEAL Team" or some of the other recent contemporary military dramas, I think you will like this novel.

I loved this book !
Harper is. Military wife / widow, who is raising her son and existing but not really living.
Harper reaches out to Bennett to finally find out about how her husband died

These two together were so made for each other and I loved them together

The story is told from both points of view in the past and the present
There is so much about being a military wife I learned from this book and I can’t wait for more of this series to be released !!

An emotionally charged book, I was taken on a roller coaster of emotions and found myself laughing and crying, often at the same time. Harper only had one man in her life and when Noah died in action, she needed answers. Not knowing what had happened to him, left her with unresolved issues. When it becomes clear that there is one person with the answers she needs, she visits Bennet who is every bit as taciturn and bearish as his nickname depicts. Although the story does feature the growing feelings between Harper and Bennet, it mainly brings into focus the camaraderie and close bonds of brotherhood that forms between men in action, as well as the sacrifices that are made by the women and children they leave behind. War is a vicious beast that is no respecter of persons. The men and women in the firing line cannot help but be affected by the consequences of killing. It takes almost as much courage to face up to and deal with PTSD as it does to pull the trigger in the first place, as is well depicted in this novel. I loved every moment of this well-written story as well as the portrayal of the characters, each with their distinctive personalities. It appears that a series is going to evolve, but this is nevertheless a standalone with a heartwarming conclusion. I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

As I've said before, I have a soft spot for books with military ties (real or fictional). This book had me cheering for and shedding tears along side Harper. This book touches upon the issues that military families experience but the rest of us aren't very privy to, experiences every family can imagine and relationship dynamics any adult can attest to. This is a great "beach read" or "easy read" that I would recommend.

My first time reading Laura Trentham and I enjoyed this story. I loved how the author handled the heroine’s grief and sadness, the slow healing and the sweet yet still a bit painful way Noah’s memory was embedded into the new couple’s and family reality.
Bennett is a wounded hero, a broken man with a painful past. I loved this “taciturn loner” with plenty of inadequacies, although I felt these dimensions were often more told than shown.
Noah and Bennett’s friendship was poignant and again I was moved by how vivid his character was to me, making me experience, as a reader, his best friend’s sense of loss.
Good depiction of the military wives’ problems too.

I ended up skimming through the book. Overdone plot. Widow meets sexy Navy Seal with muscles and troubled past, blah blah blah. More of same. Could recommend as a beach read

Harper and Bennett’s story was poignant. It was grief. It was joy. It was rebirth. I loved how real Bennett and Harper’s feelings were portrayed! More so, I loved the way Trentham portrayed friendships. Not just between the military wives, but also the guys. There were foundations of support when one had the courage to reach out and ask, something that’s always easier said then done.

Harper and Bennett’s complicated relationship, Allison, Darren, and their family’s struggle with his PTSD, the military spouses looking to define themselves from their spouse’s identities and the deployments and reintegrations-the deep emotions coursing through the pages pulled me in from the start and I found myself quickly invested in the story’s outcome. Military Wife is a departure from Trentham’s small town romances, yet I felt this book made its mark with style and I can’t wait to see what’s up next!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A romance novel about military life, both from the pov of soldiers (male) and their wives/women they fall for. Short read, very, very sweet--it reminded me of an old school Harlequin in a lot of ways--and despite the simplicity of the story line, deals frankly with the impact of PTSD on military personnel and their families. I ended up being more invested in Allison and Darren's story than in that of the mc, Harper, and what happens to her with Bennett!

The Military Wife was a heartwarming story of a strong woman moving on after loss. We get to read about how Harper Lee Wilcox meets her husband Noah, we get bits and pieces about their marriage. We also read about Noah's time in the military and the relationships he develops with his brothers. When Noah doesn't come back from a deployment, Harper must learn to move on without him and build a life for herself and her unborn son. She moves in with her eccentric mother and builds a life, but she isn't satisfied, something is missing. She comes up with a brilliant idea to help other military wives work outside of the home. She meets Bennett Caldwell and they grow close as she builds her new business. This was a great story and I loved reading it!

My Review of The Military Wife by Laura Trentham

Every once and awhile, an author you love will release a book, that is a slight departure from her previous work...and for a minute you’ll worry it will not be as good as her other books. But then you’ll feel guilty you ever doubted them because the book will be one of the best you’ve ever read.

The Military Wife focused on Harper, a young war widow with a young son...who is beginning to feel lost, without a passion to keep her mind off of what she once had. I loved Harper, and I adored her mother and it was very clever to jump from past to present, as it gives the reader a chance to get to know Noah, her late husband.

What really moved me was the fact the author didn’t shy away from the real impact war has on those who serve and those who are left behind. The loneliness Wives can feel when their husband are away and the lack of opportunities for them to have something of their own, outside of the military was portrayed beautifully. There was some real heartbreaking scenes that had your heart pounding, but if the issues involved weren’t discussed, then it would be glossing over major issues like PTSD and suicide, and these issues deserves to be at the front of discussions.

A beautiful, heartbreaking read, one I will not forget

Congratulations

5*****

Harper Lee Wilcox married her first love Noah and has had to cope with the aftermath of his death in action five years ago. The only thing keeping her going is her young son, otherwise she is just going through the motions. A visit to an old friend, the wife of one of her husband's teammates, leads her to realise that many military wives and widows feel similarly dispossessed and directionless, their own careers and lives put second to the demands of the SEAL teams. Harper looks to invest the money she received from the Navy after her husband's death into a small business that could provide jobs to other military wives.

Harper's decision to start a new business leads her to getting in touch with another of her husband's former teammates, Bennett Caldwell, who left the SEALs to run his own outdoor survival training business.

How do you know when it's time to move on? Harper is a very relatable heroine, down to earth, normal, sassy. She struggles with her growing attraction to Bennett. To me her slightly contradictory reactions felt very real, the sort of illogical thought processes we go through in real life. For his part, Bennett struggles with his guilt at falling for his best friend's wife and the death of a man who was more like a brother. There's cute kids, huge dogs, lots of coffee, wilderness training, marriage troubles, sorrow, love, heartache, princess stories and hawt kisses.

The novel is told from Bennett and Harper's points of view and with flashbacks to pivotal moments in both Harper and Bennett's interactions with Noah. I have to say I wasn't a fan of the flashbacks, it is kind of disconcerting when you are starting to get invested in a new romance to be interrupted with flashbacks to the start of the romance between Harper and Noah.

Overall, I thought the burb didn't really match the way the book went, maybe that was deliberate? But I really enjoyed it, I liked Harper and Bennett, I liked the character development and the plot.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Military Wife is an emotional roller coaster of a read that I devoured in one sitting. The characters are well-developed, interesting people with hopes, dreams, and fears that are very lifelike and real. I liked the way the story alternated between the past and present. This book gave me an inside look at what being married to someone in the military is like. I have nothing but respect for both those who serve and those who stay home and support them. Well done, Ms. Trentham!

Really enjoyed this book. The story line really hits home to anyone who has loved ones in the military.

I was absolutely blown away by this book. The emotions are so raw and real.

Harper meets Noah, whose dream is to become a Navy Seal, unfortunately Noah is killed while deployed, leaving behind his wife and unborn child.

The character development was amazing, you can definitely feel the emotions Military families go through.

Harper’s journey through grief and potentially finding new love is heartwarming.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a great read! I'm not usually a big romance fan, but the combo of the military stories, the mystery, and the wives supporting each other made this great. I loved it, so nicely done.

4.5 stars

This was a great book. The characters felt believable. The book deals with heavy issues but does so in a sensitive manner. It was emotional but didn't leave me depressed. Our military families have to be so strong as do the men and women who serve in our armed forces. They all deserve our support and thanks.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.