This is a classic Kristin Hannah with amazing research and writing.

I haven’t read a KH book I haven’t fell in love with.

What the HELL? There is no other way to start this review. I’ve never been so angry at a book.

How could a nation ignore the fact women were over in Vietnam? Just because they weren’t in the front lines did not mean they didn’t serve. It didn’t mean that they didn’t experience everything a front line soldier experienced. They saw such horrific injuries to all walks of life. They had to enlist in one of the armed forces therefore they WERE veterans!

France’s parents were horrible. Especially when she returned home. To come home to angry and disrespectful civilians and then experience from your own parents.

Veteran help is something I strongly support. My own dad hated the VA and I now understand more his reasoning. I suspected he had PTSD from Korea. No wonder so many of our veterans suffer from so many addictions. They helped themselves in ways they could. Was it the best? No, but you do what you have to to get through the day.

We as a nation still need to do better for our veterans that have seen active combat. They served our country and fought for us. Military PTSD is real. We should not shame them for it. We weren’t there. They were.

Read this book then do your own research if you don’t believe we failed an entire generation of veterans.

Hannah’s best book yet. 😭

This is an automatic read / buy author for me, and this novel was her most powerful. It’s not often that a book brings me to tears, much less makes me sob, but this story was successful in both.

Highly recommend this novel (and author).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC - this book is available everywhere, go grab it.

I read this so long ago. And I've been sitting on writing a review because I have such conflicted feelings about it. I think it was an incredibly powerful book, and that the topics are important. But it was also incredibly challenging to read. I've recommended it to many people in conversation, while I have refrained from recommending to others due to the content.
Worth the read? For sure. But know what you're getting into.

Loved it! Another knockout book, how does she do it? Was fully immersed in the story and sad to have it end. Have recommended it to so many fellow readers.

I haven't read many books by Kristin Hannah, but are ALL of them such tearjerkers? I started this one via audiobook and ended up crying before I even got 45 minutes into. So I played it safe and just read the rest via the ebook so I didn't become a blubbering mess during my commute.

This book was so heart-wrenching. I don't even have the capability to fully say how this book made me feel. I loved getting the perspective of a woman's experience in-country during the Vietnam War. As someone from a military family, it is hard reading about what people had to go through while they were there, even if it is a "historically fictionalized" account.

When Frankie's brother Finley is picked to go to Vietnam as a Naval Officer, she knows he will end up being on her parent's "hero wall." At Finley's going away party, one of his friends tells Frankie that "women can be heroes too." However, once Frankie returns home and has to fight the external and internal demons of war, she finds out just how hard it is to be seen as a "hero" to many people, including her own family.

Reading Frankie's story and what made her feel compelled to enlist as a nurse with the US Army and journeying through her life pre-, during, and post-war was something that will stick with me for a long, LONG time.

An absolute must read. I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommended it to my mom, who lived through this era, and all of my book loving friends. I really enjoyed the depth of detail that Kristin Hannah went into in the two parts of the book. It was a topic that I had never given much thought to, and this character and story really opened my eyes to women’s experiences in war and post war life.

This book was amazing. Kristin Hannah is so good at story telling and representing the era she is in.

I really appreciated how this book tackled the Vietnam experience from the perspective of the nurses who served in country. It was a great companion to so many books that I have read that focused on the soldiers' experience. My one pet peeve was the way every man instantly fell in love with the main character, Frankie. It was clear from the details provided in the story that Kristin Hannah thoroughly researches her historical fiction.

Wow—The Women hit me hard in all the best ways. Kristin Hannah has this gift for weaving emotional, deeply human stories, and this one might be her most powerful yet. It follows Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a young nurse who volunteers to serve in Vietnam and ends up facing not only the horrors of war but also the painful erasure of women’s roles in it.

Hannah doesn't sugarcoat anything—the trauma, the loss, the anger—it’s all there. But at the same time, she gives us hope, resilience, and the deep bonds women form in impossible situations. It's heartbreaking, but also empowering.

If you're into historical fiction that actually teaches you something while pulling on every emotion you've got, this one’s worth the read. Just have tissues nearby.

4.5 stars

Another emotional rollercoaster from Kristin Hannah. The amount of research that had to have gone into this book is incredible - though fiction, I learned so much about the Vietnam war. Frankie was an incredible main character, and her journey was traumatic and powerful and inspiring. I loved how heavy the romance was, however didn't completely love the direction all relationships went in. I found myself wishing certain characters were better than they turned out to be, but I understand this is what worked best for the story. Overall an incredible book. I loved it!

Kristin Hannah is an incredibly consistent writer. I know that whatever I pick up by her, I will adore. I felt completely immersed in this novel — I learned so much about the Vietnam war and the nurses who were on the ground helping during combat. I felt for the main character, Frankie. She couldn’t catch a break at times but I felt completely invested in her story. I would highly recommend to anyone who loves this author or historical fiction in general.

One of the best books I have read in a long time. Kristin Hannah does it again. This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Despite how long it is, I FLEW through it. It definitely gave a different perspective of the Vietnam War but I was hooked. Loved it.

“We were forgotten; all of us Vietnam vets, but the women most of all."

Stunning. Heartbreaking. Frankie's story pulled me in, hooked me completely, broke my heart but lifted me up, too. I love when women's voices are heard, when we lift them up and hear their stories.

I knew very little about Vietnam. It really is the war that everyone tries to forget and no one really wants to talk about. This is the first story I've encountered that gave us the story of the nurses. Of coming home and being told over and over again that there were no women in Vietnam.

And the story really did hook me from the start. I found Frankie to be an easy narrator to like. Even though she was young and naive, I liked that we got her story of how determined she was to work, to be good at what she did. The compassion she gave day in and day out to the men she saw through the hospital.

Coming home was the hardest. Being with Frankie as she learns to live in this new world, one that isn't as rosie anymore. It felt realistic and dark - and I liked that the author explored just how hard it would be. I really appreciated the author's note at the end and the detailed information in the author's note.

This is an amazing story and I'm so glad Kristin Hannah chose to share it. This one will definitely stick with me.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the opportunity to read Kristin Hannah's The Women. I was a tad late in getting this one accomplished. The Women tells the tales of such strong women, who are true heroes. This book gives women hope and the strength to be just who they are. Frankie was a character that we all wish we knew. Thank you for this book!

This book, as so many of Kristin Hannah’s, opens our eyes to some forgotten women from history. I found the story intriguing, and I wanted to research more about the time period when I was done.

It wasn’t my favorite of her books, as I felt in comparison to The Nightingale and The Great Alone, the characters could have used a bit more development.

Fantastic novel that really sheds light on an often neglected and forgotten about aspect of women’s history. Especially enjoyed the camaraderie among the women and how it didn’t shy away from the tough life and trouble with reentry these women had.

This book an eye opening, and largely untold story of the women who held all kinds of roles during the Vietnam War. The material is HEAVY. Heartbreak, death, and deception are themes that rear their ugly heads time and time again. But so does friendship, and love, fierce loyalty and bravery. I would recommend this to anybody interested in learning more about the path women took during the war. Just know that the hits keep coming so buckle up and hold on tight.

WOW WOW WOW. I don't think I will ever get over this story. I was hesitant because it is technically historical fiction and that genre can be a bit dry, in my opinion. This story though was anything but dry. The emotional rollercoaster Kristin Hannah takes you on is unforgettable. The historical truth, the loss, the grieving, the research she put in, the way you can so easily relate to Frankie makes The Women hands down one of the best books I've ever read. I don't have enough words to show how much I loved this story from start to end. I am not one to cry in a book unless something happens to an animal, but this ending left me sobbing. I would give this 1,000 stars if I could.

Powerful and amazing read. Read it quickly without stopping! Another great story from Kristin Hannah! It did not disappoint. One of her best.