This book was great. As Kristin Hannah does so well, she crafted a historical fiction novel that is both full of detail and is also compelling. I did not want to put this book down. Frankie was the perfect main character to follow on this journey of love, loss, friendship and survival.

While I am still thinking about this one after finishing it, and have gone back and reread a few passages I couldn’t stop thinking about, I wanted more as well. Maybe it’s the romance reader in me, but I was so invested in Frankie’s journey the ending felt rushed to me. I wanted to see more about how Frankie’s life played out, I wanted to see a HEA.

This would make an excellent book club book because there is so much to discuss.

I absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down!! I got slightly long in a few parts, but for the most part I thought it was amazing. I'll definitely recommending it to people!

Mark my words. THE WOMEN will be THE book of 2023! I LOVED it. Let me tell you 10 reasons why!

1. The time period. 1965, Vietnam War. Why do I feel like this era is so underwritten? Because so many Americans were against the war??

2. Our main character, 20 year old Frankie. Fresh out of nursing school she joins the Army Nurse Corps to serve in Vietnam. What a woman!

3. The friendships. Us gals can really love and help and uplift one another through turbulent times. Hannah really shines on this brightly!

4. The job. As an Army nurse, Frankie saw a lot. Hannah handles what could be quite graphic with care, but also emphasizes the awfulness of wartime injuries.

5. The romantic relationships. I loved this part! I was rooting for Frankie!! No more to say without spoilers!

6. The emotional toil. Let me tell you all the places I teared up while reading: the copy center, the paint store, the dr. office, my car, the hotel, the beach, my house, Sheesh! She sure knows how to get the reader EMOTIONALLY invested. All of this said...I was here for it and didn't get too mad!!

7. The women! Sharing women's stories and voices in a heavily male voiced world was refreshing to my heart as a woman. Thank you Kristin! Women have done hard things in the past and so can I.

8. The length was perfect. Not too long, not too short.

9. The topics. Many topics were covered in this book beyond the Vietnam war. This may be my one qualm with perhaps one too many in attempt to cover all of them, but I really enjoyed thinking about all she referenced.

10. The personal connection Kristin Hannah has to the story. In her Acknowledgments she shares an item she received as a child that she interjects in the story and it made me tear up all over again, on the very last page!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance e-copy of this book.

Let me start by saying: thank goodness Kristin Hannah knows how to write about history, because I sure as heck hated my history classes growing up. She did it again…. She wrote an incredible historical fiction novel. She did the research and made it amazing.

I always wonder how authors come up with their stories, and in her authors note she explained how she was a child during the Vietnam war and has memories of that time. The idea behind this book came to her 26 years ago, but she knew she was a young author and wanted to make sure she did this topic justice. How wild!!

This book follows Frankie McGrath on her journey as a nurse in Vietnam during the war. Not only was she responsible for treating American soldiers, but also Vietnamese soldiers. When she arrives home from war, she has to navigate the turmoil her time serving took on her.

Her two friends she met in Vietnam, Barb and Ethel, are there for her every step of the way - they are the only ones who seem to relate to everything that happened considering “women weren’t in ‘Nam.”

I loved reading this story. Though it took me a long time to get through it due to my busy schedule, I was super engaged the whole time and really wanting to squeeze one chapter in regardless of how tired I was!

This releases February 6, 2024. Thank you netgalley / Kristin Hannah / st. Martins press for the eARC of this one!!! I can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on it!!

A powerful novel by one of my favorite authors. This book is a deep history lesson for those of us born after Vietnam. I'm sure a powerful emotional journey for those who lived through these times. Hard to put down and compelling. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a digital advanced copy to review.

“The Women” made me feel so many emotions. I loved the main character, the female friendships, the settings, and the feminist views. I am still thinking about this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305853

This is an amazing book! It begins with Frankie, a wealthy socialite who decides to follow her brother to Vietnam. As a nurse, her tale unfolds through the war- in Vietnam and in the states after her return. Told with emotion and honesty we learn of the struggles after the war and the value of friends.

Where do I even start? Kristin Hannah writes books that draw you in and keep you so invested, you're left wanting even more. I loved The Women so much, I sat for hours researching the war and the women who really were there (though they always claimed there were no women in Vietnam). Thank you Ms. Hannah for another amazing read!

I love me some Kristin Hannah and although this was good, it wasn’t one of my favorites by her. I loved the characters and the setting but the storyline just made me want so much more for Frankie.

The Women is a phenomenal and my favorite read this year. The book is a historically accurate, brutally honest look at how America treated the men and women of the Vietnam War; the turbulent and transformative era in 1960s America.
I was pulled in initially and didn’t want to put the book down. The auditory and visual descriptions of Vietnam’s landscape and weather, chaos, destruction, sounds of trauma and the war, the fashion, and the music, will transport readers back to the late 1960s through the early 1980s. While this era is familiar, Hannah sheds light on the women of the war; the brave and forgotten nurses.
This story will make you cry. Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s life will grip you and tear at your heartstrings as you connect with her fears, pain, heartbreaks, anger, and frustrations. The readers follow Frankie through her two tours, where she bonds with her hooch mates, Ethel and Barb, where she is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Frankie returns home to the unexpected trauma of America’s divided political views on the war and without acceptance from her parents. She cannot connect with the “real” world and struggles with PTSD, depression, alcoholism, and betrayal before finding her next role in life. Frankie juggles reconnecting, fitting in, and getting her parent’s approval.
The novel is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose courage under fire defines a generation. Women have been overlooked throughout history and want to be acknowledged. The women nurses of Vietnam put themselves in harm’s way to help others; they made sacrifices for their country and then forgotten. Women are heroes, too. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Women by Kristin Hannah.

This is one heck of a journey back to the 60's and early 70's when peace lovers and flower children were rebelling against the Vietnam War. People (myself included) wore POW bracelets without really knowing or understanding why. The war was in full force and people were maimed and dying!
Frankie is a young woman who after becoming a nurse, decides to join the Army to "help" and to be with her brother who is there.
What she experiences is nothing short of terrifying and yet she and others lived it!
The intense challenges, horrors and heartbreak are only skimming the surface of what this young lady and others witnessed!
But... nothing prepares her or others upon returning home to the disgust, neglect, nightmares and pain as they attempt to share their terrors and yet return to life as a civilian! YES- They were there!
Nobody cares!

This is a book I could not stop reading and yet had to halt so many times! It is very emotional.
It truly gave me insight on this battle that these women went through and their feelings!
I highly recommend this novel! Kristin Hannah has written an amazing novel that I would like to give 100 stars to!
Thank you to @NetGalley and to @St. Martin's Press for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review!

Wow... it's not easy to get a 5 star out of me. This book was incredible, I didn't want to put it down. So well written. I had high expectations and this story didn't disappoint. I'm sure it will eventually be made into a movie or series. Excellent.

I have loved all I have read from this author and this book didn’t disappoint. It’s an important story to read as it’s rare to see tales of women in war. It’s a heartfelt must-read.

Another fantastic book by Kristin Hannah
I haven’t read much about the Vietnam War.. but, I was born in ‘58 and as a young girl I remember seeing the horrific video and images on the nightly news and.. fortunately for me.. I only knew of one older cousin who got drafted to go to war.
Most everything we saw before, during, and after the war was about the men who were there.. of course it was the men who saw combat.. but women were there too… the nurses trying to patch up mutilated bodies, being alongside the dying as they took their last breaths..the women also endured a lot!
This is the story of the WOMEN… a few of them.. mostly about a young girl Frankie, who after her brother enlisted.. she followed him and was a war nurse in the Army.
I loved the story, mostly the first half that took place in Vietnam during wartime.
So much about this story took me back to those days.. the riots, the political landscape, the war protests, the mention of certain songs.
Wonderful!

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins Press for the ARC!

Everything I expect from Kristin Hannah. It was beautifully written! The friendships in the story were the best part! It absolutely told a full circle story, but I’d love to see where else it could go! I feel like Frankie has her whole life ahead of her and will get everything she ever wished for. I cried and laughed and ended on such a few good moment.

Let me start by saying that I think this is a really important story, and Kristin Hannah is a masterful writer. I did like the overall ending of the story (minus one element), but that’s about where my praise ends. Forgive me if this becomes an incoherent rant.

It all begins with Frankie, the blandest and most exhausting of protagonists. From the start, she has no personality, and even after reading 400+ pages, I still felt like I only knew surface level things about her. It felt like so much of her story was wrapped up around the men in her life (her father, Finley, Jamie, Rye, Henry), when the focus should have been THE WOMEN.

Why was every man that met her in love with her?! I hated this aspect of the story. I’m sure Vietnam was very lonely for those serving, but come on. It was too much.

I think Jamie would have worked a lot better as a brother type figure. I absolutely did not feel any chemistry between them, and I would have cared much more about his “death” if he had been more of a mentor to Frankie. (And if I wasn’t icked out by his willingness to cheat on his wife.)

I felt very weird about Henry, her ex-fiancé, being part of her treatment team in rehab, even though he wasn’t her primary doctor. I think in today’s world, this would be seen as unethical.

The song “Time in a Bottle” is referenced like 4 times, and I feel like this is just lazy, unless there is some underlying metaphor that is going over my head.

The ending (as in the last 5 or so pages) did NOT need to happen. Not only do we have two presumedly dead characters suddenly not actually be dead, but Jamie is conveniently divorced? With a daughter her named Frances? I hate it.

I will round out this review by saying that I appreciate the light this book shines on the addiction and homelessness that plagues so many veterans, due to the government’s lack of caring. It’s disgusting, and it’s sad that this is still the case in 2023.

What an amazing book! I am so glad that Kristin Hannah has taken on this really important subject, as so many of the women who served in Vietnam never got the recognition they deserved. Just like all her other books, this one is beautifully written and has excellent character development.
I am grateful for the chance to read it early, and I look forward to recommending it to our patrons!

Big thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Kristin Hannah has a gift. The Women, like every other Kristin Hannah book I've had the pleasure of reading, is all-consuming. It is a total and complete escape into another time. The characters, especially our heroine, are fully formed and easy to connect with. I learned a lot and felt even more. I will be recommending this title with reckless abandon!

5 Stars.

5 Stars!

Wow! What a powerhouse of a read! The Women follows a young woman, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, from a wealthy California family. The family expectation is that she go to college to earn her "MRS" degree. Instead, after finishing nurses training, she finds that she doesn't have the clinical skills to do much more than empty bedpans. Somewhat impulsively, Frankie joins the Army Nurse Corps (the other branches require 2 years of nursing experience) and is shipped off to Vietnam. Her brother has headed to war, to honor the family legacy of service. Why shouldn't she?

What she sees and experiences is beyond belief. Catastrophic injuries, constant casualties, horrific living conditions. But, man, if she doesn't become a damn fine nurse. Too bad, no one "back in the world" believes her. "There are no women in Vietnam" she hears again and again.

Her re-entry into American society is fraught with nightmares and flashbacks. As a woman, she's denied assistance again and again. Frankie has to hit rock-bottom before she can heal.

I've only ever read one other Kristin Hannah book, The Four Winds. I am a US history teacher and learned so much from that book, but there was so much heartache. I wasn't sure my heart was going to be able to handle The Women, and I was hesitant at first. But, once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down! It will certainly change the way I teach Vietnam in the future.

Thank you so much St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Once again, Kristin Hannah has written a book that grips you within the first few pages. The subject matter is a hard but really lets you see and feel what it was like during the Vietnam war. You become vested in the lives of the characters and dread what might happen to them. A must read for all.