This is the story of Frances "Frankie" McGrath, a registered nurse who joins the Army Nurse Corp and follows her brother Finley, who is serving in Vietnam. This is a story of innocence lost and coming of age. A story of finding your purpose and of amazing courage. This is Frankie’s story, but it is also the story of a generation of women who served during the Vietnam war; what it was like there and what it was like after they came home. This is a very powerful and emotional story that will stay with you for a long time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Woman
By: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Pub Date: 2/6/24
I truly don’t think anyone writes better historical fiction than Kristin Hannah. This one really made me think. My grandmother was a nurse in the Navy during the Vietnam war. Never once did I think to ask her about her experience and now I can’t.
Frankie McGrath is 21 years old. She has been raised to be a wife and mother but when her brother ships out, she decides to follow him and become a combat nurse.
After she arrives in country the absolute chaos of the war smacks her right in the face. She works hard and learns so much from the other nurses and doctors. She reups and does a second tour before finally returning to her parents home in California. She knows about the protests and the unrest with the war but never expected to be spat on at the airport. Taxis refuse to pick her up because she’s in uniform. But what’s even worse is she discovers no one believes there are women in Vietnam. Her parents have lied to her friends and acquaintances, telling them she was off in Europe.
It was such a moving, compelling story that really made me think. What the women and men who were unlisted went through coming home.
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Let me start by saying, I am a huge Kristin Hannah fan… but this one felt sloooooow to me. The plot twists felt a bit predictable and cliche as well. I really appreciate the story that was told and I think Vietnam vets (specifically women) deserve to have their story told and this book certainly did that. I can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t love this book which is why I can’t give it less than 4 stars, but I also just can’t give it 5. Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the chance to read this ARC.

My heart!! This book, this book produced a lot of tears!

The women of the Vietnam War will never be forgotten due to the amazing research and writing of Kristin Hannah. My heart broke for them. What these nurses saw and had to dealt with there in Vietnam and back in America.

Frankie, Ethel and Barb were the essence of this story. We followed them while they were at the Hospitals in Vietnam and how they were treated when they were back in America. They were not welcomed back as the men were. They were told there were no women in Vietnam.

I was so sad for this book to end. I wanted to follow their lives for a bit longer.

If you are a fan of Historical Fiction please pick up this book. You will not regret it!

THIS BOOK! I'm calling it now, The Women by Kristin Hannah will be the book of 2024.

Summary:
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

Thoughts:
Hannah's storytelling is impeccable, hooking you in quickly. There was so much I loved about this story from the heroine main character, Frankie, the trials she faced, the rawness of her personality, and the true depiction of grief and a life turned upside down by trauma. This book was so enlightening to me about the Vietnam War and I value the honesty of what a time such as this was for our country.

I don't know how she does it, but Kristin Hannah continues to write stories that simply need to be told. The Women is a story everyone should read and I will be screaming that from the rooftops!

Frankie is a nurse who decides to follow her brother to Vietnam and enlists.
It’s a very well written book. I was caught up in the horrors of war. I felt like I was right along side Frankie while she was helping in surgery.
There’s a wide range of emotions in this book. I went from happy one moment to profound sadness in another. I have no doubt that this was exactly what it was like there and how it was coming home.
It’s another outstanding book by this author

Happy Pub Week to the most anticipated release of this year The Women by @kristinhannahauthor

Being an ardent Kristin Hannah fan, I was thrilled to receive the complimentary galley of The Women by @stmartinspress and @netgalley

The backdrop of this storyline was Vietnam war and it shed light on the roles of US Women in the war. I really enjoyed the writing, the character building and the plot of this beautiful novel. I have read her books about WWII so it felt amazing to read and learn about Vietnam war.

This is by far one of the best books written by Kristin Hannah! The Women will be available for purchase on February 6th and is also one of the @bookofthemonth picks for this month.

Kristin Hannah has written some of the most compelling stories I’ve ever read. The Women is one where she has delved into the history of the women that served during the Vietnam War.

I recall family members worrying about their numbers being drawn and required to serve. I was in high school when the war ended and I felt a deep disappointment in our country with how the veterans were treated when they returned home, especially as most did not want to be in Vietnam. Serving in the military is difficult for the military service person but also for families. All wars have atrocities and heartbreak along with those suffering from physical and mental issues. Many veterans still suffer and have trouble obtaining the proper care they need.

Ms. Hannah has given us a story about the women who served, and their accomplishments and trauma they experienced ignored. Frankie McGrath was a sheltered young woman, whose brother was leaving to serve and decided she could be a hero also. Their family had a photograph wall of the male members who served in the military, and she wanted to be a part of that history. No matter the time period, women have been told they couldn’t do certain things and suffered if they chose something other than what was accepted at that time.

The story focuses not only on war, death and injuries but also friendship. This was an emotional read for me and filled me with anger at how people are treated and grief to know of so much suffering. Ms. Hannah has written another compelling story.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this new work.

I was thrilled to get an advanced reader copy of Kristin Hannah’s highly anticipated novel, The Women. I will be thinking of this story for a very long time.

The Women features Frankie McGrath, a young Californian who grew up in a privileged household with her parents and brother who she idolized. When her brother decides to enlist to go over to Vietnam for the war, she follows suit by training to be a nurse. She goes over to Vietnam with the Army and is thrown into a world none of us can imagine.

Kristin Hannah is magnificent in bringing the reader along as Frankie grows as a combat nurse and matures as a woman through the rigour and trauma of attending to the injured and dying as bombing and mayhem rages around them. There is somewhat graphic medical content as one would expect, but I am squeamish and it didn’t bother me. It was necessary to really get into the heart pounding, awful experience of war. There are also good times to counterbalance the difficult, as Frankie bonds with fellow nurses and others as they fulfill their duties.

Once Frankie returns from Vietnam, it is absolutely heartbreaking to witness how vets were treated by family and fellow Americans. The complete disregard for their sacrifice and trauma, and post traumatic stress. And women were not even thought to have served in Vietnam in any capacity. It must have been so painful, and Kristin Hannah masterfully takes us there. I felt so much compassion for the characters, and for anyone who has suffered consequences and fallout from the Vietnam war.

All that said, this novel did not leave me feeling bereft. I loved Frankie and rooted for her the entire way. There were twists and turns, and some shocking moments along the way. This novel would make for an amazing book club as there are so many facets of the story to debrief and discuss.

I did have a minor quibble with some repetition in the writing, but the overall novel and this story that must be told makes it so worthy of all the stars. In fact, I want to re-read the ending more slowly. I read it so fast because I had to know what happened.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

"Women can be heroes." After hearing that statement, young Frances "Frankie" McGrath decides to follow in her brother's footsteps and go to Vietnam. As a newly graduated nurse, she is totally unprepared for the bloodshed and violence of war. This amazing book shines the light on one of the darkest periods in our country's history, the Vietnam War, the appalling treatment of the returning veterans and the ignorant dismissal of the women who served during that war. At times this book was hard to read due to the graphic details of Frankie's time amongst the horror and atrocities committed around her. As a female veteran, the treatment Frankie and her fellow nurses received when they returned home was particularly shocking and yet once I started reading, I couldn't put it down until I finished. A stunning read, I highly recommend this eye-opening example of outstanding historical fiction!

Unforgettable.

Although this novel tells one woman's fictional coming of age story, this is really a testimonial to all the women who served in Vietnam and whose service was neither appreciated nor recognized by their country or their fellow citizens.

Frances "Frankie" McGrath is 21 when she impetuously joins the Army Nurse Corps. Arriving in country without any notion of the horrors of war, she is completely unprepared for daily life in these makeshift hospital and surgical wards near the shifting conflicts in the jungle and in the air. The devastation she witnesses, and the sheer multitude of injury and death is almost more than any soul can bear. She forms a strong friendship with her two hooch mates and that bond is the only relationship that keeps her sane as she develops her nursing skills to save as many of the wounded as she can. Despite the terrible conditions, she feels that Vietnam is where she can be of most use and she really wants to be a hero. Ultimately, she wants her parents to be proud of her as they were of her beloved brother. And, after a second tour, she finally returns home only to find that the world as she knew it has changed. She's an embarrassment and is reviled and soon becomes broken and lost. She wants to move forward but there is another fierce battle for herself at home.

I was in middle and high school during the last years of the Vietnam War. I was vaguely aware of the draft but I do not remember anyone I knew going there. When I graduated, I went off to college, to nursing school, and the #1 show was MASH. I wanted to be Loretta Swit and I really intended to join the military as soon as I got my degree. Life had other plans for me and that dream was set aside as I became a wife and mother. I always regretted not serving. Now, after reading what life was like in a war zone operating room, I know for sure that I would never have had the strength or endurance to do that job. While the TV show did give a glimpse, I now understand that the true picture of what it was like was hidden from all of us as no one ever asked those nurses or the other women that were in Vietnam for their stories. What must have it been like for them to hear that there "were no women in Vietnam." To be denied help at Veterans hospitals and clinics.

I believe this novel will really appeal to a certain reader and affect them differently depending on what they think or know of the war years and if they had personal experiences with it. My heart was breaking for the main character who I am sure represented a good many of those who went through the atrocities and chaos.

Rarely do I rate a fiction book 5 stars but I can't stop thinking about this. The narration was excellent, and the writing was so evocative and powerful. The story resonated with me in a way that I have not felt in a long while. This review does not do the book justice. It's possible that the descriptions of the gory nature of war will be a turnoff to some. The main character goes through a lot during the course of the story but every word demonstrates the absolute toll that serving one's country takes on a person. It explains why so many came home so damaged.

Thank you for the audio and the e-book advance copies to read, review, and highly recommend.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧
𝐁𝐲 𝐊𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐡
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐒𝐭. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧’𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟐.𝟔.𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝑂𝑢𝑡 𝑆𝑜𝑜𝑛!

Kristin Hannah has been one of my favorite authors for a long time. I have loved her historical fiction, such as 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘦, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦, and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴. But when I saw her latest book was about the nurses of the Vietnam War, I knew this may be her very best.

To say I was immersed in this book would be an understatement. Kristin Hannah’s descriptive, emotional, and, yes, at times, graphic writing put me alongside young Frankie as she served as a combat nurse in Vietnam. You experience the constant dampness, awful smells, gruesome hours of surgeries, and the death that follows her everywhere. It was only the friendships that Frankie formed that carried her through.

Later, we see the disrespect the women who served as nurses received back home. Frankie struggles with PTSD and addiction, yet she cannot find treatment as a veteran - Frankie is constantly being told there were no women in Vietnam. Even her family seems ashamed of her.

I love this time period; the late ‘60s were such a volatile and yet pivotal time. This is not only a brilliantly written historical fiction novel, but it’s an important one, too. These women, nurses, and heroes were given a voice. All the stars for 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧.


I’m so thankful I could pair my reading with the audiobook narrated by @juliawhelan, who brought the narrative to life.

Thank you @stmartinspress for the gifted digital ARC.
Thank you @macmillan.audio for the gifted audiobook.

Thank you netgalley for the book in exchange for an honest review. Kristin Hannah has done it again with another great read. This was a great historical fiction novel of a woman serving in the army as a combat nurse during the war in Vietnam. The story was great and fast paced. The details were great and detailed about the war. Great book about Freedom and Family. Highly recommend

Once again, Kristin Hannah has left me with a book hangover. The Women took me an emotional journey, taught me things I did not know about the Viet Nam War, and brought me so deep into the setting, I could swear I was actually there. Brilliant, evocative writing, just what I always hope for when I read a Hannah book. The constant reference to the music playing and their titles was a bit grating, but I know it was an integral piece of the experience but also a clever way to walk us through the years.

If I had to rate this book simply on the emotional overload I felt when I turned the last page, it would be a 5-star read. But I can’t. Those tears freely flowing down my face while finishing this book were not related to the story itself. Those were completely related the love and admiration I have for my dad, a retired Air Force Lt Colonel and Vietnam vet who, thankfully, came home all in one piece, although I know it took a toll on him mentally (not that he would ever admit it).

As for the book, I loved the story and subject matter, bringing needed light to the fact that women did in fact serve in Vietnam, the mental toll it took on all the vets, the horrific “welcome” they received upon their return from war, the addiction and suicidal thoughts so many have endured, as well as the mixed emotions brought about by the memorial being built. I also loved the bond the female characters had during and after the war. Their unwavering support for one another was a show of true friendship.

When you read this book, please also make sure to read the Author’s Note and Acknowledgments. In this instance, I feel like they are actually meaningful and not just a blanket, required thank you included at the end of some books.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary copy of this book. As always, the opinions expressed within this review are completely my own. And thank you to Kristin Hannah for writing a story that needed to be told.

The Women takes us on a journey from idealism, war, heartache, love, triumph, trauma, and more in the way that only Kristin Hannah can. While this book had a slow start for me, I really appreciated learning about the Vietnam war and how women were impacted in various ways. On some level, wars across time have a lot of similarities but what The Women does a little different from other wartime stories, is focusing a good portion of the book on the aftermath-what it's like to come home and realize everything you thought was wrong. Not only the trauma of war but the trauma of coming home for our main character Frankie.

There are a lot of very heavy themes throughout the book. Every emotion was pulled at. There was always a thread of hope that Frankie clung to even in her darkest days and we eventually find a satisfying ending. For fans of historical fiction, stories about strong women, friendship, triumph, and books that make you feel, I'd HIGHLY recommend this one!

4.5 stars rounded up. Publishes 2/6/24. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

THE WOMEN depicts the role of nurses in Viet Nam, a largely unappreciated role for women in a war that was poorly understood by the American civilian population then and now. Kristin Hannah creates a memorable and unforgettable tale of life in a war zone no one wanted to acknowledge; and the PTSD that greeted the returning soldiers and medics. There was a TV show, CHINA BEACH, in the 1980’s that had a similar feel to this book; a gritty, hardcore look at a war that offered little respite or joy to everyone involved. This was no MASH unit. The book produces plenty of tears as it winds its way through from beginning to end and Hannah is an expert at dialing up the emotional connections in complex social environments. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I finished this book a few months ago and it's still in my head. I wanted to write an amazing review so that everyone would know what an amazing book this is, but I just haven't been able to find the words to do it justice. This is by far one of the most amazing books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Kristin does such an amazing job of weaving fiction in with history and I'm so grateful that she finds such a beautiful way to honor and remember (or learn) about history and some of its unsung and forgotten heroes. All I can say is READ this book; you won't regret it!!

Reading Friends: If we like the same types of books, you are going to want to read The Women.

First of all, it is by an author we have read before and loved, Kristin Hannah!

I probably don’t need to say more than that but I will…

Hannah’s newest book is about topic we haven’t read much about in the world of historical fiction – the Vietnam War. I think this is because historical fiction usually focuses on women, and as The Women makes clear, there is a misconception that “women weren’t in Vietnam.” But they were. Not as combat fighters, but as nurses, Red Cross volunteers, and no doubt many other unknown roles.

This book focuses on a southern California girl, Frances “Frankie” who volunteers for a tour in Vietnam as a nurse to “be a hero” as her family appears to value. But she soon learns that her family only seems to value male “heroes” and they hate that she is going.

At the understaffed field hospitals in Vietnam, Frankie sees trauma she had not expected and has to learn her job quickly. But she also knows she is making a difference even as she begins to question the reason for all the death she sees. After her tour is over, Frankie returns home to another type of battle – trying to fit back into normal life.

Within this already heavy story is family drama, relationship drama, and the details of a historical experience we love getting from Kristin Hannah. I learned more about this war and am now able to more deeply appreciate the trauma of those who were lucky enough to make it home. It is a reading experience I wholeheartedly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book before publication in exchange for an honest review.

If this book is on your TBR list, you are in for a treat. If it's not, then you need to add it right now! I think that it is safe to say that you do not want to miss reading this one! This is another fabulous book by Kristin Hannah and will undoubtably go directly to the top of every bestseller list and if it doesn't, it should.

Historical fiction lovers have been deluged with books about WWII for a long time now and there have been a multitude of wonderful stories about that time period. But, this book will lead the charge into a new phase of war chronicles, and that will be - Vietnam.

I was so moved by this story. I still find it difficult to find the words to explain all that goes on in this fictional saga. It all seemed so real. I urge you to check out the many wonderful reviews on Goodreads that provide a rich synopsis of the storyline. This book will be on many, many readers five-star reading lists. It is definitely on mine.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this phenomenal book. All opinions expressed are my own.