Their story began with three simple words - " We were there..."

I never imagined this author could top the emotions I felt after reading The Nightingale, but Hannah latest novel, The Women, has shown me emotions I never knew existed for War no one speaks about. The heartbreaking subject matter of the Vietnam War provides the backdrop to the story about a young women who served two tours and returns to country that's hostile toward her service.

Frankie is a suffering which leads her to bad decisions after her two years in Vietnam. She's seen loss, grieved loved ones and longs for a family that acknowledges she served in a war. The friendships Frankie forms are lifelong lifelines for survival. While struggling majority of the story, Frankie demonstrates such perseverance as she constantly shouts for everyone to see those that fought for their country.

This is a war that started before I was born, and ended when I was a toddler. The Vietnam War was glossed over in my history courses. Hannah's research was incredibly eye-opening and educational.

Tears openly flowed numerous times throughout the read. The ending is everything!

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy.

Good read! I usually have to get myself in the right mindset to read a Kristin Hannah book. Her books take you deep into the psyche and life of her main characters. You feel so very much of what they're going through that sometimes the books are emotionally rough on a reader. Frankie is no different. She's beautifully created and portrayed. She's young and naive and trying to make her father proud and fill her brother's shoes when she volunteers as an Army Nurse Corps nurse in Vietnam. A tough prospect, especially for a woman who has been raised to be a lady above all else.
I appreciate that this was written about the Vietnam war instead of WWII. You're drawn into the jungle with Frankie as she navigates life as a new adult at war. I enjoyed the historical aspect of this book and you can tell a ton of research was done to make this a realistic read.
This book was very well written and I'm grateful to the publisher for a prepub copy in return for my honest review. I would definitely recommend this book for a book club, as historical fiction, as a girl power book, and as a book for recovery.

I usually don't enjoy books about military or war, but Kristin Hannah did a great job bringing the main character Frankie to life. The entire book is centered around the Vietnam war and the fact that women are generally unrecognized for their military service. The 'heroes' of war were the men, not women.

I felt so bad for Frankie throughout this book. She had one devastating thing happen to her after another, over and over again. It seemed like the girl could never get a break. After she enlists in the Army Nursing Corps, she is thrust into the war. Then after coming home, Frankie has to deal with the aftermath. Poor Frankie.

Hannah did a great job describing the Vietnam landscape and the medical station that Frankie lived and worked at. There are a lot of gory details of people with horrific injuries. It seems like this is a war that is rarely talked about, and after hearing about all the cover ups and American military massacres of civilians, I can see why people don't want to talk about it. I loved the research that went into writing this book. KH really made the landscape and people come to life. It is definitely a memorable book!

I was invited to read this via marketing email. I'm not sure I would have picked this up to read otherwise. I did read one of her prior novels "The Great Alone" and respected her writing. I'm not a fan of reading about wartime situations, but the nursing aspect piqued my interest as I worked in the medical field since 1988. There's nothing more riveting and real than life and death hanging in the balance.

The book is almost 500 pages. About 20% into the book I wasn't connecting with the story and actually contemplated the "Did Not Finish" route and nearly abandoned it. However, I stayed with it and found some meaningful moments. The parts that pulled me in were when Frankie was a nurse in Vietnam and she was thrown into utter chaos in a surgical capacity. The descriptions were horrific, but Frankie was able to get into "the zone" and with urgent commands from the overseeing doctor was able to perform surgical routines like tracheotomies, closing up after surgeries, and even performing a splenectomy. There wasn't all the oversight and worrying about legalities of what you were allowed to do. This was literally life and death on steroids and you did what you had to do just to save a life in wartime hell. I was cheering for Frankie when she exceeded her own expectations and shone as a surgical nurse and was happy for the self-worth it gave her. I also admired the compassion she showed to dying soldiers in their last moments.

The parts of the book I didn't like were the poor choices Frankie made in her love life, the self-medicating with liquor and pills, and some of the foolhardy things her parents did that weren't helpful. I felt Frankie's frustration when her masterful nursing skills honed in Vietnam weren't recognized back in the USA. I was very young when the Vietnam War was going on, so it's a remote subject in my mind. For someone like me, this book was quite instructive of why so many Vietnam War Vets were riddled with PTSD, not only from their frontline war experiences but the negativity thrust at them once they returned home. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been to cope with.

I respect the good writing and the weighty subject matter, but I am once again on Outlier Island and giving this a "Good" rating of three stars. This book has received rave reviews from scores of others, but for my overall reading experience alone this was a good and not great read.

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press for providing an advance reader's copy via NetGalley.

The Women is a coming of age story set during a time of great conflict during the Vietnam War. Hannah expertly researched the history of Vietnam and tells the story through the eyes of the women who were there.

Frankie McGrath enlists as a nurse in the Army in the hopes of impressing her father and joining her brother in Vietnam. Before she can even begin basic training, the family receives word that her brother is killed in action. Frankie excels in her job caring for soldiers wounded in the war and creates a lifelong friendship with fellow nurses, Ethel and Barb. When Frankie returns home she is met with tumultuous times in the country as people oppose the war. Combined with her parents' indifference and shame for her time of service and a lack of appreciation for the nurses contributions from the military, Frankie is plagued by PTSD and resorts to pills and alcohol.

The war scenes depicting the hospital during raids and bombings are told with such detail the reader will feel the urgency and terror of the moments. Frankie’s love interests and friendships illustrate the unique and deep level of relationships that develop under turbulent circumstances. Her reliance on her friends to adjust to civilian life is poignantly told as they repeatedly support each other as they re-acclimate at home.

Fans of Hannah’s will love this heart wrenching and poignant story. While historical fiction fans will appreciate the unique women’s angle of the Vietnam war. Overall, a dramatic and vivid retelling of the female contributions to the Vietnam war.

this book quite literally destroyed me. the women is very possibly the best book i have ever read. i am simply blown away. there are not sufficient words for the beauty and tragedy of this phenomenal story. my heart was in tatters the whole way through, and i loved this book with an unceasing passion. following the life of lieutenant frankie mcgrath was tumultuous and difficult, yet unbelievably eye-opening. i felt each loss and love story in this book so deeply. this book is an incredible piece on the forgotten women of vietnam. to learn what they went through and how their experiences were dismissed will evoke deep anger. to then see how this, like in the case of so many male veterans, led to permanent mental health damage and never before heard of suicide rates will place a heavy cloud on the heart. i am so grateful to have read this book and feel genuinely changed by the perspective i have taken on. this is a book that i believe every person should read at some point in their life.

Whew. This was a long book. And hard to read. A lot of death, including babies. It was war after all. A miscarriage. Some happy points and so glad that Frankie had Barb and Ethel but mostly this was a heavy, heavy book. I hated how the women were treated stateside after serving. Not being trusted with their nursing skills, not being able to get mental health access from the VA because they weren't in "combat." Umm, their bases were bombed. They dealt with pieces of men all day every day. I mostly liked where the story ended up. I hated that Jamie came back to life. It was more understandable for Rye to come back to life because he was a POW so no one really knew if he was alive or not but Frankie literally watched Jamie "die" so that was dumb. And to use that fake-out twice?! Lame.

Another 5 star read from Kristin Hannah and one her best book to date. I loved her telling of the main character Frankie from before the Vietnam War, during and after the war.

My first book of 2024 and it is so amazing!!! Wow! Wow! Wow! Kristan Hannah’s latest book The Women is PHENOMENAL!!! It’s all about the forgotten women during the Vietnam War and I will not forget this book anytime soon! She captured everything and I had all the feelings with this book! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review. To be published February 2024.

The Women
By Kristin Hannah

Number 44
5/5 ⭐️

Big thanks to @netgalley for giving me an ARC copy of Kristin Hannah’s newest book! Kristin Hannah is already an auto-buy author for me so I was excited to get my hands on her book early. The Women follows a young girl, Frankie McGrath, on her journey in-country as an army nurse. Despite the hardships faced in Vietnam, Frankie faced even more upon returning home. For a well-written story about adversity, courage, and finding yourself during trying times - pick up The Women out on February 6th!

The Women by Kristin Hannah comes out February 6th, 2024. The book will draw you to tears again and again and it will make you angry again and again. The novel will help you understand what happened to women in Vietnam during the war, even if most people tell you there were no women there. It will not let the woman be forgotten any more. This book is one of those timeless novels that allow you to recognize and accept things you might have heard - or things you might have learned, but this will help you know.

The story focuses on Frankie (Frances) McGrath. In 1965, she left her family in Southern California and joined the Army Nurse Corps and was shipped over to Vietnam. She was a registered nurse, but totally unprepared for her new job. Frankie participated in two tours, one with a front line unit with bombs, incoming fire, and horrible burns. Quickly, Frankie learned how to handle the trauma of each day, the constant dirt, rain and fear.

Only to return home to Frankie faced demonstrations, mistreatment and disbelief. People didn’t believe women were in Vietnam. People blamed the returning servicemen/women for the war. It is at this point that the story becomes more poignant as Frankie had to learn to live in a non-war situation.

This is not an easy book to read, but it is easily one of the best books I have ever read. The Women by Kristin Hannah is well written, thoughtful, and full of information presented under the auspices as fiction. I feel like with each new book Kristin Hannah writes her stories have become more powerful and bring crucial information to light to her audience. The Women By Kristin Hannah is a great book to read!

I'm honored that this was my last book of 2023. There are some books that you pick up and when you start reading you just know the story is going to mean something. This story was overwhelming and heartbreaking and uplifting and encouraging. I wept, laughed, yelled outloud, and cheered. Not for the faint of heart, but wow is it wonderful. Kristin Hannah has done it again. I can't wait for all the rewards this will win.

Wow! I have been very fortunate to read two five-star books back to back. Kristin Hannah wows with her new book. Set in the late 60s/early 70s, this book tells the story of Frances (Frankie) McGrath, a young woman from a rich California coast family, who signs up as a Combat Nurse in the Vietnam War. But Frankie's experience during the war, while gruesome and horrific are just the beginning for Frankie, who comes home after two tours abroad and struggles to deal with the trials and tribulations that often face combat and war veterans. It is a story of survival, regrets, challenges, chances and hope. It is a story that Hannah tells masterfully, with the readers needing to know what will happen to Frankie next. Unexpected turns, loyal friendships, and honest truths about the war all come out in this new book. I am rating this book 5 stars, and am extremely gracious to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book ahead of it's scheduled release.

This was my first time reading a book by Kristin Hannah, and it definitely won't be my last. This was also my first historical fiction read about the Vietnam War. It was a story that focused on the women who served as nurses during the war, how they were treated upon their return home, and how they grappled with the reality of what they saw during the war and how it affected the rest of their lives. This was one of the few top reads of 2023, and I highly recommend it.

I received a digital ARC thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

Another incredibly moving, meticulously researched historical fiction novel from one of my all time fav authors! This story follows Francis, a young girl who decides to enlist as a nurse to support her brother who is fighting over in Vietnam. Before she can even start training, her family learns that he has been killed, setting in motion grief that will affect them all for years to come.

Spanning decades, we learn what life was like for enlisted women during the Vietnam war, especially the nurses who have often been overlooked. Hannah really brought the decade of the 60s to life in this story and just how harshly divided Americans were about Vietnam. It broke my heart how Frankie was treated by her own parents after she finally came home and they had lied about her involvement, wishing to pretend she hadn't gone to Vietnam.

The mental health struggles with Vets, especially the women, not to mention the PTSD trauma, unrealized infertility problems due to the poisons used in Vietnam, and sooo much more. Frankie has a tumultuous love life, falling for a married man and then another who lies to her and is presumed dead. She has to fight for birth control and her place as a civilian nurse, not to mention battling drug and alcohol addiction (her own mother gives her pills!).

Highly recommended if you want to learn more about this period of American history, enjoy good character studies and excellent narration by Julia Whalen! Perfect for fans of books like Absolution by Alice McDermott. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

CW: miscarriage, drug and alcohol addiction, drunk driving

1/5 stars.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC!
I was really hoping to love this book. I liked the idea of a feminist take on history, but unfortunately that’s not what this was. This book was just some glorified white savior take on the war, and I really didn’t enjoy it.

I liked the female friendships, the premise, and the interesting idea that was “focusing on women during the war”. But honestly it didn’t give enough of what it promised. We just follow one woman, which puts a question mark on the title, and the people she meets (who are occasionally women).

I didn’t really love the format of the book with the letters, it dragged a lot and made for a boring read.

Overall, I didn’t like it. But I’ve loved som en of Kristen Hannah’s other books, so I’m going to hold out hope that the next one is better!

Can we just take a second to appreciate an amazing historical fiction set in a different time period than WWII. While I love those stories too, The Women brought an astounding amount of knowledge to Vietnam War that I may have never known about. While also being amazing story telling and highly entertaining with keeping me glued to the pages. This is the first fiction book I’ve read about Vietnam amongst the vast amounts of WWII books. Which also may have me appreciating it so much more.

Hannah is who originally got me into reading many years ago, and she only continues to solidify herself as one of the best when she releases new books. Her writing is so engrossing and transports you through the pages to feelings like you are right there in the midst of her stories. Another amazing release from her and only leaves me impatiently waiting for what she has next for us.

This book was amazing. I love that it brings to light a lesser known piece of women’s history and Vietnam War history. I loved all the female characters in this book and most of the men. I thought the main character Frankie was so well written. She was complicated and nuanced and I really felt for her.

There is a lot of blood and unpleasant medical terminology so just be aware if that sort of thing makes you squeamish.

This was definitely one of my favorite Kristen Hannah books and I’m sure I will be recommending it to a lot of people! Thank you @netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I’m so glad I got to read this early.

Wow. This was a sweeping, vividly rendered portrait of a challenging period in US history and of the American women—heroes—whose stories have too often been overlooked. Moving, emotional, and somehow hopeful, too. I finished this in a day.

Kristin Hannah is hit or miss for me, but The Women was a total hit. I was completely transported to the Vietnam War years and really enjoyed hearing about the women who served during that time. Absolutely heartbreaking. I think the author did a great job documenting the horrors that were being committed in Vietnam while also highlighting the absolutely gut wrenching treatment vets received when they got back….not to mention that nobody really believed that women were over there at all. Highly recommend for any historical fiction fans.