The Women by Kristin Hannah

 

Do you have any must read authors?  Authors that you must immediately read their new releases?  Kristin Hannah has become that kind of author for me after I read The Nightingale around ten years ago for my Rogue book club.

The Women is an intense story of a nurse, Frankie, who served on the frontlines of the Vietnam War only to return home to a changed America that does not welcome home its veterans.  How can Frankie find peace and a way forward in her civilian life?

·       The Women was an immersive story that made me feel like I was experiencing the changes that the Vietnam war brought to America in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  I loved in the author’s note at the end of the book Hannah lists her extensive research list and also explains that she had real Vietnam War nurses and veterans review the rough draft of the novel to critique it and provide real world details.  That really shines through in this book.

·       I really liked that the book didn't end with Frankie’s return from Vietnam, but went through her struggles, PTSD, and treatment after the war.

·       I enjoyed learning about the nurses that served during the Vietnam War.  I had never really thought before of how they had experienced the trauma of the war and that they were not recognized as veterans when they returned home.

·       This book NEEDS to be a movie.  I have read that the movie rights have already been sold.  I hope it actually does become a movie.  I am still waiting for The Nightingale to become a movie.

·       This book made me cry.  Kristin Hannah is good at making me feel the emotions of a story.

·       While I loved the historical fiction aspects of the story, the romance story fell flat for me.  I don’t want to ruin the story, but I loved it all until the very end.  SPOILER ALERT:  I could believe one dead great love being alive miraculously, but two was too much for me.  SPOILER END.  As with The Great Alone, sometimes Hannah has problems ending a great book with a believable ending.

·       I find it interesting that while most people really love Kristin Hannah, there are some that really don’t like her books and hate her for being a popular, best-selling author.  If you didn’t enjoy her other novels, you will probably not enjoy The Women.

What has been your favorite book of 2024 for far?  While I did not enjoy the ending, The Women was my favorite book of 2024 so far.  I learned a lot about the Vietnam War and the men and women who served.  It was an intense story.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Suddenly That Summer by Lori Handeland (TLC Book Tours)

 

Do you have any summers that stick out for you in your past?  I definitely do.  2001 was the summer I stayed at college and had a blast.  1988 was a summer we went on a family trip to Washington DC.  I also went to church camp . . . and caught headlice.  I remember both being very hot and dry summers.

In the summer of 1967 in the small Wisconsin city of Willow Creek, two siblings are about to have their lives changed forever.  Billy has enlisted in the Army and finds his world altered by his tour of Vietnam.  His sister Jay has her world changed when one of her three best friends decides she no longer wants to be friends.  A newcomer to their conservative town, Paul, brings anti-war sentiments that don’t match anything that Jay has heard from anyone in her town.  As she starts to receive disturbing drawings from her brother Billy, she starts to wonder, is Vietnam really the just war to end communism that she has been led to believe?

Suddenly That Summer is an intriguing book.  I really liked the alternating chapters telling both Billy and Jay’s points of view.  The harsh realities of the war in Vietnam are juxtaposed against Jay’s summer and her changing views on the war in Vietnam.  I also like how this is visualized on the very nice cover of this book by having the girls with a seemingly happy summer on the top with their shadows being soldiers in Vietnam.

I loved how both Billy and Jay have a coming-of-age journey through the novel as they both try to work through the expectations they have been taught by family and their town, and what the realities are in their ever-changing world.  I really liked the ending of this book.  It also has great questions at the conclusion of the novel and would be a great book to discuss at a book club.

Book Source: Review Copy from author Lori Handeland.   Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the TLC Book Tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.