Beth Denny

I’m currently reading The Women by Kristin Hannah. I’d seen it recommended everywhere on TikTok but I hadn’t purchased it because I thought reading about war would be too sad. I really wish I had started it earlier! I’m only over 100 pages in and I am so invested in the characters.

In hindsight, I should’ve known I would be compelled to carry on reading this book because I like Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series – historical fiction based on a female protagonist, what’s not to love?

I can be quite squeamish when it comes to blood and guts on TV and in books. I found it quite hard to read in The One by John Marrs. This however, as it is quite clinical, I don’t find it mentally traumatising! It reminds me ever so slightly of watching a medical drama like Chicago Med.

I have heard that it is one of Kristin Hannah’s best books. Also in her top five are The Nightingale, The Great Alone and The Four Winds.

I will add a section to the post once I have finished it, obviously without spoilers. Have you read any of Kristin Hannah’s books and if so, which one should I read next? Bx

Blurb from Goodreads:

‘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.’