Rating: 3.5 stars

Kristin Hannah fully deserves credit for the research and thought she placed in the story, and I can understand why this novel has received such glowing reviews and love. However, unfortunately, I could not love this book as much as I was hoping. The beginning felt like it dragged a bit and once the novel began picking up momentum, it soon fizzled out as calamity after calamity befell our heroine. The love interests were mostly subpar (and the twists with the love interests got old and repetitive after awhile). Our protagonist Frankie got a bit exhausting to me after some time—perhaps because for a book titled “The Women,” I was hoping to get more perspectives and experiences of how the combat nurses navigated the Vietnam War than just one. And perhaps it is a bit hard for me to read a book about the war given my ethnicity. Overall I think the novel is commendable but it just isn’t my cup of tea.