Elizabeth’s review of The Women > Likes and Comments
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Thank you for this! I consider you my "book twin" in that I almost always rate books the same as you, so I won't be running out to grab this one now. I always loved Kristin Hannah books, but I was skeptical after The Four Winds.
It is compulsively readable and interesting, historically speaking. I just kept rolling my eyes at the romance and the constant tragedy.
my favorite reviews to read are the ones that say "detest" and "gag me" so this was great 😆👍🏻
Thank you Elizabeth. I have often found your reviews sync up with my opinions. I treasure your candor.
Glad I stuck with my gut and skipped... I was pleased to see a different wartime eara book as well. Too bad.
I completely agree with everything you said. I listened to this book (Julia Whelan’s narration is exceptional, as always) over the last couple days while I was in bed with a cold… I kept looking at how much time was left and couldn’t believe it! I agree that the romance parts were incredibly annoying… and like you, I knew what was going to happen, so there wasn’t really any surprise. I appreciate her taking on this subject because I do think it’s fascinating and worthy of much more attention than it’s received. I’m a big fan of Kristin Hannah (The Nightingale is my all-time favorite book!) but this just didn’t land for me. Glad I’m not alone in that.
I agree! I waited so long for this book and had SUCH high hopes. I loved the first half… so well done… then the book fell apart. Two men coming back from the dead?! The ending was just maddening to me.
I agree with your review 100%. I love Kristina Hannah and I’ve read many of her books that I love. I appreciated her for writing about Vietnam, but this book is by far my least favorite book of hers. Frankie was not likable in my opinion, and the characters in the book felt very flat. Lastly, the second half of the book just seemed unrealistic (characters reappearing) and dragged on. I also felt there were some parts that were repetitive. I pushed through to read it, but I was honesty bored and couldn’t wait to finish it.
So many of the romantic side stories could have been eliminated, and the novel would have been better for it
I don't have to write my review. Thanks for doing it for me.
I'm reading this now and your review sums up how I feel. I'll probably end up giving it 3 stars for exactly the same reasons you did.
I really enjoyed this book but can also agree with your review. The repetitiveness of some things-like gaping chest wounds and also people needing to be steadied on their feed-was annoying.
Your review summed up my feelings perfectly. Everywhere I see this pop up it's with gushing, 5 stars review. It's refreshing to know I'm not alone .
I agree with the statements about the romances they really detracted from the story especially the second half. The first half was great and the exclusion and treatment when she came back was good and made you think. I also liked the need to get help etc. I would have given it a glowing 5 through the first half of the book and even with the re-entry but the second half, relationships etc brought this to a 3. Too bad a few edits and changes would have made it a more solid read and a 5. I really loved the story line. My grandma was a WW2 Nurse and after she died I read about her heroism in articles that wee in articles in the attic. She never shared the horrors of the war with the family while she lived and we were very close.
Elizabeth- I’m 75% through this and feel the EXACT same way as you! You bring up soooo many great points. I keep wondering if I’m reading the same book everyone else is loving? Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Hope you are now reading something you love! 😊
Yep- your reasons are exactly why I didn’t give it 5 stars. The war/trauma/recovery story was powerful. The romance was eye-rolling.
Just finished it and this is exactly how I feel. I think it would have been 5 stars without the cringey romance and with more time spent on Montana and the women on the ranch and their experiences.
It could have been great. It could have been another The Nightingale for me. I wanted it to be, truly.
I’ve got about 100 pages to go and I’m feeling your review. From a historical standpoint, I give this book a 4 or 5. From a fiction standpoint your comment about “everything but the kitchen sink” is so on point. It makes me feel like Hannah spent unspeakable hours researching and then threw as many veteran experiences as she could at her one main character. I’ll probably end up giving this a 3 or 4. It depends largely on the ending at this point.
Absolutely agree. At least three times we were told she styled her hair parted down the middle. Too much unnecessary detail, too many predictable outcomes and the last 100 pages took me far too long to get through.
Kristen wrote: "I agree! I waited so long for this book and had SUCH high hopes. I loved the first half… so well done… then the book fell apart. Two men coming back from the dead?! The ending was just maddening to..."
When neither of them died on page, I knew they were both coming back. One guy surviving would have been potentially realistic, but not both.
Linda wrote: "Absolutely agree. At least three times we were told she styled her hair parted down the middle. Too much unnecessary detail, too many predictable outcomes and the last 100 pages took me far too lon..."
Haha! I didn't catch the hair style but the number of times we were told that it was muddy or that she had bloody clothes or that her dad was ashamed of her...so repetitive.
Totally felt the same! And to end the way she did at the memorial...I just "knew" that was going to happen.
Totally agree. They were both dead then poof their alive again? I just can’t….and the line where Frankie’s mother asks her if she’s had “Aunt Flo?” That was 1980’s high school not a society woman in the 50’s. So many things just bugged me. I sooo wanted to love this book, pre-ordered, and have read most everything KH writes. This just missed it.
I felt the same way about how so many bad things kept happening. Like you think there’s going to be relief and then bam she’s down again
I came to the comments bec I'm sucked I and loving the book, but I saw a discrepancy that bothers me, having grown up during that time. No one was naming their children Braden and Kaylee in the mid 60s. It's a tiny detail, but I think important when you are creating a vision.
There were so many men and love interests, I completely forgot who Jamie was when he popped up in the end. I agree with your review
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I was very disappointed.
I’m half way through and although I love this author, the protagonist in the novel is on her second romance already! It’s worse than reading mills and boon. Would have been an excellent read otherwise.
Yes, to everything you said and to top it off, I found Frankie so unlikable. By the end, I was rushing to finish so I didn't have to be reading anymore. I've never done that with any of her books before.
Exactly. I appreciated the effort put in to showing the horrors of Vietnam and the tragedy of how returning vets were treated, and the neglect of women. But the plot was so predictable! I guessed every single thing that happened (romance and losses), including the ending.
Thank you for this review. I finished the book last night and was struggling to find the right words to describe how I feel but you've done it admirably. When it became a soap opera, I wanted to be done. To be fair I was crying at the end but it still doesn't erase the issues I had with the book.
I agree and so appreciate your review. My husband was a medic in Vietnam who was in the midst of battle and has PTSD and also had cancer due to agent orange. He attends a weekly meeting at the V/A for vets who were medics/corpsman. I felt that the coverage of the war plus the effects of those returning was excellent but the romance aspect was just plain silly and diminished the Vietnam portion.
Agree wholeheartedly. Couldn’t have put it any better!
I DNFd. Something I never thought I’d ever do with one of her books.
I totally agree with your review. I finished the book this afternoon and while I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Vietnam, I found the story to read more like a soap opera. I am honestly really surprised at all the 5 star reviews.
Agree completely!!! Frankie, in my opinion, went through every sad thing that Kristin could think of...it became too much
EXACTLY MY THOUGHTS! I was hooked and read it fast but at the end I felt empty and frustrated and couldn’t put it into words. This was exactly my take away! I appreciated the history but would have rather read a biography or researched facts on my own.
What a perfect review. You nailed it, "Everything but the kitchen sink". Now I want to go and read some of your other reviews. And, some of your commenters made such great points -- the mother calling Frankie's period "Aunt Flo", or the names of a few people in the book, I totally remember thinking while reading, "That doesn't fit with the time period".
I was hoping at the end, author's note, to hear a little more about the parts of her book that were based on true characters' experiences. Sometimes a historical fiction author will go through and itemize some of that.
No one specifically mentioned the improbability that the hippie psychiatrist would so easily "fit" back into her life, like a brother. That would never happen in real life.
Great review. Agree completely with your thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to post.
Great review. After reading this, I went back to think about previous Hannah characters and she really likes to hit them with any and every bad thing that could happen to a person, just to play with our emotions. In the past, it has worked. In this book, I found it tedious. The romance in this book was, as you said, so predictable! And I almost wish there had been no romance at all.
Sarah wrote: "I DNFd. Something I never thought I’d ever do with one of her books."
I wanted to DNF but I try very hard not to do that with arcs.
Dalia wrote: "Great review. After reading this, I went back to think about previous Hannah characters and she really likes to hit them with any and every bad thing that could happen to a person, just to play wit..."
She did this with Four Winds too, another readable book that was just full of tragedy every 5 seconds.
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Amy
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Jan 18, 2024 06:27AM
Thank you for this! I consider you my "book twin" in that I almost always rate books the same as you, so I won't be running out to grab this one now. I always loved Kristin Hannah books, but I was skeptical after The Four Winds.
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It is compulsively readable and interesting, historically speaking. I just kept rolling my eyes at the romance and the constant tragedy.
my favorite reviews to read are the ones that say "detest" and "gag me" so this was great 😆👍🏻
Thank you Elizabeth. I have often found your reviews sync up with my opinions. I treasure your candor.
Glad I stuck with my gut and skipped... I was pleased to see a different wartime eara book as well. Too bad.
I completely agree with everything you said. I listened to this book (Julia Whelan’s narration is exceptional, as always) over the last couple days while I was in bed with a cold… I kept looking at how much time was left and couldn’t believe it! I agree that the romance parts were incredibly annoying… and like you, I knew what was going to happen, so there wasn’t really any surprise. I appreciate her taking on this subject because I do think it’s fascinating and worthy of much more attention than it’s received. I’m a big fan of Kristin Hannah (The Nightingale is my all-time favorite book!) but this just didn’t land for me. Glad I’m not alone in that.
I agree! I waited so long for this book and had SUCH high hopes. I loved the first half… so well done… then the book fell apart. Two men coming back from the dead?! The ending was just maddening to me.
I agree with your review 100%. I love Kristina Hannah and I’ve read many of her books that I love. I appreciated her for writing about Vietnam, but this book is by far my least favorite book of hers. Frankie was not likable in my opinion, and the characters in the book felt very flat. Lastly, the second half of the book just seemed unrealistic (characters reappearing) and dragged on. I also felt there were some parts that were repetitive. I pushed through to read it, but I was honesty bored and couldn’t wait to finish it.
So many of the romantic side stories could have been eliminated, and the novel would have been better for it
I felt the same way. This felt like trauma porn, rather than a real representation of what women in Vietnam experienced.
I don't have to write my review. Thanks for doing it for me.
I'm reading this now and your review sums up how I feel. I'll probably end up giving it 3 stars for exactly the same reasons you did.
I really enjoyed this book but can also agree with your review. The repetitiveness of some things-like gaping chest wounds and also people needing to be steadied on their feed-was annoying.
Your review summed up my feelings perfectly. Everywhere I see this pop up it's with gushing, 5 stars review. It's refreshing to know I'm not alone .
I agree with the statements about the romances they really detracted from the story especially the second half. The first half was great and the exclusion and treatment when she came back was good and made you think. I also liked the need to get help etc. I would have given it a glowing 5 through the first half of the book and even with the re-entry but the second half, relationships etc brought this to a 3. Too bad a few edits and changes would have made it a more solid read and a 5. I really loved the story line. My grandma was a WW2 Nurse and after she died I read about her heroism in articles that wee in articles in the attic. She never shared the horrors of the war with the family while she lived and we were very close.
Elizabeth- I’m 75% through this and feel the EXACT same way as you! You bring up soooo many great points. I keep wondering if I’m reading the same book everyone else is loving? Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Hope you are now reading something you love! 😊
Yep- your reasons are exactly why I didn’t give it 5 stars. The war/trauma/recovery story was powerful. The romance was eye-rolling.
Just finished it and this is exactly how I feel. I think it would have been 5 stars without the cringey romance and with more time spent on Montana and the women on the ranch and their experiences. It could have been great. It could have been another The Nightingale for me. I wanted it to be, truly.
I’ve got about 100 pages to go and I’m feeling your review. From a historical standpoint, I give this book a 4 or 5. From a fiction standpoint your comment about “everything but the kitchen sink” is so on point. It makes me feel like Hannah spent unspeakable hours researching and then threw as many veteran experiences as she could at her one main character. I’ll probably end up giving this a 3 or 4. It depends largely on the ending at this point.
Absolutely agree. At least three times we were told she styled her hair parted down the middle. Too much unnecessary detail, too many predictable outcomes and the last 100 pages took me far too long to get through.
Kristen wrote: "I agree! I waited so long for this book and had SUCH high hopes. I loved the first half… so well done… then the book fell apart. Two men coming back from the dead?! The ending was just maddening to..."When neither of them died on page, I knew they were both coming back. One guy surviving would have been potentially realistic, but not both.
Linda wrote: "Absolutely agree. At least three times we were told she styled her hair parted down the middle. Too much unnecessary detail, too many predictable outcomes and the last 100 pages took me far too lon..."Haha! I didn't catch the hair style but the number of times we were told that it was muddy or that she had bloody clothes or that her dad was ashamed of her...so repetitive.
Totally felt the same! And to end the way she did at the memorial...I just "knew" that was going to happen.
Totally agree. They were both dead then poof their alive again? I just can’t….and the line where Frankie’s mother asks her if she’s had “Aunt Flo?” That was 1980’s high school not a society woman in the 50’s. So many things just bugged me. I sooo wanted to love this book, pre-ordered, and have read most everything KH writes. This just missed it.
I felt the same way about how so many bad things kept happening. Like you think there’s going to be relief and then bam she’s down again
I came to the comments bec I'm sucked I and loving the book, but I saw a discrepancy that bothers me, having grown up during that time. No one was naming their children Braden and Kaylee in the mid 60s. It's a tiny detail, but I think important when you are creating a vision.
There were so many men and love interests, I completely forgot who Jamie was when he popped up in the end. I agree with your review
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I was very disappointed.
I’m half way through and although I love this author, the protagonist in the novel is on her second romance already! It’s worse than reading mills and boon. Would have been an excellent read otherwise.
Yes, to everything you said and to top it off, I found Frankie so unlikable. By the end, I was rushing to finish so I didn't have to be reading anymore. I've never done that with any of her books before.
Exactly. I appreciated the effort put in to showing the horrors of Vietnam and the tragedy of how returning vets were treated, and the neglect of women. But the plot was so predictable! I guessed every single thing that happened (romance and losses), including the ending.
Thank you for this review. I finished the book last night and was struggling to find the right words to describe how I feel but you've done it admirably. When it became a soap opera, I wanted to be done. To be fair I was crying at the end but it still doesn't erase the issues I had with the book.
I agree and so appreciate your review. My husband was a medic in Vietnam who was in the midst of battle and has PTSD and also had cancer due to agent orange. He attends a weekly meeting at the V/A for vets who were medics/corpsman. I felt that the coverage of the war plus the effects of those returning was excellent but the romance aspect was just plain silly and diminished the Vietnam portion.
Agree wholeheartedly. Couldn’t have put it any better!
I DNFd. Something I never thought I’d ever do with one of her books.
I totally agree with your review. I finished the book this afternoon and while I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Vietnam, I found the story to read more like a soap opera. I am honestly really surprised at all the 5 star reviews.
Agree completely!!! Frankie, in my opinion, went through every sad thing that Kristin could think of...it became too much
EXACTLY MY THOUGHTS! I was hooked and read it fast but at the end I felt empty and frustrated and couldn’t put it into words. This was exactly my take away! I appreciated the history but would have rather read a biography or researched facts on my own.
What a perfect review. You nailed it, "Everything but the kitchen sink". Now I want to go and read some of your other reviews. And, some of your commenters made such great points -- the mother calling Frankie's period "Aunt Flo", or the names of a few people in the book, I totally remember thinking while reading, "That doesn't fit with the time period". I was hoping at the end, author's note, to hear a little more about the parts of her book that were based on true characters' experiences. Sometimes a historical fiction author will go through and itemize some of that.
No one specifically mentioned the improbability that the hippie psychiatrist would so easily "fit" back into her life, like a brother. That would never happen in real life.
Great review. Agree completely with your thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to post.
Great review. After reading this, I went back to think about previous Hannah characters and she really likes to hit them with any and every bad thing that could happen to a person, just to play with our emotions. In the past, it has worked. In this book, I found it tedious. The romance in this book was, as you said, so predictable! And I almost wish there had been no romance at all.
Sarah wrote: "I DNFd. Something I never thought I’d ever do with one of her books."I wanted to DNF but I try very hard not to do that with arcs.
Dalia wrote: "Great review. After reading this, I went back to think about previous Hannah characters and she really likes to hit them with any and every bad thing that could happen to a person, just to play wit..."She did this with Four Winds too, another readable book that was just full of tragedy every 5 seconds.
