A review by mollyb13
The Women by Kristin Hannah

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

My first book from Kristin Hannah and it surely won't be the last! I'm not a huge historical fiction reader but had to check out the hype around this book for myself. The first 50% of the book was AMAZING - you can tell that the author put in hours upon hours of research. I learned a lot and became extremely invested in the story. The only thing that seemed a bit rushed/off was one of the love interests (
Rye - seemed like they were in love out of nowhere. Rushed compared to how slowly everything else was built up)
.

I found that the second half (when Frankie returned home from Vietnam) felt rushed and all over the place in general. And while I know that veterans, especially from Vietnam, went through a whole lot upon return home, I think that Hannah could have cut back on the traumas just a bit - literally anything bad you can think of was thrown at this character. It felt like she wanted to cover so many important topics and instead of choosing a couple to focus on, decided to pick them all! I also didn't find
BOTH Rye and Jamie actually being alive
believable. Kind of took away some of the gravity of the story for me.

TL;DR The first half was 5 stars, the second half maybe 3.
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