Frances Grace (Frankie) McGrath volunteers for a tour in Vietnam as an army nurse because her brother Finley is in the navy and is out there. Shortly before she ships out to Vietnam her brother is killed in action. In Vietnam, Frankie meets Ethel and Barb, her fellow army nurses, and she develops a crush on army surgeon Jameson (Jamie) Callahan. However, Jamie has a wife back in the States and Frankie will not become the other woman.
The description of the fighting, the terrible wounds Frankie and the others see. Then Jamie is tragically wounded when his helicopter is shot down. Frankie’s heart is broken when she sees him die in her hospital. Then she bumps into her brother’s best friend Joseph Ryerson (Rye) Walsh in Saigon, and she has had a crush on him since she first met him when her brother brought him home. And they start seeing each other as much as they can. Shortly after she comes home, she learns the Rye is also killed in action and her world falls apart. Her parents don’t want to talk about Vietnam and everyone keeps saying there were no women in Vietnam when Frankie asks for help for what is clearly PTSD.
I don’t cry… she said. Famous last words. Kristin Hannah gives you hope, only to take it away again… and then makes you smile with the last words of the book. Wow. I loved this one!
Read for the ShelfReflection Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 42: A book that might make you cry (if you did that kind of thing).
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
