A young widow embraces a second chance at life when she reconnects with those who understand the sacrifices made by American soldiers and their families in award-winning author Laura Trentham’s The Military Wife. Harper Lee Wilcox has been marking time in her hometown of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina since her husband, Noah Wilcox’s death, nearly five years earlier. With her son Ben turning five … With her son Ben turning five and living at home with her mother, Harper fights a growing restlessness, worried that moving on means leaving the memory of her husband behind.
Her best friend, Allison Teague, is dealing with struggles of her own. Her husband, a former SEAL that served with Noah, was injured while deployed and has come home physically healed but fighting PTSD. With three children underfoot and unable to help her husband, Allison is at her wit’s end.
In an effort to reenergize her own life, Harper sees an opportunity to help not only Allison but a network of other military wives eager to support her idea of starting a string of coffee houses close to military bases around the country.
In her pursuit of her dream, Harper crosses paths with Bennett Caldwell, Noah’s best friend and SEAL brother. A man who has a promise to keep, entangling their lives in ways neither of them can foresee. As her business grows so does an unexpected relationship with Bennett. Can Harper let go of her grief and build a future with Bennett even as the man they both loved haunts their pasts?
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What an amazing read. This book I would say is a little different, the author writes both the present and the pass, you don’t have to guess the author labels each chapter. I loved how you get the current story and the back story but its broken up. This book was super emotional, super powerful and very healing. I loved how each character was super strong, but also had a brokenness to them that made them feel very read. I loved how each character was very much connectable. I loved the role the kids played they added a huge fun element to a very serious book. I loved everything about this book. I will say there is some strong language and some very much adult topics in this book. I can’t wait to read more from this series and see what other plans to author has for these character.
This book was hard to put down and I seemed to fly through it, because it was just that good. You can’t go wrong with this amazing read.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. I was under no obligation to post a review and have given my honest opinion
This is my first book by this author but I enjoyed it so much that I know I’ll read her books again. This book appears to be the first book of a series and I look forward to continuing this series about the military.
Harper lives in Kitty Hawk, NC., with her 5 year old son and her mother. She’s lived there for 5 years since her husband, Noah, who was a Navy Seal died in the Middle East. She is unhappy with her life but unable to move forward until she realizes that there are a lot of military wives who need more to do with their lives. Working with her best friend at Fort Bragg, she plans to start a business that will employ military wives and also help her move on from the life she’s living. Along the way, she connects with her husband’s best friend, who was with him when he died. Since she has been unable to find out the details of Noah’s death from the Navy, she decides that his friend will be the person to give her the answers – which he refuses to do. As their relationship grows, she has to decide if she can let go of the past and create a new future for herself and her son.
This novel was heartwarming and romantic. It also went into a lot of detail about how families cope with family members who are suffering from PTSD after military deployments. It was great to see the support and love that military families got from each other – whether it was the soldiers away on deployment or the family members left stateside. I enjoyed getting to know these characters and look forward to the next book in the series.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Even though this might have been a tad predictable, overall I enjoyed it and found it to be bittersweet but ultimately joyful. The heroine Harper seemed a little uneven at times in some of her actions/choices, but as she faced a confusing and unique situation, I can understand her waffling a bit better. My favorite characters here were the men in her life, both Bennett and Noah.
I haven’t read many military romances, but this one was well done.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the ARC. The opinions are strictly my own.
5* Emotional Stars
This was an emotional story that was sad yet very heartwarming.
The book was told from Harper and Bennett’s POV. I liked that we got their thoughts as the book alternates between the past and the present.
It is a beautifully written story about love, loss and the struggles that the military men have to face once they return back to civilian life and that of their wives.
The story of Harper, who is a widow, and Bennett who was Harpers Husband Noah’s best friend in the military was very sad due to unforeseen circumstances. After Harper lost her only true love she never dreamt that love would blossom for her again. This was a slow burn romance. The secondary characters added to the story and they were equally as interesting with the hardships that they were dealing with such as PTSD.
The Military Wife was an excellent read and I loved the cover of the book too.
The sequence of events in this read are emotionally gritty!
I devoured this. I honestly did not read the blurb until I was finished and I think that is too vanilla for everything this journey makes you feel!
Covering quite an expanse of time, current day and flipping back to when Harper Lee first met Noah irritated me (just a tad) at first, but it explained so much as I continued to read, and transitions became so easy, my mind fell into whatever scenario was happening. I had to keep reading.
The storytelling will have you firing all emotions within seconds of each other it seems. The humor of Harper’s emails/letters, then knowing that they are what kept the guys going at the very worst of times. Her and Bennett’s conversations had me chuckling or crying.
The 2ndary characters just added more to the story. Jack London Bennet’s rescue Newfie, Harper’s Mom who was super strong and funny too, Allison and Darren who had their own very real problems, and Harper’s son Ben who was her savior when she needed one, well that just made it all the more realistic.
A standalone with an HEA.
I received an ARC from the author thru Netgalley and am giving my honest opinion.
I have to give props to Laura Trentham. The Military Wife is not only a celebration of the human spirit, it’s also a hat’s off salute to girl power. Life is a lesson in heartache, but also helps us find the strength to fight our way through. Harper, Allison and their friends are a force to be reckoned with. Despite heartbreaking loss, traumatic life changes and fear of the unknown, they never stop believing that better days are on the horizon. Through them, Trentham reminds us how to be fearless warriors in life and in love. They say it takes a village, but these military wives teach us all the true meaning of love.
Harper Wilcox met her husband Noah when he was leaving for BUDs training. They had one date before he left, and she’s surprised when he keeps in contact. It’s the start of a rapid romance, and they get married. Noah is killed in action, not long after Harper gets pregnant.
This story flips between the present and the past, and we get to see Harper with Noah, Noah’s training and his friendship with Bennett. The reader also gets a taste of the life of a military wife and how PTSD affects a soldier. We see the loneliness and stress of a military life and the growing friendship between Harper and Bennett.
This story is engrossing, and I had trouble putting it down. I loved the characters and the way the author portrayed the different relationships. Mother, daughter, son, friends. Military wives. SEAL buddies. It’s a poignant read, both happy and sad and full of emotion. It’s about getting a second chance at love, and the difficulty of moving on when a partner dies. Definitely all the feels in The Military Wife. This is a great story, an emotional read, and I highly recommend it.
The Military Wife is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read! And if you have ever read a Laura Trentham book you would have experienced the beautifully crafted work that she produces and the emotional roller-coaster you would be embarking on, and The Military Wife is no different. It is truly one of those books that gets into your soul and you can never forget it.
This heartwarming story is about Harper Lee Wilcox and her young son Ben, and their life in Harper’s hometown of Kitty Hawk N.C. after her husband’s death while serving in the Army. Harper struggles with the fact that time has moved on, and so have they, especially as Ben will never know his father, as Harper was pregnant with Ben when Noah died. And after a call from her best friend Allison, whose own family is struggling with her husband’s PTSD, that took Harper to the base she last lived with her husband. It provoked a memory of an award that Noah had won, and how things Harper was told about Noah’s death didn’t quite seem right. So she reached out to the one man that has all the secrets…also the one man she had never met, Bennett Caldwell.
Bennett Caldwell retired from the Army, with more guilt he could ever face! He lost his best friend, and the man that was about to become a father, and he felt responsible, that he should have been taken instead, but Bennett also had a long term secret that he could never face, so he did the best thing he could, and went and shut himself off from the world, until the one person in the world he would ever expect turns up on his doorstep!
And with that, we set off on a journey of self-discovery, of releasing guilt and tackling the big issues of PTSD, suicide, survivors guilt and so much more! And this book seems to tackle the big issues, while also keeping the story down to earth and so beautifully written.
The Military Wife (Heart of a Hero Book 1) by Laura Trentham
This is a GREAT heart warming story that didn’t let me go until the last page! It’s one of the Best books I’ve read this year! It’s about a widow who lost her navy seal husband five years ago but, she can’t seem to move on with her life. She reconnects with a friend who reached out in need of her support when her husband returns home from being injured in combat and who now suffers silently from nightmares and ptsd. She finds herself back into the military wives support group she helped start and, its then she realizes she can’t move forward until she finds out the truth about what really happened to her husband the day he died. I hate spoilers so I will say the storyline is well written with complex plots full of twist, turns, adventure, and covered up secrets that take you on a emotional rollercoaster through the lives and sacrifices of these seals and their families. If you love witty dialogue stories that are action-packed, engaging, and wet hanky emotional, then this is a good book to add to your favorites.
Happy Reading
Absorbing, moving, and incredibly uplifting!
The Military Wife is a tender, heartfelt story that delves not only into the emotional and psychological struggles and hardships of being part of the military and the effects they have on both the enlisted themselves and their loved ones, but also the patience, understanding, support, and trust required to maintain a relationship and individuality under those conditions.
The prose is effortless and well turned. The characters are scarred, genuine, and endearing. And the story is a mesmerizing tale about life, loss, love, forgiveness, grief, familial drama, friendship, community, courage, resilience, and moving on.
Overall, The Military Wife is a beautifully written tale with a lovely mix of hope, grit, emotion, and romance that exceeded my expectations. It’s an impressive start to the “A Heart of a Hero” series and I can’t wait for the publication of book #2.
Well-written military fiction about moving on and figuring out how to maintain memories without getting buried in them. Trentham captures the essences of military wives in both installments of her Heart of a Hero novels.
3.75-4
This was my first book by this author and I am looking forward to reading more from her. The premise was promising. We know from the start that Harper’s husband Noah, was killed in action. Through past and present chapter telling, we get a bit of their relationship along with Noah and Bennett’s and Harper’s struggle being a single mom and finding a purpose to her days. While I enjoyed Harper and Bennett’s story, I wish I felt more of a connection to Harper and Noah’s relationship. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
I first knew I was going to love this book when I realized the main character was named Harper Lee. And then I dove headfirst into Harper and Noah’s innocent budding romance, and reveled in the deeper, seasoned relationship that developed between Harper and Bennett. Because also, wowza! I found the contrast between the two relationships to be powerfully beautiful. The strong, independent woman that Harper became was a direct result of losing Noah, yet Harper gained so much in return when she was ready for it. I also cherished the other relationships in the book—Harper with her mom, with Allison, and the Home Front project, Bennett & Noah’s brotherhood, and the glimpse into the reality of how PTSD affects our soldiers and those they love at home with Allison and Darren. I loved the seasons and how they played as a character in each phase of life. Honestly, there wasn’t much about The Military Wife that I didn’t love!
Great women’s fiction novel about a widowed military wife and the solace she finds in discovering the nuances of their life together. Laura Trentham toggles between the past and present of the the male and female protagonists creating a story full of love, friendship, and hope through unthinkable tragedy. It’s a slow burn romance. It’s a tribute to the men and women who serve this country. It’s a book about a woman who perseveres and wants other to find that inner strength too. I really loved it.
This is a heartfelt story about military wives and the challenges they face. This story highlights military deployments and the difficulties families face when their husbands come home and when they don’t come home.
Harper is a young woman who falls in love with a soldier who becomes a Navy Seal. Her life is forever changed when he doesn’t come home from is mission. Harper delivers her son only a month after losing her husband. The next five years Harper keeps putting one foot in front of the other. Through her mother’s encouragement Harper reaches out to a fellow military wife who has been struggling with her husbands return from a mission. Harper finds herself reaching out to Bennett her husband Seal Team member to try to find out what happened the day her husband Noah died.
This book is well written. It is a story that you want to keep reading.
This is a new to me author. I am so glad I got the opportunity to read and review this story.
I was a military wife for 18 years. My husband, a combat veteran, retired after 22 years.
This story resonated with me on so many levels.
It’s a story of sisterhood, military wives banding together.
This is a story of love lost and love found. This is the story of Harper, Noah and Bennett.
Harper Lee has been through the worst thing to ever happen to a military wife. Becoming a widow. She finds strength to continue from her son and mom. She is a good friend and a fantastic mom. She had a healthy, normal, not easy marriage to Noah and it’s described honestly and truthfully.
Bennett was a soldier. He has experienced the worst that could happen to a soldier. It has left scars and demons and promises that were made but never fully fulfilled.
The flow of the story is fantastic. The fluctuations between present and past were smooth and easy to follow.
The relationship between Harper and Bennett was moving and real.
This story made me laugh, made me cry and made me reminisce about my time as military wife.
Even if you have no experience in the military, read this story. It will give you a view of the world of military families and service members.
Well done, I cannot wait to see what you write next!
A moving and engaging story with a lot of heart. The author did an excellent job covering realistic and sensitive topics. I couldn’t put this book down! Thank you to all who serve in the military.
Awesome well written romance that dips it’s pen in dealing with grief, support, and moving on. Really enjoyed it.
Laura Trentham pens an amazing novel of service, sacrifice and of heart.
THE MILITARY WIFE showcases the struggles military wives, families and their soldiers face every single day. When the deployments are over and the men and women serving come home, many are often still fighting battles of PTSD, depression, guilt and many other issues. We call these brave men and women our heroes and they absolutely are, but the real heroism is the daily fight to maintain their mental health for their families, their country and, more importantly, for themselves.
Ms. Trentham’s characters are painstakingly and lovingly crafted. Her portrayal of life as a Navy SEAL is interesting and engaging. The amount of emotion and depth crammed into the plot is so gut-wrenching and so raw you can’t help but be drawn into it. I grieved, cried, laughed, prayed and celebrated right alongside Harper, Allison and the rest of the characters.
I love how the story flashes from present to past, so we can get a full account of what came to be and what has always been. Absolutely beautiful! I am emotionally wrecked, and I’m not surprised. Ms. Trentham’s writing style is unique and her ability to connect with readers on an emotional and spiritual level is without equal. And the best part, this is the FIRST book in a new series! Ms. Trentham knocked this one out of the park!
Thank you to all the men and women who serve in our military as well as all those who’ve come before. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.
**I voluntarily read a copy of the book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own**
You laugh, Cry and Cheer for the characters.