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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Let me first say that I truly loved this book. I became so involved with the characters and their stories, more so than I have before. I felt their emotions, all the ups and downs, and found myself wanting it to all turn out right.
It is a well written story of love, friendship, camaraderie, sacrifice and survival. The use of alternating between the past and the present, allows the story to move forward while providing the characters with a backstory. This makes the characters real and relatable.
I highly recommend this book. I will be following this new series by Ms. Trentham.
Thank you to #Netgalley and #StMartinsGriffin for approving my request. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.
4.5 Stars – This book was so much more than just a romance, more of a life story wrapped around a love story. It touched on topics that are current and real, acknowledging that life can be far from perfect…but there is always hope and maybe even a second chance at both life and love.
Laura Trentham did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life on the pages. There was such a realness to each of them and this really allowed me to feel all the emotions in this book right along with each of the characters. The use of flashbacks really worked in this story – it was like getting two love stories for the price of one – and, for me, made it so much easier to relate to Harper and understand her actions and decisions. And even though Harper and Bennett didn’t have a straight path to their HEA, they kept the angst and drama to a fairly low level and acted like the adults they were supposed to be.
There was a lot to love in this story. Harper’s son Ben and her mother were wonderfully written and I loved what a character her mother was. Watching Harper’s friend Allison struggling with her husband’s PTSD was heartbreaking but seeing her pick up the pieces and begin to put her family back together left me with a feeling of hope. I also loved how Harper’s business idea came together and the opportunities that it is sure to bring – including what I hope are additional stories about the lives of some of the women who were introduced in this book.
This was a book that had lots of feels and was filled with emotion and deserves a spot on anyone’s reading shelf!
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book I received from the Publisher on NetGalley.
Favorite Quotes:
“He’s been gone five years, sweetheart, and you haven’t gone on so much as a date.” “That’s not true. I went to lunch with Whit a few weeks ago.” “He was trying to sell you life insurance. Doesn’t count.”
He got out a pot and pulled down three cans. She moved close enough to see two were chili and one was dog food. She hoped she rated the chili.
Without thinking beyond the moment, she scooched closer and put her arm around him from behind. It was like hugging a gargoyle, and she half-expected him to shove her arm away as if comfort were a communicable disease.
Unable to unstick her gaze from him, she nodded, aware of him in ways that made parts of her tingle. Or was that the beginnings of frostbite?
His smile was like the sighting of a rare bird, and it filled her with the same kind of wonder.
And, in my mom’s eyes, you are officially the favorite of all my boyfriends. Although it’s not like the competition was steep. Not being a public nose picker put you in the lead.
I love bargaining. My husband says I can talk the devil down on buying a soul.
Time to push, Harper dear, but softly. We don’t want baby to squirt out and shoot across the room.
My Review:
This cleverly written book plumbed all the feels and insightfully covered several important and vexing societal issues with grace and finesse while bringing honor and recognition to some of the stressors bedeviling families that sacrifice to serve their country. The storylines were active and cleverly nuanced, highly relevant, emotive, evocative, and beautifully written with agility and artistry while well balanced with levity and witty quips. Ms. Trentham is a recent discovery for me with her delightfully appealing Cottonbloom series, and I have repeatedly noticed her special ninja-like talent for creating unique and complex characters who are unfailingly endearing yet extremely complicated, deeply flawed, and impossible not to love. Bennett and Harper included.
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham. This was an emotional read that took the reader into the lives of military families. The character’s emotions felt so real. It was a little distracting for me with the story going back and forth between the present and the past but I did enjoy their heartwarming and emotional story with wonderful characters. It is amazing the selfless sacrifices military families give. I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
As a military wife myself, I felt a strong connection with this book. I identified right away with Harper, with her adorable little boy, friendship with Allison, childbirth experience, and frustration with the lack of job opportunities for military spouses no matter how qualified we are.
This doesn’t mean that you have to be a military wife to be able to relate with this novel. Far from it. Laura Trentham expertly interspersed the present and the past in this heartwarming second-chance-at-love story. Romance readers will love Harper’s sass, determination, compassion, strengths, and vulnerabilities. They will swoon at Bennett’s sexily gruff exterior matched by a generous and soft heart. They will definitely adore Ben and Jack London and smile whenever Gail Frazier enters the scene. Harper’s love stories with both Noah and Bennett are equally special. All these are the happy parts.
The angsty part is provided by Allison and her husband Darren who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is a difficult subject to tackle and I think Laura handled it incredibly well. I am so glad this is a romance with a guaranteed happily-ever-after because for a few scenes there I had wondered if there’s going to be a tragedy or two. I was relieved and satisfied with the resolution.
Splendid writing, relatable characters, relevant story lines, balance of humor and drama. These are the reasons why I’m highly recommending The Military Wife.
I received a free, ARC of this book from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.
The author explores not only the mind set and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform when they are deployed and of their spouses and families at home but also what happens when they come with physical and mental injuries. The skillfully penned book is written with compassion about the reality of the lives of those who chose to risk their lives to protect us at home.
Harper Lee Frazier and Noah Wilcox meet the summer before Harper started at the University of North Carolina. He was about to begin BUD/S training for the Navy SEALs. What might have been a short summer romance, turned into four years of correspondence and eventually marriage. During BUD/S, Noah had become best friends with the older and taciturn Bennett Caldwell. After marriage, moving onto base, Harper became friends with Allison, the wife of Noah and Bennett’s officer, Darren. Harper became unsettled living on the base, not using the skills that she had earn at university, and feared having a baby, but found out she was pregnant shortly after Noah deployed. However, Noah never got to see his son, as he was killed on a mission, but before he died had Bennett promise he would be godfather to his child and take care of both of them. However, Bennett had grown up in the foster care system, did not know how to do anything but make up a bogus post humous cash award to provide financial aid for Harper and her son Ben, named after Bennett. Eventually, Harper finds out from Allison that the award is bogus, and tracks him down for the truth of what happened to Noah. By masterfully developing the characters, the author captures the struggles that Harper, Bennett, Allison, Darren, their children and the other military wives live through. Wounded Warriors is mentioned several times in the book and there are many Wounded Warrior charities out there. Check Charity Navigator before you donate to any, as there are some that spend less then they should on actually programs for our veterans.
Emotionally enchanting! With a delve into a different type of story line than her norm, Laura Trentham brings us a realistic look into the lives of a group of military wives and how they learn to pick up the pieces of life after deployments, moves, injuries and even death. The plot was thick with emotions and the characters were interesting. I was not fond of the back and forth in time span, and I felt like there were a few plot holes, but overall an enjoyable read.
Harper Lee Wilcox has just been scooting by with life since her husband Noah’s death five years ago. She returned home to Kitty Hawk, NC to be close to her Mom as she gave birth to the son her husband always wanted and never got to see. She’s finally coming out of the cocoon she surrounded herself with in order to survive, and she’s noticing things around her again.
Here best friend Allison Teague is fighting her own demons. With three young children, and a husband who returned from war more emotionally wounded than ever before, she’s not sure how long she can walk on the eggshells her house has become. Something’s got to give, and she hopes it will be her husbands resistance to admitting the PTSD is out of control this time and he needs to get help.
With the reawakening of her realism that things happened that she never got answers about, Harper seeks out Noah’s best friend Bennett Caldwell. Bennett was with Noah at the end and made promises he’s never forgotten, but in admitting the things that are awakening inside him, he’ll be coming close to betraying the best friend he ever had’s trust. Can he step up and fill the shoes of the man he’ll never forget?
A Heart of a Hero #1, Laura Trentham is wonderful when it comes to small town romance, with this new series it’s more Women’s Fiction with a romance. What I loved about this book was the alternating of past and present it was a nice touch you get to see all the best and the worst memories Harper and Bennett had with Noah at the same time you get to see Harper and Bennett fall in love and Harper finally finds what she was meant to do with her life. Told in the third person but switches perspective between Harper and Bennett.
We also meet Allison and Darren. Darren is an officer and Allison is his wife, mother of three, and Harper’s best friend. Darren is feeling the effects of PTSD but too ashamed to admit he needs help doesn’t feel like he deserves the help. Harper can tell Allison needs someone to really talk to and goes to visit her on that visit she attends one of the group meetings for the wives and hears the same stuff she heard when she was in their shoes so she comes up with a plan to help out military wives who feel like they need to do more than just fill the time. Harper has the start up money she was given a large sum when Noah died. But when Allison tells her one of the guys on the team gave her that money and not the NAVY Harper tracks down Bennett Caldwell to return the money.
Bennett meet Noah in BUDs and they formed a fast friendship, they became brother’s in every way except blood. When Noah found out Harper was pregnant he had Bennett promise him if anything should happen he would take care of Harper and the baby. The entire friendship Bennett avoided meeting Harper, through all the emails and letter that Noah shared Bennett had fallen in love with her. He left the SEALs after Noah died and thought that giving Harper all that money would be enough to take care of the baby and herself. He never expected to see her again after handing over the money but here she is five years later trying to give it back.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was such an emotional journey not just for Harper and Bennett but for Allison and Darren too. This book made me cry and laugh and cry. This was a wonderful second chance romance and a wonderful story of a woman helping other women and finally getting on with her life and moving on. A lot of lessons in this too, like learning how to accept help and learning to let go of guilt.
This is the story of Harper and Noah who meet on a warm summer afternoon. Harper is working her final summer before heading off to college and Noah is heading to SEAL training.
Their story follows them through college and training then through the early years of their marriage before Noah dies in the line of duty.
Widowed and pregnant, Harper struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death.
Bennett Caldwell met Noah during SEAL training and they quickly became friends and team mates. When Noah is injured, Bennett promises to look after Harper and their unborn baby.
Many years later Harper decides to look for Bennett, a team mate she never met, to attempt to find out the circumstances surrounding Noah’s death. With a second chance to find her HEA Harper and Bennett explore their new found relationship.
Despite the tragedy of Noah’s death this is essentially a story of love, grief, moving on and the military community. The deployments experienced by both the personnel and their spouses and the rehabilitation to family life following those deployments all form part of this, at times, heartbreaking love story.
Military Wife is the first novel by Laura Trentham that I’ve read but it won’t be my last.
Harper and Bennett’s love story was beautifully written. I loved that the chapters alternated between past and present giving details of their backstories. I would definitely recommend The Military Wife.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley.
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham
5 ++++ Stars
Very well written!! Captivated myself from the cover to the very end! I loved it a lot! Marvelous story! It is very emotional about grief, love, forgiveness, and friendship. It is dealing with the military life.
Very highly recommend!! You definitely won’t be disappointed! Don’t forget the tissues!
I absolutely loved this book. It was so perfectly written. Every one of my emotions got satisfied reading this book and the characters are so real. Thank you so much for writing such a great book!
This book has no on page sex, but it has cursing including quite a few f-bombs. If harsh cursing bothers you, this might not be the story for you.
Wow. There is literally no other way to start this review. Just…wow. I was absolutely blown away by the depth of the emotions in this book. I expected the story to be emotional, of course, but I didn’t expect to find myself so heavily invested or to cry so hard for so many different characters in the same book.
Military families and their sacrifices are a touchy subject, and while this book and the topics that it cover could have been depressing or – even worse – politically charged, Ms. Trentham treats them all with the utmost respect and caring. The Military Wife is a love story between two characters, but it is also a love letter to military members and their families; a ‘thank you’ for their service and sacrifices. So often the sacrifice of the men and women at home are forgotten, but Ms. Trentham shines a light on that in a respectful and heart-wrenching way.
Harper was a great character from the first moment we met her – she had been through something that is unthinkable, and come out the other side so strong – even if she didn’t realize it at times. Through the telling of this book we get to know more about who Harper actually is, and how she got to the place in her life that she was and I really enjoyed those glimpses into who she was. Bennett is a bit of a bear to begin with but as we got to know him, the reasons for his gruffness and his walls become clear, and there’s no way not to fall in love with him. Watching them try to figure out their relationship and struggling with their entwined past with Noah was just incredible.
Harper and Bennett are the heart and soul of this book, and they’re incredible on their own, but the side characters in this one are all the kind of people I would happily have read standalone books about. Darren & Allison’s story was absolutely gut-wrenching. I read a lot of books every year, and I’m not sure I have ever shed so many tears for characters who weren’t the main focus of a book.
The only downside to this book is the price. This paragraph has absolutely nothing to do with the author or the book’s star rating, but hopefully someone at the publisher will see this and realize that they are pricing regular readers out of their books. While this book is amazing and will probably be my favorite read of 2019, I just cannot recommend this one to my reader friends on social media or my book club because very few people in my many reader groups can justify spending such a large amount on one e-book. Hopefully the publisher will put this on sale sooner rather than later so that the readers who work hard but don’t have extra income can also enjoy this beautiful story. If that ever happens, my Amazon review will be verified. I am grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this story because otherwise I would not have been able to read this wonderful book.
Ms Trentham is a favorite author, so I was excited when she decided to try a new genre of fiction. The Military Wife is a timely story, especially given the demands currently being placed on the men and women of our armed forces and their families.
With quick glimpses of the past to fill in needed details, we meet Harper five years after she became a military widow and is feeling restless with her life.
Well written with engaging characters, The Military Wife paints a well thought picture of people we often take for granted.
I enjoyed getting to know Harper and the group of characters that surround her as she not only broadens her horizons with new endeavors, but also begins to consider letting love back into her life.
This is the first book in a new series and I am looking forward to seeing what comes next. Whatever it is, hopefully we see glimpses of Harper, Bennett, and their friends.
The Military Wife (A Heart of a Hero, #1) by Laura Trentham ***** This book was a total experience.. I fell into it and couldn’t leave.. Harper(a young widow of a SEAL..now a single mom) Bennett(a loner also a SEAL and Noah(Harper’s husband’s best friend) They are drawn together five years after Noah was killed in action. Wonderful characters.. Ben her son, her mom, her friend and her SEAL husband’s PTSD. So many ups and downs, twists and turns, tears and laughter… all taking through their journey to happiness and a HEA.
An amazing story of how the military affects the spouse, the family and the enlisted member. This story is told in a dual POV in past and present. I had a hard time putting this book down. Loved how Noah and Harper began their relationship and how it continues throughout his enlistment until he dies. The story also focuses on the life of Harper being a young widow and her best friend Allison, who’s husband is suffering from PTSD. Then you have Bennett, who was Noah’s, Seal brother whom Harper reconnects with.
This story is full of emotions, loss, friendships, grief and learning to love again. The writing was amazing and drew me in from the first page. I highly recommend this book.
I loved how the author switched from chapter to chapter from the present to the past. This is the story of how Noah Wilcox met and fell in love with Harper Lee Frazier. This was a long distant relationship. She finishing college with dual masters. Noah training to be a SEAL. In the middle of all this is Bennett Caldwell, who is Noah’s friend and SEAL brother. As we all know, not everyone comes back from a mission. This story tells how these men deal or don’t deal with PTSD. It also tells how the women deal with their men, raising their families and still try to feel relevant. It was a wonderful book.
I loved this book. Grab the tissues while reading this book. It’s an emotional roller coaster of a book. You will cry sad and happy tears. I thought this book did a good job showing Military Wives as strong but needing help at times. I also think that it’s a string disconnect that the wives can’t find jobs or something on their own because they are married to a military man.
*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.*
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham
A Heart of a Hero #1
What an emotionally deep and thought provoking book this book proved to be! I have enjoyed every book I have read by this author and found this one perhaps the best so far. With so many men deployed right now and wars throughout the world this book reminds the reader of the effort soldiers put in to become warriors and also speaks of the impact their chosen profession may have on them and their families.
Sitting here I began to write that “this is the story of two families” but in fact it is much more than that as there is a ripple effect that one life has in and on the lives of the many around them. There are parents, siblings, significant others, progeny, friends stateside and in the military and perhaps more that I am not listing. This is, in my mind, a tribute to the soldier and to his family and I look forward to reading more in this series as soon as the books are written.
This story flips moves between the present and the past with almost every chapter and though I don’t usually like that way of telling a story it really worked in this one. I felt I got to know Laura, Noah and Bennett in ways I might not have if he story had been more linear. It eventually tells the story of how Laura and Noah met and how their relationship progressed. It tells of the friendships both of them forged and how those friendships impacted them as those around them. It made me feel for both of them and wish that things could have been easier. So much is given up sometimes to be with the person one loves…and this book managed to convey this while also conveying so much more.
What I liked:
* Laura’s strength
* Laura’s mother for supporting her daughter as well as her honesty
* Noah’s sunny disposition, openness and ability to love
* Bennett – what a wonderful person he proved to be
* The depth to the story
* The way PTSD was dealt with in Allison’s family situation
* The military wives being there for one another
* What I assumed to be “honesty” in looking at issues I had not thought of before
* The story and how it flowed
* The idea that it is okay to lean on someone else
* So much more
There was nothing that I disliked in this book. Sure, there were things I wished could have been different in the lives of some of the characters but isn’t that true of real life, too!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press – Griffin for the ARC ~ This is my honest review.
5 Stars
A touching story of military wives and what they go through to support their spouses through good times, moves, deployment, PTSD. and possibly Wounded Warriors . The strength that Allison shows for her husband who has PTSD and whose marriage is in turmoil is amazing. Harper Lee Wilcox had to find strength to go on after her husband was killed and she was pregnant with their first child. She is an admirable, strong, stubborn character with a heart of gold. I really liked the perfect ending of the story as the author brought if to a full circle. I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.