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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The Military Wife by Laura Trentham took me by complete surprise. What a heartwarming story of love, loss and second chances in the world of military families. This was such a beautiful story of the past and present intertwined with a slow burning romance with amazing characters.
Harper Lee Wilcox is a military widow struggling to move forward. She knows life goes on and she has her son to think about but moving on means letting go of the man she once loved. Could she do that? At the same time, she realizes many military families may need support and decides to venture a new business. She reaches out to Bennet Caldwell who was a SEAL brother of Noah, Harper’s husband. And suddenly she feels something she never thought she would again.
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham was such a moving story. Told in dual point-of-views in both past and present, we see the characters in many stages of their lives. I loved the story, characters and their journeys so much. I am excited to read more of this series!
~ Liz
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham took me by complete surprise. What a heartwarming story of love, loss and second chances in the world of military families. This was such a beautiful story of the past and present intertwined with a slow burning romance with amazing characters.
Harper Lee Wilcox is a military widow struggling to move forward. She knows life goes on and she has her son to think about but moving on means letting go of the man she once loved. Could she do that? At the same time, she realizes many military families may need support and decides to venture a new business. She reaches out to Bennet Caldwell who was a SEAL brother of Noah, Harper’s husband. And suddenly she feels something she never thought she would again.
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham was such a moving story. Told in dual point-of-views in both past and present, we see the characters in many stages of their lives. I loved the story, characters and their journeys so much. I am excited to read more of this series!
Read and reviewed for Reviews From The Heart.
Happy reading!
I was enthralled by this deeply emotional romance.
This is an intense romance, one that goes right to the heart of survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and starting over after losing the one you love. Bennett is the strong silent type, a loner who has never had anyone in his corner before, except Noah. He’s not interested in reliving the ghosts of the past, nor is he ever going to allow himself the luxury of leaving his loneliness behind.
Five years after losing her husband, Noah’s widow, Harper, wants more answers than she got from the official report. She goes to his teammate and best friend, the man Noah named their son after, knowing that Bennett was there when Noah was killed. But Bennett refuses to discuss any of that, despite her best efforts to push the matter.
Harper is also starting up a new business, one that would be run by other military wives, who find that jobs are hard to come by due to the risk of being moved to another base at any time. Bennett helps Harper set this up, and together they help another couple who are dealing with PTSD.
The romance between these two was delicately handled, due to their shared connection in Noah. It was beautifully written with multi-layered characters and a refreshing honesty about the emotional impact of military service. It’s a wonderful story, and I loved every bit of it. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
The Military Wife is the latest novel by Laura Trentham. This book captured me in a way that not many do. It is the story of Harper Lee Frazier of Nags Head, NC. Harper, a rather reserved young lady, meets young Navy recruit Noah Wilcox the summer before he leaves for SEAL training and she leaves for college. After the perfect few days they spend together in her home town, she doubts she will hear from him again. And she doesn’t until his first email arrives several hours later.
Over the course of her double degree pursuit, their relationship grows and he asks her to marry him right after her graduation. Rather than drawing things out, they elope and begin their life together in Virginia Beach, where his SEAL team is based. They socialize with Noah’s team members and their families and Harper becomes close to Allison Teague, wife of his team commander. The only one that she seems to not meet is Noah’s best friend, Bennett Caldwell.
After a few years, Harper and Noah begin a family. An assignment late in Harper’s pregnancy leaves her a widow and her son, Ben, without his father. Soon after this loss Ben is born and a mysterious man visits Harper with a certificate for heroism for Noah and a certified check for $100,000. When she finally meets Bennett and realizes the story behind his and Noah’s friendship and why Noah chose to name their son after his friend, her healing takes a new turn. And in her act of healing, Harper uses her education to help spouses of military folks, especially her friend Allison.
This story delves into many facets of what the people serving in our armed forces endure, as well as what is endured by those left on the home front. It is eye opening and yet the starkness of the story almost makes readers want to cover their eyes. This book is well written with rich and endearing characters. I very much enjoyed this book and do recommend it!!
This was an absolutely amazing story of the strength, determination and fortitude it takes to be a spouse of our military personnel. I’m going to keep this short because I want you to experience all the goodness this story has to offer as it unfolds on the pages before you. I don’t want to give anything away. Just know this, the writing is exceptional and the characters are strong and well developed with flashes into the past to give us their full story. This one needs to go on the must read list. I highly recommend it.
Wonderfully written saga addressing some of the realities that the spouses/families that remain behind when their partners/parent go off to serve their country face. This is told from the view point of one of “The Military Wife”. When a family member serves, the entire family serves too, each in their own way. We find out about the loneliness, lack of jobs outside the home, depression, guilt, etc. that the partners of deployed troops deal with. It is a difficult dynamic to make work.
The characters are well written. I felt as if I was with the main character, Harper, as the story progressed. We meet her and her eccentric, retired librarian, mother, her friends and other family members. We are brought along on a journey with Harper through the highs and lows of being a military family. I liked how the author switched between past and present as chapters in order to fill the reader in on the lives of the 2 main characters.
Such an amazing story! While I was reading, I kept asking myself if I could have done everything Harper did after losing her spouse.
As a military wife myself, that question hit home. The Military Wife was a fantastic story of a woman’s determination to live her life after such an incredible loss. I’m doing that, she was able to discover who she was in the world.
A must read!
Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Military Wife” by Laura Trentham, St. Martin’s Griffin, February 5, 2019
Laura Trentham, Author of “The Military Wife”, has written an emotional, intense and intriguing novel. The Genre for this novel is fiction. The timeline for this story is in the present and goes to the past when it pertains to the events or characters in the story. The author describes her characters as complex, and complicated. Some have personal problems they should seek help for.
Harper Lee Wilcox, is a single mom, living with her five-year old son Ben and her Mom. Her best friend Allison calls Harper for her help. Both Harper and Allison are military wives. Unfortunately Harper’s husband lost his life in the line of duty. Harper goes to help Allison and her family and realizes that many of the problems and stressors that Allison is going through, other military wives are going through as well. Many of the women can’t get jobs, and feel useless. They have children and often husbands that are away, or come back with problems.
Harper has an idea, and the funds to start a business that will help other Military wives, and give her a sense of purpose. With the help of Bennett Caldwell, her husband’s best friend and seal buddy, she starts to work on her plan. Bennett seems to have dark secrets that he doesn’t want to share.
I appreciate that the author discusses the importance of family, friends, emotional help and support, love and hope. I would recommend this novel for those readers who enjoy a thought-provoking story. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.
Widowed 5 years ago after her Navy SEAL husband, Noah, was killed overseas, Harper is a single mom raising their 5 year old son, Ben. Inspired by her own experience as a military wife living on base, she decides to give back by opening a business for the military wives’ to own and run. Additionally, since no one will share the details of how her husband died, Harper is determined to find out and contacts Bennett, Noah’s best friend and fellow SEAL, in the hopes all of her questions will finally be answered. But, will her relationship with Bennett be beneficial or painful? Will she ever discover the truth about Noah’s death? Will her business endeavor be successful? And, lastly, will she maybe also have a second chance at love?
“Life was all about timing and could change with the speed of a bullet.”
This was my first time reading this author, and I found the story sweet, humorous, heartwarming, romantic and touching … and hello, there were also sexy men in uniform (wink wink). Alternating between the past and the present, the author was fantastic at conjuring my own first, magical feelings of new love and new motherhood. I also enjoyed the sneak peek of what it’s like living on a military base, as well as how kind, loving, and supportive the characters were to each other and their community. The story also touches on PTSD making it an even more powerful read. Lastly, I’m so excited this is the first in a new series!
This is the 14th book I’ve read in 2019 and my first 5-star read!
Location: Kitty Hawk, University of North Carolina and Fort Bragg, North Carolina
I received an advance copy from a Goodreads giveaway. All opinions are my own.
“The Military Wife” by Laura Trentham is an awesome and very well written and depicted book about Military life using the POV of the enlisted and also the POV of their spouses. This was a very emotional and heartwarming book that touched on many subjects like loneliness, PTSD, suicide and death. I was hooked from the first page. I found myself not able to put it down. Being a military mother and spouse this book was very real and true. This book will tug at your heartstrings. This book shows exactly what people in the military go through the countless days alone, the spouse you sent on deployment is not the same one that comes home, the worries you deal with. This book is told both in the present and the past. This is definitely needed because you need to be filled in on the past to learn about the present. This book shows that there can be love after death. I loved this book and highly recommend it. I am looking forward to more books in this new series. Just remember to grab your Kleenex.
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 and living at home with her mother, Her best friend, Allison Teague, is dealing with struggles of her own. 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.
The start of a new series & what a start, strong characters, very well paced story that grabbed me from start to finish. I was taken on a roller coaster of emotions & felt satisfied at the end but drained too. I ‘m now looking forward to more in the series as there were a number of interesting secondary characters
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
Wow. Just. Wow.
I have avoided reading Military romance/fiction for the past few years due to my personal experience as the spouse of a former soldier living with PTSD. Something about the blurb and my previous experience reading this author made me set aside my fear and request to read it despite my anxiety about the theme. To say that I’m blown away feels like an understatement. This feels like the most honest and real (fictional) depiction of PTSD (speaking from the spouse POV only) and how it affects families that I’ve ever read.
It wasn’t just the PTSD angle of this story that blew me away though. The whole story and the care that the author took to tackle extremely difficult themes had me glued to my Kindle to finish this book in a matter of hours. I felt every emotion that the characters were feeling throughout. The anger, the sadness, the hope and love.
This story was not an easy one to read. I cried. A lot. I felt too much and the pain, fear and anger felt eerily familiar to me, but so did the hopefulness and love and, essentially it’s that love and hope that got me through it. This is a beautifully written story that I imagine I’ll come back to reread often.
Haven’t wrote my full review but it is a heartwarming and emotional read which I will be giving a high rating to. God Bless our troops!
Fantastic! This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I would have liked to have stayed up all night and finished. I’m a Laura Trentham fan, but she took things to a whole new level with this book. It’s a new genre for her and I’m pretty sure she will be successful with it.
In The Military Wife, Trentham explores multiple facets of military life and the hardships endured by the members of the military as well as their families. She does it by telling the stories of different characters: a woman who has lost her husband to war, the man who was with him when he died who is no longer active duty and another soldier of the same group who has remained active duty, returned stateside and brought his PTSD home with him to his family.
As a military wife, it was refreshing to see the anger of the wives in print. Being proud of what your spouse is doing isn’t near enough to make up for the hardships, the neglect you feel and the worries when you spend half your marriage alone, or when the spouse returns home no longer the man you sent off. Kudos, Ms. Trentham!
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. All thoughts are my own.
The Military Wife by Laura Trentham is the first book in her A Heart of A Hero series. This book tells the story of Harper Lee Wilcox and Bennett Caldwell and their journey to a Happily Ever After. Harper is a war widow with a five-year-old son, Ben. She is floundering with what to do with her life when the story begins, five years after her SEAL husband’s death overseas. Bennett is a former Navy SEAL and was best friends with Harper’s deceased husband, Noah. He runs Caldwell Survival School which suits him quite well as he is a bit of a loaner. Seems Noah made Bennett promise to take care of his wife and child if anything ever happened to him. This promise will bring Harper and Bennett together.
This story is told with alternating chapters between the present and the past. It took me a while to get used to this style of storytelling but I can see why the author took this approach. It was very effective in explaining the complicated backgrounds of the main characters. This is a very emotional, poignant story. The author expressed these feelings as well as the other happy and sad feelings of the characters quite well. I really enjoyed her in-depth characters and how well the storyline flowed. What a blockbuster beginning to a new series.
Copy received from publisher via Netgalley for an honest review
I have adored Ms Trentham’s Cottonbloom series, and even though this is a big departure from what I have read of hers previously, I knew I was going to enjoy The Military Wife.
And I was hooked on Harper’s story right from the start.
From the blurb, you know that she is a military widow, surviving daily life but struggling to move forward.
An unexpected revelation takes her on a journey that she would never have expected. And it is as unexpected for her late husband’s “brother” Bennett.
Though there is that spark between our lovelies, sexual tension that burns through the pages, this is more about the emotions both of them are feeling.
And as I continued reading, I just knew that they would be what each other needed to heal.
There is a wonderful cast of secondary characters, including Harper’s mother, her son and her best friend.
And oh the tears some of these stories brought me to.
Raw, emotional, hopeful. The Military Wife had a bit of it all.
I now can’t wait to see where this series takes us next.
“The Military Wife” by Laura Trentham
A busy contemporary romance with happy times, and, heart wrenching sadness. Read the publishers blurb, then if you want a read that you will not want to put down even if you are scrambling for a tissue.. grab your copy of this book and get reading. Can you tell I loved this story? I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this story the publisher shared with me via NetGalley. This story is scheduled for publication in February 2019.. watch for it !!
You can never go wrong when you pick up a book by this very talented author. This one proved my point.
This time the author took a little detour to her usual method. Yes, there is romance, but the main topic of the story was about the wives and significant others left behind, of the brave soldiers that are willing to give up their lives to keep us safe. And then we also have those men and women that are home , but are now facing PTSD and/or physical injuries.
Either by deployment or widowhood those left have to continue their lives as mothers, caretakers etc. Not an easy task for only one person to carry along.
In comes Harper Lee Wilcox, a widow with a five year old boy, and her business idea. And let us not forget her husband’s former SEAL teammate Bennett Caldwell. While the attraction seems mutual both face a certain amount of guilt for living.
Another wonderful story by this author. One that is at times heartbreaking but also heartwarming. Kudos to the author for reminding us the struggles these brave men and women as well as their families endure to keep us all safe.
I was entrusted a copy of this book by Netgalley and St Martin’s. The opinions expressed are solely my own.
I’ve enjoyed every book that I’ve read by this author, but I think I just finished one of her best works to date in The Military Wife. Told fluidly in a past/present dual POV, this author captures all of the facets of military life as an enlisted SEAL, spouse, and veteran. The story doesn’t get bogged down in the details, but focuses on the relationships and moving forward after tragedy, loss, and grief. I absolutely loved how this author was able to draw me in and endear me to the main characters, as well as vital secondary characters. Although the romance isn’t exactly central to the overall story, it’s just as breathtakingly romantic as her contemporary romances with equal shades of heartrending. In this beautiful story, Trentham has managed to captivate me with each scene and move me to tears, smiles, and romantic swoons. I’m truly looking forward to more in this new series.
This was a sweet, well-written book. Harper’s been raising her son, now turning five, alone since his father, a Navy SEAL, passed away five years ago. Feeling restless and wanting to help other military wives, she comes up with an idea to open a string of coffee houses near military bases. She crosses paths with Bennett, her husband’s best friend and also a former Navy SEAL. The present and their common past is entwined and they both have to find a way to move forward. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading other books by this author.