Review: Home Front by Kristin Hannah

Home Front by Kristin Hannah
Genre: Fiction, Women's Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Audiobook, 15 hours
Published: January 2012 by Macmillan Audio
Narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed
Dates Listened: May 18 - June 5, 2017

I was feeling exceptionally patriotic when I chose to read this book because it was nearing Memorial Day here in the U.S., and I was looking for an audio version of good book related to the military and patriotism. And when I stumbled upon Home Front via OverDrive, and noticed the author being one my favorites, I instantly downloaded it and started listening.

That said, Kristin Hannah does it again! Home Front is a tear-jerker story about a lifetime of love, family, and friendship, military service and the hardships that come with those relationships during a war when one or more characters are in the military. Be prepared to have some tissues handy throughout the entire novel.

On the surface, it seems as though Michael and Jo have it all together. But as one looks in, it's obvious life isn't so perfect. Jolene enlisted in the National Guard at 17 after her parents died in a car crash. She felt she had no other options, and it gave her a chance at having structure and an education. Now, she impressively juggles her job as a helicopter pilot and being the mother of 12 year-old mean-girl-in-training, Betsy, and 4 year-old Lulu. Despite Jo being a strong female character, she somehow allows Betsy to get away blatant disrespect and spoiled behavior. This is never really addressed, but I suspect that it may have to do with Jo's own upbringing by alcoholic parents.

In addition, she struggles with Michael's increasingly distant behavior and also blatant disrespect and not supporting her military service simply because he doesn't agree with the war in Iraq. He doesn't understand his wife's bond with her unit, let alone with her best friend and co-pilot, Tami. He is a defense attorney who works long hours in an attempt at living up to his father's memory after his death.

Then, Jo's unit gets deployed to Iraq. Michael is thrown into single-parenthood, and with the help of his mother, he quickly learns that parenting is much harder than Jo made it look. At the office, he is preparing to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran who has been charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout. In doing so, he begins to understand what Jo is going through in Iraq and begins to regret telling her just before she left that he didn't love her anymore.

Jo's helicopter gets shot down during insurgent fire, and while Jo pulls Tami from the wreck she discovers a young crewman has been killed. She returns to the States by way of Germany after her leg is amputated, leaving Tami in the hospital still in a coma. While her physical wounds heal, she must now deal with the nightmares and somehow process the guilt she feels for the death of the crewman and Tami's injuries. This is all without Tami's support of friendship and seemingly lack of support from her husband.

Jo has turned into someone her daughters and her husband don't recognize. Michael tries to reconcile with her, not knowing the crash happened before his last letter arrived - the letter where he attempts to make amends.

Her behavior is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his client. Betsy may be starting to understand that her spoiled behavior is no longer acceptable when Jo lashes out her, while Lulu is still too young to grasp the magnitude and significance of what is happening to her mommy.

Hannah has written an emotionally charged novel about military service and the families who support those who serve. Yet, there were a few inconsistencies in the story. For example, why is Michael so clueless when it comes to the ins and outs of the household? Knowing that his wife is a National Guardsman, didn't he have to step up more when Jo has had to take time away for drilling one weekend a month and a 2 weeks stretch? Also, how the heck did she tolerate his blatant disrespect for her service?

I also wanted to reach through the book many times to strangle Betsy and her mean girl attitude. And to strangle Jo and Michael for not doing anything about it either. Jo was anal retentive about sticking to her meal calendar and running an efficient household, but would let her daughter's attitude run rampant. NOT OKAY.

On Goodreads, I gave this a 3 out of 5 rating (liked it) because of the inconsistencies of the characters behaviors. Per my own rating, it's a 4 out of 5 because I enjoyed it, though didn't quite love it and would still recommend it to those who enjoy Kristin Hannah's books.