I did not realize when I agreed to review Kristin Hannah's new book that I was getting the audio version. I usually prefer to read my books, rather than listen to them. Thus I need to divide my review into two parts. First, the audio version takes much longer than the print version would take me to read. For me, this is a flaw. Also, Maggi-Meg Reed, the reader, has several spots in the book where her voices for characters are not consistant, which is a bit off-putting. Hearing the book also accentuated Hannah's use of adjectives and sometimes it seemed like there were too many descriptive words when the point had already been made. I don't know how many times and ways she described rain in Seattle, but it was frequent. Also the phrase, "he poured himself a drink," seemed to come up in every other chapter.

As for the book itself, it seemed to be in the style of the other Hannah books I've read. It is an excellent story with compelling characters, although several plot points seemed quite predictable. "Home Front" does cover a topic that is both current and important - what happens when citizen soldiers, i.e. th National Guard, are sent to fight in a war. How do their families at home cope and how do the soldiers themselves cope both with the war experience and then returning to their former lives? In this book there is the added complication that the soldier is a wife and mother who flies a Blackhawk helicopter. Her husband is not military and not pleased with her active role. Her daughters have the ordinary issues that face twleve-year-old girls in middle school and four-year-olds waiting to start school. They also have to face a year without "Mommy." The coping that Jolene and her family had to deal with rang true to me.

I would recommend the book to fans of Kristin Hannah's other books and to readers of women's fiction. Iguess my recommendation would include this audio version for those who find they enjoy this format.