This is one of my favorite story lines. Friends through the years, good times, bad times and all in between. I loved the intro where Tootsie meets Diana, Carmen and Joanie. You know right from the start that these 4 women are going to be important to each other. I also liked the military theme throughout the book. I guess I loved Tootsie the most, she was a glue that held the women together. Maybe Carolyn Brown will have a sequel with the daughters' stories. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Carolyn Brown never disappoints me. Empty Nesters was definitely a different book for Ms. Brown to write. They was not much romance in this one as usual, but it truly was a story about empty nesters. However, she leaves in her normal recipe for strong women, small towns, and southern charm. I loved the characters as they came together on what they mutually know - how to be an ARMY wife. In need of a quick, but truly thoughtful and sweet read... pick this one up!

I read this book in one night. Once I started it I couldn’t stop. So much love, friendship, and family with the “army wives”. I love how Diana, Joanie, and Carmen were “adopted by Tootsie and Smokey when they moved into their neighborhood. This book was so well written. They all helped each other through any circumstance that arrived. These woman raised 3 strong daughters while their husbands were away. I was sad for Carmen, but she deserved so much better than Eli! I was so happy that Luke and Diana started and relationships. And the ending was just beautiful and all I could have hoped for it to be. They got their one in a million chance. I can’t wait to read more of Carolyn Brown’s books.
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43602847

Four Army wives that live on the same block, take a road trip together after the death of one husband and the three daughters of the others leave for basic training.

Retired veteran Smokey Colbert and his wife Tootsie are delighted when on one single day three young army couples, each with a daughter of the same age, move on to their block in Sugar Run Texas. Smokey and Tootsie, were never able to have their own children, so figuratively adopt the wives and girls as their own. Years pass. Gerald has an affair and divorces Diana, but she has the support of her friends. Five years later, Smokey dies shortly before his 83rd birthday, the 3 girls graduate high school, enlisted in the Army and head for basic training, and Eli decides that is the perfect time to send Carmon divorce papers, since unbeknown to her, he has been unfaithful most of their marriage. Smokey and Tootsie had had their annual trip to Scrap, Texas for a Family Reunion all planned, including the purchase of a large motorhome. She asks Smokey's nephew, Luke to drive, but then invites her 3 "daughters" to come along, and help each other cope with their empty nest.

The book started off slow, but the characters developed as they each tried to help each other deal with their grief. There is even a little romance in the air. Easy banter in southern dialect add to the charm.

I read an ARC from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

Nice feel good book. It flowed very well. was easy to read. Nice characters. Good storyline. What’s not to love.

I LOVED going on a road trip with the recently widowed Tootsie and her army-wife friends. What a hoot! Carolyn Brown does an excellent job developing the characters of the three younger women, illustrating their relationships with one another, and bringing the reader along their individual, personal, emotional journeys. Brown adds humor in all the right places, and had me alternately laughing and crying. Her characters are likable, strong individuals, and seeing their vulnerabilities made me want to root for these women, their friendships, their marriages, and their children.

Three military wives who live close to each other and in the same neighborhood of another older vet and his wife. Their husbands all work on the same special forces team and are gone, often with little or no notice, a large portion of the time. Each family has one girl, all born about the same time also. It all seemed a bit too pat for me, but that is how the author wanted the story to play out, I guess. The three daughters enlist in the military and go off to boot camp, leaving their mothers, who are now facing being all alone when their husbands are deployed. The mothers accompany the older military wife, now a recent widow, who lives in their neighborhood, on a trip to a remote cabin several hundred miles away, for a brief respite and to help learn to cope with their empty nests. Soon another divorce occurs. Through it all, they stick together, while learning that there is life after divorce and after a spouse retires form the military—and that an older vet family who sort of adopted them all can help them work through the ups and downs that life brings.

This was an okay book. There was no mystery and not much romance. However, it did present a good picture of life for empty nesters, as the title implied. Having military experience, I related to a lot of what they were going through, and, as expressed, though I think any reader would relate to it also, though perhaps not as well or as easily. It was interesting to watch each of the military wives work through their problems, while growing closer to each other and learning the true value of friends who always have your back. Having the young nephew of the widow along to drive and help out was a good addition, but it really was not the very heart of the book. That was the four military wives and how they grew together. My one objection, and it is not a strong one, is that the who story line of the military wives being so close was a bit overdone, as, based on my experience, things do not always (or even normally) work that way. Like the similarities I noted above, it seemed a bit much. However, the book and the characters were well done, and it held my interest throughout, even though there was almost no suspense or mystery involved. God book for someone looking for a feel-good story. It also read quickly, so can be finished quick enough. I think the people who enjoy the author’s books will also enjoy it, as it is typical. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

I love all of CB books and this was a lot different than all her other books.to me. However, that doesn't make it an any less awesome book because of that. I enjoyed this immensely because of its different storytelling.

The Empty Nesters is a very good Carolyn Brown novel.  Combining her usual formula of close female friends, small town southern living, tough older women and lightly embroidering the ambrosia with faith-based inspirational talk and gentle romance, this time she throws in a road trip on top, producing an intoxicating cocktail of fun.

Military vet Smokey and his wife Tootsie have seen a lot of families come and go from the three houses sitting across the street from their Sugar Run, Texas home.  One hot July afternoon, however, luck strikes as army wives Diana, Carmen and Joanie move in with their daughters and their usually deployed elsewhere husbands.  Friendships are forged, and a sisterhood quickly forms between the four women.

Thirteen years of convivial closeness pass by, but time, as always, has its way with these four families.  First of all, three of the daughters enlist in the military together just four months after they graduate high school.  That stress had been hard enough on their mothers, but then Carmen’s husband Eli chooses to serve her with divorce papers on the same day their daughter ships out for basic training.  In the middle of getting a teaching degree and working to make ends meet at home, Carmen refuses to accept Eli’s request at face value while he demands and pressures her long-distance.  Her friends support her heartily; Diana is still single after being dumped for another woman by her husband years before, and Joanie’s taciturn husband Brett, still deployed, feels as distant from her as the desert from the North Pole as she struggles with defining herself as a woman without her daughter.  All three of Tootsie’s girls are at loose ends and Tootsie  - dealing with the recent death of Smokey – decides that getting out of dodge with her brand new motorhome for a visit to Scrap, Texas, is just what the doctor ordered.  Knowing her three adopted daughters need their own escape, Tootsie asks them to join her.  With Smokey’s handsome computer geek nephew Luke behind the wheel, certainly nothing can go wrong – can it?

Well, of course there are some bumps.  As Joanie and Brett argue long-distance about whether to support Eli or Carmen in the divorce, Joanie struggles for independence while trying not to lose her love for Brett.   Diana and Luke embark on a tentative romance complicated by a seven year age difference, and Carmen tries to puzzle out the reason behind Eli’s demand for an expedited divorce.  All the while, tough Tootsie tries to fight for space to mourn Smokey, hangs out with old friends and tries to figure out what her next step is without surrendering her indomitable spirit. When she must bury an old friend, the three girls step up to help her.  But what will they do when an announcement threatens to tear them apart?

Well, they’ll endure, as Brown’s steel magnolias so often do.  The Empty Nesters mainly works because of the very strong and very realistic relationships between its four main heroines.  Brown has finally figured out the trick to writing a four way split PoV, something that eluded her in her two previous novels but here works well.  Here, Tootsie and her girls have the kind of relationship that many a reader can only dream of.   This helps smooth over the rougher, cheesier passages of the story.

Among the three women, Carmen has the most interesting subplot as she struggles with Eli’s stubborn wish to be divorced from her and goes through a grieving process for their life together.  She was easy to relate to.  I liked Joanie’s struggle to adjust to an empty nest and to express her own opinions; her relationship with Brett added a nice ballast against the bitterness of Carmen’s divorce plot.  And Diana and Luke are perfectly decent people falling in love in spite of their messy pasts.

Most compelling of all is Tootsie, who’s tough as old boots but haunted by the deaths that have surrounded her recently.  She finds renewal in small animals, young friends and good food, as one might or should in her position. Each character is fully fleshed out, and all four women carry a decent amount of narrative weight.

The book’s biggest flaw is its corn factor, which can sometimes fall into patterns of too easy platitudes and sloganeering.  Occasionally Diana will have a mental chat with her mother’s ghost and Tootsie will mentally converse with Smokey, something everyone who’s lost a loved one has done, but which still feels a little clunky and corny sometimes.  But that didn’t bother me as much as it might have, because the general lightness of the prose keeps the story flowing well.

And flow is exactly what this book does. The Empty Nesters is as easy to swim through as a pool warmed by summer sunshine, and it’s perfect for a lazy summer afternoon by the pool with a cool glass of wine and the summer breeze blowing through your hair.

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Good friends help you get through the hard times and in Empty Nesters, a group of four women help each other as they are each reaching a crossroads in their lives. As they approach big changes in their lives, these four women take a trip in an RV. I enjoy the way Carolyn Brown writes female friendships, sticking together through difficult situations. Her writing is fun and the dialogue between friends is authentic.

Tootsie and her retired Army husband Smokey are excited to see 3 young families move into their neighborhood. Not having any children this exciting because each one has a daughter for them to spoil. The 3 young Army wives Diana, Carmen and Joanie raise their daughters and pass time as their husbands are away. Now the girls are grown and have joined the Army also. Tootsie is heartbroken over the loss of her husband Smokey. She is returning to their home in Scrap Texas for their annual trip with out him. She enlist her nephew to drive her and ask the wives to come along. During this trip they all learn a lot about marriage, friendship and loss. I enjoyed the support they got from each other. There were endings and new beginnings for each person in this book. Each one showed how strong they were in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Montlake Romance.

A sweet book w/a lot of sass from 4 women traveling in a RV to Tootsie's house (the matriarch of these friends).

Diana, Rebecca, Joanie and Carmen are all Army wives who've been friends since their husbands work together in the Army living in TX and they live on the same block as Tootsie who's Army husband just died. Tootsie considers these women and their daughters to be her children and grandchildren. They are all feeling sorry for themselves for being empty nesters after their daughters just joined the Army. After the girls leave for basic training, all the women go in Tootsie's RV to Scrap, TX, where her lake home is. Along for the ride is Tootsie's nephew, who is driving. A lot going on with these women who are always there for each other. They all have their own story to tell.

The Empty Nesters by Carolyn Brown is a wonderful book on friendship and powering through life's difficulties. I have been an empty nester for years, but I have not forgotten what it felt like. This book really hit home. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good women's fiction book.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

Ahhhhhhh The Empty Nesters was just such a wonderful book and I just thoroughly enjoyed myself. I didn’t want to put this book down. I just fell in love with this wonderful story and it’s wonderful characters. I will most definitely be reading more stories from this wonderful author.

Loved it! Carolyn Brown writes excellent stories and this one was terrific. The characters were all well developed, and the storyline was well written. It was full of emotions, heartache, romance, and the love of friends and their ties to each other. I loved the flow of the story and could not put down this book.

This book had everything, heartbreak, divorce, marriage, babies, and death. It definitely was a feel good but cry your eyes out book. The characters were totally relatable and they felt genuine. The story line flowed very well and nothing was forced. I am hoping for a book two to find out about the girls and the rest of the crew, mostly Luke and Diane. I loved every page.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆☆
This story made me cry messy tears and it made me immensely grateful for the girlfriends who have become my own unshakeable chosen family. It’s a book about four women, all at crossroads in their lives. The themes in this story are universal. I think that any woman over 35 will be able to relate to the experiences of this tight knight group of friends. It’s a story about friendship, about sisterhood, and about navigating the unexpected pain life throws at us all.

Like most women my age, I could relate far too easily to parts of each of the four women’s experiences. From bereavement, divorce, infertility, empty nests, and fresh starts, the women in the story have all had their hearts hurt in very familiar ways. And like women everywhere, they only allow themselves a small interlude to nurse their pain before they have to move on and keep living. I love the road trip they take together. I love that it provides distance while also offering the emotional intimacy they need from their friends.

With the story shared between all four women, it isn’t easy to know any one of the women as well as I usually like in a book. I responded to the shared sense of female experience more than I did to any one character. I kinda like that I really have nothing in common with any of these women except for our age – but I can still relate to each story. I really love the friendships here and I love the intergenerational relationships between Tootsie and the younger women. There is a hint of romance in this book, but I love that it doesn’t overpower the main themes of friendship and sisterhood.

I didn’t find this an easy read – parts hit too close to home and I found other parts quite slow. I enjoyed the story and the themes, but I didn’t enjoy the writing style at all. Three of the women are very close in age to me but they read much older. Either that or they’ve all been much better at adulting than anyone I know. All three feel like they’re from a previous generation with their carefully balanced meals (on holiday even!), constant home baking, and careful attention to domestic details. I don’t personally know any women my age who’ve stayed at home to raise kids without a career or even an education to fall back on. While some of their problems feel contemporary and there are few references to modern technology, I feel like this book could have easily been written thirty years ago. There is a slightly conservative feel to the book but it’s difficult for me to know how much of this is part of Southern US culture and how much is the author’s own perspective.

Despite my reservations, I've awarded five stars because this story really touched an emotional nerve. It's the right book at the right time and I love the sense of sisterhood in this book.


Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is a really lovely book, which is likely to bring a few tears, and some big smiles too, particularly if you are over the age of forty.

Recently widowed, Tootsie and her three army wife neighbours, who have done little other than support their husbands and bring up their daughters, are suddenly facing empty houses, and taking stock of their changing lives. Their insecurities, futures, and life plans are suddenly all scary, important questions, now that they have no other responsibilities at home. Then Tootsie proposes a road trip in her RV, and even supplies a nephew to do the driving – and so we go on a road trip with them and thanks to their close quarters, get to know them and their foibles pretty well.

As we join in their adventure, and get to learn about their highs and lows, it is very easy to identify with their experiences and become one of the group – so also easy to feel all the emotions too. Each woman is at a different stage in her journey, but the friendship between them is really closer than any family they have, and it makes for a really appealing sense of camaraderie. Whilst the trials of one may bring insecurity to another, they remain supportive, loving, and present.

There is a nascent romance that is beautifully written, and the secrecy they believe they are maintaining is illusory, but the respect of the others for their privacy is endearing. It is complicated but leads to a really sweet ending to a thoughtful and engaging story.

I was thrilled to get an ARC of this Carolyn Brown book. I have read several of her books in the past and all were stellar, but this one is the best I've read yet. This one will not fail to keep you reading and sometimes grabbing a Kleenex. I don't do book reports or spoilers but it's all about women and friendships that endure. Well ok, there are a few really good hunky men in there too. Characters and conversations are realistic and you will love being the proverbial ' fly on the wall'. They will go on a journey both literally and figuratively and you'll enjoy the trip with them! It would be a great book for new empty nesters,newly separated, or the newly divorced to read. Enjoy, but do get your Kleenex ready.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review. The opinions expressed are my own.
Thanks to the author,publisher,and NetGalley for the ARC.

A book that reminds whatever happens in our life having a strong friends group surrounding you can get you through anything.

I enjoyed this book it was clean reading. The characters were realistic and it was easy to associate with them




** I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review**

Poignant and bittersweet, “The Empty Nesters” by Carolyn Brown looks at the sad side of military life, specifically military wives. Always at home and raising their children while their husbands are deployed or on missions, the military wives are unsung heroes of keeping our country safe and free.

Unfortunately for dear friends and army wives Diana, Carmen and Joanie, they lived in that dark side. With one of them already divorced, thanks to a husband with wandering eyes, they survive and lead happy lives thanks to their friendship.

With their children enlisting at the same time and Carmen served with divorced papers that came from left field, a road trip with an elderly neighbor and her nephew at the wheel was godsend. It was on the road that their stories were told.

***SPOILER ALERT*** Anything below this line is a spoiler so please stop reading if you don’t want to know.

First, my heart went to Carmen. Her cheating husband really is an A-hole. And the other woman too was just too much. She was never “on camera” in a manner of speaking, but she is an itch with a capital B in front.

As the story went, I was hoping that Carmen’s husband would get what was coming to him. But, he did not. He got away with everything – cheating on his wife, kept his pension without even giving Carmen the half that she was entitled to and their daughter so cavalier, even nonchalant that her father was cheating on her mother.

And that’s why I was so disappointed. I was waiting for a letter from a lawyer saying that he or she would make sure that Carmen gets everything she is entitled to, including her ex paying for her health insurance. I know I sound bitter in this review, but I really cannot stand cheaters.

Diana’s arc was a little better because at least she got a new love. But, again, her ex-husband just got away with everything too. I was waiting for something to show him that he was a total jerk. Then again, nothing.

Joanie was the only one who came out unscathed. And that at least is the saving grace.

***END SPOILER ***

The Empty Nesters is Rated T for Teens. Parental guidance strongly advised due to talk of divorce and cheating.