historical fiction, women's fiction
Taking place in WWII England (which is the setting of every Jennifer Ryan novel I’ve read), women are attempting to carry on while the men are
fighting the war. Many of the women are contributing to the war effort via
important jobs while others are attempting to simply survive, especially
considering the skimpy food rations. The BBC decides to sponsor a cooking
contest which will create an opportunity for fame and fortune for whichever
cook makes and presents the best recipes using rationed food. This will aid
“the army that guards The Kitchen Front”. Focusing on the four contestants, the
story describes their lives and food-related dilemmas.
Frankly, it took a while for me to get into the story. I
don’t believe I had that problem with Ryan’s other novels. I suspect part of my
problem was that I’m not a foodie nor am I an appreciator of food competitions.
But I have enjoyed Ryan’s other novels and decided to give it a chance. After
becoming familiar with the key players, the deeper dives into their situations held
my interest. And the characters began to grow on me. Even though the sections with all the cooking details dragged a bit for me, the story had many tender moments and had a nice ending. I did also
enjoy learning about the challenges of putting food on the table during the
world war. I hadn’t before given a great deal of thought to it in areas like
England where there was actually some variety in food supplies.
The audiobook narrator, Jasmine Blackborow, did a terrific
job with voice acting and had a decent vocal repertoire too with a variety of
accents. I give her an A.
No comments:
Post a Comment