I always love to read about an aspect of World War II that I previously knew nothing about. This book focuses on the Canteen that the townspeople (mainly the women) of North Platte, Nebraska, opened to help the many, many service men and women that came through there. I had no idea. This book brought the Canteen and the (mostly fictional) townspeople to life, illuminating the struggle to not only feed their own families but to donate tons of food and reading materials to the military members who came through, for about 15 minutes at a time. Amazing.

The fictional story was also a good one, highlighting a couple of women and a couple of soldiers. I sped through the book.

My dad served in the Pacific during WWII and my mom volunteered for the Red Cross in Brooklyn, NY, so I could really relate to the topic. I wonder if my Dad was on one of the trains that stopped in North Platte on his way to Oregon and the Pacific. I’ll never know.

Thank you to NetGalley and 49 West Publishing for a copy of this book.

This book was a great read.
I loved how it started with an introduction from the author with history on the original Canteen, how it got started...what it was about. That introduction made the story more real. It was nice to know that it was actually based on a real event and a real place even though the story and the characters were fictional.

What a great idea to serve sandwiches , desserts, and reading material for the soldiers on their way to or from their stations in the war. That is served so many and lasted so long was commendable. The story starts out with the canteen and the characters working in it. The characters are so realistic that you feel you are really there at the canteen. I could see in my mind the clothing each character was wearing because of the descriptions. The platform girls with their baskets, the ladies in the kitchen making sandwiches, the lady handing out a cake to the soldiers with a birthday and the book and magazine table where the Librarian Maggie and her helper Rose worked.

The story soon expands from the canteen to Maggie and Rose and the soldiers they meet and write to during the war. Maggie meets an Army Captain Tom and Rose meets a soldier named Harry. Their romance through the mail and their friendship is a great story.

I liked this book because it was a good clean read. It was happy at times like when Tom and Maggie got engaged via mail and sad at times like when Rose got letters back from a soldier she was writing to with deceased written on it. There were challenges to both the canteen work, the home lives of those working at the canteen. Maggie takes in Tom's daughter Jane when her guardian dies and she has to learn to raise a 12 year old when she has never married and had children. They waited for letters as they were never sure where the soldier's were stationed and if they would make it home safe or not.

It was very refreshing to read a book that was wholesome, heartwarming and enjoyable to read. I you haven't read this book you should. I enjoyed it and so will you.

This book started off excellent and then started to fade. It seems as though the author was running out of time and had to end the book early. That was a shame because the book had potential to be great.

The information about the workings of the canteen were fascinating and the determination of the volunteers made me smile. I hope that the letters included were from actual service members or their families as I found them very moving. The historical details, though interesting, did, at times, seem a bit awkwardly inserted in the story. There were also moments when things were conveyed between characters in a “as you know, Bob (Roberta in this case since most of the characters were women?)” way which came off as artificial.

When Tom first enters the scene, I’ll be honest and admit I found him a teensy bit intense. His letters softened his personality for me and by the end, I liked him. He did hold back something very big from Maggie and I was as flabbergasted as she about it. Yet this did give Maggie time to sit down and rethink her decision to marry him. That plus the talk she had with her friends (whom I liked seeing her former deeper friendships with) helped me accept her decision to spend the rest of her life with a man she’d only met for 15 minutes in person.

As for Maggie, I liked her from the start. I was afraid that she’d be stereotyped as the “spinster librarian” but her character was much more fleshed out. Knowing people who have relatives similar to Maggie’s mother made her easier for me to believe as well as making Maggie’s reactions through the book understandable.

There are some major issues raised in the story which are delicately handled but which also seemed to be ultimately resolved with little repercussions. It was like floating down a river, learning of and hearing rapids in the distance but when you reach them, a gentle push with your paddle keeps you out of danger and they are soon behind you with little fuss.

I liked the plot and the characters but I didn’t love them. Trying to include so much historical detail was nice but the writing was at times awkward to allow for this. There were lots of subplots but after the buildup and resolution, they usually disappeared with little trace. I appreciate learning more about this epic endeavor which touched so many lives during the war but I probably won’t remember much of this book. C+

Reading this book gave me an incredible feeling....overwhelming good feelings about these women who volunteered to meet the troops at a train station in N. Platte, NE. Their kindness, their caring for those who were going off to war was an emotional read, but in a good way. While they each had their own lives and families, they took the time out of their busy lives to support and care for those soldiers going off to war. Times were tough all around, but they made sure those boys had food at the whistle stop and people who showed their appreciation for what they soon would be facing. Loved this story, not only for the content but the writing.