This is a heartwarming story of friendship, found families, and female empowerment set against the backdrop of World War II food rationing. Four women enter a cooking contest hoping to become the new cohost of a BBC Radio cooking program, but as the contest unfolds and their lives intertwine they are able to help each other through tragedy to ultimately find purpose together.

Everything is wrapped up very neatly plot-wise by the end, which may feel a bit too convenient to jaded readers such as myself. I did find myself rolling my eyes a few times, as the story became a bit too "the power of friendship" for my tastes.

I would certainly recommend this to readers of food fiction, however, as the descriptions of cooking and of the various dishes are mouthwatering.

I am very happy that I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and I'm thrilled to say this is my first 5 star read of 2021.

What I love about Jennifer Ryan's books is that the author writes about ordinary women on the homefront in England during WWII who are just trying to make their way in a world that has been turned upside down.

In this book we meet four very different women-Nell, who is a shy kitchen maid, Audrey, a widowed mom of 3 sons, her sister Lady Gwendoline, the town's self appointed "queen", and Zelda, a pregnant head chef. Each of the women are competing in a cooking contest in order to become an on-air presenter of a BBC radio show called the Kitchen Front.

Each woman has her own reasons for entering the competition. As the story unfolds, we get to share their dreams and their struggles for the future. What I love about this book is how two of the characters start off very cold and unsympathetic, and yet as I learned their story, my feelings toward the characters changed.

I highly recommend this wonderful story of friendship, love and loss.

If you’re looking for a feel-good story based on World War Two, look no further. The Kitchen Front takes place in the midst of WWII in England, but its emphasis is on the war’s effects on the civilian population. Overall themes include friendship and sisterhood, the challenges due to food rationing, and the prospect of social change in a very stratified society. The main focus of the story is on food rationing and the difficulties of obtaining and cooking tasty, nutritious food. Apparently, there really was a radio show on the BBC called The Kitchen Front and this inspired Ryan’s novel. There are four main characters, each of which are drawn individually, (although there are some stereotypical aspects to the women): Audrey (war widow with three growing boys), Gwendoline (her sister who married a rich man), Zelda (an accomplished chef from an impoverished background), and Nell (a kitchen maid who grew up in an orphanage). The author was very talented in how she drew you in to both the story and the characters - sometimes you were led to dislike some of the women and later on you wound up rooting for them all. These four women develop an amazing friendship despite having to compete with each other in a contest to co-host the Kitchen Front radio show. The author includes a lot of recipes, some of which would work well today under “normal” circumstances, and others which show the ingenuity of home cooks during very difficult time. Heartwarming!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book! I'm a fan of historical fiction and mixing it with a cooking competition made this a fun read. There were really 2 parts of this book: The cooking competition itself and then the personal lives of each of the 4 contestants. This was a well told story of each women, their growing friendship and eventual partnership and their resilience.

Full review is on my blog: https://www.readingwithmrsleaf.com/post/book-review-the-kitchen-front

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan is a heart-warming World War II story of four women separated by class and situation that come together to form a family in the face of adversity and sorrow. Audrey was a war widow with three sons trying to keep her family home and survive the deep sorrow her husband' death brought. She and he sister, Gwendolyn, had been estranged for years, really most of their lives, due to their mother and the was she had dismissed Gwen when she was a child. Gwen had married into local gentry, such as it was, and had been miserable ever since. Nell was the kitchen maid in Gwen's fancy home, learning to cook from the old cook who had been more of a mother to her than anyone she had ever known and looked down upon by the lord and lady of the house. Zelda as a factory manager who had gotten pregnant by a man who had used her, not loved her, and now was at risk of losing her job since pregnancy, wed or unwed, was grounds for dismissal. Before they were friends, they all entered a cooking contest: the prize being a spot as co-host on a popular cooking program on BBC radio. As the time wore on, they had reason to come together and become friends.

This was an exciting read: women supporting one another in bad times as well as good. Women accomplishing something sustaining, no matter what other people thought. We have four terrific characters here that Ryan brought together in a meaningful and common sense way while showing the reader what life was like in England during World War II. What a service she has done to women readers who have forgotten how to be supportive of other women. It is a story of loss, abuse, prejudice, duplicity, love, and honor. It was a fabulous read. One you may not get another chance for so take it now.

I was invited to read a free ARC of The Kitchen Front by Netgalley. All opinions contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #thekitchenfront

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House-Ballantine Books for a free digital copy for my review.

This book hooked me from the very start. A premise that includes a wartime rations cooking competition? Sign me up! But this book is about so much more than competition. It is about 4 women, an orphan, a widowed mother, a society wife, and a chef who is also an unwed mother. Each of them are figuring out who they are and who they want to be in the midst of the war. This is a book about female independence, friendship, and survival. I loved how each of the characters developed over the book and how attached you become to each of them.

Bonus: the book includes the wartime recipes for some of the foods mentioned. It's hard to imagine a time when ingredients were so hard to come by when I lived within walking distance of a handful of grocery stores.

Content Warning: domestic violence, racism, death

Jennifer Ryan’s The Kitchen Front is a wonderful, charming tale about the healing power of friendship and how we best learn to stand on our own by first learning to lean on those who love us.

One of the biggest challenges facing the home front in Britain during the Second World War is food shortages. With severely limited cooking staples people arehaving to get extremely creative to put a decent dinner on the table. The government’s solution is a radio program called The Kitchen Front, designed to help home chefs create meals which work around food rationing. One of the hosts is a popular male radio personality. The BBC decides to hold a cooking competition to find the best possible female co-host for the broadcast, unleashing a serious conflict among four women in a small village who are each determined to get the job.

Since her husband’s death in combat Audrey has had her hands more than full. Her three boys feel their father’s loss keenly, and comforting them as well as feeding and clothing them is a full time job. Just to keep a roof over their heads, she’s had to borrow money from her sister Gwen – with whom she doesn’t get along and who takes every opportunity to berate, undermine and belittle Audrey. The only thing keeping Audrey’s small family afloat are the pies, cakes and other delicacies she bakes to bring in a few extra pennies per week. Being co-host of The Kitchen Front would be a huge boost to her business and her coffers.

Housemaid/kitchen girl Nell despises working for Lady Gwendolyn (Gwen) Strickland, a complete shrew who overworks and underpays her staff. Winning the competition will allow Nell to leave the isolated estate where she works, meet people – hopefully at least a few of them handsome single men – and establish a new career which doesn’t involve being at the beck and call of a nasty social climber.

The posh London hotel where the unmarried, pregnant Zelda worked as head cook was demolished and she’s spent the last few weeks working in a factory canteen in a small town. The interlude as a manufacturing plant chef in a quiet village has worked out to her advantage in that it will give her a chance to quietly give her child up for adoption without anyone who matters to her career being any the wiser. However, she has no intention of rusticating in the countryside forever so she needs to win this event to rekindle her London career. She’s climbed to the top from the bottom before and she’s willing to use every dirty trick she learned along the way to get the radio job.

What she thought was a brilliant match with a rich man has turned into a union fraught with horror for Lady Gwendolyn. Her increasingly violent husband has made it clear to her that she must move them up the social ladder and she’s convinced winning the contest will give her the star power to do just that. She can’t afford to lose, so Gwen advises her sister that she’ll call in her loan if Audrey doesn’t throw the race to her ,and she’s made it clear to Nell that she expects her to do the same. All that’s left now is dealing with Zelda.

Life during wartime is full of the unexpected however, and these ladies’ worlds get turned upside down, inside out and round and round during the competition – and before the contest is over, these four adversaries will find that friendship is the ingredient needed to truly win.

The author does an absolutely stellar job with her ensemble cast, giving us four unique heroines whose stories slowly weave together to create a charming tapestry of life in wartime rural England. Initially, the lovely, devastated Audrey, and the shy, downtrodden Nell are the only two heroines you really want to root for. Zelda, who’s been betrayed by everyone she’s ever loved, and Gwen, whose ambition landed her in an awful situation, can be so acerbic at first that they are hard to like. As we learn their backstories – and as Zelda and Gwen grow throughout the tale – we begin to love them as well. The characteristic that binds these four together is their sheer determination – these ladies are survivors, people who’ve thrived in tough circumstances and who continue to move doggedly forward with a mingling of grace and grit. The journey of their individual paths from pain and sorrow to success and happiness is lovely and one I was very glad to make with them.

As with any good tale about friendship, the author takes pains to show us how the four are better together than they are as individuals. Gwen, Zelda, Audrey and Nell bring out the best in each other. Not only do they challenge each other to be better cooks via the Kitchen Front competition but they also help each other become better people. Surviving can turn you hard, forcing you to look out only for yourself, or it can make you generous, a team player who helps others along the path to a better life as you achieve one of your own. It is the latter that happens in this novel and the author writes the tale of how our heroines make that choice with a joy, charm and warmth that pulls at the heartstrings,

Ryan does a fantastic job of inserting her rich historical research naturally into the text. The tension of airplane engines droning overhead, forcing people to wonder if they are enemy or ally and making folks figure out how to distinguish between the two and respond in moments is captured with terrific clarity. The frustrations and struggles of dealing with war rationing, of cooking with strange ingredients, and feeding a hungry family on questionable, often tasteless, textureless supplements is brought vividly to life. The bigotry and sexism of the era is also deftly handled within the confines of the story, especially the struggles women faced as they were forced to fend for themselves in a world designed to keep them from succeeding at doing so. Equally well handled is the issue of spousal abuse and how few resources were available to women at the time in dealing with it.

The only flaw in this stellar tale is that it is a bit heavy-handed in regards to the happy ending. Everything works out beautifully, with all four women finding their perfect niche in the world. It was exactly what I needed for where I am and I was completely thrilled with the finale, but those who prefer a touch more realism may be frustrated with the saccharine finish.

The Kitchen Front is a completely delightful tale filled with resilient, resourceful heroines, resonant history and hope for hopeless times. For those looking for a way to warm their heart and soul on a cold winter’s day, you can’t do better than this book.

Wholesome! A really wonderful book that has wonderful character development, mouthwatering recipes and a really sweet story.

The author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir has a new book!

I love that Jennifer Ryan incorporated some of her grandmothers recipes into this book; her grandmother who lived in Britain during the war rations.

Debated between rating as a 4 or a 5; deciding to round up to a 5. The description of food and recipes sounded so delectable and delicious that it swayed me into the 5 star rating. And substitutions were creative and well described.Debated between rating as a 4 or a 5; deciding to round up to a 5.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher (Ballantine Books) and the author Jennifer Ryan for the opportunity to review the advance read copy of The Kitchen Front in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is Feb 23, 2021.

Thank you Jennifer Ryan, for writing another book as heartwarming and enjoyable as The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. I’m not much of a cook, but I enjoyed this story and the four women who were at the center of the cooking contest.

Set in WWII when Britain is suffering through food rationing, the BBC broadcast a radio show to help the women provide the most nutritious meals with the rations they were allotted. It was felt the show needed a woman as a co-host, so in order to find one the BBC put on a cooking contest. The winner of the cooking contest was to be awarded the co-host position.

When four very different women enter the contest, it’s immediately assumed that the contest is going to be a tough one to win. There’s a bit of cheating and drama and a lot of talk about food. Each month the women are assigned a certain dish and are awarded points based on the clever use of rationing and the tastiness of the dish.

Throughout the story, each woman grows as a person and they manage to control their competitiveness as they become closer to each other. An extra bonus to the fun of reading is the inclusion of some of the recipes.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for early access to this title.

Well into this wartime novel, I thought I had it all figured out, the manipulations, the character interactions, the plot twists, and ultimately, the winner. I was so wrong and so grateful to be in error. Ryan put more into this novel than I was expecting. I'm afraid of saying too much in fear of giving things away, but what develops is more delicious than anything found in the Ministry of Food's recipe book. It is a beautiful and delectable concoction that will leave you thoroughly satisfied!

Courtesy of NetGalley, I received the ARC of Jennifer Ryan's new historical novel, The Kitchen Front. I loved learning about the WWII wartime food restrictions and the amazing recipes that were developed. The ingenuity and creativity of the British women was impressive! They were so resourceful in utilizing available rations. The bonds of friendship that developed among the characters in this tale was captivating, even as they competed to win the BBC Radio sponsored cooking competition. I appreciate all of the research used in writing this lovely book.

3.5 stars

Sweet and sentimental feel-good story about four women in a small English village who get involved in a BBC cooking contest during World War II. A nice mix of different backgrounds and personalities: Audrey, a war widow with three children, struggling to hold it together financially and logistically; Gwendolyn, Audrey's semi estranged sister, snooty, unhappy and still seething from childhood baggage; Zelda, an accomplished professional chef from London who is secretly expecting a baby that she plans to give up for adoption; and Nell, a shy cook at Gwendolyn's manor house.

The women each face various personal crises and wind up as housemates. Although they are all wary of being vulnerable they manage to forget strong bonds and friendships. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

A heartwarming story of resiliency and friendship on the home front. Four women facing their own individual hardships in the English countryside enter a contest to become a presenter on a BBC cooking show, The Kitchen Front. The contest puts sister against sister, employee against employer, and tenant against landlord. But in the end, there can only be one winner.

This was an enjoyable and engaging read, although by the end it felt like something was missing. The relationships between the women and their ingenuity and resourcefulness are the drivers here. Recommended for fans of historical fiction with strong friendship themes.

This is author Jennifer Ryan’s third novel and while it’s only the second one of hers that I’ve read, I enjoyed it just as much. One of the things that had really appealed to me back when I read Ryan’s debut The Chilbury Ladies’ Club a few years back was the way she was able to paint a vivid picture of the home front in England during WWII. This was a time period where all able-bodied men were expected to enlist and help with the war effort at the front lines, leaving behind mostly women and children (and men who had gotten out of being drafted) to take care of things at home. With her newest novel, Ryan once again captures the sentiment of the time, through the story of 4 women who join a wartime cooking contest in the hopes of landing a prime spot as co-host of a popular BBC radio program. Each woman has her own reasons and motivations for joining the contest. Audrey, a widow whose beloved husband was killed serving his country and now, laden with debt and 3 young sons to take care of, decides that the only way to save the dilapidated house she lives in and therefore keep a roof over her family’s head is to win the contest so that she can get a steady, well-paying job. Gwendoline – Audrey’s estranged sister and also the wife of the wealthiest man in the village – enters the contest expecting a sure-fire win that will further cement her status in society, though deep down, she is motivated by a profound lack of self-worth spurred by her violent husband Sir Strickland’s disdain and loathing. Nell is an orphan turned kitchen maid who yearns for freedom from life-long servitude in the Strickland household and sees the contest as an opportunity to finally realize her dreams for a better life. And finally, Zelda Dupont is a trained chef displaced from London after the hotel she worked at is bombed – having experienced a lifetime of hardship and lost opportunities due to being a woman, she is determined to win the contest so she can return to London at the top of her game and give the men dominating the profession a run for their money.

Through a narrative that alternates between each of the four women’s perspectives, we are given keen insight into not just how the war impacts each of their lives, but more importantly, how they persevere and overcome the challenges they’re faced with in order to make the best of what they have. In reading the Author’s Note at the end, it was fascinating to learn that parts of the story were actually inspired by real-life events – from the idea of contests (which were popular during that time period due the entertainment it provided and the ability to divert people’s minds away from the horrors of the war), to food rationing and the need to pay close attention to ingredients being used, to the actual BBC radio program entitled The Kitchen Front that had been established to share recipes as well as cooking tips and techniques during the war. I was impressed by the amount of research that went into the story as well as the transportive nature of the writing. Most of all though, I love the food-themed elements incorporated throughout the story, especially the recipes and the resourcefulness of the women who had to find ways to adapt the meals they cooked out of necessity during the war. Ryan writes in her author’s note that many of the recipes she incorporated into the story were from the National Archives as well as from people she interviewed who had lived through those times. It humbled me to think about how much we take for granted nowadays on food-related matters when back then, it was such a battle just to get food onto the table. This is one of the aspects I’ve always loved about historical fiction — its ability to make history more relatable to those of us who never experienced it.

Having read two of Ryan’s books, both of which have been inspiring as well as uplifting, I look forward to reading more of her works, including her sophomore novel, published in 2019, that I was not able to get to at the time. If you get the chance to pick up this newest one up, I definitely highly recommend it!

Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley

Heartfelt and engaging. The Kitchen Front is a recommended first purchase for collections where historical and/or foodie fiction is popular.

The Kitchen Front
A Novel
by Jennifer Ryan
Read an Excerpt
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction
Pub Date 23 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 31 May 2021

Jennifer Ryan is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I really enjoyed this book! I instantly fell in love with the characters and wanted to learn more about their lives. I loved the idea of having a cooking contest using rationed items. I will recommend this to our patrons. Thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC. This is a great book!
5 stars

This expertly written novel offers deep insight into WWII Britain and the lives of the four women it follows. The tone is somewhat dark and austere. The book includes recipes, if you enjoy that sort of thing.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

Happy Release Day to Jennifer Ryan! The Kitchen Front as been released into the world.

At first I wasn't sure that I was ready for another WW2 book, they can be emotionally draining at times. When I first started this book my initial thought was that it would be a lighter story about 4 women squabbling in the kitchen. But low and behold as the story progressed it showed a side of the war not often seen. These 4 women had different roles but longed for something else.

Playing off a BBC radio program, I loved how some of the chapters ended with some recipes from the actual time period and using ingredients available at that time. The struggles these women faced was vividly portrayed and authentic. It's an emotional time as they confront inner demons while at the same time come together for this cooking completion where they get more than they bargained for.

The Kitchen Front is a story of personal growth, reaching out, forgiveness and relationships. It's finding the strength to step out of their comfort zone and taking risks. I'm glad that I read this book, it was uplifting watching the changes that take place. Definitely a book and author I recommend.

My thanks to Ballantine Books (via Netgalley) for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

War time efforts!

Jennifer Ryan has fast become one of my fav. authors. I loved ‘The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir’, was glued to ‘The Spies of Shilling Lane’ and am buoyed by ‘The Kitchen Front.’
Taking place during WW2 (1942) in a typical English village, Fenley Village, it’s the story of four women and their quest to become more, albeit from a very different starting point. All have some sort of tragedy or story behind them. That in itself provides the determination they must bring to go forward. Two of the women are sisters at odds with each other, one a kitchen maid, the fourth a Cordon Bleu Chef.
They all enter a cooking contest with the BBC as part of the Ministry of Food’s war efforts around rationing, food shortages and how to use what was available to make delicious and nutritious meals, including the American addition—Spam! The winner will become a co-presenter of the radio show, ‘The Kitchen Front.’
Interspersed through the chapters are various recipes the contestants made over the weeks.
As the story progresses, the lives of these four women, their struggles unfold. We come to understand what drives them, their triumphs, their hurts and their dreams. Such a wonderful story of community, of family, of loss, of hope and friendship. Think a little bit of Foyle’s War and Home Fires.
I know there's been quite a stories using cookery books and spies during WW2 lately, but this is much more of life on the Homefront, sacrifices made, and the stories of those anchoring and maintaining the faith, committed to the war effort during these dreadful times.
I loved this! Very special!

A Random House - Ballantine ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

It's no secret I love WWII historical fiction. But I'm not sure how many of you know that I also love to cook. Some of the difficulties of getting groceries early in the pandemic had me thinking about what it was like during WWII food rationing. So that was really the draw for me to read The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan.

I was really excited to see the recipes and I have a few that I want to try like Hominy Pie, Cornish Pasties, mushroom soup, and the Apple Honey Cake. I actually have a lot of apples I need to use up so I will probably make the cake next weekend. I made up a mushroom soup recipe last year and loved it so I'm interested in trying the one from the book. There are definitely a few recipes that I won't be making like the whale steak (can we even buy whale meat?) and sardine rolls.

The Kitchen Front is the third WWII novel that I've read this month and they've all been different. I've read a few WWII focused on the home front but even so, this one was different since it focused on food rationing and what regular households were dealing with. The story focuses on 4 very different women:

Gwendoline - the lady of the manor. She serves as a Ministry of Food Home Economists. She gives cooking demonstrations based on the Ministry's food policies. She is married to Sir Strickland who made his money in tinned foods and he owns a pie factory.

Audrey - sister to Gwendoline, she lives in her childhood home where she raises her three boys and has a growing pie and cake catering business. Her husband was shot down over Germany. (I envisioned Steph Farrow, played by Clare Calbraith, on Homefires for this character).

Nell - she is the kitchen maid at the big house (the manor own by Gwendoline and her husband). She was an orphan and has worked her way up really being the assistant cook but she doesn't have much confidence in herself. (She reminded me a little of Daisy, played by Sophie McShera, from Downton Abbey).

Zelda - she was a chef at a hotel in London until a bomb destroyed it. She nows runs the canteen in Sir Strickland's factory. When she was in London she fell in love with a fellow chef and became pregnant. He doesn't want anything to do with her and all Zelda wants to become a head chef in London.

During WWII, the BBC had a radio program called The Kitchen Front which provided tips for housewives on how to stretch rations, make some of the less desirable food items available more palatable as well as provide updates on what food items were scarce or abundant each day. In Ryan's story, the host of the show is Ambrose. While he knows a lot about food, as a man he can't really relate to the target audience so the BBC wants to find a female co-host (this was true in real life as well). Ryan envisions a cooking contest to pick the co-host. The four women are the contestants.

Their stories were interesting and I liked the characters. In the beginning, I thought Gwendoline was a horrible witch and Zelda was very full of herself while I was rooting for the underdogs Audrey and Nell. Each woman sees the contest, and job as a radio co-host, as the ticket out of their current lives. I liked the character growth of each woman over the course of the story.

But still, it was the little facts about food rationing that Ryan inserts naturally into the story that I found most interesting. Like, did you know that it was illegal for an adult to eat an orange? Only children were allowed oranges. The Ministry of Food suggested mixing mashed carrots into goat's milk to make the milk more palatable to children (I grew up drinking goat's milk and I don't remember it tasting any different than cow's milk).

If you are interested in food, cooking, WWII food rationing, or stories about women overcoming obstacles, then The Kitchen Front is your kind of book.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Tuesday, Feb. 23 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2021/02/the-kitchen-front-by-jennifer-ryan.html