After losing her fiancé in WW1, Margaret Parker settled into a quiet, lonely life as the town librarian in North Platte, NE. After the US enters WW2, Margaret volunteers as the historian for the Servicemen’s Canteen organized by the women of North Platte. When Captain Tom Carver strolls into the Canteen, he’s immediately drawn to Maggie and works hard to woo her, via letters, as he heads off to … to war. While reluctantly falling in love long-distance, Maggie also opens her heart to the teenaged girl she supervises and the townswomen working beside her, while fearing for the lives of the servicemen and women she meets at the Canteen. When Tom springs a surprise on her, and then winds up MIA, Maggie must come to grips with her fear of another loss. Relying on her new family and friends, she must take a chance on love, if she wants to make a life for herself after the war is over.
more
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.
Barbara Warner Deane has produced another great read about the women back home and the men they love who are serving in WWII. This book is written around a real time and place. North Platte, Nebraska was a crossroads of trains transporting troops, wounded, and POWs. The ladies at home decided to make life just a bit better for the soldiers. They provided food, snacks, reading material and some feminine companionship for the men who only had a 10 or 15 minute rest stop. Ms. Deane skillfully weaves the stories of these women around history. Very nicely done and informative. I’ve enjoyed other books that she has written so I was looking forward to reading this one. It did not disappoint.
You really get to see how WWII affected the homefront in this wonderful book. The Canteen started serving the troop trains very soon after war was declared. Over the very many trains and even more troops made the journey, either going to war or coming home, the women who served them, give them more than just food and drink. They cheered them on and made them feel cared for. This book gives you a good idea of what most Americans went through as their loved one went off to war.
WHISTLE STOP CANTEEN by Barb Warner Deane -Emotional fictionalized and highly researched retelling of the Servicemen’s Canteen in North Platte, NE, during WWII and the women who shaped the times.