I’ll be honest with you: The end of each month often offers slim pickings for interesting Steals and Deals. Today, I couldn’t find much that I thought our readers would want.

That said, Jennifer Ryan’s The Kitchen Front is a terrific book. (You can read our review here.) We wrote:

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 are having 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…..

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.

You can purchase it for 1.99 here.

I also found a decade old historical that sounds fun. We gave Ride for the Roses a B–here’s our review. We wrote:

Like a heroine who’s smart without being a bluestocking? Enjoy a hero who’s able to laugh at himself, and can learn not to be such a lug-head? Up to taking a jaunt through the English countryside in search of a love story with just a touch of intrigue? Take a look at Ride for the Roses, and odds are 2-to-1 that you won’t be disappointed.

Regina Ransome Landry is returning home. Seven years ago she eloped with her drawing master; after his death, her brother Philip, urged on by his cold wife Lydia, refused to help her. In order to survive, Regina took on a very unorthodox occupation for a lady, that of horse trainer, and has done rather well at it. Despite her success, she’s giving it up to take care of Philydia and Thomas, her now-orphaned niece and nephew, in order to save them from the clutches of their greedy, evil uncle. She’ll assume running the stud farm Philip was building with the financial backing of his neighbor, the old Earl of Taskford.

In London to meet with the family solicitor, Regina has an unusual encounter with a handsome stranger whose conduct toward her is anything but gentlemanly. Imagine her surprise when he shows up at the solicitor’s office, and turns out to be “Hard-hearted” Harry Wainwright, veteran of the Peninsular War – and the new Earl of Taskford, who just happens to hold the mortgage on the Ransome lands. Harry will do anything to get to know the lovely widow better, and proposes a way for Regina to pay off Philip’s debt: in addition to overseeing the Ransomes’ stable, she will train the string of Thoroughbreds at his estate. That way Harry gets a top-notch trainer, plus he’ll get to see Regina every day. The only problem is that someone keeps trying to kill Harry, and he’s dashed if he knows who it is, or why anybody would want him dead. Will it be dangerous for Regina to be in his company?

It was a delight getting to know these two. Regina is a levelheaded, intelligent woman who’s very honest with herself and Harry. This honesty takes Harry by surprise more than once, until he gets to know her better and his surprise turns to admiration. At first, all he wants is to bed Regina, and she puts up a good fight, managing in the end to let him know in no uncertain terms that it wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t wanted it too. I loved watching them skirt around each other; it was a merry chase, indeed.

You can purchase it here for 2.99.

I don’t usually recommend non-fiction–it’s not really my purview–but When Books Went to War is a lovely book. Here’s the blurb:

When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops, gathering 20 million hardcover donations. Two years later, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million specially printed paperbacks designed for troops to carry in their pockets and rucksacks in every theater of war.

These small, lightweight Armed Services Editions were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights. This pioneering project not only listed soldiers’ spirits, but also helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity and made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon.

You can purchase it here for 2.99.

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