Review: The Gates of Rutherford by Elizabeth Cooke

Title: The Gates of Rutherford
Author: Elizabeth Cooke
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: September 1, 2015
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Charlotte Cavendish has been dreaming of her old home at Rutherford Park. It is April 1917; she is nineteen years old. And everywhere there is change. The war still rages on the Continent, where her brother fights for the Royal Flying Corps. Her parents’ marriage is in jeopardy, with her mother falling for a charming American in London.

But not all is grim. Charlotte is marrying Preston, the blinded soldier whom she nursed back to health. Her parents couldn’t be happier about this. The young man hails from a well-established and wealthy family in Kent, and he’s solid and respectable. They hope he’s the one to tame their notoriously headstrong daughter.

But as time passes, Charlotte slowly comes to the realization that she is not truly happy. And for a reason she is only just beginning to understand. A reason she dare not reveal to the family—or the world…"

My Two Cents:

"The Gates of Rutherford" is a historical fiction look at life during World War I. It is a companion book to "Rutherford Hall." This book reminds me a lot of shows like "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey." In "The Gates of Rutherford" there is still a huge cast and much of it centers on a new marriage where the couple wasn't really sure what they want out of it. World War I is raging in the lives of the people in the book are caught up in it.

Ensemble casts work well for television and movies. They don't always work so well for books. While I enjoyed the setting of this book and the time period, I found it very hard to follow along with the stories in the book. There are a lot of characters and I felt like I never could get very close to them.

There are some but some stories that I was very into such as the one about the German prisoner but there were other stories where I felt like I didn't we get to know the characters very well and therefore wasn't as interested. This book is not all that long either so there isn't really a lot of detail about each of the characters in many ways, this book feels like a slice of life about people who are dealing with World War I in Europe. You get a taste of the characters but I found myself wanting more. That being said there storylines are still very interesting and kept me reading. Overall, this book was a mixed bag for me.