Review: The Gates of Rutherford by Elizabeth Cooke

The Gates of Rutherford

by Elizabeth Cooke

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 384

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  The rain fell softly on the day that she was to be married…Sometimes the longing for the old untouched days at Rutherford would return to her; the innocence of it all, the feeling that England would never change…

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…

Kritters Thoughts:  With a huge cast of characters, this book was very hard to get into in the beginning.  As soon as I started getting into a storyline it switched to someone else and I wish that there had been more before it changed.  It also took me awhile to figure out who belonged with whom and where they all fit into the bigger picture.  If you don't tend to enjoy big cast of characters, this book may not work for you.

This book was the third in a series and I could tell that I was missing something a few times, so I kind of wish I had started this series at the beginning instead of starting at book three.  If you have read book one and two, did the story build?  Are you glad you started at book one?

When I finished the book, I read a few reviews that compared this book to Downton Abbey with its "upstairs and downstairs" storylines and as I haven't watched the show, I can't make that comparison, have you seen the show and read this book, thoughts?


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley NAL.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.