The story itself has potential as it charts the development of a group of women who come to run a Resistance movement named Citadel in Southern France during the Nazi occupation. This could have been a fascinating story. However, rather than simply dealing with this, Mosse chooses to interweave the most ludicrous plot about a Codex. This Codex, hidden by a former monk, is sought after by a leading Nazi supporter Chief Authie for its heretical properties and the Resistance groups for its ability to raise a ghost army. Ridiculous. Not only is this sub plot a distraction from the more credible one concerning the female resistance movement, but it simply does not make sense. Authie believes he has his hands on the Codex, but hands it over to his superiors who also want to use it to gain power despite his obsessive desire to destroy. Meanwhile, the Resistance knows where the real Codex lies, but are too busy with pamphleteering to go and get it despite its potential to save their country. Then when it is finally used, it saves a small number of villagers and has no real impact on the war itself. In short, it is just silly. There is reference in the book of calling on the "army of spirits". Who do the characters in the Resistance believe these spirits to be, if of God, then why are they not a believer in His army? This idea of a connection between the story of a secret Cathar treasure and the grail was given substance in the 20th century by the work of Otto Rahn, a German historian and SS officer who believed that the Cathars held the key to the grail mystery, and that the evidence was somewhere beneath the ruins of Montségur. His writings attracted the attention of Himmler, whose own fascination with the occult, and with the possible ancient pedigree of an Aryan race, led to the founding of the Ahnenerbe, a society dedicated to research into proving the historical origins of a master race.

Then we meet a Dark Ages monk who is protecting a scroll known as the Codex. This secondary plot should have been left out of the book. It distracted me. It takes too much away from what could have been a great story of courageous female resistance fighters. Apparently Kate Mosse always includes a supernatural twist to her novels and this is why she had to force this storyline in for the trilogy to make sense. It’s a pity because it ruins the novel. Now you, too, can be part of the history of CFT. The international bestselling novelist and playwright, Kate Mosse – a Chichester girl, born and bred – is writing the anniversary book for CFT’s first half century. Chichester Festival Theatre at Fifty is a decade-by-decade celebration, a love letter in words and pictures, based on interviews by many of those who’ve played their part in the enduring success of one of Britain’s most important and best loved theatres.Source: Free advanced reader copy from William Morrow, and France Book Tours, in exchange for a review.

The 1942 storyline at least presents its share of obstacles for its characters. Sandrine certainly grows and changes as she matures from an unsure, impulsive girl into a clever and courageous woman. Although I found the simplistic way in which Mosse presents their decisions somewhat irritating, I really enjoyed how various characters, like Luce, rationalized their collaboration. In this respect, Citadel allows the reader to sympathize with what the ordinary citizens of these villages and towns must have felt as the Nazi occupation deepened. It’s all well and good to say that one would stand and fight against such an invader in theory. When it’s actually happening, it is a different thing entirely, more pernicious and less overtly easy to throw off.Kate Mosse has been on the periphery of my literary radar for a while now. Hers were books that would show up on recommendation lists based on books I had like. They would appear at my friends’ houses, imposing yet reassuring with their bulk and sleek, simple cover art. I was vaguely aware that she wrote historical fiction, and that was it. I felt the parallel story set in the 4th C was rather dull and repetitive, it was there purely to serve the main story and that showed. I've been putting off posting this for weeks. I gave up. Citadel just didn't hold my interest and I kept diving into other books instead. It's not that Kate Mosse does anything badly in this book, she just doesn't do anything well enough to keep me involved. It's a pity because I loved the first two books of the trilogy and it was reading the first many years ago that tempted me to the South of France for the first time. I've been in love with the place ever since.

Overall, I did get enjoyment out of the novel and the character development was done very well. I enjoyed reading about Carcassonne and greatly enjoyed the history involved in the creation of the novel. This is the first time I have written in a review on this blog reference to Scripture, but I do not apologize, it would be wrong of me as a reviewer to not state something in a book I see as incorrect, even if the book is fiction. The Arinius storyline just never came together for me. Partly this is because his chapters are comparatively short and infrequent. I question whether their presence actually adds anything to the overall narrative. For the majority of the book, Arinius’ chapters are little more than descriptions of his travels through Gaul. It’s not until the very end that he experiences any sort of conflict, and as such, his story is quite boring. Kate Mosse is an international bestselling author with sales of more than five million copies in 42 languages. Her fiction includes the novels Labyrinth (2005), Sepulchre (2007), The Winter Ghosts (2009), and Citadel (2012), as well as an acclaimed collection of short stories, The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales (2013). Kate’s new novel, The Taxidermist’s Daughter is out now. Savannah’s cruises can include an exclusive overnight stay at Château de Pennautier – The Château de PennautierArinius is a young monk, who is safe-guarding what he feels is "sacred words". I question, sacred words to whom? I found it odd and yet fascinating, Ariunius is a monk, and the word God and Christian is used in his story, but Sandrine is not a believer in God (this remark is made more than once). So I ask, why is there a book about "sacred words" and Christians, paired with and utilized by an unbelieving French resistance fighter? Mosse is the queen of historical mystery. She understands more than most historical writers how to weave the past with the present. In fact, she's more than adept at writing two parallel tales with hundreds of years between the two. As the stories unfold, it becomes more evident how Mosse intends to connect the parallel tales. Citadel is probably best described as a 'time-slip' story, with the main part of the novel set in France during the German occupation in 1942 - 1944. Also featuring is Arinius, a monk living in 342 AD. Arininus is desperately trying to find a hiding place for the forbidden 'Codex', which is said to have the power to raise a 'sleeping army of ghosts'. After the huge success of the first two instalments of her Languedoc trilogy, Kate Mosse's Citadel was always going to sell well. Mosse, who co-founded the Orange prize for fiction in 1996, received an OBE in the recent Queen's birthday honours, which has cemented her reputation as a champion of popular literature. Set in southern France during the second world war, Citadel centres on Sandrine Vidal, a headstrong 18-year-old, and her friends, who belong to a group of female resistance fighters called Citadel. But smuggling refugees over the mountains into neutral territory and sabotaging their Nazi occupiers is only part of their mission. These members of the resistance must also protect an ancient secret that, if discovered by the enemy, could change the course of history.

Alas, it’s fair to say that Citadel and I did not hit it off. Ours was a date best described by words like “tepid” and “mediocre”. Citadel likes to talk about itself, and boy, it had certainly had its share of adventure sto relate. But I kept wondering when the real story would start and when I would actually learn something about what kind of book this was. Instead, it kept referencing new people and events in its life. And the worst, by far, was Arinius. As in the previous books it's told in 2 time lines the 4th century and 1942-1944 when the Germans occupied the Midi (France) But Authié wants Raoul for his own purposes: Raoul is in possession of a map belonging to his former comrade, Antoine, who died under torture at the hands of Authié's henchman without revealing its whereabouts. Beneath his official guise, Authié is a kind of latter-day inquisitor, obsessed with restoring the purity of the Catholic faith; he knows that Antoine corresponded with Otto Rahn, and suspects that before Rahn's death the German passed to Antoine a map revealing the whereabouts of an ancient codex containing a secret so powerful it could change the course of the war. The Ahnenerbe are also pursuing this codex, apparently with Authié's assistance, though to their cost they fail to realise that his motivation for securing it is quite different to theirs. Towards the end of the book when it's building to a crescendo I found it odd that there was a change in the emotion of the plot. After the protagonist is tortured, there is repeated reference to how she'll never have children as a result. It's a small point but it was jarringly emotional, a different style to the rest of the book. Also, Lucie's style of calling Sandrine 'kid' was irritating.The story itself is utterly cliche ridden. The lovers look into one another's eyes. their hearts burn with passion, there is much gazing at the stars, there is a Jewish lover, who is, of course taken and so and so on. In short, there is no originality or fervor in the writing. It is one trite cliche after another. In fact, as I was reading it, I kept imagining I was marking my Year 11 short stories and wanted to underline bits and write CLICHE in large red letters in the margin. If I had found several spelling mistakes and multiple erroneous attempts at a semi-colon I would not have been surprised. I had not read any other of Kate Mosse's work prior to reading Citadel so I was unsure of what I was getting into. After reading this novel, which I ended up enjoying at the very end, I do not think I will continue to read her novels.