I am about 230 pages into it so far (half way) and it's growing on me a little..I am not fond of the author's use of adjectives..she over does it! But..I am giving it a chance! We'll see how it ends!I am now done..it was alright, but it's not one I would recommend to anyone!! I thought it was very slow going the first half of the book! Not a fave! ( )

I initially thought I was really going to enjoy this one, but it was all down hill after the first few chapters. It really didn't hold my attention and fizzled out about halfway through. The transitions between the flash backs and the events of the modern day were really not very smoothe either. Really not very good. ( )

Carcassonne, Cathars, Chartres…base story was good, execution was poor. ( )

Covering both medieval and contemporary France, this weaves together the stories of two women born centuries apart but linked by a common destiny -- the Holy Grail.

This was a good fictional account of the 13th century Albigensian Crusade (also known as the Cathar Crusade) in which the French Catholics in the northern part of France attacked the Cathars, a Christian sect, in the Languedoc in the south. I liked how these events were portrayed in the lives of Alais, her sister Orianne, her husband Guilhelm, and her father, Bertrand.

The 21st century scenes were not as good as the 13th century ones. I wanted to know more about how various characters were counterparts to the 13th century ones and many characters had similar names which added to the confusion. Still, I liked how Alice discovers the truth about her ancestor, Alais. ( )