Citadel

Languedoc Trilogy, Book 3

By: Kate Mosse

Narrated by: Finty Williams

Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

France, 1942: While war blazes at the front lines of Europe, in the walled southern city of Carcassonne, nestled deep in the Pyrenees, a group of courageous women is engaged in an equally lethal battle. Like their ancestors who fought northern invaders 700 years before, these members of the French Resistance - code-named Citadel - fight to liberate their home from the Nazis.

Led by a daring 18-year-old, Sandrine Vidal, and her elder sister, Marianne, the women of Citadel work quickly to sabotage their German occupiers, safeguard their neighbors and smuggle refugees over the mountains into neutral territory. But that is only part of their mission. Their struggle will reveal an older, darker combat being fought in the shadows, one meant to protect an ancient secret that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could change the course of history.

Combining rugged action with the haunting mystery of an ancient city, Citadel is a story of daring and courage, love and passion, as the women of Citadel dare the impossible to save their homeland...and the astonishing secrets buried in time are at long last revealed.

©2012 Mosse Associates, Ltd. (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

Extraordinary

Thank you for sharing the wonder and horror and hope. Freedom lives on in the hearts of those who love.

My favorite kind of book

I love historical fiction novels. I have read all 3 of the trilogy. Very good characters, lots of descriptions & information given on period described. I did feel that maybe the author ran out of steam at the end, it didn't feel quite wrapped up to me. But having said this I would definitely listen to it again - the whole series to see what I missed the first time.

French pronunciation takes me out of the story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Story is fine, same principle as her other works.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator is not quite as bad as the first narrator for this series but is still not good with the French.

She stresses first and second syllables when if there is ANY stress in French it is the last syllable; she consistently mispronounces Saint as SONT, and Carcasonne (KarKahSUN) as CarcassO or Carcasson (nasal vowel)... The River Ode she pronounces OAde...
All vowels in French are tight... Harper needs to find better readers when French is involved.

Was Citadel worth the listening time?

I am going to try to slog through it but it is annoying to have to deal with the French mispronunciation. It takes me right out of the story.

A fantastic end to a powerful & haunting trilogy!I

The ultimate theme of this book and of the trilogy as a whole is to introduce us to the people, fictional and real, who died in the Languedoc region, "To memorialize understand how those who died so others may have lived." This is a universal theme and one to be remembered throughout our world and history.
I love historical books, including historical fiction, that take place in this area of the world: Languedoc, a region in south-eastern France on the border of Spain. To this day, this area has retained it's history, culture, and language since at least the end of the first millennium of the common era (1000 c.e.).

I want to go!

This was beautiful, as always by Kate Mosse! Now I want to go to the south of France and see the magical places I read about!

The world is full of history, stories to disclose

please, write another one: another place, another time? Make us share their history, their passion... everything. you have a gift Ms. Mosse, share it with us.

Very enjoyable !

I really enjoyed this book the most from the series. The story was good, characters well developed and likable. Good pace throughout and very believable - makes me want to go live in the Midi ! The performance was excellent too.

I just couldn't get through it.

I really enjoyed the other 2 books but could not plod through this one... and I have gotten through some pretty slow nonfiction on the treadmill.

Romance Novel

Overly wordy, maudlin and predictable. Couldn’t wait to finish and put this behind me. If you like sappy stories, this one’s for you.

Wanted to like it. It just made me mad.

I really wanted to like this book. WWII French Resistance, mystical codex, heroic women--what's not to love? This book only annoyed me the further I got into it, but I just didn't want to give up. I've had a similar reaction to other Kate Mosse books. This will be my last go at her work. The main character starts out as a naive teenager and, suddenly, fast forward two years and she's a savvy ringleader of a resistance cell. Wait, what? The author doesn't bother to take us through this significant personal growth. We're just supposed to believe it. Also, if repeated intense scenes of Nazis torturing people for information and punching women in the face isn't your bag, skip this book.