A review by angelica_jardinerica
Citadel by Kate Mosse

2.5

This is my fifth Kate Mosse novel and the one I've liked the least by far. I almost DNF-ed it on numerous occasions, even when I was 90% through it. To start with, I'm not a fan of fiction based on true events, especially WW2, and above all when the storyline consists of the goodies constantly trying to escape the baddies. It became so repetitive and exhausting after a while. I found it very difficult to stay focused right from the beginning, with so many characters being presented at once and then a whole load of others cropping up constantly throughout, some that are only mentioned once but with the suggestion that we're supposed to know who they are. While I applaud the attempt to bring to the fore the women whose fight against different invaders has been painted out of history, it was all just a bit too clichéd, especially their romantic relationships. The disjointed descriptions made it really hard for me to picture the places described, even though I've visited the area. My overall impression when I got to the end was that yes, I should've DNF-ed it after the first few of the 700 pages and spent my time on something else.