Prettig leesbaar boek, maar hier en daar is het allemaal wat te toevallig. Ook vond ik het het het einde wat afgeraffeld worden en de gebeurtenissen wat te voorspelbaar. Maar een aangenaam boek om te lezen, was het zeker. ( )

Overall I enjoyed the story, though Kate goes to GREAT lengths when it comes to descriptive and historical elements which while important in some respects, were a bit more than I prefer. Regardless the dual plot lines of two women connected along with yet another interpretation of The Grail and its meaning was interesting. I'd give it 4 stars were it not for the long in the tooth descriptions and use of French dialog of which most had no English translation leaving you guessing. ( )

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I was really disappointed with this book. I've been wanting to read it for a while, but noticed it shortly after I'd finished reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and as it sounded similar I decided to leave it a while before I picked it up.

I preferred Dan Brown.

I abandoned this book about a fifth of the way in. It was incredibly slow-going and the flowery prose, littered with cliche, odd word usage and unnecessary description, was hard work to read. It could have done with a very thorough edit before it made it to print. The main characters lacked personality and I didn't like any of them. After reading that many pages of a book you should feel like you know the characters, but they bored me. I did try to get through it but it felt like a chore to read.

The thing that finally stopped me from reading was the amount of French phrases throughout it. There really was no need. It reminded me of when you write assignments at school and you have to put quotes and references in to prove you know what you're talking about. It frustrated me too much. I get that the author knew what she was talking about; she wrote 500 pages about it.

I read The Winter Ghosts by the same author recently and really enjoyed it, and felt that it should have been longer. After trying to get through Labyrinth I'm glad that it wasn't. I don't think I'll try another book by this author. ( )

I'm sad I didn't like this, because the hardbacks are sooo pretty. But I was bored. The characters are one dimensional, and there are so many POVs with no apparent purpose that distract from any central thread. There is considerable information overload on history, the city, politics, character backgrounds, etc. without knowing who or what to focus on, who really matters. Many passages are unnecessarily long-winded that stall momentum. For example:
Alais: *dramatically insists on speaking with her father*
Father: What's wrong?
Alais: *silence*
Father: Are you hurt?
Alais: *silence*
Father: Do you need help?
Alais: *silence*
Father: I can't help if you don't talk.
Alais: *silence*
You get the picture. If a scene seems to drag when I'm listening to it at 1.8 speed in audio, something's wrong with the pacing. ( )