This was very disappointing, it's at least 250 pages too long and the writing leaves much to be desired. The chapters in the past are much better than the ones in the present because things actually do happen and the history of the Cathars & daily castle life in the 1200s is interesting. It starts off intriguing and the landscape descriptions towards the end are quite lovely, but I wasted way too much time on this one. I also thought it was strange to see Mosse's next book looks & sounds identical to this one.