In my opinion, this book is better than The Da Vinci Code. This isn’t actually saying that much since I wasn’t a big fan of The Da Vince Code in the first place.

This book really is ok, though. Set in southern France, it follows the parallel stories of Alais, a 17 year old woman in the 12th century in Carcassone, which is on the brink of being invaded by Crusaders, and Alice, an English woman in her early 20s volunteering at an achaeological dig in the general area who finds across “something interesting”. They’re the good guys and the race is on to stop the bad guys from getting the secrets of the Grail, naturally to use them for their own ends.

Suspend your disbelief for a little while and the story is actually pretty good. It is a thriller that treats the reader like they’re fairly intelligent, and it will hook you.

A couple of things, however, irked me. There was far too little explained about Alice and the choices she made while Alais was far too much the stereotypical nice girl to whom bad things happen. A little more character development really would have made the story much more enjoyable for me. The lengthy descriptions didn’t bother me that much during Alais’ side of the story, but I really could have done with some editing when it came to the descriptions Alice’s sightseeing.

Overall, not a bad book but not a great one either.