We’re reading Kate Mosse’s Joubert Chronicles as a virtual reading group and this is the second book in the four-book series.

The City of Tears was much easier to get into than the previous, Burning Chambers, in the series. While the opening is still somewhat slow, once the story finds its footing it becomes completely absorbing, I genuinely couldn’t put it down. At this point in the series, there is a clear shift toward deeper character development and stronger world-building, moving away from the heavier historical exposition of earlier chapters. There is still enough history woven in to keep the narrative grounded and engaging without feeling overwhelming.

As my emotional investment in the characters grew, I also found the book increasingly emotionally draining. The story feels less like distant historical fiction and yet also more like a reflection of the world we are living in now, which adds a striking sense of relevance and weight. Although I am eager to move on to book three, I plan to take a short break before doing so, this is a novel that lingers!

Mosse’s depiction of historical conflict is particularly powerful. The portrayal of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is devastating and unflinching, making for a heavy but deeply affecting read. Beyond the violence, the novel explores profound themes of home and displacement, what it means to lose one’s home, to become a refugee, and to belong to an old world while witnessing the emergence of a new one.

This is not an easy or hopeful novel, but it is one defined by endurance and resilience. If you find it emotionally heavy, you are certainly not alone. Despite the lack of hope, I believe The City of Tears is an important novel and an important series,one that is challenging, relevant, and ultimately worth continuing for it contains a huge amount of human strength.

About the Book

An epic historical adventure, sweeping from Carcassonne to Paris and Amsterdam, The City of Tears by Kate Mosse is the spellbinding second volume of The Joubert Family Chronicles.

Paris, 1572. For ten violent years, the Wars of Religion have raged across France. But now, peace has been brokered and a royal wedding negotiated that could see the country reunited at last.

An invitation has arrived for Minou Joubert and her family to attend this historic wedding. What Minou doesn’t know is that her family’s oldest enemy will also be there, that the Jouberts will soon be scattered to the winds after tragedy strikes, and that a beloved child will disappear without a trace . . .

A thrilling story of one family’s fight to survive against the devastating tides of history, The City of Tears is the second novel in the series. It is followed by The Ghost Ship.

About The Author

Kate Mosse is a No 1 international bestselling novelist, playwright and non fiction writer, best known for her multi-million Languedoc Trilogy – Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel – and for her Gothic Fiction, including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, which she is adapting for film & stage. Her new novel The Burning Chambers – publishing May 2018 – is the first in an epic historical adventure series. Non fiction titles include The House: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera House and Chichester Festival Theatre at Fifty.

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