Author: Diana Gabaldon

Book: Outlander (Outlander #1)

Other Books in Series:

Dragonfly In Amber (Outlander #2)
Voyager (Outlander #3)
Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4)
The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5)
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6)
An Echo in the Bone (Outlander #7)
Written in My Heart’s Own Blood (Outlander #8)
Untitled – Book 9

Link to buy all 8 books here

tl;dr recommendation: Reading about Jamie had me close to buying my husband a kilt and begging him to learn gaelic.

Book Summary:

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Longer Review:

OH GOD I loved this book. It’s such an amazing epic romance at its heart that I hate myself for waiting this long to read it. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a predisposition against both historical novels and time travel novels – but this book breaks the mold. It’s something different…it’s timeless. Which is really no surprise since it was first published in 1991 and is still relevant.

Outlander easily broke through my preconceived notions, drug me through the dirty underbelly of the eighteenth century highlands and lifted me with hope that I never thought I’d have for characters I never knew I’d love. Diana writes with such ease that I’m shocked she didn’t have to transport back in time in order to convey this story so eloquently. While the overarching romance story held me fast to the pages, the story has something for everyone: danger, suspense, betrayal, and war. People have argued over what genre to place this book in, but that argument is wasted. I place this in the genre of ‘Good Shit’. period.

Claire is strong and sassy, witty and beguiling. She’s found herself in a shit position. While she knows that she should probably get back to her husband in her time, once she’s wed to Jamie and begins to build her life in this time, her heart and desires are divided. The question becomes, how much of her heart belongs to Jamie and how much to Frank – which future does she want to pursue? Of course, there’s also the issues of her maybe being an English spy and BlackJack Randall (who is her first husband’s ancestor) being a massive asshole, to the point that I’m not sure she could even see Frank’s face again without fearing he was BlackJack.

Jamie. Oh Jamie Fraser. Reading about Jamie had me close to buying my husband a kilt and begging him to learn gaelic. I’m going to share a few of my favorite lines – if this doesn’t entice you to buy the book, you clearly don’t love romance, I’m not sure why you’re reading this blog and you have no soul:

“If I were a horse, I’d let him ride me anywhere”           [Oh YES, PLEASE]

“I am your master…and you’re mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own.”

“I didna mean to hurt ye. But I do want to be in you, to stay in you, so deep. I want to leave the feel of me deep inside ye with my seed. I want to hold ye so and stay wi’ you ’til dawn, and leave you sleeping and go, with the shapes of you warm in my hands.”

“My heart has been yours since first I saw ye, and you’ve held my soul and body between your two hands here, and kept them safe.”

“I mean to hear ye groan like that again. And to moan and sob, even though you dinna wish to, for ye canna help it. I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break, and scream with the wanting, and at last to cry out in my arms, and I shall know that I’ve served ye well.”

*SWOON*

Go fan yourself. Get your temperature back under control. Or wait – don’t. Go buy the book.

This book is a commitment. but one well worth taking. Especially for all seven inches of Jamie that swings with such easy access under that delicious kilt. *winks*

(it’s also only $2 for like 1000 pages. COME ON. That’s practically free).

I’m suffering from a ridiculous book hangover & I’m now planning my life around reading the rest of this series. This book gets a million stars. #MustRead