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4 stars! This review will contain no spoilers!
Summary:
Claire, an 8 year war nurse veteran, is currently spending her second honeymoon with her genealogist husband in the highlands of Scotland. In exploration of the beautiful landscape, she find herself in a circle of standing stones in her of her year 1945, then being transported to the in the exact same location, but 1743. Having lived in a peaceful time, the Scotland ravaged by war and raging clansmen put her in a perilous position. Made to hide most of her identity, she is able to keep safe only by marrying a man of one of the Scottish clans. Jamie Fraser, with a price on his head and need for a safety net to avoid betrayal by his own men, is the perfect match. Claire is now torn between two vastly different worlds and between two very opposite kinds of love.
Thoughts:
I decided to give this book 4 stars! I had very high expectations for this book because it's so beloved and there's even a TV show. I want to say that it met most of them. I thought this was a crazy whirlwind of adventure and suspense and love. Claire and Jaime's love is so undeniably pure and passionate. Claire is also a badass all on her own, I admire her wits and her confidence. I also like how being in her head wasn't annoying because even though she made some decisions that put her and others in danger sometimes, you never really felt like they were stupid decisions. This story is also very true to history and dialect. Took me a while to get used to the Scottish accent because I was reading this in Audible, but after 200 pages of so I got the hand of it. The only thing that really knocked a star off of this book for me was the slow parts. They may not have lasted super long, but there were quite a lot of them where I felt like I could put the book down and now pick it up for a few days. I think that may have been what took me so long to finish besides the fact that this hunker is 1000+ pages long. All together it was a fantastic story with a beautiful heart wrenching ending and I am pretty excited to get on with the rest of the series.
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrator for this book, Davina Porter, did a wonderful job in capturing the accent of the Scottish men and the sassy personality of Claire, I loved her!
Plot:
Going into this book with very little knowledge of Scottish history or really any general like for history, I was a bit apprehensive about getting into a historical fiction series. I have to say that this book has changed my mind about this genre. I liked the accuracy of the historical content, the dialects of the clans, the addition of different languages, and the fact that Gabaldon stayed true to the time period's expectations of men and women no matter how gruesome and blanch-worthy they may be to people in the 2000's.
Now, what most people talk about when they mention Outlander is the "swoon worthy" romance right? I really really really liked the way the romance in this book played out. Initially, I won't lie, I thought this was more lust than a love, but I was won over. Jaime Fraser is one hell of a book boyfriend (however not my favorite), there's no denying that. And Claire as his counterpart makes for a great pair of wit and brute and humor.
Their relationship not only adds romance, but also suspense to Outlander because Jaime has a price on his head and Claire is thought to be a spy in addition to the fact that she has a huge secret to keep. This makes all the high speed getaways, the attacks, the eluding of enemies all the more fun to read because it keeps you on the edge of your seat.
On the darker side of things, this book has some very intense moments of violence, rape, and torture. Just looking at the size of this book you should already know how incredibly detailed Diana can be when looking at all perspectives of a scene. It's crazy how you feel like you are there with Claire or you feel like you are Claire in the moment. The violence and the torture weren't new to me having it present in some YA fantasy books, but the rape scenes can be triggers for others.
Sadly, there were things that I did not like in this book and even a thing or two that I thought could benefit this book. One: those super longwinded info dumpy descriptions where super longwinded info dumpy descriptions weren't needed. These really slowed down the pacing of the book for me. There were moments I'd be at the edge of my seat only to be slammed into the back of my chair by a very slow scene with many many pages.
There was also this one part (if you've read multiple reviews of this book, I'm sure you've seen most mention this) that was really disturbing. Many scenes could be seen as disturbing, but for me this one was exponentially disturbing.
Lastly, I felt that despite the length of this book, there was still something missing? I really wanted to be in other people's head maybe for a chapter or two. That could just be my personal preference for multi-POV styled books, but I'm sure other could agree that they would want to be in Jaime's head. Maybe even Dougal's head. Or Randall's even if it would be utterly gross.
I also wish that we could have gotten mini-updates on what was happening on Frank's end of the spectrum. Maybe not whole chapters, but insertions or something? However, I'm pretty sure that we will the low down on what was going on with him in sequels, but based on Gabaldon's writing style, I feel like they will also turn into info dumps because Claire was gone for so long. At least if we got little passages with insight into Frank's life in this book, we wouldn't have to get it all dumped on us in one go. We shall see!
Characters:
What really makes me want to keep up with this series are the characters. They are so complex. Anytime you think you found a characters that is pretty simple, there is always more to them.
Claire is especially my favorite, yes it's not Jaime, it's Claire. She is definitely not your damsel in distress. She is definitely not helpless or stupid. She is 100% a badass and I love it. We know she doesn't care about how people think of her. And we know she can take care of herself (for the most part). She just kills it with her ability to adapt to the situation as best she can. Even when her life is in danger she still manages to hold out the entire time. The best kind of hardheaded, sassy, and humorous personality mixture I could've asked for.
Jamie is a goddamn brute, but you gotta love him. He is stubborn to the utmost degree, but he stands for what he believes in. He is so so so loyal and protective of his wife regardless of how long she has been his wife or how long he has known her. Jaime has so many facets to him that you feel you can't ever really know what his next move will be. I enjoy the rush and surprise he adds to the story. He makes up for certain things that happen in the book. He can seem like an ass during a good amount of the story, but he is able to realize his flaws and try and do better by Claire.
If you love a good slow burn romance with unconventional means of coming together, this is the ONE for you. It's a good pace slow burn that makes you fall in love with their love.
Overall:
I'm am definitely going to continue with this series especially because the Audible's are top notch. I just can't continue quite yet. These books take a lot of me and I need a fluffy break for now. Still, VERY excited to see how my babies Claire and Jaime fair in the books to come.
Thanks for reading! :)
ALSO (though unrelated): YAY FOR FIRST BOOK REVIEW OF 2017! Hopes for many many more to comes! :)