The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Historical Fiction

Book 5 in the series has Claire and Jamie making a life as grandparents in North America. Roger and Brianna are trying to get married, as is Jaime's aunt. They also know the war is coming and are wondering what to do about it or whether it's possible to avoid. Stephen Bonnet is still around, somewhere, and Jaime is trying to track him down and bring him to justice.

This is the first Outlander book I've read since the tv show started, which I've been watching. The tv show for some reason has turned me against Brianna. I didn't mind her while I was reading the books but now find her annoying due to the tv show and this book couldn't turn me back to a Brianna fan. The chemistry between Jaime and Claire is still as great as ever. The start of the book was pretty slow with 100 pages only being a few hours in time. However the pace eventually picks up and there are some pretty shocking events in the latter part of the book.

First Line: "I woke to the patter of rain on canvas, with the feel of my first husband's kiss on my lips."

Rating:
(4/5)

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
Historical Fiction

This is the fourth book in the Outlander series, where Jaime and Claire are now in the USA and settling down their homestead. They meet Jaime's aunt who owns a plantation. Claire has to wrestle with the fact that she also owns slaves. Something has been left in the future though, which is Jaime and Claire's daughter Brianna. When Brianna finds a notice stating that her parents will die in a fire at their home, she is determined to go to the past to try and save them. When her boyfriend, Roger, finds out she's gone he isn't impressed and follows her through the stones.

Typical to all the books in this series, this is another thousand page novel. Unlike the previous three books, however, I felt that this moved very slowly. The previous books had as much historical fiction as it did romance but this book seemed to be more romance than anything else and it bored me. There was also repetition in the story. Jaime gets lost in the woods, then shortly after Claire gets lost in the woods. Couldn't another story have been thought up?

A new element to this book was the introduction of the Native Americans. It added interesting new characters and situations to the book, but not enough to save it.

Given how much I felt this book was a bit of a waste of time, I'm not sure how I feel about continuing on with the series because they are such time investments.

First Line: "I heard the drums long before they came in to sight."

Rating:
(3/5)

Voyager by Diana Gabladon

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
Historical Fiction

The third book in the Outlander series starts with Claire and her daughter Brianna tracking down what happened to Claire's husband Jaime. Claire left Jaime in Scotland in the 1700s after becoming pregnant with Brianna, travelling back to the 1960s after walking through a stone circle. Worried that Jaime may have died in the Battle of Culloden but soon finds out that that isn't the case and all signs point to Jaime being in Edinburgh.

Claire has to make the decision between her husband and her daughter, and chooses her husband. Travelling back through time Claire finds herself back in 1700 Scotland and quickly finds Jaime who is shocked to see her. They learn of what happened to each other over the 20 years since they last saw one another, and some things Claire isn't too sure she likes. Irregardless, the passion between the two is definitely still there.

Jaime works in Edinburgh as a smuggler of alcohol, which puts him working side-by-side with many shady characters. When his nephew is kidnapped, Claire and Jaime follow his trail all the way to the Caribbean to try and find him.

These books are hard to get through because they're so large! As much as I enjoy this series I always cringe at the thought of reading them because it takes me so long to read a 1000 page book. The story pulls you in right away though and there's just no denying the chemistry between Claire and Jaime!

I can't understand Claire's reasoning for leaving her daughter to go back to her husband. She didn't even seem to give it much thought. You would think that a mother always puts her children before herself but this seemed to me to be a very selfish decision, which bothered me through the entire book.

A great book though, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series which is like a new beginning, given the ending of this book!

First Line: "He was dead."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
Historical Fiction

Dragonfly in Amber is the second book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Unexpectedly, this one starts in present time even though Outlander ended off in the 1700s with Jaime and Claire together. Claire has a 20 year old daughter, Brianna, and is taking her back to Scotland in order to tell her about who her real father is. Claire also enlists the help of Roger, the son of an acquaintance of Frank Randall's to help her determine which men survived the massacre at Culloden. While Claire tells her daughter about her journey in the 1700s, Gabaldon takes the reader through her life in France and Scotland.
I enjoyed reading about Claire and Jaime in France. I felt like there was a lot more for them to do in the city. It wasn't just running away from the English in the forests like the first one seemed to be. Politics and Claire's knowledge of history played a lot more into this book and it brought up quite an interesting dilemma. Is the course of history set no matter what or can we really alter it? Claire seemed to be continuously asking herself this.
Of course, the chemistry between Claire and Jaime is unbelievable. They are one of the best fictional couples I have ever had the pleasure to read about. Most of the characters from the previous novel made a reappearance. I mentioned in my review of Outlander that I hoped we would see Jenny and Ian again. There was a section of the book where Claire and Jaime got to spend some time with them and it wasn't disappointing.
The ending of the book is heartbreaking!! I won't give anything away but those that have read it will know what I'm talking about. I'm looking forward to starting the next one so I can find out what happens with Jaime and Claire!

Rating:

(4.5/5)

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Historical Fiction

My mom has been reading this series since it came out. I didn't really know much about what it was about. Just that the books were huge, and there were a lot of them. During one of our Oakville meetups, Breeze was talking about the series and I thought it sounded interesting. The next meetup she brought her entire collection of the series for me lol So I started with the first one in the series, not quite sure what to expect. Except expect to be reading the book for a very long time since it's over 800 pages!
I was not disappointed at all. History, action, romance all rolled into a nice, tidy novel. There was a point where I was getting tired of having to read about the characters getting caught by the English and then trying to figure their way out of their mess. Obviously my favourite characters were Claire and Jamie. Those two have so much chemistry! I also really enjoyed Jenny and Ian so I hope that eventually Claire and Jamie can make their way back to those two and we can learn a bit more about them.
I know nothing about the history of that period so I had to refer myself to the internet to look up some terms and such. But at the end of the book I was thinking in my head in scottish accents because I was so used to reading in them lol
I'm looking forward to reading the next book, but need to give myself a little bit of time to recover from the 800 pages!

Rating:

(4.5/5)