Book Review of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Goodreads Summary: The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is 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 stone 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.

Goodreads Rating: 4.18 stars with over 430,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Historical Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Adventure,

Get the Book: Outlander, Book Depository

Listing for Popsugar book challenge: A book that's more than 600 pages. 1 down, 39 to go!

Link to the Book Haul: January 2016 Book Haul

Edit: Review of next book in series: Dragonfly in Amber

Review:

Edited 12/1/2016

Well, I'm not even going to build the suspense for my thoughts. I have a new addiction, and it's the Outlander series. I'll try to do this review without spoilers, but I make no promises. I just want talk about everything Outlander right now.

I received this book for Christmas and had been told for a while I need to read this. I now completely understand why. I was hooked by page seven. Initially what drew me in was the wit that shared between Frank and Claire. It was easy to start adoring both characters, and I found them humorous.

I love historical fiction, and for me, Outlander provided a lot of things to grab my interest. I enjoyed reading about the Scottish culture. I enjoyed reading about the Pagan rituals. I found the descriptions of the landscape incredibly lovely. There's adventure, romance, action. It's fantastic.

As I've said before, I love Claire's wit. I like that there's a balance in her predicaments. There're times where she has to be saved, but there's also times where she saves the situation. She's a strong lead, which was very refreshing.  I appreciated the inner turmoil she goes through regarding her situation. She loves Frank, but she loves Jamie, and then there is the whole ordeal of being trapped in a different time. I felt like this showed a lot of character depth.

I love how stubborn Jamie is, and yet at the same time he shows a lot of wisdom. He's rugged, handsome, a warrior, and educated. I love how well he and Claire match each other. They're both so feisty and a little hot headed.

All of the characters, even the side ones, seem so well developed. Yes, the book is 850 pages long, but with that length, you are getting an actual connection to all of the characters. Not just Claire, Jamie, and to some extent Frank. You're getting the stories of the clansmen and women, and many other people that Jamie and Claire encounter.

The history nerd in me is very curious to see if we get to see Claire's actions change the course of history. I'm hoping that the second book touches more on the time travel aspect of the story. Obviously in this book she did the time traveling and was dealing with the adjustment of that. I just really want to see the ramifications of that. I also really enjoyed the philosophical/ theological debate between Claire and Brother Anselm towards the end of the book. I love a good philosophical debate, and this satisfied.

Originally I had thought that the book should have ended in some grand gesture when Claire made her choice between Frank or Jamie. I was getting a little frustrated and bored with it after she chose because of it. Now that I've finished the book, I can completely understand why it didn't end there. So much more happens in that last ~300 pages or so. Wow. Obviously, I'm in love with the book. I don't have anything negative to say about it. I'm going to need to make a trip to the bookstore and acquire the next in the series.

(Like I'd rate this anything but 5 moons)