I AM DONE! WOW. Just wow. That ending. woah. Within 40 pages I ugly cried, my heart exploded in feels, confusion happened, hope, and now I'm mind blown by the ending. WOW. Diana, you've done it again! Took me awhile to get into DiA but once i got past the 300 page mark it got so good and kept on getting better. 5/5 stars!

SWEET BLEEDING JESUS!!! I KNEW IT!!!!!!! DAMNED BLOODY FUCKING CLIFFHANGERS!!!!! Sensational story!!!!

5 STARS ★★★★★

n  n

n  ”We are bound, you and I, and nothing on this earth shall part me from you.”n

What can I say? I am completely BLOWN AWAY by this series!!!! An amazing sequel to Outlander, this book brings Claire and Jamie through a tumultuous quest to try and change history in order to save Scotland from a pointless but inevitable war that will eventually result in the deaths of thousands of Highland clansmen. Having this condemning knowledge of the future has them risking everything to prevent this looming tragedy. They risk their lives, their love, and their future to save Scotland.

n  ”There’s only you.”
Doom, or save. That I cannot do. For I have no power beyond that of knowledge, no ability to bend others to my will, no way to stop them doing what they will. There is only me…. And I was not enough.n

After nearly dying from his stay in Wentworth Prison, and the subsequent escape and passage to France, Jamie finds himself in the company of his cousin, Jared Fraser, a wealthy Scottish émigré and wine and spirits importer in Le Havre. Jamie is soon asked to manage Jared’s business in Paris, while Jared tended to his travels. And Claire and Jamie both realize that this new position will allow them access to the best aristocratic circles in Paris, and thus to Charles Stuart, and even to King Louis himself.

n  n

n  ”Big, aren’t you?” “…Can you Dance?”n

Using these political connections, they are quickly able to infiltrate the Jacobite circle and use their influence and knowledge to try and thwart Bonnie Prince Charlie’s cause and claim to the throne of England. But they must be discreet in their endeavors to prevent the Jacobite rising because they could quickly lose not only their position in society, but their lives as well.

n  n

Their time in Paris would also find them expecting their first child. But the trials and tribulations of their time in Paris being constant, stressful and occasionally life threatening, Claire and Jamie put not only their lives but their love on the line as well. Eventually this would end tragically when a ghost from the past reappears, threating to tear them apart forever.

n  I am sorry. – J

I must!n

This did not end well for anyone. And would be quite costly for all.

Now in danger and confident that they had exhausted their resources in France which required a costly pardon from King Louis, Jamie and Claire were finally able to return to Scotland, and Lallybroch. But the peace of Jamie’s home wouldn’t last long, for the Jacobite rising was indeed progressing, despite their efforts at preventing it. And as Laird of Brach Tuarach, Jamie being unwillingly volunteered to represent Prince Charlie was now facing treason if he refused his position in the uprising.

n  n

Needless to say there was never a dull moment in this book!!! And amongst the characters from the first book, there were some additions to the story that I really loved. First of all, Murtagh was in rare form throughout this book. I just LOVE this character in all of his surly Scottish glory…always there…always faithfull… and always pulling off miracles!!! But a new character on the scene that really captured by heart was Fergus!!! OMG This little French orphan boy found in the brothel…he was just absolutely my FAVORITE!!!! He was so sweet, and loving, faithful to the death, and full of fire and mischief as well. And so in love with Jamie…just like the rest of us!!!! I also loved meeting Jamie’s crotchety old grandfather, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat from Beaufort Castle. What a fabulous cantankerous character he was!!!

n  n

Then that incredible ending!!!!! HOLY HELL!!!!

n  “Blood of my Blood," he whispered, "and bone of my bone. You carry me within ye, Claire, and ye canna leave me now, no matter what happens, You are mine, always, if ye will it or no, if ye want me or nay. Mine, and I wilna let ye go.”n

My heart broke completely for them!!! I was literally SOBBING at the end!!!!! After such a long and treacherous road together, and with SO MUCH LOVE for each other, I just couldn’t bear it!!!!!

n  “I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower's stem.”n

Thank GOD for sequels!!!! So incredibly well written!!! Such a clever story too. I just LOVE THIS SERIES!!!!!!! And I am COMPLETELY GONE FOR JAMIE FRASER!!!!! MOVE OVER Alexander Barrington…You’re going to have to share that number one spot with James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser!!!!!

I want to say more, but I really just want to get back to my reading!!!! On to Voyager!!!!!

n  “Then let amourous kisses dwell
On our lips, begin and tell
A Thousand and a Hundred score
A Hundred and a Thousand more”n

n  n

*This review will be a little spoily, read it at your own risk*

“Ok, so I set the date on 2012….and set it for Kansas City Kansas…..Kemper’s deck. I think all I have to do is reverse the directions on Google maps on the laptop. Uh…..turn the key. Yay, it works.”

“Or I thought so, Toto I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore (had to do it!).”

“Hello Stephanie. Toto……I love the Wizard of Oz.”

“Aaaaack! Claire Beachum Randel Fraser! You just scared the piss out of me. Don’t sneak up on a person sitting on a time mower, and whisper in their ear. It’s downright creepy.” Sighs. “Hey Claire, you look a little older than the last time I saw you,moments ago , but don’t worry you still look young and fresh and beautiful.”

“Oh thank you Stephanie, I have to admit that people mention that a lot! I mean a lot! It must have been all that whiskey and malnutrition in the 1700’s that preserved me.”

“Well, Claire, could you fill me in on the when and the where this is?”

“Still in Scotland, but we’re in 1968. Frank, Brianna and I moved to the States where I became a doctor. We stayed there until Frank passed away. I brought Brianna back to get her acquainted with her roots.”

“Brianna is your daughter? Is that her over there? Wow! Tall, beautiful…..look at that mane of red hair. She looks just like her father Jam….mph…nni. “

“Keep your voice down, she doesn’t know that Frank wasn’t her biological father. I brought her here to break the news and tell her who her father really was……Jamie Frasier.”

“Get your hand off my mouth…that’s rude! Did Frank look just like Jamie?”

“No. Total opposites. Frank was short and had dark hair.”

“She doesn’t look much like you, and nothing like Frank, she is an Amazonian redhead. She didn’t once ask you about that?”

“Not once. Did I mention the whiskey and the malnutrition?”

“Claire, don’t tell me. You drank alcohol during your pregnancy? You were a trained nurse then; don’t tell me you didn’t know better!”

“Just a little…..bottle…….every day, Stephanie, we didn’t know any better back then.”

“Ok, never mind. If she never grasped the fact that Frank wasn’t her father on her own because of possible fetal alcohol syndrome, how is she supposed to understand time travel now?”

“You have a point there. Maybe I’ll find a young handsome historian to help explain things to her.”

“I don’t see the logic, but you go with it Claire. I’m afraid to ask, but what were you and Jamie up to during the rest of the time you were back in time, besides getting drunk and having lots of sex?”

“We tried to change history by joining the Jacobite cause and save a bunch of lives. We went to France to get this accomplished. I had to have sex with the King of France to get Jamie out of The Bastille; it wasn’t very good on account of his tiny penis. “

“Oh dear god…..I did ask. “

“Yes you did. And guess who we ran into? Jack Randel! Jamie wanted to kill him straight away, but I stopped him because I was afraid Frank would never be born if he killed him. Jack is Frank’s ancestor you see.”

“I see……but I thought you killed Jack Randle with cows, which didn’t seem to upset you at all at the time. Now you get all angry about it? ”

“I changed my mind. Turns out it wasn’t Jack trampled by the cows. It’s really hard to identify someone after a trampling.”

“But Claire, you tried to change the course of history without ANY concern for the consequences. Any number of people could have been born that wouldn’t have and others who were never born that should have…….and you are concerned NOW about Frank, one person, never existing? Oh my head hurts again.”

“Claire it’s been great, but I have to get this timemower back to its rightful owner, he has a short fuse. There we go……forgot to hit enter. Please, don’t mess with history anymore Claire. Promise?”

“um…..sure, Stephanie, I promise.”

“I don’t believe you……”

"Ugh, what a dreadful cover. I'm supposed to have this read by Sunday afternoon."

Okay, Wendy's book group will meet tomorrow to discuss book three in the Outlander series, but I just finished this second one, and man, it was a long haul, and I don't just mean the length.

What didn't work for me: the self-satisfied tone of the author's voice behind her main character, repetitive phrases (mouths always "twitching" rather than almost smiling), excessive detail without sensory or emotional power, too much "telling" rather than "showing," muddy use of multiple points of view, over-the-top plot turns and one too many narrow escapes. I know it's fantasy, but I wasn't able to suspend my disbelief. And I hated the stupid exchange at the dinner table with Jamie's grandfather over the manual treatment of prostatitis. Just stupid.

What did work? Of course, I love the romanticism of Scotland and France in those days of clan rivalry and court intrigue, as well as the romanticism of a different kind between Jamie and Claire. I mean who doesn't like the idea of a devoted champion who forgives one's every flaw or indiscretion and is always up for a roll in the peat moss? And that description fits Claire as well as Jamie. But most of the love scenes are pretty lame.

The central story is strong and satisfying; the intricate plotting is impressive, if sometimes tiresome, the basic outline of the characters is very appealing, and I love that Claire is a healer. But I would just get caught up in a storyline when it would shift to something else. I want to know what happens, but I'm not willing to drag myself through five, or is it six? more books that should have been edited to half their current length.

“

OK, so admittedly, it took me a really long time to finish this book, and yes, I have some problems with it.

While it started off great (mostly, I think, due to the fact that I was still coming down off the high caused by the first book), the story quickly devolved into a mess of boring details and gut-wrenching melodrama. I first became stuck somewhere around 70%, I believe. The story was just dragging. I managed, with far more time than is usually necessary for me, to make it to the 83% mark before giving up. For months. I simply didn't have it in me to read any more. I knew what was coming, so not only did I not want to get to that part that I knew would make my stomach hurt, I also couldn't get past those ridiculously sleepy, dragged out battle details. Over and over again with the battles and the tending to the sick and the moving with the army.

Yesterday, however, I got an itch to read the first one again. I did so in a few hours (admittedly, I skimmed some, as this is not a book that can be read in its entirety in a few hours). After having done so, I was overwhelmed by the desire to finish this one. So I did. The ending of the book was much better than the rest of it. After all that snooze worthy political intrigue, it was nice to finally get to some climactic scenes. I wasn't disappointed, and even found myself unable to tear my focus away until I knew what happened (even though I knew it was going to be a bit heartbreaking).

I can't really describe what it is about these books that makes them so wonderful. If you're in any way a competent reader, you should be able to recognize and appreciate the time, effort, and care Diana Gabaldon put into crafting these stories. The character development is phenomenal. Claire and Jamie have a romance that feels absolutely real. That was what caught me again about the first book; after reading so many mediocre sexual fantasies disguised as romance fiction over the last year, it's truly amazing to read stories like these and be able to fully comprehend the meaning of the phrase "epic romance".

I'm really talking this up while only giving it three stars. Weird, I know. But the thing is, the book would have been perfect...had it just been edited down some. Gabaldon is a true wordsmith, but I fear her talent for words resulted in this book being rather too full of them. You wouldn't think such a thing was possible, but I assure you, it is. It's not that the book is too long, I love long stories. It's that the book is too long simply due to the endless political machinations and battle descriptions. I felt some of this could have been sped along without compromising the historical integrity of the work.

That being said, I'm glad I read it. I'm onto the third now, and really looking forward to more adventure.

This book broke my heart. I knew what was going to happen because I watched Season Two before reading the book but it doesn't matter.



I have been crying forever now, like my heart is going to break into a million pieces!

*******Let me stop right here. There are going to be some spoilers. There are going to be some thoughts about things in the next book. And who knows what else, so if you haven't read these books you should probably stop here. If you don't care then carry on.*******

It was worried when the book/show starts 20 years later. Jamie and Claire's daughter is grown and Claire named her Brianna. *Sob* because Jamie asked her to name the baby Brian if it was a boy before she left him to come back. I don't know if I can get through this, damn it.

20 years later, Claire brings her daughter, Brianna back to Scotland after Frank's death. Brianna has no idea, of course, who her father really is but she finds out. They are staying in Scotland and visiting all of the old sites and Claire took her to see a man named Roger. Claire knew Roger when he was a little boy. Claire actually knew his father, adoptive father, but he had passed away. He did keep extensive records. < --- it all leads back to things.



Claire goes back to some of the old haunts while Roger takes Brianna around. It breaks my freaking heart. Everything breaks my freaking heart.

n  n   

I woke three times in the dark predawn. First in sorrow, then in joy, and at last, in solitude. The tears of a bone-deep loss woke me slowly, bathing my face like the comforting touch of a damp cloth in soothing hands. I turned my face to the wet pillow and sailed a salty river into the caverns of grief remembered, into the subterranean depths of sleep.

I came awake then in fierce joy, body arched bowlike in the throes of physical joining, the touch of him fresh on my skin, dying along the paths of my nerves as the ripples of consummation spread from my center. I repelled consciousness, turning again, seeking the sharp, warm smell of a man's satisfied desire, in reassuring arms of my lover, sleep.

The third time I woke alone, beyond the touch of love or grief. The sight of the stones was fresh in my mind. A small circle, standing stones on the crest of a steep green hill. The name of the hill is Craigh na Dun; the fairies' hill. Some say the hill is enchanted, others say it is cursed. Both are right. But no one knows the function or the purpose of the stones.

Except me.

n  n



I'm so worried about the next book being more heartbreak. It's been 20 years after all. Jamie has been with other women and I think has a child, but they weren't like I was thinking. Yes, I asked ahead. He has never forgotten Claire but I hope they can get their love back. Anyway, on with this review.

At one point Claire finally admits everything to Brianna and Roger. Roger had already found some papers confirming things that Claire was saying but he was keeping them a secret because he didn't know what to make of it. Brianna freaks clean out as you can imagine.

But the best part is where we get to go back in time before Claire came back and hear their story.

They have set off for France to see if they can get in with Jamie's cousin < -- was it cousin, Jacob. Anyway, Jamie could not set foot back into Scotland so this is where they landed. Murtagh was with them but they left the others behind. They were going to try to change history so that the Klan wouldn't be killed during a certain battle.

It was very bizarre in France with all of the creeps they had to deal with and then Captain Randall shows up. Claire and Jamie thought he was dead. He's never dead, he just keeps on and on. Like I said before, there is a red hot poker waiting for that evil man.

The king of France is another nutter. You can read all of that for yourself.

Jamie takes in a little boy who is a thief and gets him off the streets. I fall in love with him. His name is Fergus and that Randall gets his paws on Fergus and I can't even say. Red hot poker people, red hot poker!

I was heartbroken again when Claire and Jamie lose their first child that was a little girl as well. There were a lot of different situations that could have caused that. Claire thinks it was because Jamie was dueling with Randall (there is a lot of stuff behind that) but she was poisoned at one point and attacked so who really knows.

Jamie gets put in jail and has no idea what happened to Claire. He thought she was dead. But Claire had to have sex with the weird king to get Jamie out of jail. It wasn't like me or Claire thought though, it was weird but not all, well anyway. It was just weird. And no way to leave her pregnant.

Jamie finds Claire a little later on when she is in the country staying with one of their friends. Claire is mad and doesn't want Jamie near her until they talk and finally get it straightened out. Thank goodness because it was all so very sad.

Then they are sent back to Scotland. It was another condition from the king and he said he would take care of him not being allowed there.

Of they go back home and they think they are safe but no. They thought they stopped what was coming, but no. They go to battle and it's not good and it's sad.

There are other things and more battle and Jamie sends Claire back. He just knows he's going to die and he doesn't want Claire or their unborn baby (yep they got preggers again) to be killed too and it just about killed me to read this. I thought I was okay when I watched it and I was over it and could handle it. Noooooooooooooo, I'm still heartbroken. I only hope they can get the love they had for each other back as strong as it was. The first book is the best book and will always be, but I will love them all as long as Jamie and Claire have their love. I love their love story! And that's all I need.



They cut each other's hands (Claire's idea) and . . . .

n  

Unwrapping the blood-spotted handkerchief, I pressed my wounded hand tightly against his, fingers gripped together. The blood was warm and slick, not yet sticky between our hands.

"Blood of my Blood . . ." I whispered.
". . . and Bone of my Bone," he answered softly. Neither of us could finish the vow, "so long as we both shall live," but the unspoken words hung aching between us. Finally he smiled crookedly.
"Longer than that," he said firmly, and pulled me to him once more.

n





JUST KILL ME NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T EVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Claire, Brianna and Roger witness something that shows that Claire might can go back through the stones.

Then something else.

n  

"One man, a Fraser of the Master of Lovat's regiment, escaped. . ." Roger repeated softly. He looked up from the stark page to see her eyes, wide and unseeing as a deer's fixed in the headlights of an oncoming car.

"He meant to die on Culloden Field," Roger whispered.
"But he didn't."

n



I also recommend listening to the audio versions of these books! The narrator, Davina Porter, has it nailed - freaking nailed! ❤

MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2), Diana Gabaldon

Dragonfly in Amber is the second book in the Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Centered on time travelling 20th century nurse Claire Randall and her 18th century Scottish Highlander warrior husband Jamie Fraser, the books contain elements of historical fiction, romance, adventure and science fiction/fantasy. This installment chronicles Claire and Jamie's efforts to prevent the Jacobite rising that Claire knows will end disastrously for the Scots.

Scotland, 1968: Claire Randall has returned to her own time, where she has been living for 20 years with her husband Frank. Following his death, she brings her daughter, Brianna, to the home of the Randalls' old friend, Reverend Reginald Wakefield.

Paris, 1744: At the end of Outlander, Claire has convinced Jamie to stop the Jacobite rising and the consequent slaughter. After learning that Charles Stuart is trying to get money from the French king Louis XV to fund the Jacobite cause, they travel to Paris, where Jamie uses his cousin Jared's wine business to gain the aristocratic connections necessary to plot against Stuart. A French boy named Claudel, brought up in a brothel, helps Jamie flee from some thugs, and Jamie hires him to steal the prince's correspondence, and renames him Fergus.

Scotland, 1745 and the Rising: Claire frees Jamie by an arrangement with King Louis XV of France, and they are banished from France. Back in Scotland with Fergus, they settle into farm life at his home at Lallybroch with Jamie's sister Jenny and her family. Jamie receives a letter from Stuart, announcing his attempt to retake the throne of Scotland, which the prince has signed Jamie's name to, branding him a traitor to the Crown.

1968: Claire relates that she had returned to Frank, who disbelieved her story but insisted on helping her raise Brianna, and asked that she would only tell Brianna the truth after his death. Upon hearing it, Brianna refuses to believe Claire's story. Claire enlists Roger's help by revealing him as the descendant of Dougal MacKenzie and Geillis Duncan.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و سوم ماه دسامبر سال 2017میلادی

عنوان: سنجاقک در کهربا: کتاب دوم از سری بیگانه (غریبه)؛ نویسنده: دایانا گابالدون؛

سنجاقک در کهربا، دومین رمان از سری «بیگانه یا غریبه» از نویسنده ی آمریکایی «دیانا گابالدون (گبلدون)» است؛ این کتاب شامل عناصر تاریخی، عاشقانه، رمز و راز، ماجراجویی، و داستانی علمی-تخیلی است؛ رخدادهای این کتاب تلاشهای «جیمی فریزر» برای جلوگیری از انقلاب ژاکوبینهاست، که «کلر رندال» میداند برای اسکاتلندیها فاجعه بار خواهد بود؛ «دایانا گابالدون» در این کتاب دو شخصیت فراموش نشدنی «کلر رندال»، و «جیمی فریزر» را معرفی، و خوانشگران را با داستانی پر از ماجراجویی، و عشقیِ دو سده ی پیشین آشنا میکند

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 08/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

This is the sequel to Outlander, and begins in 1968, twenty-one years after we left Claire and Jaime recovering in the French Abbey, pondering their decision to try and stop Bonnie Prince Charlie from starting a war which they know will decimate the Highland Clans.

At first, this is such a jolt you think you've picked up the wrong book. Feverishly checking online, you are reassured that this is in fact the sequel. Going back to the book, it all becomes clear, though you are panicking at the idea of twenty-odd long years of separation for Jaimie and Claire. Followed by a horrible wrench of the heart when we learn from Claire that Jaimie died at the battle at Culloden, Prince Charles' final stand.

Claire is back in Scotland for the first time since returning to her own time, pregnant and disorientated. Her husband, Frank Randall, has died, and she is keeping a promise to herself to tell her daughter Brianna about her real father. She goes back to the Reverend Wakefield's house to find his adopted son, Roger, in residence after the Reverend's death. Roger, too, must hear her story, for reasons she does not reveal until the end. And so, as she tells her story, we learn what happened after the events in Outlander and how she came to return to Frank, and what happened to Jaimie.

I have a confession to make. First, I'll say that the start of this book made me so sad, I wondered whether I could read it at all. Secondly, I'll say that I did not mean to shatter this well-written illusion of the hangman's rope by cheating. I did flip to the back of the book, but not to read the last page or anything. I am always hoping that there is some kind of guide on pronounciation, and I'm one of those people who read everything from the author's bio and acknowledgements page to the copyright details. There was no guide on pronounciation, but there was one of those ads for the next book, Voyager, which begins by stating that Claire has gone back to 18th century Scotland because she believes Jaimie is still alive.

This was a bit of a mixed blessing. First, it did make it a whole lot easier to read this book, knowing that he would survive. But I also actually like to feel what an author intended me to feel, and I did not shed a tear at Claire and Jaimie's parting before the battle of Culloden when, faced with dying the traitor's death for killing his cousin Dougal and betraying his country, Jaimie has decided to die in battle. That, I regretted, though it did make it easier to sleep! Some reviewers didn't like the way the narration kept switching between Roger's 3rd-person and Claire's 1st-person narrative at the beginning and end. Personally, I didn't have a problem with it, I found it easy to tell them apart. I admit I skimmed a bit at the end, when Claire and Roger are looking for Geillis Duncan/Gillian Edgars. I was feeling a bit impatient by then.

As for Gabaldon's writing style, which I haven't said much about before, I do find her a tad long-winded. She tells a great story, very well-researched and, despite the time travel, believable. But her descriptions can be a little flowery, and often unnecessary. She bogs down the pace with pointless asides on the state of wilting flowers by a door as they wait for it to be answered. I know it adds to the character development - in this case, to make clear that Gillian has not been home for some time and her husband is unable to look after himself. Except that this is made clear several times over. A lot of the description is unnecessary, and often distracting. Removing some of it would definitely have cut down fewer trees to make this fat, hefty book. Don't get me wrong, I love fat and hefty. But it's ultimately a sad story, and the little flowery sentences sprinkled throughout were as annoying as little bugs flitting about your face that won't piss off no matter how hard you wave your arm around, looking like a complete twit.

Now I've got that off my chest, I'll reiterate: I did enjoy this book, and I will continue with the series, just not now. I need some recuperation time first.

While I didn't love this one as much as Outlander, I did enjoy it and am finding myself somewhere between a 3-3.5 stars. After the initial shock of the jump forward in time, I eased into the story and enjoyed traveling from France, to Lallybroch, back to where we began, and of course adored the continuation of Jamie and Claire's love story.

Uno de los capítulos (46) más tristes y hermosos que he leído, están en este libro.
Amo todo de esta historia.

*Heavy sigh.*

[Theme spoilers, but no plot spoilers. Read at your own risk.]

I don't even know where to start because properly reviewing this would involve so much quoting and backing up and I don't have the energy for that after 700+ pages. The short of it is that the romantic hero character perpetuates rape culture by using the words 'rape' and 'sex' synonymously, blaming sexual assault on what the woman is wearing, and claiming that once men get aroused they literally cannot stop themselves from ravaging anyone nearby. His wife, the modern woman, actually shows fear that he will beat and rape her. Though she momentarily gets mad at him, she soon finds herself unable to keep her hands off of him (wash, rinse, repeat), thus showing all the rapeyness in romantic light. That's my problem with it.

Also, if you don't know what an emotionally abusive and controlling relationship looks like, read the last 3 paragraphs of page 677 and the first half of page 678. Jealousy, demands, physical shaking, blaming her for his actions, shaming her past, solving their problems through sex. Oh look at that, I did have the energy to give at least one example. I found this to be unhealthy. Perhaps you don't. But I've lived through a very similar type of relationship and if this is what's selling as "romantic" then this book is part of the problem. I hope and pray that most readers can discern that this is undesirable.

I've discussed cultural relativism on my channel. I can respect when a book needs to show troublesome content to stay accurate to the time period. What I don't respect is this content being romanticized. There are villains in this series who behave the same way. Heroes can absolutely be morally gray, or have a darker side without portraying something harmful. When the villains and heroes act the same, what is the actual distinction between them? Are we just rooting for the hottest one?

I had so many problems with the sexism and rape culture in this book that you may be wondering why I gave it 2 stars? Despite the problematic subjects, I do consider the writing to be of quality. I have no idea if the history was well researched, but it had a depth that felt well researched. To be fair, historical fiction isn't my genre of choice, but perhaps you'd enjoy this more if it is yours.

I did also REALLY enjoy the parts of the book set in the 1960s when Jamie is out of the picture. Yes, I know I'm weird. Isn't Jamie supposed to be the main thrill of the story? Well, not for me. I was much more interested in the way the story played with time travel and its repercussions in Claire's original time. This time period bookended the story and honestly I was reading all of the past setting just to find out how the timelines would converge.

If you're curious, from what I've watched of Outlander season 2, the show DID eliminate the problematic lines from Jamie. The show seems to be a better treatment and so I do think I'll continue the show since it's my preferred, less harmful version of this story that lets the genuinely interesting premise shine.