Author: Diana Gabaldon
In the first book of a seven-book series, Claire Beauchamp is vacationing in 1940s Scotland with her husband when a mysterious chasm in a rock whisks her back in time to Scotland in the 1700s. Once Claire realizes what has happened, she desperately tries to keep her origins a secret all while trying to find a way back to her husband and modern times. That is, until she meets Jamie Fraser.
I had heard a lot of hype surrounding this book and series so imagine my surprise and delight when it was offered for free for the Kindle. I downloaded it to see what the fuss was all about and although I don't really see what there is to rave about, I will say that I greatly enjoyed this book and want to see what's up next for Claire and Jamie.
These two made the book fly by for me. I really admired Claire's character as she is a super strong, opinionated woman who has no problem standing up for what she believes in. Jamie complemented her well throughout the book as he has just as much passion and emotion as she does. He's also been through a lot of really horrible situations throughout his life and Diana Gabaldon does an excellent job of turning him into a character that you could really connect with.
On the other hand, some parts of the book were a little chick lit-ish and unbelievable for me. The whole concept of time travel and (spoiler alert here) Claire's decision to just never return to her husband and the 1940s was really hard for me to get. So she just falls off the face of the earth essentially and just decides "meh, I'm gonna take my chances here in 1700s Scotland"? I just felt that her struggle with whether or not to stay or try to get back to her husband could have been more of a prominent theme. Maybe that inner struggle could have been explored more in place of all the sex scenes...
Because there were a lot of them. It got a little repetitive and made the book drag on a bit. Reading this on my Kindle I didn't realize how many pages it was, but according to reviews and Amazon it tops out at about 800 pages. Yikes.
Like I said though, I am interested to find out where this series go and I have the next one, Dragonfly in Amber, on my Kindle now thanks to a gift card from my boss for Christmas. Overall I was entertained and the book was an easy read with a good mix of action, adventure, and romance. Well maybe a little too much romance.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (I get it, they're sooooo in love)
Coming Up Next: World Without End by Ken Follett
I'm taking a break from Jamie and Claire (after one book, I know) and venturing into England in the 1300s. This is the follow up to "Pillars of the Earth" which stands as one of my all-time favorites and I can't wait to see what this has in store. Set in the same city of Kingsbridge but two centuries later, this book follows four children who meet in a forest and see two men killed. As adults, their lives will become intertwined yet again. They will follow very different paths but will always live under the shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed as kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment