Synopsis
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just 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 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.
Review
Rating? 5/5
Would re-read? Definitely!
How can I start this review? I started this book, probably, two months ago and it took so long to first get into it, but once I got to page 150 I just couldn't stop, I read the next 600 hundred pages in two days!
So the pros about this book: you can tell from the start that the author took a long time doing research for the book, everything is detailed with the exact amount of random details that everyone can enjoy. It is amazing how this book is more than 20 years old and it is still fascinating.
Another HUGE pro about this book is the romance, and now I declare that I'm hopelessly in love with Jamie Fraser, I mean, who wouldn't? He is, honest to God, the most romantic guy I've ever read about, but never getting to a point where it's too much, Diana Gabaldon definitely knew the right amount of romance in each scene. There's also the fact that Jamie was younger than Claire, which was also a detail that I enjoyed a lot about the book, especially because that's something we don't really see much.
The characters are also a very important part of every novel, and oh man, the characters in this novel are amazing! We are introduced to so many of them through out the book but every single one of them is so well written and each on them's got their own particular story that is easy to keep track with all of them without getting confused.
And don't get me started on the plot (and the plot twists), this is a book that takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, feeling like crying in one chapter, but immediately happy in the next one.
Another aspect that I enjoyed about this book is that it can be easily read as a stand alone, so if you don't feel like reading eight seven-hundred-page book you can just read this one and feel completely satisfied with the ending, even though I will be reading the next books in the series (I mean, I'll take as much Jamie Fraser as I can get).
Do keep in mind that this is an adult novel, so some scenes have a lot of detail, especially sex and rape, both of those topics appear a lot through out the novel, so if you don't feel comfortable reading about that maybe this isn't the book for you, although I strongly recommend giving it a try.
