Outlander

OMG! You won't see me using that particular text talk almost ever, but I'm not sure what else to start with in reference to Outlander. The first book in a currently eight book series, Outlander has been raved and reviewed out the wazoo. After so many great reviews and encouragement from those whose choices I hold in high regard, I decided to check it out. It helped that it had two things going for it otherwise: I love reading series and I like big books.

Claire Randall is a field nurse who, at the end of WWII, finds herself back with a husband she's barely spent time with due to the war. Married eight years at that point, Frank and Claire find themselves happy to be together finally. Until one day Claire's walk among a (fictional) Stonehenge-like set of stones wisps her back in time...200 years back, at a time of unrest and soon all out war between the English and Scots...with a man who will become her own unrest, Jamie Fraser. With a setting like that, you know there will be plenty of action. In a culture she doesn't know, in a land of danger, with a blue-eyed stranger, it is a given Claire is about to live through adventures she couldn't even imagine. 

Action isn't all Outlander offers. Suspense plays a big part. But the suspense works best because you care for the characters, who whip up some romance along the way. Action, romance, suspense...reminds me of something. Twilight? 

Wait...wait...before you close out this page in disgust or jump to buy Outlander in joy of this comparison, let me explain. I am a fan of Twilight. They were fun reads using part of a genre (monsters) that I never read. The Twilight books also used action (though not as much), romance, and suspense. So as I began reading and love interests started forming, I couldn't help but see a parallel. But, I have to say, Outlander is much stronger in all aspects and therefore, the better story. The characters for one, are much stronger people...strong before meeting each other and even better for having been together. Their dependence on each other isn't sissified or obsessive. The action is much more intense, as Claire doesn't understand the culture and consistently finds herself in trouble. The romance is...well, ummm...yea, there's romance and you don't have to wait four books in to find it! (Consider yourself warned, anyone who can't handle steamy scenes.)

I put aside all else, including my Goodreads Challenge goal, to read this chunkster. And I plan on moving straight to the second book, Dragonfly in Amber, in total disregard of that "books read in 2015" goal. Because I just can't wait to see what Jamie and Claire are going to get into next.

Haven't read it yet? What's stopping you?

Jamie Fraser and I on our
date at the B&N in DC

Repeat (and my love of time travel)

source: Amazon.com

Repeat, by Neal Pollack

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Publication date: April 21, 2015

Category: Entertainment, Fiction

Source: I received this book from NetGalley in consideration for review.

Everyone has their favorite types of books and generally there are a few. Sometimes there is one type of plot that will draw you in every time. I have one of those...time travel. Or anything along the lines of time travel, such as repeatedly being born over and over, reliving life with or without knowledge of the previous lives. You know, the Back to the Future movies and books such as The Time Traveler's Wife, Life After Life, and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Why? I think it's because time travel - and how the author chooses to set it up - gives the plot opportunities to twist. And as I've said here numerous times, there's nothing I like better than a good plot twist or twist ending.

And this is why I requested Repeat from NetGalley the very first time I heard of its premise, without further detail. Brad is a washed out writer with a small family to care for. They live in a dump and upon hitting his 40th birthday, he has nothing great to claim to his name, except his family, who also seem like a burden at times. A total mess, Brad goes to sleep the night before he turns 40 with the aid of a "potion" his wife has concocted.

From that point on Brad is destined to relive his life from the womb, starting over the night before he turns 40. With each incarnation the world's history plays out the same, but Brad has a second, third, fourth, etc., chance to change his own previous decisions; therefore, changing the life he lives.

At what point does starting over become tiring? At what point do you start looking for an end? Ultimately, what is the point? Eventually Brad is faced with these questions and spends lifetimes looking for the answers. This is also the part I liked best about Repeat - there is a lesson being taught in it all. For those who would wish to know, there are some rough parts, where Brad talks about sex and such, that I didn't think were always as valuable to the story (although they fit Brad's character). All in all though it had a different tone (more laid back?) from the like novels I mentioned above and it did have the lesson at the end. I don't star rate books often, but in this case I think it helps clarify where I stand. I'd give this one three stars.

Your favorite plot set up readers?

Miss Peregrine's World of Peculiar!

Big classroom hits!

Ugh! I have to start with the fact that I read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and its sequel, Hollow City, quickly and with great interest...only to find out there's another book coming. Ahhhhhh! It's a series, which I totally didn't know going into it. I hate starting series before they all come out. The third book will be out late 2015. And apparently, Tim Burton is making a movie of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, for which Wikipedia mentions a release date of March 4, 2016.

An example of "weird" pictures within.
We see stuff like this cause of the Internet,
but before the Internet, such strange things
were few and far between.

Okay, now that I have that out of my system, I truly enjoyed these books. Fantasy is the name of the game with these YA novels, which usually places a book at a disadvantage with me. However, Riggs formed the story around groups of actual old photographs. Strange and spooky black and white or sepia photos that actually exist adorn the covers and pages of these stories. The narration pulls the random photos together, forming a fictional, but cool story about the why's and what if's of the weird photographs. At any point where Riggs describes a strange person or weird set up, you'd better believe a new picture will appear on the following page.


That small connection to reality (the photos) drew me in, along with the wonderful reviews from all sorts of readers - especially from those who don't care for YA and make sure you know it! As Miss Peregrine's gained popularity, I started recommending it to students, who are forever my guinea pigs when I have too much to read and not enough time (like, always). Every single one loved it. Anyway, I wanted to see the cool pictures and while I was at it I might as read the book, right?

Some photos are obviously photoshopped,
but back in the day, with such limited
technology, people wouldn't realize this, or
at least wonder how it was done.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children finds teenage Jacob bored and out of place with life. However, a chain of events sets in motion discoveries that no one can imagine and no one will believe. Fighting for his life and the lives of new friends, Jacob time travels, fights monsters, and ultimately finds a place where he belongs. Hollow City picks up right where Miss Peregrine's leaves off, continuing the story you so want to hear the end of...until you hit the last five pages and realize there aren't enough pages left for this to wrap up and then see that there is a whole other book that won't be out for a year...then you're just cursing under your breath.

But it's good up until then. And I'll be a happy person come end of this year and I get to continue us the journey with Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children.

Have I piqued your interest enough?