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