Ci sono libri che lasciano il segno, questo è impresso in me in maniera talmente profonda che sarà impossibile poterlo mai dimenticare. Letto per la prima volta circa 15 anni fa, quando ancora non si sapeva se ci sarebbe stato un seguito, è uno di quei libri dai quali non potrei mai separarmi. Una storia scritta in maniera magistrale e che colpisce al cuore, personaggi che definire indimenticabili è veramente troppo poco. Potrei dilungarmi all’infinito, ma ho un solo consiglio per chi non l’avesse già fatto, leggetelo perché è veramente unico. ( )

Things I didn't know I wanted til I read this book.

1. My husband to wear a kilt.
2. An underground hot spring pool.

Things I want even more than before, now I've read this book.

1. To live in Scotland
2. For my husband to have a Scottish accent.

That is all. ( )

This was one of the first time travel romance books I ever read and got me addicted. Love the whole series with Jamie and Claire. They've been through so much and to stay as in love through out everything is wonderful, and inspiring. ( )

An engaging story about Claire, a nurse in World War 2 who falls through wormhole and winds up in late 18th Century Scotland. She falls in love with an ancestor of her beau in her original time line and they're married to none another but only for status.
She wrestles with sex roles and history; she can't tell anyone how she knows as much as she does because no one would believe her. Claire and another woman (who seems to know as much as she does) are almost burnt as witches, and the other woman has a scar that Clare recognizes as a smallpox vaccine. Another time traveller? We assume so, but that aspect of the story is almost incidental to the main plot line.
An engaging story that sets its circumstance well. Galbadon knows how unpleasant 19th Century Europe is (running water is a necessity) and she explores it well. ( )

This book has a lot of sex.

It’s readable, but falls apart about halfway through when the story changes. I can easily tell where author Diana Gabaldon struggled with the decision to make this a different book than was originally intended and in the end she splits the difference.

After World War II, Claire, a nurse, is reunited with her husband, a solider in the war. Cue five chapter of obvious setup including what must be setup for future books (I’ll give props where due). Claire and her husband discuss his ancestors and a rebellion that took place two hundred years ago. Coincidentally, that’s exactly the time that Claire ends up traveling back to, where she promptly meets her husband’s ancestor.

Ethically, this book is questionable, to put it lightly. Later, Claire meets a rugged Scottish hunk who she beds (repeatedly). See, it’s not cheating on your husband if he hasn’t been born yet! A priest literally absolves her of this toward the end of the book, so we know it’s okay. Never mind that Claire has the choice to return to her husband and refuses it for that sweet Scottish loving. Never you mind that this Scottish hunk is quite sexually violent at one point, which Claire easily forgives because “she deserves it”. It’s the 1700s, feminism hasn’t been invented. England and Scotland have slaves still (though we conveniently never see them), surely Claire wouldn’t be okay with that.

It’s trashy, but it’s well written trash. I’d much prefer less sex and far more digging into the Jacobite rebellion. This is barely touched on, but Claire has landed into an era of Scottish history that saw an exiled Scottish house attempting to take the British throne. However, Claire knows what happened, but she doesn’t know if she has the ability to change history. This is a FASCINATING idea, but it’s oh-so-barely touched on. If this book had more history and less coitus, I’d have enjoyed it far more. ( )