Outlander (1991)

Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British 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 clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.

Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.

Reasonably entertaining and decently written, but basically a bodice ripper. I got pretty tired of all the hoo-ha and the sex toward the end, and was glad when it was finally over. I won't read any more of the books in the series.

Ugh, at least a 1-3 of this book could have been edited outThe premise was promising, and I enjoyed the beginning very much. The farther I read, the more I started skimming. Villain is a caricature, even though main characters are written well.The repetition and superfluous scenes annoyed the hell out of me.Hammered over waaaaaay too many times:It was a different time, they like having sex - a lot, seems everyone wants to rape Claire, jaime is always there just in the nick of time to save her, they have sex to celebrate. Claire isn’t the only one who gets raped. Eye roll. Sorry, how is HIS rape so much worse an event than hers? How the HELL can an intelligent educated woman be ok with this, .... oh, yeah, the entire book is a way for a bored woman to find a loophole to cheat on her husband and take part in some bondage and domination.I gave it 3 stars because there are many parts of the book that are quite good, great imagery, interesting weaving in of historical events, some well written drama that keep me interested even to keep reading hoping to find out more...Where it failed the worst for me was 600 pages of mostly s&m fantasy used as a set up to a sequel, which I will not be reading. Come on, I had to endure HOW many rapes and beatings just to have nothing explained or resolved?Before someone skewers me for poopooing it, yes I understand historical and cultural differences in attitudes towards women and sex and yes I knew it was a series when I started it. And I’m not a crazy feminist, I have enjoyed plenty of books with weak stereotypes of women, this isn’t one, it was badly done, but honestly something a good editor could have fixed. Based on reviews plenty of people love this book, and I very much enjoyed parts, just not enough to make me want to toss in an extra star or bother with the rest of the books. ( )

This is really a higher 3. Somewhere in the 3.6-8 range. Claire is a wonderful character. And for a book where I thought it was gonna be all about hetero historical romance and such (which is really just not my thing) I was surprised. I mean... It IS that, make no mistake, this is the story about a woman who falls through time and falls in love with a big hulking dude, but it's done well. And her story on her own is interesting, as is the big hulking dude's, and the other people she meets. That, and I have it on good recommendations that the rest of the series expands even more and is more of a family/historical saga and Claire's story. So, I enjoyed it, and I'm off to read some of the others. ( )

Narrator is great! ( )