Guest Review by Gina: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander
written by Diana Gabaldon
published by Dell Publishing Company

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book: This novel is going to be on my favorites list. My friends kept telling me I’d fall in love, and they were right. It had some of my favorite things in it — Scotland, handsome highlanders, and a really good story. I love historical fiction, and if there’s some romance mixed in, it’s even better!

I usually don’t like romance novel heroines unless they’re very strongly written, because normally the heroine reminds me of my one-year-old when she doesn’t get her juice cup. Claire fits the bill when it comes to a well-written heroine. She is smart and sassy, and quite frankly, I love her. She’s a feisty Englishwoman who doesn’t let highlanders boss her around. She makes my inner Spice Girl say GIRL POWER! (Everyone has an inner Spice Girl right?)

Jamie, our hero, is also one of my favorite characters. He is strong and, at times, a brute, but his strength is comfortable and reassuring. I definitely want him wrapped around me like a security blanket.  He doesn’t dominate Claire but instead defends both woman and child. You’ve gotta love a man who tries his best, and any man who wears a kilt AND gets passionate in bed is fine by me.

Yes, there is some sex in this book, but I promise you it’s tastefully done. There isn’t any in the first half of the book, and I didn’t miss it. This book isn’t a bodice-ripping good time – it’s historical fiction with romance. Love is a constant theme, and when you do get the kilt lifting, it only builds the relationship between our beloved Claire and Jamie, which makes this book all the better for me.

Golden Line:  “Not for the first time, I reflected that intimacy and romance are not synonymous.”

 

 

 

Would I recommend it: A thousand times aye!

~ Gina ~

 

About the book – from Goodreads: The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is 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 stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach–an “outlander”–in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life…and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire…and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.