Friday Reads: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon!!!

Soooo, how is your Friday going guys??

Are you joining my birthday week celebration and entering the giveaways? I hope you are!!

Today as my Friday Reads entry I have a book that had not expected to read, and even less expected to love as much as I did. I blame it all on the amazing Outlander show on Starz and the awesome Twitter ladies that with their love for the show and books made me want to watch and then read: Sharon, Sara, Kate... THANK YOU!

I'm obsessed with the show and the book and my latest obsession that I was playing on loop while writing the review was the title theme song for the show and I must share it with you guys now, watch it and then feel free to read or ignore my review! ;)






Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had seen the Outlander books many times out there but for some reason I was never drawn to them. But then time passed, the show was made and many of the awesome ladies I follow on Twitter started tweeting about the awesome show and even more awesome Jamie and I decided to give the show a try. So I started watching the show, loved it to bits and decided to read the first book in the series while waiting for the next episode!

As contrary as you would expect I'm not kicking myself for not having read this book before because I think this book was exactly what I needed in this moment in my life and it's simply meant so much to me that it wouldn't have at a different time.

Outlander is a story of love, adventure, history, time travel and magic. I wasn't very sure about the time travel bit but I think the way it was done, with the magic element and the unknown instead of trying to give us some explanation simply works great for the story. The focus is not so much the time travel, but finding yourself in another time, getting to grips with it and trying to adapt and not stick out too much while you try to go back to your own time.

Claire Randall (or Beauchamp) is a World War II nurse that is returning to normal life once war is over and is trying to find her way back to her marriage after all the time apart. They go on a second honeymoon to Scotland together to rebuild their relationship and their intimacy and it's during that time that Claire finds herself traveling back in time to 1743 without meaning to.

And Claire is such a great character, she tries logic first, trying to rationalize what might be a sensible explanation and then she ends up accepting that something very strange has happened and focuses on survival. Finding herself in the middle of a struggle and in what can be enemy territory, she can't help but follow her instincts as a nurse and help and by doing so, she starts a new thread in her life that she never would have imagine or wanted.

Seeing her trying to make the best of an extremely confusing situation and still being true to her values and not giving up on her strenght, even when she makes some not so intelligent choices was fantastic. She's a strong character and even when she has very few options, she always try to make her own choice, not letting others decide for her. Given that the 18th century isn't exactly a feminist haven, this strikes me as the hardest balance to keep for her, if we don't count the quite massive emotional turmoil that she goes through leaving behind her rekindled relationship with her husband and finding herself progressively falling in love with another man.

And that brings us to Jamie, ah dear Jamie! He's a young Scot that Claire helps heal on her first few hours on the 18th century and he's the one that seems to distrust her less and seems to appreciate her being different the most. He was a wonder to read about and I loved that despite all the hardships in his life, he still remained such a nice guy all around. He is nice, caring, strong, terribly stubborn but also very loyal and ended up being the most interesting and enticing guy I had read about in a loooong time. If there is a character that I'd really claim as a book boyfriend, it'd be James Alexander Malcom McKenzie Fraser. Even if at times he can also be infuriating and I felt like giving him a smack or a good talking to, something that Claire did for me every time! I just adored their relationship all over the book, how they get to know each other, find themselves as friends, allies, lovers and simply the best team ever.

The background for all this is a Scotland that is defying the British rule, even if not yet in open battle, so the political enviroment was perfect for a lot of action and plenty of drama. Though the book is a very long one I never once felt like I wanted to skip something or other, because in the end a lot of details here or there had relevance further on. The secondary characters were amazing in general, even if I fell in love with some more than with others.

All in all a fantastic book and one that has entered straight away into both my favourites and my therapy reads shelves! Very much deserved 5 stars!!



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