Book cover: “Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in century and a lover in another… In 1945, Claire Randall is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland. Innocently she walks through a stone circle in the Highlands, and finds herself in a violent skirmish taking place in 1743. Suddenly she is a Sassenach, an outlander, in a country torn by war and by clan feuds.

A wartime nurse, Claire can deal with the bloody wounds that face her. But it is harder to deal with the knowledge that she is in Jacobite Scotland and the carnage of Culloden is looming. Marooned amid the passion and violent, the superstition, the shifting allegiances and the fervent loyalties, Claire is in danger from Jacobities and Redcoats – and from the shock of her own desire for James Fraser, a gallant and courageous young Scots warrior. Jamie shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire, and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.”

As if, in the grip of a brown, tumbling, burn in full-spate after torrential, spring downpour I was carried along, almost unable to put this book down to get some sleep. Galbaldon is a breathtaking storyteller and, this is a relentlessly driving story, and where the pace doesn’t drive, it maintains a slow burn that still required constant watchfulness. Though for me, and I suspect thousands of others, the utterly engaging nature of this novel lay at its core, in the deeply heartfelt, and ferociously reciprocated regard the two protagonists Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser discover and hold for each other. The generosity of spirit both share, their deliberated honesty and the painful openness about their lives make for an intensity in their interaction that is absolutely compelling.

So although there is heart breaking drama and sometimes swift and terrifying action here, it’s the day to day dealings of the participants, in particular how they support each other to deal with all that their lives throw at them, that held my attention so rapt. Yes, there was a need to suspend belief and go with the ‘time portal’, stone gateway, a sighting of a ‘monster’ and a good few too many near-death escapes but in spite of those and maybe even with their aid this book provides something I think really inspiring writing can offer and that is the opportunity to examine ones own place in life and do some learning. So while having the feeling that there are few relationships that operate with the remarkable clarity that Jamie and Claire apply to their communications, as a role model their relationship does have a sound sense of rightness to it that does one good to read about.

So thanks to annenz for prompting me to read this, as you can tell I enjoyed it! Phew, 863 pages though and the next in the series, Dragonfly in Amber has 963, Holy Hanna.

RELEASE NOTES:

I was lucky in being able to toss a huge chunk of weekend at this to get it ready to post. I am sad for those that have to eke out tomes like this between other priorities. Though, I do know too that the joy of being to savour books slowly has its own rewards.

So this was off today, into the slow, surface mail, heading to annenz in New Zealand. It had been sitting on one of my un-registered, To-Be-Read piles for months. I had been offered it last year by the same Gabaldon fan who had pressed books two and three of the series, on me earlier that year. She was so thrilled with them she wanted to share them. Admittedly I had been holding back from starting to read them, as I was very conscious of the colossal size of all of these books, Dragonfly in Amber, book two (963pgs) and book three Voyager (1059pgs). As the series runs to six books I was conscious of the investment of time I would be committing too if I liked the first one. Too late, I’m hooked, and bookgroup reads not-withstanding, I am onto page 274 of Dragonfly in Amber already.

Arrived today and now in my TBR list, thanks:))

Great reading, she's an amazing story teller:)

This is now on it's way to Auckland here in New Zealand:)

To be re-listed on NZ swapclub

CAUGHT IN AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND