Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Hero: Jamie Fraser
Heroine: Claire Randall
Grade: Story: C- Jamie: A+

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder 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 border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, 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.

Okay first off, let me tell you something. This book could have been cut in half and been a great book, I mean gosh could it take me any longer to finish this book? I won't dispute the fact that it was a good book, but there was a good chunk of the book that could have been cut out and I still would have loved the heck out of Jamie Fraser.

Because I did, Jamie Fraser is the quintessential perfect hero.

I say that and mean it with all that I am. Grace hit it on the nail when she described him.

"He is the man every woman would want to love and be loved by and the man every other man would strive to be. He's fierce and courageous, hardened by the betrayals and obscenities he has suffered in his lifetime, and yet has the ability to love with his entire soul."

That's the perfect way to describe Jamie Fraser, having lived through everything he lived through, surviving the trials he went through in this book alone and still have the ability to love Claire with everything he is, takes some serious balls. Everything I read about him in this book alone has made me love the man more and more and he will most definitely be bumped in my Ultimate Hero list because there were plenty of times when I was like, "Holy Batballs Batman!" throughout this book, because I couldn't have survived HALF of what Jamie suffered and still be capable of feeling love, still be able to see the goodness in those around me, it just wouldn't be possible for me.

I liked how Claire cared enough to handle the whole Jack Randall thing with Jamie at the end of the book, even though it was probably necessary, I didn't really care to read about all of that. I mean, I know it was bad, I have an imagination and the image that went through my head about all of that, just isn't something that I'd care to read about in my romance novels and it really made me uncomfortable because as much as I think I'm open to all kinds of things (in my reading that is), just all the pages on this gay crap really made me uncomfortable. I hated reading about it and I guess I just would have been A Okay with knowing it happened and not having to read about it happening, ya know?

I got how Claire loved Jamie and I even got how she loved Frank and I was more happy with the whole concept of Claire and Jamie even though she was still married to Frank (even if technically it hadn't yet happened yet, but when she got married to Jamie, she was still wearing Frank's rings) thing, but I seriously don't think the book needed to be that long. Because it took me soo freaking long to read it and I was always reading it.

I never really liked Frank from the beginning of the book, but I just chalked that up to him not being Jamie and because I knew that Jamie was the man of the book, I couldn't bring myself to care about Frank, but I was bothered by the fact that even thought I didn't care for Frank, CLAIRE DID, she cared enough about him to marry him in her previous life, why on earth was she not thinking about him as often as a wife in love with her husband should have been thinking? She spent more time worrying about Jamie and what Jamie was doing and escaping, rather than what Frank was up to and if Frank was mourning her loss or whatever.

And then don't even let me get started on Jack Randall, Jonathan Randall, Black Jack, whatever evil name he goes by, people like Jack Randall need to wiped off the face of the Earth, they need to suffer for the torture they inflicted on people, they need to be chained up and beat to death, because they're just not good people. He gave evil a new meaning and again, I already knew how evil Jack was, I knew what he was capable of, I knew how he tortured his captives, I knew about how dirty he is, both inside and out, I knew it all, I didnt need to be constantly reminded of how evil and what evil deeds he did, I KNOW!

My only issue with this book was that it was just so long and too wordy and as much as I loved the story of Jamie and Claire, I'm not at all hyped up to continue this series because the other books are just as long, if not longer than this book. The whole witch trial? Yeah, I could have done without that scene, the only scene that was MISSING from this book is the scene where Claire gets to handle her business with that blonde haired shit, Laoghaire...I wanted Claire to serve her ass to the clan on a silver platter, but that scene never ocurred in the book, so I'll write that scene myself, gosh that stupid shit got on my nerves.

Would I recommend this book? Yeah, I say give it a shot, the story is good but be prepared for lots of detail that go on....and on....and on.....
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...and on, and on...and on...See what I mean? It's like that. But it's still very good. LMAO.