Not Your (Stereo)Typical Romance

Author's Rating:

Pros: fantastic romance and adventure story

Cons: might have to look up a few words

Author's Review
The first time I saw this book, I was shelving books in the romance section of a Barnes and Noble store. The cover caught my eye, since the book looked out of place to me. I actually asked the man in charge of genre fiction if it was mis-shelved! He told me that it was in the right spot and that it was a great read.

It took several more rave reviews from customers before I succumbed to curiosity. I purchased Outlander on my last day of work, using my discount for the last time. I finally picked it up last week and started reading in earnest, winding up going to bed past my bedtime nightly until I finally finished reading last night!

Diana Gabaldon has a clever beginning to her series - it is both an historical romance story, and a story of time travel. This blending of the romance and fantasy genres works astoundingly well, and appeals to even those of us normally put off by the idea of reading a romance novel.

The story centers around Claire Beauchamp Randall and her accidental fall through time. Beginning in 1945 in Scotland, on vacation with her husband Frank, Claire soon finds herself in 1743 Scotland, and involved with a hunted man named James Fraser. From there the story takes many twists and turns, with danger, romance, adventure and sex dripping from every page. (Each night before I went to bed, I found myself reading until I found a "lull" in the book. They are few and far between, leading to my current sleep-deprived state.)

I appreciated Gabaldon's attention to historical detail. It is clear through reading the book that she has done her homework on Scottish history. The section dealing with a witch trial was of particular interest to me, and certainly reflected what I learned in college about the witch hunts in Europe.

An unusual aspect of this novel is the vocabulary used within the text. I consider myself to be pretty savvy about words - I don't often run into words that I don't know. However, it happened more than once during the course of the book that I dragged out my dictionary to be certain of the meaning of a word. I suspect this precision with words stems from Gabaldon's PhD.

If you are looking to read an historical romance, I highly recommend Outlander. It's not short, and you might not sleep for the next week, but for pure story enjoyment, this one is hard to beat.

Gabaldon has written three more books in this series, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn... and I can't wait to read them. Just as soon as I catch up on my sleep.