I was introduced to Diana Gabaldon by the same friend who lent me Eragon, and I was instantly hooked. I started with Outlander, and made my way through the series at lightning speed. I finished reading just as she was starting up the Lord John Grey series, which, I unfortunately had no desire to read. Having fallen in love with the characters in the Outlander series, I didn’t want to explore the story an, albeit major, protagonist. Over the years, when looking for something to read, I have reconsidered my position from time to time, but somehow never picked the other series up. I’ve decided to talk about the Outlander series today, because the latest book (which I really wasn’t expecting), “Echo in the Bone“, came out in June and it’s my current read.

So, why is the Outlander series among my favorites? I’ve always been fascinated with historical fiction, and consider it to be my favorite genre. When I was a teenager I discovered historical romance. The very first romance novel I ever read, in fact, had something to do with pirates and slave traders and a helpless woman captured at sea. That first book began a love affair with historical romance, but never before had I read one that throws the past and present together in a big tangle. Outlander does just that, as the Heroine, Claire, a married WWII nurse at the end of the war, stumbles through standing stones in Scotland and finds herself 200 years in the past, during the Jacobite uprising. It is here she meets the love of her life (and best romantic hero, ever,) Jamie, and she must come to terms with where, and with whom she belongs.

At the outset, despite the time travel, this seems to be a standard formula destined for a happy ending where the heroine chooses her true love and they live happily ever after. Well, that’s why this is an amazing series; it doesn’t happen that way. Instead, Claire finds herself pregnant and Jaime in the middle of a war. To protect herself and their unborn child, she is forced to flee through the stones, back to her own time. Thinking that Jamie dies in the war, she goes on with her life, becoming a doctor, and she and her husband raise her daughter, while their marriage falls apart. When Claire discovers that Jamie didn’t die, after all, she heads back through the stones, unknowingly followed by her , now grown, daughter. This turns out to be the catalyst for the series, now seven books long, as the family reunites and has amazing adventures of crossing continents, war, love and time travel.

While the story itself is unique, fascinating and enduring, its the characters that really carry it. The love story between Claire and Jamie is passionate and pure, even after being separated for twenty years. The love story of a couple in their fifties, however, may not be as sexy to some people, and that’s where the story of their daughter, Brianna , and her romance with Roger comes in. The cross generational nature of the series keeps the story fresh, and helps the reader to fall in love with an entire family and become invested with everyone’s welfare, rather than just a couple of short lived characters.

I was thrilled, upon discovering the newest novel, that I would get a chance to reunite myself with this fascinating family, and you can look forward to a review on how that went for me, soon.

There are a lot of novels in this series, as well as “The Outlandish Companion” a handbook and guide to the novels, partly to help the reader remembering details of characters and events from past novels, but also as a companion for the truly devoted, including recipes, characters’ horoscopes, and notes on plot development and research.

The novels in the series can be found here:  Outlander Series