Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

    "People disappear all the time. Ask any policeman. Better yet, ask a journalist. Disappearances are bread-and-butter to journalists. 

     Young girls run away from home. Young children stray from their parents and are never seen again. Housewives reach the end of their tether and take the grocery money and a taxi to the station. International financiers change their names and vanish into the smoke of imported cigars. 

     Many of the lost will be found, eventually, dead or alive. Disappearances, after all, have explanations. 

     Usually."

     If by some extreme fluke you are a historical romance reader and have not read this book, do so now. This was how Diana Gabaldon began the book 'Outlander'. That easily, I (and millions of others) was hooked. Of course, there was Jamie . . . I read the entire series and cursed the author for making me wait each time for the next book.

   We begin the book with former WWII army nurse Claire Randall finding herself moved back in time to 1700's Scotland which is in the middle of border wars with the English. This book has always been more historical than romance to me, but the romance is there. Boy, is it . . . Poor Claire loves her 1945 husband, but it is hard to resist a man like Jamie. Gabaldon offers us adventure, intrigue, history and romance. What more could we ask for?

     In my youth, LONG ago in the 1960's, I was a Gothic Romance fan.  I loved all of the slightly edgy men. My first favorite was Ross from Jane Aiken Hodge's 'Watch the Wall My Darling.' I loved the mysterious 'Master of Back Tower' given to me by Barbara Michaels.  I was a little older when the Historical Romance appeared - with REAL sex. My favorite slightly 'bad' men from these books were Nicholes in Lindsey's 'Love only once' and Ian of McNaught's 'Almost Heaven.' 

     But Gabaldon's Jamie Fraser . . .  Jamie rivaled Mr. Darcy. And Claire Randall was a woman worthy of him.

     I am about to reread 'Outlander.' I want to do it before STARZ debuts their 'Outlander' TV series this summer. (August 9th in the U.S.) They claim the show will stay loyal to the books and if this is true, it MUST be good.

     I have my fingers crossed.


P.S. Season one? Excellent! HG