Book Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I have resisted reading this book for SO long!! I am one of those people who hates jumping on a book bandwagon, and it just seems like everywhere I go I hear people raving about this book. My book club is reading it next month, though -- and one of our members just received something like 25 copies of it for free, and gave me one. I thought "oh, I'll just read the first few pages and save the rest for next month". haha, that's funny. Once you start this silly book, you canNOT stop reading it, may as well forget everything else you have to do. So I guess that is an earmark of a very good book. The book I had contained a preview of her next book in the back, so I didn't realize I was so near to the end and actually felt cheated when I finished it all in one big gulp. I've felt a little bereaved today to be without the life of the characters. I'm glad there's a few more in the series!

I feel like a split personality, though, because there were some things I didn't really like. It felt so much like a Harlequin to me at times....can we have a few less "he crushed her lips" and "she swooned against him" scenes, please?? I mean, I like a good love story like everyone, but the dramatic flair was a bit much for me at times. Some things, too, seemed a little off to me. The main character is a woman from England in the 1940's -- would she really say "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ"? I mean, I'm not arguing that a nurse on the front lines wouldn't have awful language -- it just seems like a pretty American thing to say! And once, she calls her man "John Wayne" -- again, it seems particularly American. Would Europeans really have acquired the American slang necessary for these expressions? Maybe; it just seemed rather inauthentic to me.

I tend to prefer a more literary offering, which this book could have been with it's obviously extensive research and information. It came off feeling like a thriller, though - a beach read, a romance. I can't quite put my finger on why. Will I read the rest of the series, though? You absolutely bet your bottom dollar. I can't WAIT to see what happens here! I love the time travel concept, and love the premise of this book.

Oh, and if you love this book, don't miss The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. Another time travel wonder -- I think I may have like that one a tiny bit better, and would have loved it if Connie Willis had written more in that series!