Written in My Own Heart's Blood

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4 * Book 5 * Book 6 * Book 7**

Ok. Seriously. I love this series. But, I'm going to tell you right now that you need to be prepared with tissues as you get close to the end of the book. There is some sadness that brought me to utter tears. But don't worry, there's something super happy right at the end, so it makes up for it.

Jamie and Claire definitely have some struggles in this book. Let's start with the fact that at the beginning of the book, Claire thinks Jamie is dead, she's married to Lord John, and, oh yeah, she was suspected of being a spy.

Now, Jamie makes his reappearance rather suddenly, being pursued by the British army and taking John hostage as he runs into the woods. He also manages to get really angry in a way I don't think we've seen Jamie angry before. Poor William finds out at this time that Jamie is his father, so he kind of goes on a bit of a self-destructive path for a bit. Don't worry, he straightens himself out by the end. Sort of.

Ian and Rachel are so cute throughout the book, and I just fell in love with their relationship. They're no Claire and Jamie, but they probably run third (behind Brianna and Roger) in my favorite relationships in the books.

Claire angers people left and right by being herself - you know, stubborn, headstrong, kind of pushy. One of those people happens to be John's brother, but he seems to be a rather irritable sort of character anyway, so I don't worry too much about him.

And of course, lets face facts that all of this is happening during the American Revolution, so Jamie is risking his life in battle. Then Claire gets shot and he starts worrying that she's going to die. Lots of tension with the war stuff in there.

Following the other storyline, Brianna is stressed to the max. Jemmy is missing, she's not sure where he is, but she's realized that Mandy can sense him in a way. She knows when she's close to him and to a lesser extent, he does the same thing. Roger has gone back in time to try to find Jemmy, and while he doesn't find his son, he does find a Jeremiah Mackenzie. Brianna ends up making a really tough decision while he's back then (since she's used Mandy's gift of finding her brother to locate her son) that ends up affecting everyone's lives.

There are happy moments, sad moments, those moments that make you angry, the moments that make you laugh. But the hardest moments come towards the end. I hated those devastating moments.

Now to wait a long time for the next book to be released.

An Echo in the Bone

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4 * Book 5 * Book 6**

I had so many ups and downs in this book, although it was mostly ups. So overall, I enjoyed this book.

But, here's the thing. This book had a bit too much of Lord John Grey and William. I mean, their characters are important, but their story lines are a little dull. Particularly William's. William is just kind of a boring character. He's Jamie's son, and he's basically a carbon copy, with the exception of darker hair. There just isn't enough about him to make me feel some sort of connection with his character. He's just too limited. We don't learn enough about him. And don't get me started on Lord John and his quest of intrigue. There was a lot of allusions in his story line to things that are told in the novellas about John Grey. So I'm sitting here wondering what is being referred to, but without any actual reference. I didn't enjoy that much.

But the rest was more redeeming. The American Revolution is going on, but Jamie and Claire are intending to go to Scotland to get Jamie's printing press (and return Ian to his mother). But one thing leads to another and they find themselves at Ticonderoga a mere months before the retreat from the fort. There's misadventure and then they're at the battle of Saratoga, where Jamie nearly shoots his son, which does not sit well with him.

Brianna and Roger are reading letters that Jamie and Claire write to them from the past, and they're finding that they are still connected to these beloved parents, even though they are in their present time. They have some misadventures of their own, especially when Jemmy gets in trouble at school for saying things in Gaelic.

But my favorite couple to emerge from this book was Ian and Rachel. They're just sweet. So adorable.

I'm excited to read the most current book (now that I've finally caught up to the books that are released).

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4 * Book 5**

This book takes place just before the American Revolution gets into swing. Jamie is already able to sense that war is coming, even with Claire, Brianna, and Roger warning him that it will be. The dissatisfaction of the colonists is becoming apparent, and Jamie treads carefully.

See, he has this problem where he swore and oath to the king of England in order to be freed from prison. So he feels a sense of loyalty there. But at the same time, Claire has warned him that the Loyalists are not the winning side of the upcoming war. The majority of Highlanders though are on the Loyalist side, so for a long time, Jamie treads the line between sides very carefully so that he doesn't lose his friends and family. But eventually, he reaches a point where he absolutely has to declare himself. And he loses people.

But there is so much more to this book than a preparation for war. Claire has found an apprentice of sorts in Malva Christie, Tom Christie's daughter. But then she turns up pregnant, claiming that it is Jamie's baby. She claims it was while Claire was deathly ill (she actually almost dies in this book). He adamantly denies it. Then, Malva is found dead in Claire's garden and she is accused of her murder. Jamie is also accused because the entire Ridge has heard the rumors that Jamie is the father of Malva's unborn child.

There was so much drama related to that plot line that I loved what happens to wrap it up. It was pretty interesting when you learn who the father of Malva's child is and who murdered her.

Brianna ends up kidnapped by Stephen Bonnet. He's planning to auction her as a slave to the sugar plantations in the Indies. I was shaking with a combination of fury and fear for Brianna during that entire part. But, it's ok. Stephen Bonnet gets what he has deserved for several books.

The end was a little sad. The family had to separate due to Brianna and Roger's daughter being born with a heart defect. So their family had to go back to the present for her. I'm hoping that the next book makes me feel more comfortable about that decision.

The Fiery Cross

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4**

This book took me some time to get through. Mostly because I read a bunch of books at once. And that this is a long book.

Claire, Jamie, Brianna, and Roger are all together, but there are the early rumblings that signify that war is coming. The Regulators mob and kill people in towns, so Jamie and Roger end up rounding up a militia for the governor of North Carolina. Even though Jamie kind of sees what the Regulators are trying to say, he has a duty to the governor. For now.

Roger has it hard in this book. Not only is he dealing with the uncertainty of his son's paternity (is he Roger's or not? That's still a little undetermined, but more settled by the end of this book), he ends up hanged (don't worry, he doesn't die), and just random stuff gets thrown in his way. He loses his identity for a while and you will agonize with him as he tries to figure out who he is again. Brianna has to figure it out too, so their relationship is a little up in the air.

Claire is working to make penicillin  for use on Fraser's Ridge. It takes a long time and she goes through a lot of mold batches before she starts seeing results.

A character that left a while back returns (no telling though). There are happy times and not so happy times. Also, Jemmy (Roger and Brianna's son) starts repeating everything...including swear words.

Overall a great book. Looking forward to reading the next one.

Drums of Autumn

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3**

Oh my god! Seriously? Oh, sorry. Forgot that I was having this conversation in my own head.

This whole book was an oh my god! Jamie and Claire are living happily in the Colonies (mind you, this is the 1760s-1770s). They manage to get away from Jamie's Aunt Jocasta who wants to make him heir to her plantation, even though neither he nor Claire would be comfortable taking it and the slaves that come with it. So, they settle on a mountainside in North Carolina. Although, all the descriptions of their little homestead sounds almost idyllic. I'd live there and I'm so much a city girl.

But then Roger and Brianna discover an article that announces Jamie and Claire's deaths. So Brianna decides she has to go back to warn her mother. There was also a serious curiosity about meeting her biological father. But she doesn't tell Roger, her boyfriend, that she's going back. He figures it out, follows her back in time six weeks later and all sorts of chaos ensues.

There are some points where I felt like I was floating on cloud nine and all happy about what's happening, and then there were those points where I found myself shaking with either anger or fear. I'm so ready to absorb this next book. It's just such a great series.

Voyager

**Book 1 * Book 2**

Ooh, this book was exciting. Claire manages to find Jamie in 18th century Scotland. She goes back through the stone circle to return to him. Mind you, they've been separated for 20 years, and a lot has changed in Jamie's life since then.

She finds him running a printing business in Edinburgh under the name Alexander Malcom (which are two of his middle names). They had previously sworn never to lie to each other, but, during the first few months of their reunion, Jamie is definitely hiding a few things. Like, for example, he's a smuggler. Yeah. Good to know he's been keeping his nose clean since getting out of prison. Oh, and he's also married. To the worst woman he could be married to: Laoghaire. Yay for that. Oh, and just one more, he's had a son by an English woman. The lies kind of got to me. The Laoghaire thing made me angry at Jenny, Jamie's older sister, for forcing him into it.

Then they manage to lose Jamie's 15 year old nephew Ian when he's taken by pirates to the Caribbean. So, let's go across the Atlantic with a man who suffers terrible seasickness (Jamie)! Claire gets commandeered onto an English man-o-war that is suffering from an outbreak of typhoid. They completely make off with her and she ends up jumping ship to escape since they know her husband is a wanted man by the English. Yay!

But the love of Jamie and Claire is still there, still as strong and as sure. Even if Claire is angry and frustrated at Jamie because of his lies by omission. Oh well.

We also get to meet someone who we swore was dead. I'm pretty sure this person is dead now, since Claire severed a head from a body.

I'm still loving this series. I still can't wait to see where it goes next.

Dragonfly in Amber

**Book 1**

The beginning of this book threw me for a loop for a bit. Why? Because Claire Randall is in 1968 with her 20 year old daughter Brianna. She's looking for information on some men who were supposedly at the Battle of Culloden, where the Highlander army suffered a crushing defeat and Charles Stuart was denied all hopes of the throne of Scotland and England. Now, Brianna looks a lot like someone we've met before - Jamie. But, this is Brianna Randall, a girl who is raised by her mother, Claire, and her father, Frank. Only, we all know Frank isn't biologically her father.

That fact is quickly proven by Roger Wakefield, a young man who was once a scrawny little boy asleep in a chair in 1945. Roger finds information about Claire's return to her time in 1948, where she was malnourished and two months pregnant. Yeah. Frank couldn't have been Brianna's father.

Anyway, most of the book is told in a flashback. Claire is finally telling her daughter her story. She is trying to introduce Brianna to her father, Jamie.

The story starts in Paris. Claire and Jamie are trying to thwart Prince Charles as he attempts to raise money for a second Jacobite Rising. Claire is pregnant and miserably sick. Jamie is trying to cope with his pregnant wife when she vomits every morning. Jamie takes over his cousin's wine business almost as a cover for his plans (plus, his cousin had business away from Paris). There are a lot of struggles for the couple.

It starts with angering a rival wine merchant when Claire causes his entire shipment to be destroyed. Then someone tries to poison Claire, someone tries to kill Jamie, someone tries to rape Claire. Jamie meets Jack Randall again and swears to see him dead. Jamie and Jack duel (to rather interesting ends), Jamie ends up in the Bastille. Claire has a miscarriage and basically gives up on life until she's pulled back into the world of the living by a sort of creepy apothecarist that Claire has befriended. Claire has to plead with King Louis to free Jamie, although she doesn't actually want to see or talk to her husband because she blames him for losing the baby. Jamie finds her, they reconcile, they return to Scotland.

In Scotland is where it really starts to go downhill. Jamie learns that Charles has forged an oath from Jamie that he will support Charles' campaign to regain the throne. It angers him because he knows how it will end from Claire. He wants to keep his men from dying. But he can't.

Claire almost dies a few more times in the course of the book. It sucks that she's commonly seen as a witch. She just wants to help people.

Overall, I am still enjoying this series and I'm so excited to see where it goes from here.

Outlander

I honestly was not convinced I would like this book. I mean, it's a combination of historical fiction, romance, and sci fi. And I'm not particularly a fan of sci fi.

But then I started reading. And it started off slow, like most books, and I didn't get into it at first. But it pulled me in.

Claire Randall is from 1945. She was a nurse in WWII while her husband, Frank, was in MI6. They spent years apart. When the war finally ends, they go for a romantic trip to Scotland. Well, Claire thinks so. Frank is just interested in learning the history of the place. Claire goes off in search of flowers during the days while Frank is absorbed in the history of a certain relative, Jonathan Randall, who lived during the 1770s in Scotland. The information about him is relatively hidden, his true character not really spread.

I think the story really takes off after Claire and Frank witness a witch's gathering in a stonehenge near the village that they are staying in. When Claire goes back, she stumbled through the rocks and discovers herself in a world that she never expected.

Claire is in 1743. She's wearing a dress that's appropriate in 1945, but not so much the time she finds herself in. Then, she meets a man she misjudged - Captain Jack Randall - the same man that Frank is discovering about.

She's saved by a Scot, has to repair someone's shoulder, and all this time, her nursing training is coming to use, but she misses modern medicine - antibiotics, sterile work areas, even just clean bandages.

She finds herself married before too long, a marriage that is supposed to save her life. But she finds that she's fallen in love with Jamie. And he loves her too.

There a lot of adventure in this book, as Claire tries to come to terms with where she is and find a way back to the hill with the stones so that she can return to her time. But when she does get back there - Jamie returns and gives her that opportunity - she finds that she has to stay with Jamie. She loves Frank, but Jamie is who she needs to be with.

Man, the sex scenes are hot in this book. I mean, just one of them was hotter than the entirety of the Fifty Shades series. But I liked the book for more than the sex. I liked the romance. I liked the history. I liked the characters. Mostly. There were a couple I really didn't like. Jack Randall. Laoghaire - a sixteen year old girl who got angry when Claire returned married to Jamie, and she ended up making sure Claire got arrested as a witch while Jamie was away.

I'm not going to lie and say it was all a happy story. There were some really tough parts. Claire being beaten, Jamie being beaten, and it has some very difficult subject matter towards the end. But the good outweighs the bad.

I can't wait to read more.