Another Piece of My Heart

I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book. I loved it because, well, come on, chick lit. But it was a sweet book that had a lot of human nature in it.

Andi marries a man who is divorced and has two daughters. She desperately wants a baby of her own, but almost immediately after marrying Ethan, she begins to go through peri-menopause which makes conceiving almost impossible. The younger of Ethan's daughters, Sophia, loves her new stepmom. But the older, Emily, despises Andi for taking her father away from her. It's a serious mess because Ethan feeds into the teenagers temper tantrums and Emily knows it. Andi starts to resent her husband for not standing up for her against his daughter and for the fact that he does not seem to see how badly she wants to be a mother, not just a stepmother.

There are dramas and conflicts throughout this whole book. Ethan's ex-wife, Brooke, is an alcoholic that essentially pushed her entire family away. Emily is a toxic child who acts out for the attention she gets from her father. Then, Emily gets pregnant and this new drama causes the family to go into a tailspin.

It's a real book. The family may be fictional, but it could exist anywhere in this country. Andi has some crises that she has to work through. Ethan has to work through his relationship with Emily. And Emily really just needs to grow up.

I had some issues through it just because certain parts of the book made me roll my eyes because it was so implausible, but overall I found myself feeling for Andi as she struggled through her marriage and family, hoping that Emily would stop being a selfish brat and grow up, and hating that Ethan could be so manipulated by his child. I loved Sophia because she was so down-to-earth, and I didn't even really have a problem with Brooke. It was just another family going through the dramas that come from divorce and marriages.

The Emerald City of Oz

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

This book was sort of fun, but Ozma's indifference kind of bothered me. The king of the Nomes is angry and resentful that Ozma and Dorothy stole his Magic Belt. So he plans to conquer Oz and take it back, while taking Ozma as his slave.

Dorothy decides to return to Oz to live permanently, and she brings Uncle Henry and Aunt Em with her. Now, her uncle and aunt are understandably unsure of what to do in Oz. They enter the country just to discover that they're expected to just laze around and do nothing, but neither of them is ok with this since they spent most of their lives working on a farm. So Ozma tries to come up with some ideas for them.

Dorothy goes on a tour of the country, visiting the various unusual people that live in Oz. I actually liked this section of the book simply because there are some odd characters in this country.

But once Ozma learns of the plot against her country by the Nomes, the Growleywogs, the Whimsies, and the Phanfasms, she just kind of resigns herself to it. When her friends try to talk to her about it, she just brushes it off, thinking that it's an inevitability. Although, there is a rather humorous ending to it.

Wuthering Heights

This was kind of an unusual book. I can't say that I loved it, but I didn't hate it either. I think I didn't love it because a majority of the characters are detestable at some point in the course of the story.

Catherine loves Heathcliff, except when she hates him. She's married to another man, but he doesn't stir her temper, so it's probably better than if she had married Heathcliff. I think that pairing would have resulted in a murder at some point.

The characters that live at Wuthering Heights are usually withdrawn and temperamental, while those residing at Thrushcross Grange are a little calmer and kinder.

Catherine dies after giving birth to a daughter, who ends up named Catherine. Young Catherine is forced by Heathcliff to marry his son Linton, who is really a sickly thing. So Heathcliff ends up with control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange when his son dies. He'd gotten control of Wuthering Heights from Hareton Earnshaw (the rightful owner) by mostly deceit.

I can understand why it's a classic, but I just didn't love it as much as I expected I would.

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.

The Road to Oz

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4**

I liked this book. It starts with Dorothy and Toto helping to direct a Shaggy Man down a road. He's trying to avoid a certain town, so he wants to avoid the road that leads past it. But they end up on a road that Dorothy doesn't recognize.

They meet a little boy named Button-Bright - his real name is an unknown through the entire book. Then, they meet Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter. This unusual group of four find multiple adventures on the road to Oz.

There is a town of fox people. They give Button-Bright a fox head. Then it's the donkey town near by. They give the Shaggy Man a donkey head. This makes for some distressed traveling companions.

The Scoodlers were the creepiest part of this whole book. They have two fronts of different colors. They collect the traveling group and want to make them into soup. Just the whole bit was creepy.

There are a few more adventures, but eventually they end up in Oz just in time for Ozma's birthday celebration.

I really preferred the adventure part of the book to the little birthday celebration part of the book. Maybe it was because the birthday celebration was put in there because it provided an final destination to their travels down this unusual road.

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.