REVIEW: "Outlander" #1

SYNOPSIS: 

“The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives”.

Credits to Goodreads.com

REVIEW: 

To be fairly honest, I didn´t know that this novel existed until lots of close friends started recommending me the Outlander TV-show: “You really need to watch it. It´s almost like it was made for you”. So, when I discovered that the show is, indeed,  based on a book I decided to wait and read it before watching the show. I lately had the pleasure to get a copy and give a chance to Diana Gabaldon´s novel.

Outlander is the first book belonging to the Outlander Series, followed by Dragonfly in Amber (1992), Voyager (1993), Drums of Autumn (1996), The Fiery Cross (2001), A Breath of Snow and Ashes (2005), An Echo in the Bone (2009) and Written in My Own Heart's Blood (2014). The author introduces two different sides of Scotland, the one in the XX Century and the one in the XVIII Century, both of them strongly connected by traditions, superstitions and its majestic lands.

Although the book is quite long, I was extremely hooked up since the first pages and I didn´t want it to end. Besides, Gabaldon introduces unique characters that are really different and end up falling in love. In my humble opinion, Claire is a really strong woman, what makes her a modern woman, even for her own period, as she has a strong personality.  In addition,  the transition she goes through when time-travelling leads the reader to witness lots of hilarious situations. 

 Personally, Claire has quickly become one of my favorite fictional heroines (yas, she is a heroine. GIRL POWER) as she is fearless, intelligent, and brave and never hesitates to save innocent people´s lives. Still she also shows vulnerability and tenderness in a few occasions, especially when Jamie is in trouble.  Jamie is also an amazing character and the ultimate literary-crush. He is a good-looking young man, strong, stubborn and capable of killing himself (or killing someone else) to save Claire´s life.  

Another thing that I love about the novel is that  the author clearly took her time to research about the period, as Outlander is full of truthful facts that occurred in the XVIII Century.

All in all, Gabaldon has created a perfect love story that could have been written by Jane Austen herself, though characters are not separated by their families or their social status but forced to get married and start a life in a period that is totally unknown by one of them. In a blink of an eye, pride and stubborness intertwine with passion and Scotland´s future becomes uncertain and the reader is left yearning for more adventures.