The story is now a bit more fragmented, alternating between what happens to Jamie or Claire and what happens to Brianna and Roger. Brianna is now a fully grown woman, making both her parents proud, a bit different from the American girl we first met two books ago. Also we get to see more of Lord John (who actually has some books of his own) and, like Claire, cannot help liking him more and more as he is a very good and noble man. Poor Roger goes through quite a lot, things that he would never have imagined in his scholar life in Oxford, however he manages to surpass everything, coming out on the other side as a better and stronger man.

I loved this book the way I loved all Diana Gabaldon’s books I read so far. I admire her skill and the way she paints her characters, making them truly believable. There were, as always with her books, times I got so enveloped in the novel that real life seemed sort of less real. I also loved the way she took care of all the loose threads in the book, we even get to see Gavin Hayes’ son in the end (Gavin Hayes being a very minor character, an old friend of Jamie’s, who wherever he went kept asking for his son, in such a manner (“A lad about fourteen,’ he’d say, ‘wi’ a green plaidie and a small gilt brooch.’” ) and with so much perseverance that left the reader a bit sad because it seemed such a futile search; nevertheless the lad does appear after a few hundred pages, when the reader has forgotten all about him, but said reader will be nevertheless rejoicing at the fact that his initial fears have been wrong and the beloved boy still lives – at least that’s how it happened to me).

Not in the least I am very happy to see Jamie for once not being an outlaw, I was getting a bit tired of that as he kept getting pardoned then an outlaw again and so on. Luckily America seems to be good for him so now he’s okay (for now as he’s still on the wrong side of the law due to some whiskey that he manufactures).

What I liked most: Can I say everything? I so love these books. If I had to choose a favorite moment it would be very hard, what with Brianna seeing her parents once again, Jamie mistakenly beating Roger to a pulp, Claire spending the night under a tree and making conversation with a skull, Claire trying to help Jamie who was fighting with a bear but hitting him in the head with a fish and many more. All scenes that maybe don’t seem like much but very captivatingly told and very enjoyable.

What I liked least: Brianna being raped and not being able to tell who the father of her child was. That was such a wrong thing to happen to two good people like her and Roger…

Recommend it?Yes. Especially together with the three previous books.

A quote:

You did forgive him, though,” she said quietly. “Why?”
[...]
“I had to.” He glanced at her, eyes straight and level. “I hated him for as long as I could. But then I realized that loving him… that was part of me, and one of the best parts. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t love me, that had nothing to do with it. But if I could not forgive him, then I could not love him, and that part of me was gone. And I found eventually that I wanted it back.” He smiled, faintly. “So you see, it was really entirely selfish.”

This book is a sequel to:
Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager

This book is followed by:
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes

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