From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

The Fiery Cross (Outlander, #5)

Diana Gabaldon

Finish date: January 12, 2015

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Dec 05, 2023 Debbie rated it liked it

Hmmm... I can't say I loved this title as much as some of the others in the series. For one, there were so. many. conflicts. LOTS of conflicts. Like, every few chapters, where was a new story arc with a new conflict (a major conflict, for those of us reading on the couch in 2023) - (view spoiler) Hmmm... I can't say I loved this title as much as some of the others in the series. For one, there were so. many. conflicts. LOTS of conflicts. Like, every few chapters, where was a new story arc with a new conflict (a major conflict, for those of us reading on the couch in 2023) - (view spoiler) And there are over 100 chapters in the book, so you can imagine all the opportunities for little conflicts. And then there were overarching conflicts that lasted most of the books. And conflicts that were carried over from previous books. (And, I'm sure, conflicts that started in this book but will continue onto later books in the series.) It's ridiculous.

There is also the small situation with characters. Thanks to all these conflicts - and the books before this one - there were truly so many characters whose name I didn't recognize when they popped up again. Gabaldon did a decent job of jogging the memory, but not always, and sometimes I just had to give up trying to remember and keep reading as if the character was brand new to me.

Finally, it's frustrating to me to know that things are going to happen (foreseen in book 2 or 3 maybe) and we don't know what they are yet. This book feels like it barely skipped over any time at all - although it did, a few weeks or months here and there - but not a reasonable amount, in my opinion. So, it was slow going for me, too, and I sloughed through this book, a chapter or two at a time, over the course of a whole month. If it weren't for the fact that Thanksgiving break and a few days off from work factoring into this month of days, I would still be reading it (and not typing my review) right now.

Fortunately or not, I have a few other books I need to read for work between now and the end of the year, so I think I'll put Claire and Brianna, Jamie and Roger off for a bit to get those done. I imagine, though, that I'll be back to them in the new year. ...more

Like · see review

Aug 07, 2013 Graceann rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, series

I never thought I'd say this about a Diana Gabaldon novel, but I almost gave up on The Fiery Cross. More than 200 pages about the events of a single day (and they're not even particularly interesting events). This happens twice - once at a Gathering and then at a wedding. Nothing that advances the plot, really, beyond where it was at the beginning of the book. However, if you wanted to know all the different places on a farm where you could gather mold, this is the book for you.

When a truly rem ...more

Like · see review