From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

Outlander (Outlander, #1)

Diana Gabaldon

Start date: June 2, 2016

Finish date: June 30, 2016

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What Members Thought

Feb 29, 2012 Anne OK rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-reads

UPDATE: I am thrilled to re-rate Jamie and Claire's beautiful story in OUTLANDER. It has taken me a long time to get to this place. What I first started in March 2012 finally came to fruition. I admit it -- I had a lot of help from the television series. It just excited me and got me revved up. I have now reread both Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber and loved the reading experience. I'm about to start in on #3 Voyager. I can't believe I ever rated Outlander 2 Stars -- something was definitely st ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jul 26, 2014 Krissy rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, i-want-to-stab-her-with-a-spork, buddy-read, virginal-hero, abuse, pgs-600-or-more, cover-color-blue, read-before-2015

**2015 Reading Challenge W/Josh: #1 A Book With More Than 500 Pages**

This book could have been amazing. If it were about 300 pages shorter. I enjoyed parts of it. The writing was superb though. I will give it that. And the narrator of the audiobook did a terrific job.

Everybody kept telling me that once you get past the first few chapters you'll get to a point where you can't put the book down. I found that not to be the case. There were certain parts that were exciting and kept me glued to the **2015 Reading Challenge W/Josh: #1 A Book With More Than 500 Pages**

This book could have been amazing. If it were about 300 pages shorter. I enjoyed parts of it. The writing was superb though. I will give it that. And the narrator of the audiobook did a terrific job.

Everybody kept telling me that once you get past the first few chapters you'll get to a point where you can't put the book down. I found that not to be the case. There were certain parts that were exciting and kept me glued to the pages. But they were few and far between. Because in between those handful of exciting parts were extremely long, sleep inducing boredom. Like, I was literally falling asleep in many parts. So the book was about 70% of the author droning on and on and on about nothing and 30% of enthralling excitement.

I never warmed up to Claire. Her quickness to turn against Frank and their vows kind of left a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning. Maybe it would have been different if the author didn't portray Frank to be a sweet and loving man in the beginning. I just felt really bad for him. Going into this book I knew it was going to happen but I just assumed she chose to be with Jaime because she was in love with him. Not the case. I understood why she had to marry Jaime at the time despite not loving him yet. But she had sex with him over and over and over and over again because she thought he was "hot." So she "cheated" on her husband not because she fell in love with another man but because she thought the other man was sexy.

Now on to Jaime. I actually LOVED Jaime. Absolutely adored him. He was by far my favorite character. The last 20% of the book was brutal to read/listen to. It made my heart hurt for Jaime. That was the most difficult part of the book to get through for me.

Now, will I continue on with the series? I don't know. I'll have to think about it. The books just keep getting longer and longer and it was hard enough to get through this one. I just keep picturing the rest of the books following the same pattern as this one. Boring boring boring boring. AWESOME SCENE. Boring boring boring boring. AWESOME SCENE. Rinse and repeat. ...more

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Mar 15, 2015 Ama rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: repeat-read, audiobooks, all-time-favorites, fiction-adult, historical-fiction, romance-erotica-adult, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017

Oh how I love this series!!

I think Claire and I would get along quite well – other than the fact that Jamie Fraser is my fictional husband.

Over the years, I’ve read this book at least 4 times. Every time I enjoy it immensely. I’ve always listened to the audiobook.

Davina Porter (the narrator) is phenomenal. She is excellent at differentiating between the characters – regardless of age, gender, or origin. My only complaints isn’t about her narration, but rather about the pauses, dubs, and other ...more

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May 04, 2015 Jocelyn rated it liked it

At last. I thought it would never end.

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Mar 16, 2016 Yusra Asaad rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-stars

The beautiful love story of Jamie and Claire :)

It starts with a 27 year old nurse called Claire in the year 1945, childless but happily married to Frank Randall and living a quiet life in post war Scotland.

One day she goes investigating a plant she sees in a stone circle, when she suddenly gets pulled in and finds herself in the year of the Lord 1743 about two hundred years prior her time.

She encounters Frank's six-time great grandfather Jonathan Randall otherwise known as Jack Black. Then gets ...more

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Nov 06, 2016 Joyce rated it liked it

Shelves: audible, the-great-american-read

Listened to this to find out what the big deal is. A lot of rape for reasons I don't quite understand. The story is intriguing and I admit to wanting to find out what happens next. However, I don't understand the point of so much sexual assault - I don't care what the times were. ...more

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