Outlander (Outlander, #1) in True Book Talk

May 11, 2014 Heather C rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, audio-book, scotland, 18th-c, seen-movie, favorites, 20th-c, time-travel

I put off reading this book for quite some time. I had the print version on my shelf for a couple years and didn’t get any closer to reading it the more time went on. I had heard from so many people, whose reading tastes are similar to mine, that the book was amazing and I need to read it, but for some reason I never picked it up. The impetus to finally deciding to read the book, and on audiobook instead of print, was the excitement within the historical fiction community leading up to the show. I put off reading this book for quite some time. I had the print version on my shelf for a couple years and didn’t get any closer to reading it the more time went on. I had heard from so many people, whose reading tastes are similar to mine, that the book was amazing and I need to read it, but for some reason I never picked it up. The impetus to finally deciding to read the book, and on audiobook instead of print, was the excitement within the historical fiction community leading up to the show. I just HAD to read the book before watching the show!

I haven’t read a book this good in a little while! It has everything you could want in a novel – no wonder it is hard to classify in terms of genre! There are battle scenes, blood, and brutality. There are sensual love scenes and scintillating sexual tension. And historical nature of the period just oozing from every page. Elements of this novel could certainly appeal to both genders.

There were moments that made me cry. There were two moments where I wanted to put the book down and not pick it back up because I just didn’t want to know what happened next (although my curiosity quickly got the best of me)! There were brutal scenes of pain and despair that you could feel deep in your bones. Your emotions are wrenched every way throughout this novel. I loved and hated characters in this book at different times. That all of these emotions were possible in one book goes to show how real these characters and how true their stories felt.

The audiobook ended with a preview of book two and it was extremely hard for me not to immediately pick up book two to figure out how exactly we are where the book begins [alas I had other reading commitments first]. This will be a series that I will eagerly return to time and again.

In my relatively extensive audiobook listening experience I have only found 3 narrators who were truly perfect for their role and who I would come back and listen to again and again. Davina Porter is one of those narrators! She had the perfect voice for our Scottish and English characters; for me her accents were spot on. Her pacing was perfect – even if 33 hours is a long time to listen to one narrator! She put real emotion behind her narration and truly contributed to the feel of this book and bringing the characters to vivid life. I am thrilled to see that she is narrating all the novels in the Outlander series.

This review was previously posted at The Maiden's Court blog. ...more

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