Danielle's Reviews > Outlander

Okay ... so I kinda feel guilty about liking this book. I knew it was a sort of historical romance novel spanning time and everyone seemed extremely polarized as to whether it was a good read or not. I saw ads for the TV show and decided to I wanted to read the book before watching anything. I decided to approach it with an open mind and ended up enjoying it.

The book itself is an easy read. It's written well and the pacing allows you to read a decent chunk without even realizing it. I enjoyed the historical tidbits, the setting of Scotland, the character development, and was totally crushin' on the rugged but gentle Jamie. I loved the complexity and dilemmas Claire faced in her relationship with him.

Now here's what makes me feel guilty -- after a certain point this book becomes mostly well-written smut. I lost count of the sexual encounters and realized that 50% of this novel was basically wordy gratuitous sex scenes.

The book does contain strong tones of misogyny coming from several male characters (par for the course in the 18th century), a wife-beating incident, rape, and homosexuality as one of the defining characteristics of the villain. Those things certainly bothered me, but I felt that my frustration at those things was a part of my experience with the story. I worked past them and still found myself enjoying the book.

I would recommend this book if you're not one to easily blush!