Happy Monday and a review

Happy Monday, my peeps!

Song of the day- Love You 'Till The End by The Pogues (I've been listening to my EOS playlist quite a bit lately in anticipation of my release date.)

Mother nature proved she's not the hag I thought she was this past weekend. The sun came out and subsequently, so did shorts, tank tops and flip flops. Well, my girls pulled out their flops. I've been wearing mine year round, cuz yeah, that's just how I roll.

Got a short, albeit, exciting email from Amazing Marketing guy on Friday. To sum it up, it said "Prepare yourself, things are really gonna start moving." Woot! That's what I'm talkin 'bout, baby! Can't wait to share all the fun exciting stuff here with you, hopefully starting with a release date. Stay tuned :)

I finished Lover Mine a few days ago, and just as I expected, fell into a depression at having finished so quickly. I'm ridiculous, I know it. I read JM's book at a snails pace, as opposed to burning through the thing in one sitting, which is par for the course where I'm concerned. In an effort to yank myself out of my funk I decided to revisit an old favorite, Outlander.



Yes, I've mentioned this book in previous posts,and several times at that. What can I say? It's just that good. I don't normally post reviews that go beyond "Git your ass out of your house and go buy this!" but Jamie and Claire deserve special attention, and therefore, I'm gonna give them their due. And let me just say, everyone I've ever recommended this book to has loved it as much as I do. I've got good taste. Hahahahahaha!

The story opens with Claire Beauchamp Randall, and her husband, Frank, visiting the Scottish highlands, the place where they married, to reconnect. The year is 1945 and the two have been apart as Claire is serving in the war as a combat nurse.

Curious about a pagan ritual she and Frank witnessed during a hike near their lodging, Claire ventures out on her own to investigate a large stone circle. After touching one of the stones she's sucked backward through time over two hundred years, ending up in 1743 Scotland.

Stunned but not down, Claire quickly comes to realize things are not as they should be when she's overtaken by a nasty English Dragoon by the name of Black Jack Randall, who, believe it or not, is her husband Frank's great, great, great (ahem, you get it) grandfather. Claire learns fast that Randall, the Eighth Captain of the Dragoons, is nothing like her gentle, sensitive husband, and is in fact a violent, sadistic psychopath. Lucky for her, she's rescued by the very group of Scottish bandits the good captain was after, and whisked away to safety, albeit against her will.

It's then that she meets James Fraser, a young highland warrior with a price of ten pound sterling on his head. Claire puts her nursing skills to work and patches up young Jamie who'd suffered a disjointed shoulder and several stab wounds during the skirmish with the dragoons. It's during this initial patch job that the two form a fledgling friendship that will only grow stronger with each day that passes.

Whisked away into the Mackenzie lands under the guise of "protection", Claire is looked upon with wary eyes. Most think she's a spy, some think she's a witch, and no one knows quite sure what to do with her. Desperate to get back home, Claire goes through the motions, learning the ins and outs of life in 1743 Scotland, all the while planning her escape to the giant stone boulders and her life back home.

Obviously, things don't go as planned and Claire finds herself on the run from Black Jack Randall, and is forced to marry Jamie, the handsome warrior she just can't seem to stay away from, to gain the protection of his clan.

This is where the story really sucked me in. No joke, I was hooked from the get go as Ms. Gabaldon's writing is superb, but it's the connection between Claire and Jamie that has me spouting words and phrases like "soul mates, fated lovers, and epic." I'm not the most well read woman out there, but I've read enough to recognize a special spark when I see it, and let me tell you, Jamie and Claire have it in spades.

Up until quite recently, Jamie has been my favorite literary character of all time. Honestly, I still find myself waffling between him and a certain muscled up vampire warrior, lol. No joke here, Jamie is damn close to the perfect male. Handsome, smart(he speaks several languages), giving, honest,shmexy, honorable...hell the list goes on and on. With no money, no home and a price on his head, Jamie vows to protect Claire no matter the cost. Let me be the first to tell you, Jamie doesn't take his vows lightly. And courage! Our boy has it by the truckload! There's one scene in particular that showcases just how exceptional he really is. Wrongfully accused, Jamie is next in line to be flogged. While other prisoners are drug to the whipping post begging for mercy, our boy does the unthinkable. He shakes off the hands of his captors, carefully removes and folds his dirtied shirt, and walks over to the post of his own volition, giving himself over willingly to be brutally beaten. THUD...Oh, sorry, just had a slight case of the vapors there, lol.

"You are safe," he said firmly. "You have my name, and my family, my clan, and if necessary, the protection of my body as well. The man wilna lay hands on ye again, while I live."

SWOON!

Okay, that's it. I'm not revealing anything else. I'll warn you, this book is long, like six hundred pages long, but don't let that scare you. Once you pick this puppy up, you won't want to put it down.

Check out this link here for more reviews. If you've already read the book, leave a comment and let me know what you thought. If you've yet to read it; what are you waiting for? Check it out and then come back and let me know what you thought.

Happy Monday, peeps!