Rating: 4 stars
(Listened on Audible)
In this installment of the Outlander series, Jamie and Claire are busy homesteading and have been joined by Brianna and Roger. Briana has a son, and due to an incident with a sleazy smuggler, they are not certain who her son's father is. Bree and Roger are married, and they spend some time with Jamie's aunt Jocasta and River Run in Cross Creek. Jocasta is to be married to a man by the name of Inness Duncan, and her marriage is a big to-do in this particular area of North Carolina (and not just because she has at least one rejected suitor who causes trouble for her.) Jocasta wants to make Brianna her heir (since Jamie refused in the last book), but Briana wants no part in it. Brianna and Roger are uncertain if they want to go home (and are not sure they will be able to with the baby anyway.) Young Ian becomes a part of a Mohawk tribe, and we are not sure if and when we will see him again. Jenny has a hard time forgiving Jamie for "losing" her youngest son, and Jamie struggles with her unforgiveness. Claire dabbles in making some homemade antibiotics and attempts to help the people as best she can with her limited resources as a doctor. Fergus and Marsali build their family. The Revolution is brewing, and Jamie and the men are called to action, although the result of this is fairly anticlimactic. Plenty of shocking events transpire, including murder, arson, near-death experiences (for a few of the main characters), mystery solving, and plans gone awry. There is a little bit of everything in this book. Overall, this is a very entertaining and interesting book that gives a unique insight into the time period.
This series has evolved quite a bit since book one. We are no longer in the charming and exotic Scottish highlands. We are in North Carolina, and Jamie and Claire and their families are in the process of settling the area, so this book has more of a "Little House on the Prairie" feeling.
Thinking back over this book, there are SO many memorable moments. As others have mentioned, there's not really a strong overall plot to this book except for the undercurrent of brewing war and the fact that Stephen Bonnet keeps reappearing to cause trouble. It does, in some ways, feel like a "filler" book, but the adventures and emotions are wonderful. I really haven't liked Brianna throughout the series (I never could quite forgive her for how she treated Claire when she found out about Jamie), and I didn't really care much about Roger in the last few books, but they have definitely grown on me. Brianna is a bit younger than Claire was when the series began, and she is of course a totally different person with a different upbringing. Her choices are often times puzzling to me, and I find myself getting irritated at her. I have to remind myself that it's okay for her not to be a carbon copy of Claire. She has had quite a bit of character growth, and I do look forward to seeing where her story goes. I normally don't care for POV switching in books, and we have gotten so used to hearing things from Claire's perspective that it was a bit odd at first, but I ended up enjoying it. I was sad to see less of Fergus, Lord John Grey, Jamie's son, and a few of the other characters. There are also quite a few new characters who were difficult to keep track of.
As a note: Can I just say that I really DON'T like Jenny? She seems to just get more unreasonable with each book! I can sort of understand some of the things she does, but she comes across mostly as mean, unforgiving, and hard to deal with.
The paranormal aspect of this book really stuck out in a few places. When Claire sees Ottertooth's ghost, I was legitimately creeped out. I also thought the whole part with the woman killing her abusive husband was disturbing. And in the end, when they open the mausoleum, I was really shocked at what was revealed!
Yes, the book is long, and yes, there are certainly quite a few superfluous scenes and details. That is simply the style of the writing though. I choose to listen to this series on Audible, and so, as I have stated in previous reviews, it's sort of like spending time with old friends to read about Jamie, Claire, and the others. It's an immersive experience. I truly don't mind the "mundane" aspects of the book. The slow burn of the story is part of what makes this series beautiful. It took me about nine months to listen to this book on Audible. She could make the books shorter, no doubt, but that would take away a lot of the charm. The "meat" of the book could be described as "boring," but I honestly did enjoy almost every single bit of it (of course, the narrator, Davina Porter, is amazing). The last ten or fifteen or so chapters were quite gripping. It's not that there were any bombshell revelations like in past books, but I can tell that the author worked hard to really engage readers so they would pick up the next book. (It totally worked for me!) I won't spoil the ending for anyone, but one particular person's reappearance made me really happy, and there were two or three other "jaw-dropping/gasping out loud" moments in the last part of the book.
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