The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
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I first found this book by accident close to 20 years ago. My local (miniscule) library had a very poor selection and I'd read practically every book of interest they had on the shelves. I lived a good distance from the library and was looking for books that might last a while to save me a trip every other day. Cross Stitch was newly published and was FAT in hardback. That'll do for me I thought! I read the inside cover and thought it sounded dubious, but it was FAT......so it came home with me.
It was the best book I could have stumbled across. Regardless of how lengthy it was, I tore though it in record time because it's just the best tale EVER. I love this book so much. It's the book by which I judge all others.
For something that is obviously so far fetched, it just seems so real. The descriptions of characters, events and surroundings are so fleshed out as to make you feel as if you are right there with it all. That's what makes this book (and all the others that follow) so readable, it's all to easy to fall into the pages and lose yourself.
To date there are 7 books in all and the worst part about this series for me was the 2 year wait between each! It has taken me 14 years to get to this far, and it's not over yet......
It helped that I live within driving distance of all of the Scottish places mentioned in the book and spent many a happy day trawling round the settings, soaking up the atmosphere. I've lost count of the Close's in Edinburgh that I've peered into, looking for 'THE' print shop (and Jamie of course :D )
I have gone back to these books again and again over the years and they never fail to entertain me. I recommend these to everyone I come across that asks for book recommendations and have yet to hear that the books were not liked. Sometimes I feel that there couldn't be anyone left that hasn't read this series because I tell so many people about them! "Pssst! *LOOKS LEFT.... LOOKS RIGHT* ....Wanna read a book?!"
I wholeheartedly reccommend these books!
I'm even more obsessed with these books than I am with Twilight and my Twilight obsession is BIG!
I have all the books in all the different covers (UK & US versions and a few foreign versions too), all on audio cassette, all on audio cd, I won a replica of Claire's wedding ring in a competion where Diana ACTUALLY drew my name with her OWN hand from the hat ..... I've met Diana on 2 occasions (and turned into a right fangirly in her presence, lol)..... AND I named my children after characters in the books...... like I said - obsessed much?!
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