Rating: 
Summary: Painful and Sadistic
Review: This book has been described as powerful, and I suppose it is. But it also is frustrating and painful, and made me sick to my stomach. One bad thing after another, after another, after another happen to the hero and heroine. That makes it frustrating. What makes it painful are the sadistic floggings, torture and anal rape that occur. Some people may find those things OK to read and that they add to the character's texture, courage and strength, but find I them unnecessarily appalling and repugnant, and I don't need, or want, those things in my pleasure reading.I also found the section where the hero beats the heroine "half to death" degrading and repulsive. He later confesses that he enjoyed it, and she accepts that she "deserved" it and readily forgives him. I have a hard time believing a woman from the 20th century as smart and independent as the heroine would react this way. I won't read anymore books by Diana Gabaldon, unless I am assured the pages aren't darkened by such abominations. I wish I had read all the one-star reviews by Amazon readers before I got this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I really wanted to like it.
Review: Friends of mine told me that this was their all-time favorite book; they had even called in sick to stay home and read it. I was so excited to read it too. What a huge disappointment. The beginning chapters were so boring, I had to force myself to read it all, knowing that all those names and dates would be important in the future. When Claire finally fell through the rocks, I thought it would get better. It was just as boring. I found it completely odd that she wasn't more freaked out about traveling in time. I also found Jamie boring. How perfect is a hero supposed to be? Put aside the beatings he gave her, but other than that, he is so perfect that when given the chance, she doesn't want to go back to her old life? I found that completely unbelievable. And as each adventure happened, I couldn't help thinking, come on! How much can happen to one (or two) person? It was just too incredulous. The writing also was not as good as I would have liked. If you missed one word in a paragraph, that might be the word that explains everything that happens in the next chapter. Also, there were a lot of loose ends. While Claire was still in the present, she sees a man in the mist, through her bedroom window. Who is this man, and why is he even mentioned? He might be explained in future novels, but what if I don't make it that far? Also, I read that Diana Gabaldon had originally NOT intended to write a sequel (or sequels), so it seems as though she wrote about him, then forgot about him. ONly because her fans were so excited about sequels does Gabaldon get the chance to explain him. The characters were interesting, and I wondered what happened to them in future novels. However, not enough to pick them all up and read them; I'll just have somebody tell me what happens to Geillis Duncan and Frank Randall.
Rating: 
Summary: The best historical fiction in print!
Review: Diana Gabaldon's Outland series is by far my most favorite of all time. Her characters absolutely come alive for the reader! Fans wait patiently (OK, IMpatiently) for years for the next installment, and pre-order the first printing as far in advance as possible. The books are worth several re-reads. To categorize these books as romance does them a great disservice -- they are so much more. Terrific historical fiction, high adventure, mystery, suspense, humor, and yes, romance make these books wonderful page-turners that keep me laughing and crying.
Recommended for everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Outlander: An enthralling story, despite some setbacks
Review: At last! A romance novel without one-dimensional primary characters and a superficial storyline. Outlander is a delight for anyone looking for a romance with humor, intelligent protagonists, sincerity, and adventure. Claire Beauchamp is, thankfully, an intelligent and independent person. Jamie Frasier will steal your heart!
However, the book does have its drawbacks. First and foremost, there is no excuse for the beating Jamie severed on Claire. And yet Claire professes her love to him shortly after! If that beating was written to reflect the time period, why wasn't the time reflected more thoroughly throughout the book? It's a romance novel with a bit of history, and with that status comes the responsibility not to advocate domestic violence.
Also, the book was a bit homophobic, with Black Jack Randall written as a gay man with tendencies of sadism and sexual violence. If the author wishes to make the "bad guy" gay, could she not have included other homosexual people in the book?
Other than that, I found the book wonderfully entertaining and enthralling. Rereads are a must!
Rating:
Summary: wife beating as romance?
Review: I was absolutely enthralled with the first several chapters of this book--and with the hero, who seemed just fabulous. Then, he beat the crap out of our heroine. I read on enough to realize that this was not going to be the end of their relationship--in fact, she said 'I love you' for the first time soon after! It is one thing to acknowledge that violence against women may have been more accepted in the past--that doesn't mean you have to romanticize it. A brutal story, a brutal disappointment, a terrible waste of a Sunday afternoon.
Rating:
Summary: Oversight or what?
Review: Romance gone into time-travel? Time-travel is virtually discarded here, and the romance aspect is certainly jaded, tainted with sadistic scenes and homosexuality. Otherwise the novel is a fairly plain historical piece of work set in the Scottish Highlands during the eighteenth century, the first in a series of five books thus far. The novel is quite gripping overall, though it drags terribly at intervals, particularly during lengthy boring domestic scenes which could have been considerably shortened. Also throughout there are gratuitous injections of unrelenting unbelievable ... tacky shots designed to entice the reader. Of course romantic hero, Jamie, is a stereotyped handsome tall muscly figure with incredible eyes and long red hair who screws marvellously, ... but to spice things up and keep matters thoroughly modern he gets buggered by an English officer wearing a red coat no less. Having said that I read it cover to cover to see how a so-called modern-day romance is conducted insofar as capturing a readership, and from a female point of view. What transpires is disturbing. And it poses the question: Is this escape fiction to satiate a bored readership who want to add spice to their romance reading fodder? This book, despite its research into historical details, cheapens romance and history. The book is not well written enough to carry off the blend, but the series sold and sold, and seems to be what readers want. What added to its general tackiness was something not tacky at all, rather a complete oversight, or could it have been a deliberate mistake? Doubtful. It is something unforgivable for a writer to have done, namely in chapter 9, pages 159 to 164. It is April or May 1743 a few weeks after Claire Randall (Beauchamp) was transported back from her time of 1945. "... I was invited to go on one of these fruit-picking expeditions with several young women of the castle, ... It was beautiful in the orchard, and I greatly enjoyed wandering through the cool mist of the Scottish morning, fingering through the damp leaves of the fruit trees for the bright cherries and smooth, plump apricots, squeezing gently to judge the ripeness. We plucked only the best, dropping them into our baskets in juicy heaps, eating as much as we could hold, and carrying back the remainder to be made into tarts and pies. ..." Oh, during spring in the Scottish Highlands? Have the climate and seasons changed that much since 1743? I trust there's an explanation for picking fruit in the spring, or is the author having an attempt at magical realism?
Rating:
Summary: Yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Review: ...I thought this book was worth reading;not so. Thankfully I obtained this from the library. The characters did not envoke sympathy,neither were they cerdible. Claire the heroine is not convincing her character does not react credibly when she is propelled back in time.Jamie the hero is nasty piece of work and a weakling.He beat Claire because she had disobeyed him, and Gabaldon strives to portray him as decent. As for the character Black Jack Randall where did Gabaldon get him from, he was utterly unbelievable.The scene where he abuses Jamie was banal, burlesque.
Which woman(especially one has lived through WW2) would be intimate of her own free will with someone who had violently beaten her black and blue.As for the Gaeilge, please spare me, as a fluent gaeilge speaker, Ms Gababaldon should have researched this properly; mo dhuine does not mean my brown one, Laoghaire is not a girls name. Also the child birth scene is ridiculous, it read as though it was in this century not the eighteenth. Reading this was tedious, I only finished it because I had paid to borrow it; and it help me fall asleep.
Rating:
Summary: Loved the hero and heroine, but way too much violence for me
Review: I'll start off by saying that I really wanted to like this book. I chose it partly because of the glowing reviews listed here and partly because I love time-travel romances. However, from about the middle of the book onward, I found myself becoming increasingly disturbed/turned-off by the author's heavy use of physical violence. I realize that the time period we're talking about here (1740's Scotland) was a turbulent one, but in the context of romantic fiction the kind of violence described in this book seemed to me to be misplaced and often over the top. From the moment the hero is introduced, we're given repeated graphic descriptions of his old injuries (deep scars on his back from floggings, scar from head wound, etc.) and his latest ones (body covered with whipping marks, marks from being burned with a hot poker, right hand broken/crushed/nailed to a table, physical/emotional injury from rape by sadistic British officer). In case that's not enough, there's also child abuse--an infant "changeling" is left out in the woods to die, and a young boy is taken on by the hero as a stable lad to escape the regular beatings by his father. At the end of the book, the hero retches repeatedly after sustaining some terrible injuries. After reading lengthy descriptions of them, I felt like doing the same. I loved the imaginative plot and strong, passionate main characters, but the violence ruined my overall enjoyment of the book...
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed and Betrayed
Review: I was initially impressed with this book. Diana Gabaldon is a descriptive and detail-oriented writer, who takes the time to let the reader get to know her characters, their backgrounds, and setting she has placed them in. In spite of some gory scenes (including a blow-by-blow decription of a flogging that goes on for ages) I was willing to keep reading because I had come to care for the characters and was interested in the plot development.
Then I came to the scene of the beating. The "hero" of the book, who up until now has shown himself to be fair, kind and understanding, and who has sworn to protect the heroine with his body and soul, beats her "to within an inch of her life" because she "disobeyed" him, and therefore must be "punished." Understandably, this is a book that takes place in 18th century Scotland, and no doubt women were probably treated like no more than property and were beaten, but this is coming from a character who we are supposed to like and sympathize with, and whom with heroine falls in love with. Even after the main character tries to reason with him, says she is sorry, admits she was wrong, and agrees to obey him, he still sighs and remarks that they must "get on with it" - and prceeds to beat her both with a belt and with his bare fists, in order to teach her a lesson. The attitude that the author takes to this scene, which already was shocking enough in its unexpectedness and violence, is even worse. The main character, who is presumably a modern woman - bold, confident and self-assured - acts like a petulent child the following day, sulking and muttering, while the other men in the party crack jokes about the event and comment bemusedly that maybe he was a "little too hard" on her. Instead of leaving him or at least trying to escape, or even feeling outraged at what had happened, the heroine launches into a long internal monologue where she decides that he was right after all, and that she obviously deserved it, and silly her, this is the 18th century, not the 20th, so it probably served her right. At this point I felt so sickened, shocked and betrayed that I got rid of the book immediately and will not pick it up again. As I can see from some other reviews, the two main characters continue to fall in love in spite of this wanton act of cruelty, and more extreme tortures are to follow. I simply cannot suspend my disbelief enough to sympathize with a such a character.
Rating:
Summary: Outlander
Review: Outlander
Diana Gabaldon Diana Gabaldons Outlander ia an original novel filled with the passion and adventures of a woman who is caught between the life she has left behind and the one she now lives. she struggles with memories and new love, and is fored to choose which life to live. Claire Beauchamp Randall, is an ex World War One nurse, who is spending time with her historian of a husband in the highlands of Scotland. One day she stumbles upon an ancient stone circle that holds a secret power, and with one small touch she is swept back in time to 1743. In the past,alone and confused, Claire is confronted by a feared Englis Garrison Captain,Randall,a relitive of the husband she has just left. She gets involved with the Mackenzie clan and is forced to marry a soldier, James Fraser,for her own safty. Trying not to get too caught in the past, she plans to return to the stone circle and the future. However, she is distracted by her growing feelings for Jamie and the life they share. I believe this book to be one of the most interesting and moving romance novels i have ever read. I would recomend it to anyone who can enjoy a powerful novel that keeps you wanting more. I can't wait to start her second novel, A Dragonfly In Amber.
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