***5 stars***After FOUR years EIGHT months and NINETEEN days.The Adventure continuesPlease Note: This review contains NO SPOILERS for Written in My Own Heart's Blood but may for previous books in the seriesThe Standing Stones at Craigh na DunIt's 1778, Philadelphia and Jamie Fraser has just returned from the dead. Only to find his beloved wife, Claire remarried to his friend, Lord John Grey. In another time - Scotland, 1980 - Roger MacKenzie is desperate to find his son, Jem and is preparing to [...]

Hmmmm. All over the map. Plot twists long and meandering, even unnecessary. Character development - and there are so many characters - slow. Unbalanced scenes with some being entirely too drawn out and tedious, and others too quick, too short, too unprecedented and not firmly enough tethered to the main plot (if there even was a main plot).The last couple of books in the Outlander series have seemed more unfocused to me, and this one is no exception. Fun to read, but certainly not as gripping or [...]

Spoiler-free review:I first want to say that the Outlander series has been in my heart and soul since around 1999. When I began the series, my children were toddlers (I have crayon marks in my original Outlander paperback). One is now in college and my younger is going to be a senior in high school. They have watched me live and breathe these books, as well as celebrated with me when I actually met the author in person a few years ago. I am beyond ecstatic over the STARZ television series beginn [...]

I finally finished them all until she puts out the next book, which I need right now. There were a couple deaths that meant something to me. One it was a normal mourning but the other was so horrible it broke my heart. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone. It took so long for Claire and Jamie to get back to each other I was going to scream. And then Claire has to explain everything that happened with Lord Grey and it was so sad. I felt sorry for them both. Jamie ends up in another battle bu [...]

*Part of Audible's $5.95 sale until 3/6/16!! Don't miss getting the audiobook for a steal! audible/pd/Romance/Wri*Of course I loved it! Did you have any doubt? I mean, it's Diana "mad skillz" Gabaldon and it's an OUTLANDER book! Could it be anything less than magical? If you are on the 8th book in the series, it is already assumed that you are a rabid Outlander fan. There is no other explanation as to why one would read over 8,000 pages. So if you are a fan of the first 7 books, you will love th [...]

Please do not expect any work from me until I have finished this book. I will be taking a break from all forms of human interaction from the time I get it until it is finished. We have got to get little Timmy out of the welluh, I mean little Jemmy out of the tunnel.Update: *sigh* I finished it! This was a good one.

An extra star out of loyalty.but this was a sprawling historical novel that sprawled too far -- a kitchen-sink book, and not in a good way. A huge number of plotlines that didn't seem to serve any narrative purpose, too much time spent with annoying characters, WAY too much surgical detail, and timelines that even for THIS series are totally confusing. Clearly Diana Gabaldon loves her work and the research it entails (which is part of the reason I find her books so enjoyable), but her editor sho [...]

I've finished the book. I must say, after almost 15 years of reading this books, Diana was just about to lose me. I don't know exactly what it was that I started finding so annoying in book 4 to 7. Probably the amount of characters and their incredibly boring adventures (Come on, Willie's in the Great Dismal's threatens Frodo and Sam's journey through Mordor, as the Boriest Shit Ever, rivalled only maybe by Roger search for life's meaning, which I can only understand as Diana Gabaldon's critique [...]

SpoilersThe worst Outlander book so far, which is saying a lot since the last few have been less than impressive. If all the Claire/Jamie/William/Ian/Rachel/John parts had been cut out and just Roger/Bree/Jem's chapters remained then I would have rated this four stars. I never would have thought I'd like Roger/Bree over Jamie/Claire, but they were my favourite characters in this one, probably because they had such an engaging plot especially when compared to the rest of the characters. For most [...]

Here we go with the review, as I prepare to commit Outlander heresy - as much as I loved this series (well, Echo not so much), and as happy as I was to read more about Jamie and Claire, et al - the negatives far outweigh the pluses. Written in my Own Heart's Blood picks up right where Echo in the Bone left off. Those who have read that book know what events those are don't need a rehash, and those who haven't read it don't need to know what those events are. There are two main storylines in this [...]

Okay, I'll be honest. It really is more of a 5 star read, but I am getting a bit disappointed with the abrupt and incomplete endings (most notably, the last book and this one). Especially when I KNOW it will be freaking 5 more years before the next one comes out. What if I die before then? Or Dianna Gabaldon dies before then? I need to have a real ending!Only semi-gripe I have is that the time travel element in this one is very prevalent, and a little on the far-fetched side.Otherwise, I loved b [...]

4.5 ★'sWritten in My Own Heart's Blood is essentially broken up into two parts. One dealing with Roger and Bree and the other with Jamie, Claire and the rest of the family.Wow! Another fun filled adventure with all the characters we've come to know and love. I swear when I'm reading it, it's almost as if I'm one of their relatives, helping do the laundry or taking care of one of them but definitely NOT helping Claire with any of her surgeries! The last book left us hangingterally and it was aw [...]

Probably one of the best books of the series - the author has got her mojo back and has produced a book worthy of the ones she used to write at the beginning of the series! This time she has not left us with huge cliffhangers but instead has given us a delightful ending. It made me cry happy tears and I had to read it twice it was so nice. I have to admit there is an inordinate amount of sexual activity and a surplus of information about bodily functions but I guess it fits with the way of life [...]

“IN THE LIGHT OF eternity, time casts no shadow. Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. But what is it that the old women see? We see necessity, and we do the things that must be done. Young women don’t see—they are, and the spring of life runs through them. Ours is the guarding of the spring, ours the shielding of the light we have lit, the flame that we are. What have I seen? You are the vision of my youth, the constant dream of all my ages. Here I stand on th [...]

THE BEST ENDING EVER! I loved this book so much, one of my favorite instalments of this series :)

The word that sums up this book for me is "impatience." I was impatient for the nearly 5 years it took between the last book and this one, with so many cliffhangers to fret over from that previous volume. But then, when I got into WIMOHB, I found myself impatient with the story as a whole. Instead of devouring it as quickly as possible, I found myself willingly putting it down and going to do mundane household chores, the kind you avoid and procrastinate over for months, just because I was too i [...]

Love the cover, March 25th 2014

Update 8 July 2014:**NO SPOILERS but may contain spoilers of earlier books in the series**It's taken me some time to absorb this story. You know how a story just sticks to you for days, like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth or more dryer socks to your mind and you peel back the layers of characters and detail and you get sparks and snaps and you rabbit trail in your brain and off you go in thought and end up writing a review with the longest run-on sentence on the planet this side of the [...]

5 Glorious Stars, then 5 more and then another 5!! Without question, the best book in this amazing series and I don’t even know how that’s possible, since the entire series as a whole is SUPERB! Would I want to wait 4 years+ for the next installment?? ABSOLUTELY NOTbut this was worth every second that ticked on the clock until it was released!! Diana Gabaldon poured her heart along with some of her own blood into this book!! **Spoiler free review**There is heartache in this book, but it will [...]

IT'S HERE, IT'S ON MY KINDLEFuuuuuuuuuckkk Meeeeeeee!

In this eighth instalment and penultimate book of the Outlander series, we are treated to the great rollicking, rip-snorting ride we've come to expect from Diana Gabaldon. It's a step aboard and hang on to your hat experience that lifts you from the humdrum of normal life and takes you deep within the Fraser experience. As well as all the normal cast of characters, we have George Washington, Benedict Arnold and Charles Lee as the battle of the US Revoltuionary War heats up. Gabaldon has cleverly [...]

I can not wait for this book to come out Diana Gabaldon is by far my favorite and her books are the best.

Gabaldon does it again with the 8th book in the Outlander series. She has managed to reduce a rational woman (at least I think I am) into a bumbling romantic**sigh**. This book has it all - history, intrigue, adventure, romance and a flavour of erotica. I saved this one for the holidays so I could cozy up and take my time to escape back to the late 1700's with Jamie and Claire Fraser and their latest escapades. What I love about these novels is simple: It feels like I've come home. 5 Stars for a [...]

EPIC!!"I have loved others, and I do love many, Sassenach-but you alone hold all my heart, whole in your hands," he said softly. "And you know that."I have loved ye since I saw you, Sassenach,"he said very quietly, holding my eyes with his own, bloodshot and lined with tiredness but very blue. "I will love ye forever. It doesa matter if ye sleep with the whole English army- well, no," he corrected himself, "it would matter, but I wouldna stop me love you."Diana Gabaldon does not disappoint with [...]

Where I got the book: audiobook purchased on Audible. ***SPOILERS***Written in My Own Heart’s Blood is the eighth of what Diana Gabaldon describes as the Big, Enormous Books of the Outlander series (this page will show you both the chronology of that series and the fact that she views all the spinoffs as part of the series, thus complicating matters to stratospheric levels). As she ended Big, Enormous Book 7 on a cliffhanger, I and apparently a large portion of the world’s population were ea [...]

SPOILERS BELOW! I CANNA WRITE THIS WITHOUT SPOILERS! I have too much to say. I am so not worthy to write this review. Diana Gabaldon's writing is just so beautifully descriptive, her characters are so compelling, her plotlines so interwoven, that anything I say is going to seem dumb in comparison. I'm just a reader who has loved every single one of the books in the Outlander series, until now. I liked this and there were parts that I LOVED but I rarely got to those moments where I couldn't put t [...]

Finished June 17, 2014I was torn about how I felt when I finished this book. I read a few comments on facebook on how others were so happy in some parts and crying in others. ( I didn't read spoilers nor will I put spoilers here either.) I didn't feel any of that. I simply was not pulled into the story emotionally. Which is a shame.I liked the book generally. The content was there and I adore Gabaldon's writing style - just enough to the imagination. There was enough action to keep me not puttin [...]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I've finished the book! They are not supposed to end! I savored this book, reading it super slow because it deserves it. These books have so much information, so many sub-plots, so many characters, event after event that it is easy to miss some small detail that could be important later if you aren't paying attention. It deserved a slow, deliberate read and that is what I gave it. I would read a few chapters, set the book down, review in my head what I read, think about it some [...]

After a five year wait, it has finally come. The next chapter in the Outlander series And with this chapter, I think it is time for me to hang up my "Outlander" hat and bid adieu to these characters.Jamie and Claire Fraser have been through a lot in the years that they have been together. Falling in love soon after an arranged marriage, Jamie and Claire seem a perfect couple. They love each other very much. But fate - the very thing that brought Claire from the future to the past - stepped in an [...]

​After the dramatic conclusion in ​An Echo in the Bone and the five years it took for this installment to come out, I was expecting to swallow this whole as soon as I was afforded the opportunity. Instead? It took me upwards of almost THREE MONTHS to finish which is practically unheard of for me. When I finally read the last page, I ran joyously through the house a la Liz Lemon style.But let’s back up and discuss what actually goes down in this book. There will be spoilers for previous ins [...]