Outlander (spoilers)

I picked this book up because I had heard of it being the king of all Scottish novels. The fact taht it had a thistle on it helped too. The story was amazing in many ways. Sometimes the way the author described something made it seem incredibly beautiful.

In the tale an english woman gets transported back in time to old scotland. There she meets a man named jaime, a good-ole highland man (except for the beating, which i've chosen to ignore). She is brought to the mckenzie clan where she in under watch, because they are uncertain whether or not she is an english spy. She ends up having to marry jaime, in order to keep her from a violent english soldier determined to rape most of the main characters in the story. The english soldier happens to be the great-great...grandfather of her husband in the future, which is both hilarious and unnerving at the same time. For alot of the book she tries to get back to the rocks to go back to the future, but she ends up chosing to stay with jaime. Apparently, jaime is running from the english himself, but he is caught. They break him out of jail, but jaime is a little, um, well he is hurt afterwards. He ends of getting better, somehow after nearly dying. It ends with a pregnancy! yayy!

There was alot of sex in this book. I mean, it didnt go into detail but it definitly took up a big chunk of the book, and the book is really big, mind. There were alot of things I just couldnt agree on with this book, but at the same time it had something, something. My favorite part was when she saw the loch ness monster, it was a magical moment in the book. The author really knows how to tell a story. The transitions, and lingering thoughts at the end of a chapter were perfectly made. There was adventure, which I appreciate. There was also this intimacy with the catholic church, which is rare in books. Being catholic, I am painfully aware that movies and books often cast the church in a negitive light. It doesn't bother me that much, or all the time, but it was refreshing to hear someone say something semi-positive or at least not negitive about it. The priests werent considered lecherous either, which is a plus. My uncle is a preist, so that part about the view on the church upsets me alot.

There was one part when jaime "had" to beat her to restore her honor as a woman, and I am going to admit that my heart sunk at that part. I almost stopped reading the book, it was clearly trying to call whipping someone as normal. I got really mad, I almost tossed the book. So mad, that my faith in mankind was shaky. It takes alot to make me believe a man can love, and very little to believe a man doesnt have the capability of it. I know, I need to work on that. I understand that it is old fashion scottish culture, but I didnt like it. I am a bit of a feminist, if I havent already said so. I ended up going back to the book though, there is just something irresistable about a good story. He ended up apologizing to her, promising never to do it again, telling her embaresing stories about when he has been beaten up (which is alot), and she, like an idiot forgives him. I wouldnt forgive him, I still havent forgiven him. I only got through the book by systematically ignoring that part.

Positives and negitives, I don't know what to say. I don't know if I liked this book or not, but I am going to read the next one in the series to try and figure out the answer. There are seven books in the series, "Dragonfly in amber" is next.

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"I don't want your gold and silver, I don't want your house and land
I am going with a soldier, I have promised him my hand
But the father spoke up sharply: You will do as i command,
You'll get married on a Sunday and you'll wear that wedding band"
---(song) step it out mary


--JSparrow