Friday, February 11, 2011

Book Review: Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander book 2)

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, Book 2)Book Details:
Title: Dragonfly in Amber
Author: Diana Gabaldon
1992, Dell
ISBN: 978-0-440-21562-2

Book Summary (from the back cover):
For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ... about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ... and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ...
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ... in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ... and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves ...

My Review:
Whoof! (I'm not sure what kind of sound that really is. =) It took me a good two weeks at least to read this book, which is very unusual for me. I finished the first one in the series, Outlander, fairly quickly, but almost from the beginning of this second book, I had a hard time getting into it.

This book starts out twenty years later with Claire back in the 20th Century - having spent those 20 years with her first husband Frank and raising her daughter in that time. I was immediately distressed about WHY this would happen. I didn't like Frank back at the beginning of the series and was not happy that Claire ends up with him again. The rest of the book her her re-telling to her daughter Brianna (her daughter with Jamie!) about the events that lead from the end of Outlander to the beginning of this novel.

I think that's why it took me so long to get through it. I didn't really want to find out how in the world Claire ended up back in the 20th Century without Jamie. I was dreading the end of the book where I would find out. I also felt like this book moved a lot slower than the first one. It was all interesting and enjoyable, but it just seemed like it took a very long time for the event to unfold.

As it happened, by the time I got to the last portion of the book where they were wrapping up her story and were back in 1968 (and we had gotten through the part where she loses Jamie) I suddenly picked up the pace and finished the book quickly. I'm pretty excited to start the next one and see where it goes from here. It's hard to figure out what's going to happen now since Claire is about 50-years-old now!

I would highly recommend this series to anyone who likes a good intense read. It's very detailed and there is A LOT of history woven into the story, which I find fascinating.



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