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Don't everyone shoot me, BUT, i have never read that series.

I'm not a huge fan of reading from that era, but I hear every rave about the series.

Should I just bite the bullet?

I read the first three and then lost interest... I can't remember why. I still own all of them and also picked up the next two at deeply discounted prices. I'd like to try reading it again, although this time, I'll be a different person reading it. Some on here mention that it can be triggery-- because the main character is technically in an A (just in different time periods). I don't know how I'd feel about it upon reading it again. It's probably too fantastic a concept to really trigger me. I won't say anymore than that and spoil it for you.

I love any books about time travel. I love the characters in these books and really want to know what happens to them....but honestly, about two thirds of each book could be cut without changing the story at all. And I started skipping the sex scenes, too repetitive.

The first 3 are my favorites, but I've read and re-read them all repeatedly.

I say bite the bullet.

I love this series! I'd bite the bullet.

In the first book, it took me about 100 pages to get into it. But once I did, I was hooked! I love Jamie Fraser!

ETA: I, too have read them repeatedly. I'm about to start my next re-read.

[This message edited by abbycadabby at 8:06 AM, September 7th (Friday)]

Another vote for biting the bullet. I am obsessed with this series. I agree also that the first book you need to give 100 pages. I've read this so many times. I laugh, I cry. I think Diana Gabaldon is a genius.

Loved the series, loved it!

Tho I'll admit I read it before I knew about being married to a philanderer!

But the characters are heartfelt. The attention to detail is awesome. I could probably re-read without triggering given how the A-related stuff is handled.

I also love this series. I'm a bit of a time travel freak, though. Throw in a very sexy man - I'm all over it.

If you have small children, you might want to hold off on this series until they are at least able to pour their own cereal. Once you start it, everything will go by the wayside. Laundry will pile up, the pantry will be empty...nothing will matter but Jamie and Claire.

In the first book, it took me about 100 pages to get into it. But once I did, I was hooked!

I agree with this.

It wasn't until Claire was transported back in time that the story line really pulled me in.

Gaby- I agree. Frank was just so, I don't know the right word. Stuffy? Maybe it was more the dynamic between Claire and Frank that I didn't like. She was kind of "outside" and Frank didn't really GET Claire.

The thing that comes to mind is the part where Jamie says, "I am your master.... and you are mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own." And then Claire thinks to herself that Jamie is too smart by half and that Frank never caught on to that fact.

I interpreted that to mean Frank never lost his soul to Claire. Conversely, Jamie and Claire did lose themselves, each in the other. What a way to be loved... completely and totally lost in each other!

Diana Gabaldon is a genius!

The first book is great.

The others get increasingly boring and ramble on and on.

I actually can't remember if I read four or five- at least four- and that was all I could take. Kept holding on hoping it would get better again.

But I definitely recommend the first one You'll get hooked for at least another two.

I read and loved the first 2. Or at least I think it was the first 2 - I read halfway through the book where the daughter is *there* before giving up.

I think the first book is brilliant in the guilty pleasure sense, and I've read it several times. ANd I never reread books! I looooove Jamie and his primitive but sexy sexism. I think the story as a stand alone is great to get lost in.

I was scared for the second part that happens 20 years later or however long it was. Jamie wasn't really Jamie to me for a while and it was hard to get the magic back, but I still really liked it.

Beyond that point, I was tired of everyone being *violated* on the roadside and the future-women inventing indoor plumbing on a saturday afternoon. I didn't want to lose the magic so I stopped reading the series there and went back to book 1 and enjoyed Young Jamie all over again.

The first two are a great read. Not graceful writing but she gets characters really well. She does get rambly in future ones, but I read them anyway.

I love historical / time travel books.

Bite the bullet. I don't reread books either, but I have read the entire series 4 times. And I generally don't read much romance....in fact, I was horrified to find that they are in the romance section in the bookstore.

I loved the historical part of it. The 'rambly' parts were some of my favorites. I like hearing about how things were made and invented back in 'the old days'.

The love story was great, too. We would all be so lucky to have a romance like Claire and Jamie. I read it the first time pre-DD and reread it post-DD with no triggers. B/c it happens across the time it just didn't FEEL like infidelity.

The books with Young Jamie (Books 1 and 2) and Book 3 are the best. As the story goes on in books 4+, it gets very wordy and a little boring.

I'll finish out the series, cause that's just the kind of person I am, but I'm reading them now more for Ian than for Jamie.

I really like this series. I admit to a very serious case of fictional character crush! I adore Jamie and Claire.

In fact, to tell you just how much I like the series, I named SG2 after one of the characters in the book - right down to the character's unusual nickname. Actually SG2's first name is from one character (along with the unusual nickname) and her middle name chosen for a different reason is coincidentally the middle name of another main character.

I like the historical accuracy (Gabaldon loves her some research!). I also like that while there is sex in the book it isn't all about the sex. There is a story - and in my opinion a really good one - being told.

Regarding the issue of infidelity . . . I started this series after marrying my second husband. My first was a WH and I hadn't discovered 2nd hubby's infidelities yet - so I was sensitive to it.

To me the situation between Jamie and Clair didn't trigger me.

Hope this isn't too much of spoiler for people who haven't read the books ... If you don't want spoilers don't go further!

Claire ends up 200 years in the past through no fault of her own. She tries to figure out how to get back - but she's stuck in a rather precarious position. It isn't safe for her to just head off on her own since both the English and the Scots think she is a spy for the other side and someone kind of wants her dead, she is a woman at a time when women have no real rights or freedoms, she can't tell anyone of her situation without the potential for being killed for witchcraft, and there's no guarantee that even if she could get back to the physical place where she traveled through time that she could get back to the right time.

She doesn't seek out a relationship with Jamie. She is forced to marry him. Marriage to Jamie or being turned over to the sadistic, brutal British Captain who has an axe to grind against Jamie and his family and who thinks Claire is a traitor against the crown.

The relationship between Claire and Jamie develops after that forced marriage. And technically, at the time where Claire is, Frank doesn't even exist. It's far more like he died.

Now Franks behaviour in later books when Claire has returned to her own time?!? Now that triggered me.

But Jamie and Claire really didn't.

[This message edited by SouthernGal at 10:10 AM, September 30th (Sunday)]