Cross-Stitch - Diana Gabaldon

[goodreads]

Title: Outlander (Outlander #1) Author: Diana Gabaldon Genre: Historical fiction Rating: 5/5 # pages: 863, Audiobook ~33 hours Date read: January 2008, July 2014, May 2024

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.


I have read this more times than I can count - enough to know parts of it off by heart by now - and it remains one of my all-time favourite books. It has action, comedy, romance, tragedy... everything a girl could wish for. By far the best of the series. I know that some people find it too lenient in its depictions of the darker aspects of life in the 18th century, but I disagree. Life WAS different back then, and we shouldn't try to hide that.


There are two versions of this book. "Outlander" is the original. "Cross-Stitch" is the UK version which has some seriously weird edits along the way. While they are few and far between, they are just completely unnecessary, and misplaced. I mean, would Claire ever have said "The mind boggles" in the original? No, I didn't think so either. Some scenes have been left out too, and while it means nothing plot-wise, it still bugged me.