"The Outlander Series" by Diana Gabaldon (Book Thoughts)

I'm a fan of series books, but they need to hold my attention. Sandra Brown's Alphabet series, and James Patterson's Alex Cross series are a few of my favorites. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is my all-time favorite. They are laugh-out-loud funny and there's always a chance Stephanie and Joe will have a fight and end up with Ranger.

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is my new favorite. A customer recommended it to me when she heard about my YA novel, which is partly set in Scotland.

I honestly didn't have high hopes for the book because I know books are such a personal preference. What one person loves could be another person's idea of fire kindling. No. I'm just kidding. I would NEVER use a book as kindling! Even so, I always consider a recommendation because, hey, you never know.

Well, I'm on the fourth book, Drums of Autumn, and I love this series!  I would be farther in the series had I not intermingled other books in between. Doing so, keeps me from series-burnout. BUT if I were stranded on a desert island, I would bring the whole series with me because I could see myself reading these over and over.

Anyway, Outlander starts post WWII. While Claire, a British nurse during the war, and her husband, Frank, a historian, are on their long overdue honeymoon in Scotland, she discovers a stone circle. The circle transports her back to 18th century Scotland. Cool, huh?

While there, her life is filled with action, adventure, intrigue, and yes, romance. Not the sappy, love at first sight, kind of thing. No, no, no. Claire is torn between already being married to Frank in the future and marrying Jamie, (a very large, very young fugitive) in order to save her life.

Diana Gabaldon's series is full of history. The kind that makes you want to learn more about. The romance between Claire and Jamie is the kind that makes tears spurt from your eyes, as you wonder if your significant other feels that way about you. Sigh.

But anyway, I am definitely recommending this book to all of you. Pick up the first book, "Outlander," give it a shot. By the way, she is also featured on the cover of this month's Writer's Digest.

Let me know what you think.