Drums of Autumn

While I love Outlander as a series, I struggled to get through this book. Once I got about 65% of the way, it finally picked up and was an interesting read. Very lengthy and detailed

I can’t get enough and am not sure how I will feel when I complete the series. It is fantastic!

Loved it! Now on to the next book in the series. Read this along with the audible narration. Davina Porter is excellent. So glad she is the narrator for the entire series.

My goodness. Can Diana Gabaldon tell some remarkable stories via her epic Outlander series. From 20th Century nurse Claire Randall unwillingly falling through the time traveling stones of Craig na Dun, and into the arms of 18th Century Scottish Highlander Jamie Fraser in the pages of

Outlander

; to Claire and Jamie desperately trying to thwart the carnage of Culloden in

Dragonfly in Amber

; to separation, reunion, and reclamation in the swift moving

Voyager

, the Outlander series gives readers a rich tapestry of history--along with the timeless love of Claire and Jamie Fraser. And the 4th installment of this series, DRUMS OF AUTUMN, in this reviewer's opinion the best installment yet, brings the Fraser family together for the first time--along with a suitor who goes through his own hell trying to find the love of his life.**SPOILERS!!**DRUMS OF AUTUMN takes place in the American Colonies--North Carolina, to be precise--half a decade away from the American Revolution. Jamie has graciously declined an offer from his Aunt Jocasta to inherit her River Run plantation; he and Claire have gone west, into the mountains, to settle on their own land--a place that comes to be known as Fraser's Ridge. Life is hard; Claire and Jamie are starting from scratch, building a cabin, planting crops, and beginning a relationship of deep respect with the local Cherokees. They know the Revolutionary War is coming, yet are hopeful their seclusion and isolation will insulate them from the violence to come.Meanwhile, in 1970, Jamie and Claire's daughter, Brianna, is becoming romantically involved with young Scottish historian Roger Wakefield. Roger is certain Brianna is the love of his life, while Bree wishes to slow the romance down; a Christmas visit in Scotland goes slightly awry. With the long distance relationship consisting of the occasional phone call and written letters, Bree suddenly comes across a startling obituary--the deaths of her parents in a house fire. In the second installment, we learned that Brianna (and Roger) are capable of traveling through the stones; Bree takes the ultimate risk by traveling to Craig na Dun--and plunging through the stones. She finds passage to the Colonies; the search for her parents--for the father she's never met--begins.Roger, realizing what Bree has done, demonstrates his love for her. He waits for the next pagan event and goes through the stones himself. He finds passage to the Colonies as a sailor on a ship--captained by the notorious Stephen Bonnet. It's a passage not for the faint of heart, particularly when disease erupts among the various passengers; Captain Bonnet exhibits some brutal inhumanity here. Upon arrival in Wilmington, Roger--now calling himself Roger MacKenzie--and Brianna have a bittersweet reunion. They become handfast (married for a year sans priest) and enjoy an intimate night--only for Bree to discover that Roger's known about the obit of Claire and Jamie all along, and that he decided not to share the information with her. This causes some intense friction, and the couple parts--Brianna to travel west to find and notify her parents; Roger to search for Bonnet to obtain some jewels that will enable he and Bree to go back through the stones to the 20th Century. Once he obtains them and makes his journey following Brianna to Fraser's Ridge, the tale takes a series of twisting turns and misunderstandings--all with Stephen Bonnet as the source.Claire and Jamie's reunion with Brianna is poignant and heartfelt--Jamie and Roger's first meeting is not so sweet, as Jamie is under the impression that the man following his daughter is the culprit who's raped her and impregnated her. (This took place, Brianna tells her parents, while she was in Wilmington.) Roger, beaten savagely, is sold into bondage with the Mohawk; he heads north, a prisoner. Once Brianna learns of the misunderstanding, she demands her parents journey north and bring Roger back; her pregnancy prevents her from traveling. Claire and Jamie--and Young Ian, Jamie's nephew--journey north, ultimately finding the village. They attempt to barter and trade for Roger, but the village's sachem is firm: for the tribe to release Roger, they must have another person. Ian volunteers, as during the course of the story he's become quite close to the Indians. Roger is finally told about Brianna by her parents--how she was raped by none other than Stephen Bonnet, and that she's pregnant. The baby could be Roger's, or it could be Bonnet's; both events took place within a handful of days. So Roger must decide if he should stay and be with Brianna and raise a child who may not be his--or go back through a nearby circle of stones to his own time. He realizes once the baby is born, the chances of himself, Bree, and certainly the child, are virtually non-existent to go back to the 20th Century. To stay is to stay in the 18th Century complet...

Each of the main Outlander books requires a worthy investment in your time. I always like to plan an Outlander week when I decide to read one. It is armchair travel at its finest with no attention to detail spared. Characters and scenes are vividly brought to life and as such the time spent with the Frasers is time well spent. The setting in Drums of Autumn is predominantly in America but with a distinctive Highlander voice. Once again I found myself searching for audio clips of the Gaelic used as it is far from a phonetic language!If you haven't read an Outlander book, now is the time to stop reading this review and choose whether to catch up with the series either by reading or viewing Outlander first. In my opinion, you will want to do both!When we left Jamie and Claire in Voyager I for one was desperate to see more of Bree and Roger. In this book I was delighted to catch up with not only them, but the other young ones as well. For me the storyline signified a fresh start for all, not just Jamie and Claire. There is never a dull moment when it comes to the Frasers. They literally stumble upon shore with little but the clothes on their backs. Resourceful as always, they face numerous encounters before they begin anew at Fraser's Ridge. Jamie and Claire take nothing for granted and embrace the chance to be together again. Starting from scratch, they build their home and work the fields with little regard for what material possessions they lack.Jamie continues to impress me to no end. We have seen him as a young man who never turns away from his duty. He's an honorable man and a proud Highlander. Even when he gets on his high horse he will humbly acknowledge the rare (coughs) moments he may have gone a step too far. The love he and Claire share is obvious to all who are close to them.The drums of love beat for Roger and Bree as resoundingly as they do for Jamie and Claire. The difference for them is that they knew each other well before love blossomed. And it is Bree who steals the limelight from Claire in this story, which is a testament to her loving upbringing. The rather impressive gene pool she came from undoubtedly helped as well!Roger is the ultimate gentleman who learns that being polite doesn't always work in matters of the heart. A rather awkward fatherly advice is delivered at a prudent time to rekindle the passion between him and Bree. He is a rather polished, less brash but none the less passionate version of a Scotsman we have met thus far in the series, well except for Jamie’s brother-in-law, Ian who displays the patience of a saint.Quite often when I read a book the second time (and this usually occurs because I didn't stop to write a review the first time around) I am conscious of what I want to include in my review. The one moment that I wanted to play with in my review this time was my version of Bree and Roger's fun with describing The Minister’s cat. It’s more challenging than I first thought!The second half of Drums of Autumn was amazing. It never takes me long to slip back in time to be with Jamie and Claire. This was probably the first time in a few books where I didn’t have a sense of loss for a character with the different settings and PoVs. A wonderful story that finished on with a sentence that left me impatient for more time with the Frasers.