Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

I had finished reading Outlander back in December 2015 and, as much as I adored it, never got around to continuing the series. I watched the first season of the show (SWOON) and let season 2 pile up while I tackled Dragonfly in Amber. These are TOMES. I could hurl this book at a person's head and quite possibly knock them out cold. Dragonfly clocks in at about 740 pages.

 I ended up putting the actual book away and grabbed the audiobook, read by Davina Porter (fantastically read by, I might add), because I went a little crazy at the local library and checked out too many books. At least listening to Dragonfly kept me moving right along. I started reading this in February 2017 and, quite literally, just finished the book. I was thisclose to tearing into Voyager, the next book in the series, but stopped myself so I can finish my last library book. My goodness this is a fantastic series. To catch you up, here is my review of the first in the series, Outlander.

Dragonfly in Amber starts in a very unexpected way: Claire is back in her century, showing up on Roger Wakefield's doorstep in Invermess, in 1968. Roger, remember, was the little boy that Reverend Wakefield had adopted, whom we met in Outlander. Roger is quite grown up now and Claire arrives with her daughter, Brianna, a vibrant 20 year old red head. Start doing the math here, folks. Claire asks Roger to help research the fates of the clansman who fought at Culloden. In 1745, the Jacobites fight, and lose terribly, at Culloden, to try and put Charles Stuart back on the throne. It's a terrible battle that nearly wipes out the Scots and Claire wants closure, it seems, on the people that she knew and spent so many years with in 18th-century Scotland.

While researching, Roger, Brianna, and Claire seek out a cemetery and come across James Fraser's gravestone marked as the "Beloved Husband of Claire". That sparks the telling of her adventures to Brianna and Roger, including the telling of Brianna's true father, Jamie.

Part II takes us immediately to 1744, France, and Claire vomiting from morning sickness. Jamie and Claire are in "high society" France to do what they can to stop Charles Stuart from waging his war to gain the throne, using the Scots as pawns in his battle. A great deal happens on so many levels in Paris that I can't recount them all and, frankly, I wouldn't want to. This is a great story told by a great writer and it's worth the travel with Claire and Jamie.

We do end up back in Scotland, with many deaths, many upsets and many nail-biting moments. Claire, as we already know, ends up going back through the stones into her century and giving birth to Jamie's daughter, Brianna. The last bit of the book turned out to be more of a twisted path and left us with a shocking bit of revelation.

The audio book is approximately 38 hours long and the last, oh, 10 hours or so I devoured in 3 days. I really wished that I didn't have to sleep at that point...or work... but alas.

I highly recommend this series. It's daunting in size, but so very worth the time.