2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

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Sooooo, I really had been putting off reading this book for a long time. Reading the description, I was sure I would at least like the Scottish Highland aspects of the book, but the 800+ pages were something that really didn't make me want to pick up the book. What can I say: I ended up actually enjoying the book. (view spoiler)[I loved how Claire and James' relationship developed over time. 7 times out of 10 I hate books with romance in them because it's an instant love kind of love thingy, in particular in YA books. This book, however, portrays a more realistic relationship. (hide spoiler)] The only reason I only gave this book 4 out of 5 stars is that it felt painfully long at times.
PS: I did the audio and loved the narration.

Finished this book. I am glad I read it, so I know what everyone is talking about when they mention the series, but it was definitely not a book for me:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - My Review

Couldn’t put the last 20% down and finished at 1am. I loved this book!!! It flowed smoothly to me and it wasn’t a chore to read. I have watched the show but now I’m rewatching to see how different the two are. So far, there are little things of course but pretty spot on. Not sure if watching the tv show I was able to see the characters more but I really really enjoyed the book!

Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

5 Star story (and series) for me!

I whizzed through it the first time in order to count it for a challenge and then went back and listened to it specifically for the story. So many people in my reading circle recommended it that I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Once I truly paid attention to the storyline and nuance, I fell for it! I have loved getting into the series as a whole, and I think that it's even better narrated on audiobook.

I plan to watch the TV show but not until I'm done with the majority of the series (just starting book 5).

Finally completed the book after 2 weeks. I really enjoyed the book. Fine writing I must say. I am also thinking of watching the TV series when I get some time.
I've added my review at - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The writing is very poetic and beautiful. I think the author did a good job connecting us with the characters. This isn’t my usual type of read but despite some brief slow moments I enjoyed the book!

I ended up giving this book 3.5 stars rounded up.

I love historical novels and really liked how much detail Diana Gabaldon put into this story, but that also was a bit of a double-edged sword because it felt to me like some parts could have definitely been condensed. I don’t know if it’s because I watched the TV series before reading the book, but this is one of those rare instances where I actually preferred the TV adaptation over the book. Doesn’t take away from the fact that I did enjoy the story and am glad to have finally read it!

I love the book... I love the program.. well I´m suspect to say anything about Outlander I LOVE JAMIE AND CLAIRE...

So... I hope we can read the next book together...

See you!

I’ve wanted to take a look at this for a while but sadly it wasn’t for me and I gave it 2 stars in the end. To be fair, romance isn’t really my genre, and I thought this had way too much of that at the expense of the historical/fantasy elements I’d been looking forward to. I enjoyed the very start of the book but found Claire’s immediate acceptance of her situation weirdly jarring and I struggled with the first half overall. I did start to enjoy it towards the end once all the ‘romance’ died down a bit and it became more of a historical romp through eighteenth century Scotland.

To be fair, it’s hard to be the first book in a series and a lot of my favourite series don’t get going until the second or third book in. This one just hasn’t grabbed me enough at the outset to stick with it I don’t think.

Unfortunately I didn't get to finish this in time, either by print or audio. But so far, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and hope to complete along the way!