Book 4: Drums of Autumn

[Athena]

Short Synopsis: In the 20th century, Brianna traces her parents' life in 18th century colonial America. She goes back in time and Roger follows at her heels.

[peacefrog]

This book was interesting. I did like it.  Lot's of Roger stuff, poor, poor Roger. Jamie meets Brianna, Brianna meets Jenny and her family, they find Fraser's Ridge.  I loved the day to day details of living in the backwoods. This was the book where I first started to like and appreciate Lord John.

 

What I didn't like in this book was Jamie.  He was an ass in this book!  Don't get me wrong I loved it, anything to knock a hero down a bit but some of it seemed out of character to me.  His behavior to Roger is horrible and his treatment of Brianna is not much better(some of the time). 

 

I do wonder if the tv series continues if this book, along with FC and ABOSAA will be combined to one or two seasons instead of one season each book. I also hope that the show would not lose viewers due to the shift in scenery.  These 3 books are my favorite part but I don't know if they will translate as well to the screen as the first 3 books.

Edited August 5, 2014 by peacefrog

[nodorothyparker]

If I never read any character ranting about another character's maidenhead again, it will still be too soon.

 

I like a lot of the detail about colonial life in this book but I hate hate hate that it took four books for Jamie to finally meet the child he sacrificed so much for and it almost immediately turned into a stereotypical father screaming about virginity and trying to kill her lover in a misunderstanding worthy of Three's Company.

[WatchrTina]

 I have to agree with nodorothyparker on this one.  Roger's time with the indians and Ian's life them them, which follows as a direct result, play an important part in the overall fabric of the story but that scene where Jamie and Roger finally meet and don't say what needs to be said drives me crazy!  Maybe stuff like that happens in real life. Maybe preconceived notions and rage and offended honor do make it impossible for us to actually listen rationally to someone presenting contradictory information, especially men operating under the influence of testosterone poisoning, but DAMN it's frustrating to watch it happen.  I know we're just supposed to be grateful that Jamie didn't kill him, but DAMN.

 

And damn Brianna too for not telling her parents she was sort-of-married (I can't remember the word for the ceremony they performed) and that the baby might be her husband's.  That might have kept Jamie from going off half-cocked when Roger "MacKenzie" showed up instead of Roger Wakefield.

Edited August 6, 2014 by WatchrTina

[Athena]

 And damn Brianna too for not telling her parents she was sort-of-married (I can't remember the word for the ceremony they performed) and that the baby might be her husband's.  That might have kept Jamie from going off half-cocked when Roger "MacKenzie" showed up instead of Roger Wakefield.

 

Handfasting is the name of the ceremony.

 

I definitely did not like Brianna when she omitted that. She was a big idiot about that.

[peacefrog]

Brianna, Claire and Jamie were all annoying regarding that misunderstanding.  Lizzie was the catalyst though.  Ian certainly didn't help either, he was jumping up and down to kill Roger!  I'm still annoyed that Jamie was mad at Roger after rescuing him from the Mohawk because they had to leave Ian! I think he said something like "You cost me a good man".  Roger has the patience and courage of a saint to even walk back and continue to live with them on the Ridge!

Edited August 5, 2014 by peacefrog

[Athena]

Yeah, all the Frasers were stupid. I really don't really want that to play out. It does feel Jamie got really annoying at times for the sake of drama. I hope this kind of stuff is cut very short on the show. 

[WatchrTina]

 

I'm still annoyed that Jamie was mad at Roger after rescuing him from the Mohawk because they had to leave Ian!

Weel, I sort of forgive Jamie for that one.  Imagine the mix of emotions!  He chased Ian halfway across the world to rescue him, having given his word to his sister that he would do it, only to have to leave him with the indians.  And all for this guy who "married" his daughter and then promptly went off, leaving her undefended, during which time she was raped.  Yeah, yeah, we know Brianna is partially to blame for all that but from Jamie's point of view he's made a pretty poor bargain, swapping the nephew he loves for the sort-of-son-in-law who failed to protect his daughter.

Edited August 6, 2014 by WatchrTina

[peacefrog]

I do understand WatchrTina but I'm protective of my Roger :).

[WatchrTina]

I entertained myself at lunch today by re-reading the scene where Brianna arrives at Lallybroch, is greeted lovingly by her family, and calls out Laoghaire, F**king, MacKenzie for the murderous bitch that she is.  That was such a satisfying moment -- so wonderful when she slams down Ellen's pearls and confirms that she is Claire's child, not some by-blow of Jamie's from a tawdry affair like Laoghaire tried to allege.  

 

Tonight I think I'll re-read the scene where she finds Jamie and the later scene when the two of them sit together outside the cabin and surprise Claire.  Sigh.  Simple pleasures.

[Megan]

I am only half-way through this book and I have always hated Roger since meeting him. He's gross with all his bullshit virtue.

Brianna is definitely an idiot as well.

 

They're why it's taking me so long to get through this book.

[DoughGirl]

I am only half-way through this book and I have always hated Roger since meeting him. He's gross with all his bullshit virtue.

Brianna is definitely an idiot as well.

They're why it's taking me so long to get through this book.

The Brianna and Roger travel to the past and become a large part of the story is one of the main reasons these books went downhill for me (aside from the move to the colonies and what I felt was a decline in the writing). They were just about bearable in their scenes in the previous books. I loathe the Brianna character. She's a horrible Mary Sue-ish type and I dislike Roger by association.

[WatchrTina]

I don't hate Brianne and Roger. I just prefer Jamie and Claire. Then again, I recall how angry I was when this "Frodo" dude took over from Bilbo as the main protagonist of The Lord of the Rings. I got over that too.

I've read all of the books and can honestly say that I've come to care for Roger and Brianna, though not nearly as much as Jamie and Claire. All four of them infuriate me from time to time but then so do people I love in real life. I'm fairly sure The Drums of Autumn is the book where <snip -- deleted stuff because I was citing the wrong book.  I got my maggot stories confused.  As you do.>

Edited August 12, 2014 by WatchrTina

[peacefrog]

@WatchrTina that was Fiery Cross!

 

I understand being annoyed with Brianna and Roger at this point.  First read I got antsy just wanting to get back to the "main action".  Roger/Bree relationship is very different, rightly so, than Jamie/Claire.  They have very different issues and challenges.  I'm going to continue in the Fiery Cross thread as to not spoil DOA.

[DoughGirl]

It's not that Brianna and Roger take over from Jamie and Claire that bothers me. I just hate Brianna.

[peacefrog]

Lol and that's perfectly fine.  Could you share what specifically bothers you about her?  I'm not a huge fan of young Ian and I know that is not very popular.  I feel he really adds nothing to the story other than as a plot catalyst.  I do think he is necessary to the story but never got the brothers have for him. I don't feel he "deserves" the amount of time given to him, time I feel could be filled by Fergus!

 

It's not that Brianna and Roger take over from Jamie and Claire that bothers me. I just hate Brianna.

Edited August 11, 2014 by peacefrog

[nodorothyparker]

The problem with Brianna for me is that for most of the book she really isn't a fully realized character in her own right.  She's the lookalike daughter we're anxiously waiting for Jamie to meet, which is why only those wonderful scenes of her meeting the Fraser-Murry clan at Lollybroch and later her finally finding Jamie, lovely as they are, really resonate.  Everything else that happens with her feels sadly like filler to get her to those points.  It doesn't help at all that she's responsible for so much of the ridiculous misunderstanding that makes better loved and established characters look like jackasses by not simply being honest that there had been two men and that she had been handfasted to one of them.

Curiously, it's only afterward when we're seeing her through Lord John's eyes and in their fantastically absurd "engagement" that I really start to appreciate her.

Edited August 11, 2014 by nodorothyparker

[DoughGirl]

Lol and that's perfectly fine. Could you share what specifically bothers you about her? I'm not a huge fan of young Ian and I know that is not very popular. I feel he really adds nothing to the story other than as a plot catalyst. I do think he is necessary to the story but never got the brothers have for him. I don't feel he "deserves" the amount of time given to him, time I feel could be filled by Fergus!

It's just that she's too too perfect. Brianna is an artist, Brianna is an engineer, Brianna is beautiful, Brianna is a hunter goddess, Brianna cures cancer.... well maybe it's not quite that bad. ;-)

Fiona takes one look at the amazing Brianna and immediately knows she has no chance against her for Roger Mac.

When I read about her I feel like I am listening to someone brag on about their oh so perfect child while I'm bored to death.

I like both Young Ian and Fergus, but prefer Fergus as you do.

[nodorothyparker]

I wanted more Fergus and less Last Ian of the Mohicans too.  I love Fergus at his trial calling his accuser names and swearing at him in French as part of his official testimony.

[WatchrTina]

So PeaceFrog rightly pointed out that I was citing the wrong book in a post above (now edited) but in order to confirm that I had to go back and skim-read the end of this this book.  It had me laughing out loud  in an airport. What does that tell you?  For all the gnashing of teeth this book will cause (for all the reasons cited above) I think it's worth the read just to get to the scene when Jamie and Roger "step outside" and Claire diagnoses them (from the safety of the cabin) as suffering from testosterone poisoning.  Oh that scene cracked me up.  And the later scene when Roger and Brianna finally FINALLY are able to admit how they feel and re-commit to one another -- well, I thoroughly enjoyed that.

 

I had completely forgotten about the big reveal at the end of the book about Frank and the role he played with the mysterious JAMMF grave marker in Scotland.  Neat little wrap-up that was.

[Glaze Crazy]

I always felt Brianna was meant to be a "fish out of water" character, more than Claire ever was.  She was raised 100% in the modern world and was less adaptable to the 18th century than her mother was.  Add that to her 'modern' thinking and she was always bound to be tripped up as she made her way to her parents and for some time afterward.  Also, I don't think she had planned to stay for the duration, just deliver the message and come back to her life in the 20th century.  Once she was "stuck" she started to adapt better, but still was a bit of an oddity.  It was revealed that her father Frank had apparently prepped her for life in the past by having her learn to shoot and camping trips, so he must have had some idea or hint that she might go back if she could.  I don't see her as a Mary-Sue so much as just another example of someone passing through the stones and how that character adapts and functions in a different era. 

 

I see Young Ian as an example of a person of that time who, by fate or intention, has completely changed who he would have been if he'd never left Scotland for the Americas.  I would suspect he represents a lot of people who left their homes to travel to a new world and became something completely different there.  How many real early American characters are that way because of some twist of fate or being sent to a strange land and having to adapt.  I would cite another example in the backwoods men like John Quincy Meyers.  I actually find Young Ian as more of a humorous character in the early days while he is still finding his way in his new surroundings.

 

I think as the story goes on and gets bigger, with more characters rattling about, some of them become a bit thin in places and seem to just serve as a way to get from point A to point B for the primary storyline.

[justmehere]

He chased Ian halfway across the world to rescue him, having given his word to his sister that he would do it, only to have to leave him with the indians.

 

 

I read this one so many years ago I barely remember it, except that I cried like a baby when they left Young Ian with the Mohawk. It really tore me up.

[Pestilentia]

The way I remember it, it wasn't so much "they left Young Ian with the Mohawk" as it was "Young Ian left with the Mohawk."

A small distinction, perhaps, but an important one.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Pestilentia

[WatchrTina]

I think Ian chose to stay with the Indians in the same way Claire chose to marry Jamie -- because it was the lesser of two evils.  They were ultimately happy with the outcome but at the decision point, they were coerced into the decision.  If Ian hadn't volunteered to stay there would have been blood shed.  And while Ian did have the charms of his Indian lady-friend to look forward to, it still had to be gutting to say goodbye to Jamie and be ritually "washed" of his former life.  Yeah, that scene KILLED me (and I remember thinking "Jamie and Roger -- those two will NEVER make peace after this.")  And then there was the scene of Jamie trying to write Jenny to tell her what happened and my stomach was in knots again.

[lianau]

For me Brianna is a bit of a tragic figure . She's lost her father, finds out he was not her biological father and that bio dad is dead for 200 years . Then her mother "dies" but is not really dead in her mind which makes grieving her impossible  -hence her trying to figure out what happened to them and the "I have to save my parents " expedition .  I think Brianna in the early book days has a lot of Claire in her, she just doesn't take  the situation seriously enough . Claire was pretty  progressive for a woman born in 1918 (I think) but Brianna grew up around the civil rights movement , the pill and the sexual revolution , mini skirts and moon landing . And then she ends up in a time where people own people and her honour  as an unmarried woman depends on having an intact hymen .

[Kat From Jersey]

"Drums" is one of my favorite of the series, but there are moments in this book where I want to smack "all" of the characters upside their heads!

 

I alternately love/hate/am fond of/am disgusted by Roger and Bree.  The thing that gets me the most with their saga (other than the whole "Three's Company" identity misunderstanding that others have mentioned) is that they both travel through time, separately, an endeavor that kills many people that do it, and is extremely dangerous even it it works properly (which nine times out of ten it doesn't).  Then, they finally catch up with each other, promptly get handfasted, have a wedding night, then get into a huge argument and then purposely separate from each other!  After all that!  I don't care what the argument was about; if I finally found the one I love against all odds, it would take more than a natural disaster to separate us!  Ugh!  Those two have such a volatile relationship, anyway.  They're sometimes like paper and fire.

 

As a huge Lord John fan, I love John and Bree together.  Another wonderful part of this book is when Bree travels to Lallybroch and meets the entire Murray clan, and when she finally meets Jamie, and the ensuing chapters when she meets the family at River Run, attends Fergus' trial, and then travels to the mountains to finally see Claire.

[MV713]

I have been stuck in the middle of this book for 4 years.

I have decided since watching the series, Im going to start over... :)

[NoNeinNyet]

I have been stuck in the middle of this book for 4 years.

I have decided since watching the series, Im going to start over... :)

 

If you find yourself getting stuck again, I highly recommend the audiobooks. Just make sure to get the unabridged versions with Davina Porter as the narrator. I've probably only read some of the books two times tops but I've listened to them a few other times while working.

[ohhellsyeah]

4 years? Wow. I would have given up at least 3 years and 11 months earlier. I am also rereading this book and maybe I read it more than I thought because I'm remembering the plot pretty well. Right now I really want to yell at Jamie not to trust Stephen Bonnet. Ugh.

[Tif]

I'm rereading this now too and I just read that same part with Bonnet.

I kept saying, "Kill him Jamie...killllll him."

[peacefrog]

I originally had a theory that Bonnet was Geillis' spawn. :)

The eyes, the hair, the craziness, even his age. I think his age places him at being born while Geillis was in the 18th century but before she came to MacKenzie lands.

[Tif]

I originally had a theory that Bonnet was Geillis' spawn. :)

The eyes, the hair, the craziness, even his age. I think his age places him at being born while Geillis was in the 18th century but before she came to MacKenzie lands.

I'm thankful that wasn't true, because good grief there's already too much to keep track of.  :)

ETA:

I didn't want to post right after myself, but I just was reading the part where Lord John contracts the measles and Jamie takes Willie to visit the Indians to keep him safe from contracting the measles.  

 

Willie is asking Jamie if he has children because he didn't see any and he thought with the measles maybe something happened.  Jamie says that his daughter is living far away in Boston and he has a son too.

"A bonny lad, and I love him weel, though he's away from home just now."

Yeah, I teared up.  

Edited September 26, 2014 by Tif

[Kiwi]

I just finished this book this morning. I think overall it was better than Voyager as in it wasn't all over the place plot wise with too much happening. But it was a lot slower, it took me three weeks to read where as the other three took about a week, once I finally got to Brianna travelling back I felt it got better, maybe because I was so invested in Jamie finally meeting her.

 

There were parts I loved, Brianna meeting Jamie and reuniting with Claire and meeting the folks at Lallybroch. Finally seeing Claire and Jamie be domesticated which we never really got with the other books, Culloden took that away in the first two and then all the stuff that happened in Voyager also meant we never got to see them settled and just happy and living. I enjoyed reading about their exploits on the ridge and could picture it so vividly.

 

 I have to agree with nodorothyparker on this one.  Roger's time with the indians and Ian's life them them, which follows as a direct result, play an important part in the overall fabric of the story but that scene where Jamie and Roger finally meet and don't say what needs to be said drives me crazy!

 

And damn Brianna too for not telling her parents she was sort-of-married (I can't remember the word for the ceremony they performed) and that the baby might be her husband's.  That might have kept Jamie from going off half-cocked when Roger "MacKenzie" showed up instead of Roger Wakefield.

 

This! So much. It drives me crazy when people do not talk to each other. It frustrates me to no end when something so simple could be solved so easily if they only told the whole truth to each other. Its what drove me nuts with Lost, no one told each other what they each knew on that damn Island! Brianna totally blamed Jamie, and while I get that he was being an ass, it was partly her fault for what went down. She was quite stupid for a lot of the story. And reading all the chapters with her and Roger were boring for me. I find Claire's voice easier and more entertaining to read, I guess I just like Claire better.

 

What happened to Ian upset me too, I liked Ian, and enjoyed him being around. I blame Brianna for his being taken by the Indians, and while I am sure I have not seen the last from him, I found the Indian parts quite boring too. All their long stories, especially the one about the other time traveller whose skull Claire found was just so hard to get through. Now that Ian is with them, I fear there are going to be more long and boring stories.

 

I also missed Fergus, he wasn't in this book much, but when he was it was memorable.

 

So I am up to Book five, a lot of you have mentioned it is really slow and boring. Should I just stop here or carry on?

 

Oh one other thing, my favourite part of the book and one I am most looking forward to, should the show get to cover book 4, is when Brianna is back and Jamie is about to take her hunting for bees and she is watching him say goodbye to Claire in the cabin. The description of that was beautiful and I could picture it so easily. I can't wait to see it come to life.

[CatMack]

See, I can't blame Bree for what happened to Roger.  That is 100% on Jamie and Ian from my POV.  Bree was a rape victim, and rape victim's don't always behave rationally for one thing.  But more than that, by the time Bree was ready to tell them what happened Jamie and Ian had already acted.  And when she did tell him she'd been raped, that's often a really wrenching and difficult confession to make.  Yeah, if she'd mentioned being handfasted to a man going by Roger Mackenzie and that she then got raped two days later, there might have still been time at that point to go get Roger before he was handed over to the Mohawk.  But Bree had just admitted for the first time what happened that day.  That's not an easy thing to talk about, and I don't blame her for not being able to talk about the details.  And if Jamie had mentioned the man who raped her had come to the Ridge but he'd taken care of it so she didn't need to be afraid of him ever again, Bree might have asked questions of him that would have lead to the confusion being cleared up.  So it's not just on Bree, the lack of information sharing, and Jamie didn't have the excuse of having recently gone through a traumatizing experience that's difficult to talk about.

 

Do I think it's convenient that it too sooooo long for the right questions to be asked for everyone to figure out what happened, even after the initial confession?  Yeah.  But none of it would have been an issue if Jamie and Ian hadn't gone off full of testosterone and male outrage and made decisions for Bree about what she should and shouldn't know about her attacker.  I mean, even if they thought Bree was too fragile, they kept it from Claire too, and Claire would have immediately known something was wrong because she knew Bonnet was the rapist. 

 

In summary, the bad decisions and poor communication skills was a problem for several characters, but Bree was a victim of a crime that is known to be very difficult to talk about and admit to, so she gets a lot more leeway from me then the two men in the situation. 

 

ETA: Book 5 is slow, but there's some really good stuff in there too.  For me the hardest part was getting through the first couple hundred pages.  Those first couple hundred pages are abysmally slow.  But after that point it becomes more like DoA, slow at times but with enough interesting things happening to keep you going.  It took me the longest to read, and I don't see myself rereading lots of it, but I'm glad I read it, it's important to read it before reading the next books, and I did like the 6th better and am really liking 7 so far. 

Edited October 11, 2014 by CatMack

[Tif]

Book 5 is slow in the beginning but gets better. Book 6 is better but too much WTFery at times, but I liked it. Book 7 has a lot that happens and Book 8 is wonderful.

[ohhellsyeah]

I just want to co-sign everything Kiwi just said about this book. I agree with everything you said 100%.  I'm also at the same should I continue this series or not place as you, but I talked about that on another thread because I am spoiled up the wazoo.  Realistically, I know I should have more compassion for a rape victim and I kind of hate myself for not being on Brianna's side more, but by the end of the book I pretty much couldn't stand her. I like Roger but not enough to really be invested in their relationship/family.

[Kiwi]

Like you ohhellsyeah I should feel for Bree, and I do a bit, but she was pretty insufferable during a lot of the story that I find it hard to truly like her. Not that I blame any victim of rape, the blame falls solely on the perpetrator,  but after all the stories Claire had told her about the 18th century and being almost raped every other week it seemed and also going down into a room with some one she did not know, who was obviously creepy and not to be trusted, I would have thought she would be more careful about where chose to go. Maybe she was just naïve, although I never really got that vibe from her character, over confidant and cocky but not naïve. I do want to say I feel rape is used too much as a plot device in these books, I am sure there are other ways to advance the plot and keep it interesting, and keep the reader invested in the story. I don't really enjoy reading about women or men being raped. 

 

Jamie has to take some responsibility for what happened as CatMack said, but I love Jamie and just can't bring myself to hold him fully accountable. He was a product of his times and acted as such. I just can't bring myself to blame him for Ian so Brianna takes the blame in my mind. Probably totally unfair of me but my love of Jamie blinds all rational thought.

 

Thanks for the advice on book 5, maybe I will try and give myself a break from it all then give it a go. Maybe by then whenever it is not from Claire or Jamie's POV I won't find it so hard to get through.

[ohhellsyeah]

Jamie has to take some responsibility for what happened as CatMack said, but I love Jamie and just can't bring myself to hold him fully accountable. He was a product of his times and acted as such. I just can't bring myself to blame him for Ian so Brianna takes the blame in my mind. Probably totally unfair of me but my love of Jamie blinds all rational thought.

 

 

Yes!  It wasn't a lot of fun to hear Jamie and Ian talking about Brianna's lack of virginity but it has totally historically accurate.  I felt the same way in the scenes where Jamie and Claire discuss abortion.  It Jamie had started on about the importance of a woman being in control of her sexuality and reproductive choices I would have thrown the book against the wall.  I think Jamie is pretty progressive for his time actually. And yes I am probably blinded by my love of the character.

 

I ranted about the rape thing on the other thread so I won't say too much other than I was okay with it happening once.  It is a thing that unfortunately happens and if handled correctly I am okay with reading about.  It's not enjoyable but I am okay with it happening once in the course of a book series.  But when you go back there again and again it is really too much. 

[Glory]

I'm just reading these for the first time but I quite liked this book - I'd say it's one of my favorites so far! I do love Roger. I love his physical description and his historian-ness and his guitar playing. *swoon* I'm all about Roger. 

 

I felt that this book really did not let up once it got going and for that I really liked it. Some of the other books have been kind of long and/or wordy and I felt that everything that happened in this book kept me wanting more.

I just started Fiery Cross so I'll see how I feel after that one! 

[chocolatetruffle]

Just finished it. I found this book frustrating. There were several things I really liked about it.  I enjoyed the first bit in the North Carolina wilderness – the slower pacing didn’t bother me at all.  Then when Bree lands at Lallybrook (dressed like a man no less) I was ecstatic.  But after the reunion with Roger everything just went downhill for me largely due to the multitude of plot contrivances.  Examples…
After crossing thru time and spending months getting to her in the colonies, Roger leaves Bree after one night!  He could have easily seen her to River Run then gone looking for Bonnet.  After all, she has rich relations there, maybe her great aunt has jewels or even her parents.  Makes no sense character-wise or story-wise, except to set up the rape.
Why was it necessary for Bree to buy back her mother’s ring or seek out Bonnet for information about her mother?  She was only a few days journey from River Run, where her father was waiting for Fergus’ trial.  Why not just ask HIM about it??  Surely he’d know, right??  Again, makes no sense except to set up the rape.
Claire, the great healer, leaves Roger in the middle of nowhere, in foreign terrain, on an injured foot that’s infected and swollen.  Did they leave him a weapon or provisions?  Did it not occur to her that a man she supposedly cares about could die from infection or starvation or exposure?  Or that he has no idea how to get back to Fraser’s Ridge??  WTF?? Contrivance to create "drama" about whether or not he'll return.

Bree hears Roger referred to as “Mackenzie” twice in the tavern, yet she repeatedly tells her father to search for Roger Wakefield.  Are we to believe that the shock of seeing him caused her to temporarily lose her hearing??  Are we to believe that in the following months it never occurred to her that he could be using his birth name Mackenzie or that she heard him called Mackenzie in the tavern??  I’m pretty good at suspension of disbelief, but this was where the book went off the rails for me – every time the a passage mentioned how Bree was missing, waiting for or doubting that Roger would come, a voice in my head screamed “WHY DON’T YOU TELL THEM HE MIGHT BE USING THE NAME MACKENZIE?”  Of course the answer is that DG wouldn’t allow her to do that.  I hate it when writers make a character stupid in order to advance a plot point – it’s just lazy writing. 
Aside from these annoying plot contrivances I also hated that we didn’t see a lot of Fergus.  I hated what happened to Ian, a character I love.  But mostly, I missed Claire’s point of view.  It seemed like she wasn’t in this book as much as previous ones. 
I like Roger, a lot. I don’t hate Bree – I just don’t know her.  This character is no more than a plot device in this book.  I hope DG corrects this in future books.  And finally, I loved the last line:  “…tell them the Mackenzies are here.”  And for that alone, I will continue with the series.

[justcris]

Ohhh I'm having a hard time getting through this one. All the scenes in North Carolina are taking forever to get through, who would have thought a bear encounter could sustain so many pages.

I devoured the previous books in a matter of days, even the third one with all the sailing and everything. I've been reading this one for a couple of weeks now and I'm still only about 30% in according to my e-reader. 

It's just taking too long to get going!

[chocolatetruffle]

justcris, try to stick with it.  It does get going around page 450 (that's where I started bookmarking on my ereader).

[Petunia846]

Keep trucking. This and the next book are the slowest. It does get better. Skim what you have to, to get the gist, but just keep going because there's good stuff to come.

[CatMack]

This is definitely the book where it started taking me weeks instead of days to get through them.  But it's worth it.  Even book 5, which I reread the least, still has good stuff even though it takes forever to gain momentum. 

[Kiwi]

I agree with CatMack and Petunia, keep going. I found four and five slow, in fact I found five even slower and harder to get through, but I have recently finished 6 and I really enjoyed it, its my third favourite. And so far seven is going well too.

[justcris]

I'm stucking with it, at this point more out of stubbornness than anything else, no way I will let a book defeat me hah! But I really hope it gets going soon.

Thanks for all the encouragement, I needed that!

[justcris]

Finally finished it! The ending was strong, even if it had a verra slow start. All in all, I'm glad I stuck with it.

 

On to book 5!

[Megan]

I finally finished this weekend and I still hate Roger so much. All the stuff with the baby, he's such a dick.

[Starla]

I am about a third of the way through this book right now. I haven't read the thread yet so as not to be spoiled for upcoming events.

 

I just had to say, I am freaking out right now because Jamie and Claire are literally building a homestead exactly where I live. I had heard that they make their way to the NC mountains, so I have been looking forward to reading this book since I live there. The NC mountains extend over 200 miles, and they could be anywhere. But the more I read, the more I began to wonder if they are in my neck o' the woods. I did some searching to see if there is an exact location, and found this article from Diana about the location of "Fraser Ridge" being by Grandfather Mountain.

 

OMG, I live right by Grandfather Mountain. It truly is a magical place. We have the Highland Games that Diana mentions in that article in my town every year. It's funny, because the first time I travelled to the Scottish Highlands I was amazed at how much it looks like this area (with a lot less trees), which is why the Highland Games are so popular here. I can understand why Jamie would fall in love with it. After being fully absorbed in Jamie and Claire-land for the last few months it is quite surreal to think of them living in my neighborhood. I wish they could stay here and live happily ever after, but expect that won't happen, otherwise there wouldn't be five more books (nor would it be very much like them to stay put for long)!

 

I will say that some of the earlier parts of the book seem a little off, geography-wise. River Run appears to be near what is now Fayetteville, NC. I believe the Tuscarora‎ Tribe and their war with the colonists was more in the eastern part of the state, north and east of River Run. I don't think Jamie and Claire would have encountered remnants of that war on their way to the mountains, nor members of the tribe. This region would have been mostly Cherokee. In fact, I believe Grandfather Mountain was considered sacred to the Cherokee, and no one ever lived on the mountain, neither Native American or settlers. I'm no historian, but that's my understanding anyway. Now the mountain is mostly national parkland.

 

Also... I am 99% sure Roger and Bree go through the stones and end up in the past, and somehow find Jamie and Claire. I cannot wait. I might be more excited about that than the fact I live on Fraser Ridge. :-)

[GHScorpiosRule]

This is next on my list to read.

Edited June 13, 2015 by GHScorpiosRule