Book 8: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

[ulkis]

On 5/14/2017 at 8:51 PM, Dust Bunny said:

That part always amuses me, thinking about how Diana portrayed it on MOBY.

How does she portray it?

[ruby24]

I just finished this one. It was pretty good, but I haven't enjoyed the focus on Rachel, the Hunters and Jane/Fanny/William in these last two books. I just don't find any of them interesting at all. I can't believe she came up with the dullest possible character to be Ian's permanent love interest. Rollo was a more interesting character.

Also, it sure seems like traveling through the stones is becoming easier and easier every time they do it, because Roger/Bree sure go through them a lot. Why can't those two just stay in the 80's and live a normal life in America? They're getting on my nerves.

[Pamela S]

Just finished Written in My Own Hearts Blood, and am bothered by how the heck Bree and Roger and the children wind up in the correct time with Claire and Jamie at the end of the book. Roger and Buck went back to before Brian died..how did they all wind up at Fraser's Ridge 30 years later?

[SassAndSnacks]

I started back through this one on Saturday, word for word so far.  It's so good.  I've found myself furtively sneaking off into the laundry room here and there simply to get a few minutes of reading in though it's the middle of the day and I should have more important things to do. I can't put it down.

I've forgiven Herself for continuously separating Jamie and Claire, because when she does that, she has to write a reunion between them, all of which are amazing, tear-inducing, breath-catching and full of love.  

Roger just found his dad's dog tags.  Gulp!  And Bree just sent the letter to Joe Abernathy telling him that she was taking the kids to see Grandma and Grandda.  I seem to recall her trolling around Boston with Joe and the kids trying to determine how well Mandy and Jem could sense each other.  Did I miss that?  I'm typically not a Roger and Bree fan, so I have generally skimmed their sections in previous reads.  I'm liking the relationship between Buck and Roger this time, and I'm digging bad-ass Bree.  She's handling this situation very much like a Fraser, and I'm loving it.  But freaking Ernie.  Fiona would marry the most knuckle-headed of men.

The pacing of this book is so much better than the previous few.  

And Hal is my favorite Grey.  

Now, take me back to Jamie and Claire, please and thank you.

[SassAndSnacks]

I started re-reading the Big Books in March, right after my state issued a strict lockdown.  I was reading another book at the time, and every night the words would blur and I couldn't focus.  I was a total anxiety-ridden basketcase, worried for my kids, my parents, trying to balance suddenly having to home-school three children and work from home.  My husband works in finance, the markets were a disaster.  He was on the phone all hours of the day with clients from across the country - 2:00 in the morning, during dinner time, at the kids' bedtimes.  Things were a mess.  I opened up Outlander, and immediately felt a sense of calm and completeness come to me.  It was exactly what I needed, when I needed it.  

I finished Book 8 Saturday evening, tears streaming at "Hallo the House!"  Sunday, I was completely bereft.  Perhaps, I just need to get a life.  Or maybe read some different books!  Maybe something where fake people that I've come to adore aren't regularly attacked, raped, shot, slandered, threatened, etc.?  But how fun would that be?

I have loved MOBY since my first read of it.  DG's depiction of Monmouth is riveting.  Roger going back in time and meeting Jamie's dad AND his own dad!  I'll never forget my shock the first time I read those moments.  Claire and Jamie's reunion, his reaction to her getting shot.  It's really some of Herself's best writing.

This time through, I think I've finally come around to William.  There were moments when I was really rooting for him.  I want to see his relationship with Jamie develop.  I'm intrigued by what he may do next.  Similarly, I found Bree to not be as insufferable this time.  I'm anxious to know how she and Roger mastered the time travel to get all 4 of them back to the Ridge.  What happened?  Will Cameron and his crew show up there?  Where is Buck?  

How many more times am I going to have to read through this series before Book 9 is published?  I'm guessing at least twice. So many unanswered questions.  I'm most interested in learning more about Claire's parents.  Will we ever learn about it?  What is her connection to Fergus' birth family?  My theory is that her parents didn't really die in a car crash.  Perhaps they, like Roger's dad, inadvertently time-traveled.  

My Unofficial, Definitive Ranking of the Outlander Series - 

1. Outlander

2. Written in My Own Heart's Blood

3. The Fiery Cross

4. A Breath of Snow and Ashes

5. Voyager

6. Drums of Autumn

7. An Echo in the Bone

8. Dragonfly in Amber

[Cdh20]

3 hours ago, SassAndSnacks said:

I started re-reading the Big Books in March, right after my state issued a strict lockdown.  I was reading another book at the time, and every night the words would blur and I couldn't focus.  I was a total anxiety-ridden basketcase, worried for my kids, my parents, trying to balance suddenly having to home-school three children and work from home.  My husband works in finance, the markets were a disaster.  He was on the phone all hours of the day with clients from across the country - 2:00 in the morning, during dinner time, at the kids' bedtimes.  Things were a mess.  I opened up Outlander, and immediately felt a sense of calm and completeness come to me.  It was exactly what I needed, when I needed it.  

I finished Book 8 Saturday evening, tears streaming at "Hallo the House!"  Sunday, I was completely bereft.  Perhaps, I just need to get a life.  Or maybe read some different books!  Maybe something where fake people that I've come to adore aren't regularly attacked, raped, shot, slandered, threatened, etc.?  But how fun would that be?

I have loved MOBY since my first read of it.  DG's depiction of Monmouth is riveting.  Roger going back in time and meeting Jamie's dad AND his own dad!  I'll never forget my shock the first time I read those moments.  Claire and Jamie's reunion, his reaction to her getting shot.  It's really some of Herself's best writing.

This time through, I think I've finally come around to William.  There were moments when I was really rooting for him.  I want to see his relationship with Jamie develop.  I'm intrigued by what he may do next.  Similarly, I found Bree to not be as insufferable this time.  I'm anxious to know how she and Roger mastered the time travel to get all 4 of them back to the Ridge.  What happened?  Will Cameron and his crew show up there?  Where is Buck?  How many more times am I going to have to read through this series before Book 9 is published?  I'm guessing at least twice. So many unanswered questions.  I'm most interested in learning more about Claire's parents.  Will we ever learn about it?  What is her connection to Fergus' birth family? 

My theory is that her parents didn't really die in a car crash.  Perhaps they, like Roger's dad, inadvertently time-traveled.  

My Unofficial, Definitive Ranking of the Outlander Series - 

1. Outlander

2. Written in My Own Heart's Blood

3. The Fiery Cross

4. A Breath of Snow and Ashes

5. Voyager

6. Drums of Autumn

7. An Echo in the Bone

8. Dragonfly in Amber

I've been wondering for years if Claire's parents had time travelled somewhere & left her behind??

[SassAndSnacks]

15 hours ago, Cdh20 said:

I've been wondering for years if Claire's parents had time travelled somewhere & left her behind??

There has to be something to this.  You need the gene to "travel" so where did she get it?  

I read that DG is writing a prequel on Jamie's parents.  I'm not knocking that, and I'm sure it'll be a great story.  I want to know more about Claire.  Who were her parents, more on Uncle Lamb and her unconventional upbringing, more on her time during WWII.  She's fascinating and wonderful.  And not to be a total fangirl, but today is her birthday.  

[toolazy]

On 12/20/2019 at 6:22 AM, Pamela S said:

Just finished Written in My Own Hearts Blood, and am bothered by how the heck Bree and Roger and the children wind up in the correct time with Claire and Jamie at the end of the book. Roger and Buck went back to before Brian died..how did they all wind up at Fraser's Ridge 30 years later?

And this is the main reason I am anxious for Book 9 because it will, presumably, answer this mystery. 

[Ziggy]

13 hours ago, toolazy said:

And this is the main reason I am anxious for Book 9 because it will, presumably, answer this mystery. 

Oh, I know!  We probably only know a few things from their "journey" back to the Ridge.  I can't wait to fill in some of those gaps.

[Kim0820]

I recently finished this one and got to start the next book after its initial introduction, so the only book I'll be onto right when it comes out will be book 10.  

This one was more readable than the last 3.  The time travel was intriguing.  Buck Mackenzie stays with Geillis in 1739, and from what we know, you can't exist again in your own time line, so he'll have to leave before his brith in 1746 or what will happen to him.  And why did he go forward. To my memory, he was the only one who ever went forward who had not been there before.  There was not enough about his impressions - indeed DG often loses sight of that interest, being more interested in her story.  I recall how the show had Claire opine that it was noisy in the 20th century, compared to her last three years in the 18th.  

I did like the 80s story and wanted to get back to it, but after the story went back to the revolutionary war, each chapter anew was still back there.  A lot of Claire doing surgeries with little point other than how she managed to do them.  

The reunion at the end was good.  Roger and Brianna and family had a place to flee as time travelers.  

[Noneofyourbusiness]

7 hours ago, Kim0820 said:

And why did he go forward. To my memory, he was the only one who ever went forward who had not been there before. 

Spoiler

Well, Master Raymond is from 2000 BC, so he's gone forward to pre-Revolutionary France.