The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone and Written in My Own Hearts Blood by Diana Gabaldon

Before I write anything else, recognize that these are books 5-8 in the Outlander series.  If you are not familiar with Outlander I am both jealous and sad for you.  Sad because you have not experienced one of the best and most compelling fictional journeys I have ever been a part of.  Its Claire and Jamie for goodness sake!  And jealous because if you are smart you will take my advice and go get a copy of Outlander (I recommend you buy it because you're going to want to read it twice-at least) and you get to sink into this delightful book for the very first time and get your Jamie on.  So just know that I'm already a big fan, and I've already read these books, and I am not an indifferent reviewer.  Spoiler:  I loved the books.  Solid rating of #3 Enjoyed It Very Much.  Outlander itself (Book 1 in the series) is a #2 Fabulous with the others in the series falling just behind mostly because they aren't Outlander.  I mean, its quite the standard to meet!  But I digress...

In anticipation of Season 5 of the Starz series (Feb 16 2020 in case you didn't know) I binge watched Seasons 1-4 on Netflix and Starz over the Christmas holidays and into January.  These shows are harder to binge on then, say, Friends or The Good Place because you CAN NOT watch these when your 10 year might wander into the room.  Once I finished the last episode I could not stand it so I dragged out the books.  Again.  Yes, I've read them all before.  Twice.  Once on the initial read back when I first picked up Outlander and fell hard for what is probably my favorite series...or surely one of my top five favorite series.  And I read them again just before the last book came out, to refresh my memory so that I was prepped and ready for page 1.  At 1,200-1,400 pages each, these books are not for everyone but they are SO right up my alley. 

Observations from this time around?  The Fiery Cross was really great.  Written in My Own Hearts Blood could have used a bit more time in the editing room.   Even at their substantial length, each one of them ended with me wishing that they would just keep going on and on and on.  The 9th book is in progress and may come out this year, maybe next year...I'll be pre-ordering it and hunkering down the moment it hits the Nook.  Happy reading!

Rating:  #3 Enjoyed Them Very Much