Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon - A Gif-Filled Reaction Post

MY REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE (FOR THE SERIES) BUT THE BOOK DESCRIPTION DOES HAVE SPOILERS

 

Series: Outlander #2
Genre: Historical Fic/Romance/Time Travel
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Publication Date: 10/9/01
Format: Audio/Print
Pages: 947
Source: Purchase



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From the author of Outlander... a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland...


For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ...about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ...and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ....


Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ...in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ...and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....


SPOILER-FREE, for Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber



Opening Lines  I woke three times in the dark predawn. First in sorrow, then in joy, and at last, in solitude. ~ prologue

So this was me, starting Dragonfly in Amber...

 

And this is me after seeing the heading under Chapter One.

The pain. The shock. It was baaaaad. I wanted to say "I'M OUT."(not really) But my friends Cindy and Jenny, they were like "Hey Andrea...

 

 

And I'm sure there were a few moments they wanted to shout at me...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously? God bless all of you who read the series as it came out. Words cannot express my sympathy at your pain. No kidding, I had to go read parts of book three before I could go on. And thanks for putting up with those of us newly obsessed.




Did Dragonfly in Amber hurt? Did I feel absolutely crushed, ridiculously afraid I wouldn't get the story and ending I wanted?

  

 

 

  

But was all the pain and tears and the heartache for JAMMF and Clarie worth it?

 

 

(JAMMF owl-blinks make me happy!)
 

YES. Best. Series. Ever.

 

 

 

Rating: 5 stars - This book KILLED me, but I think I loved it just as much as Outlander.


Favorite Quotes


  I fought back the memory of our wedding night. He was a virgin; his hands trembled when he touched me. I had been afraid too--with better reason. And then in the dawn he had held me, naked back against his chest, his thighs warm and strong behind my own, murmuring into the clouds of my hair, "Dinna be afraid. There's two of us now."



  "We are bound, you and I, and nothing on this earth shall part me from you."One large hand rose to stroke my hair."D'ye mind the blood vow that I swore ye when we wed?"
  "Yes, I think so. 'Blood of my blood, bone of my bone...'"
  "I give ye my body, that we may be one," he finished. "Aye, and I have kept that vow, Sassenach, and so have you." He turned me slightly,and one hand cupped itself gently over the tiny swell of my stomach.
  "Blood of my blood," he whispered, "and bone of my bone. You carry me with ye, Claire, and ye canna leave me now, no matter what happens. You are mine, always, if ye will it or no, if ye want me or nay. Mine, and I wilna let you go."
  I put a hand over his, pressing it against me.
  "No," I said softly, "nor can you leave me."
  "No," he said, half-smiling. "For I have kept the last of the vow as well." He clasped both hands about me, and bowed his head on my shoulder, so I could feel the warm breath of his words upon my ear, whispered in the dark.
  "For I give ye my spirit, 'til our life shall be done."



  "Well, I'll tell ye, Sassenach, 'graceful' is possibly not the first word that springs to mind at the thought of you." He slipped an arm behind me, one hand large and warm around my silk-clad shoulder.
  "But I talk to you as I talk to my own soul," he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple.
  "And, Sassenach," he whispered, "your face is my heart."



  "I'm honest enough to say that I dinna care what the right and wrong of it may be, so long as you're here wi' me, Claire," he said softly. "If it was a sin for you to choose me...then I would go to the devil himself and bless him for tempting ye to it." He lifted my foot and gently kissed the tip of my big toe.
  I laid my hand on his head; the short hair felt bristly but soft, like a very young hedgehog.
   "I don't think it was wrong," I said softly. "But if it was...then I'll go to the devil with you, Jamie Fraser."



  "Don't move, Sassenach," Jamie's voice came softly, next to me. "Just for a moment, mo duinne--be still."
  I obligingly froze, until he touched me on the shoulder.
  "That's all right, Sassenach," he said, with a smile in his voice. "It's only that ye looked so beautiful, wi' the fire on your face, and your hair waving in the wind. I wanted to remember it."



  "What is it, love?" I whispered. "Jamie, I do love you."
  "I know it," he said quietly. "I do know it, my own. Let me tell ye in your sleep how much I love you. For there's no so much I can be saying to ye while ye wake, but the same poor words, again and again. While ye sleep in my arms, I can say things to ye that would be daft and silly waking, and your dreams will know the truth of them. Go back to sleep, mo duinne ."



  "I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you--then that is my punishment,which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest."
  His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me. "Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well."

 The Outlander Series

                

Diana Jean Gabaldon Watkins grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona and is of Mexican-American and English descent. She has earned three degrees: a B.S. in Zoology, a M.S. in Marine Biology, and a Ph.D in Ecology.

She currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona .


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