Gentlemen & Players (↑)

I've finished another book. I attempted to read the 2nd novel in the Outlander series, and I just couldn't do it, so I gave up, and picked up this hardcover novel that I had found in a used book bin at either Frenchie's or the used bookstore. Anyway, this novel is called Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris. It was an amazing book, and I would definitely recommend it to friends. It's kind of a suspense novel, but really, I'm not sure how to categorize it. It's strange, but it seems that every random novel I find that is cheap and doesn't appear to have many reviews, is typically the best novel I've read in a long time, while when I spend good money on a popular novel, I end up hating it, and sending it to the used bookstore anyway.

Anyway Gentlemen & Players is about this person who wants to get revenge on a posh private school. They plan out this huge plot, and follows through with it all. At first, I wasn't sure what to expect, but slowly, I really started to like certain characters (however, sometimes I had a hard time keeping their positions within the school straight), and at the end, I was so surprised by the turn of events and changes in character, that I couldn't help but like it! It was so unexpected, that you had no idea that it was going to happen.

I know I kind of keep things aloof for the synopses, but that's mostly because I don't want to give anything away and I want you to go out and read it for yourself. Alright, I'm gonna attempt to read another (or at least start) book. It's going to be a busy weekend, so we'll see how far we get. Until next time, Happy Reading!

Outlander (↑)

I decided to re-read the Outlander series again. So the book I just finished is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I always find the first few novels of the series are much better than the last ones. I think it's because the characters are new and fresh, and you don't have top situations that have occurred in previous novels. I mean, I like the later novels in this series, but I still enjoy reading the first few, especially when they are still in Europe and haven't gone to America yet.

This novel is about a woman named Claire Randall who, when touching a stone in a circle of stones in Scotland, gets transported back in time. She then falls in love with a young Scottish warrior, Jamie Fraser, and she follows him throughout this travels. I like how she introduces all the characters, and I also really like the sex scenes. Makes me sound perverted, I know, but they're just good. You just have to read the novels to understand, ha ha ha.

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to read the rest of them. At least I know that if I get bored of them, I can stop at any time and not feel guilty!

Until next time, Happy Reading!

An Echo in the Bone (↑)

I've finished another book. This one is part of a series I read about 2 years ago. It's a new book in the series (only came out last year, hence the huge break between reading the last one and this one). It's called An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. It's well written and I'm sure well researched, but it's really really long which can make reading it tiresome. And also because it had been so long since I read the previous novels, I had to work even harder while reading it in order to remember what had happened previously along with trying to remember all the characters and such.  But that's certainly not the book's fault, more my fault. Either way, I really enjoyed reading it.

Basically, this book continues the story of the time-traveller Claire and her Scottish husband Jamie (who isn't a time-traveller) as they have their adventures through the American Revolutionary War. It also follows Claire and Jamie's daughter Brianna and her husband and their children's adventures in modern day (they are also time travellers). It also follows the story line of Lord John Grey (who also features in quite a few of the other novels in this series, along with novels in a separate series, starring only him) and his son William. In the end almost all the storylines tie in together.

Now I have to make the decision as to whether I want to re-read the whole series over again (not including this book) or if I want to read other books instead. I think the problem I would have with re-reading this series is mostly that all the novels are 700 + pages, so it will take forever. But it's not like I have much else to do at the moment. Either way we'll see I suppose.

I recommend this novel only to those who want to read the Outlander series (I can list the books later) mostly because otherwise they won't understand the ties between most of the characters. Anyway, until next time, Happy Reading!