Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories

Book Info
ebook, 848 pages
Published June 10th 2014 by Delacorte Press (first published 2014)
original title Written in My Own Heart's Blood
ISBN 044024644X (ISBN13: 9780440246442)
edition language English
URL
series Outlander #8
characters George Washington, Jamie Fraser, Brianna Randall, Roger MacKenzie, Jeremiah MacKenzie
other editions (18)
Source:Kindle version borrowed from Public Library

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD is the eighth novel in the world-famous OUTLANDER series. In June of 1778, the world turns upside-down. The British army withdraws from Philadelphia, George Washington prepares to move from Valley Forge in pursuit, and Jamie Fraser comes back from the dead to discover that his best friend has married Jamie’s wife. The ninth Earl of Ellesmere discovers to his horror that he is in fact the illegitimate son of the newly-resurrected Jamie Fraser (a rebel _and_ a Scottish criminal!) and Jamie’s nephew Ian Murray discovers that his new-found cousin has an eye for Ian’s Quaker betrothed.

Meanwhile, Claire Fraser deals with an asthmatic duke, Benedict Arnold, and the fear that one of her husbands may have murdered the other. And in the 20th century, Jamie and Claire’s daughter Brianna is thinking that things are probably easier in the 18th century: her son has been kidnapped, her husband has disappeared into the past, and she’s facing a vicious criminal with nothing but a stapler in her hand. Fortunately, her daughter has a miniature cricket bat and her mother’s pragmatism.

The best of historical fiction with a Moebius twist, WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD weaves the fibers of a family’s life through the tapestry of historical drama.

My Thoughts

After 21 years spent waiting for and then reading the 8 books that make up the ongoing saga of Jamie and Claire Fraser the vivid imagination of author Diana Gabaldon still gives me chill bumps up and down my arms!

The multiple story lines as always blended beautifully, as they have from book to book and most of all the many characters, both old and new, that inhabit the series created a realistic and at times emotionally devastating tale of courage blended with suspense and romance.

The only thing that kept me from finishing sooner is the fact that the first half of the book stayed centered too long for my taste on the War between the British and the Americans, the American Revolution is not one of my favorite parts of history so it made me lay the book down and walk away to digest what I had read. However the last half of the book more than made up for any lack of satisfaction I was feeling and it flew by too quickly!

Having finished I feel bereft as spent 6 days in the company of most beloved characters and hate to say goodbye until we meet again years from now.

This was not my favorite in the series but it totally made me appreciate just how labor intensive a book of this magnitude is and it left a smile on my face when it ended, despite the fact the ending came too abruptly for my taste.

[Kindle version borrowed from Public Library]