Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

Fair warning, this is the eighth book in a series. Please don’t read this review if you want to spoil anything. Instead, leave your computer right now and get caught up in the Outlander series.

So, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood picks up exactly where the last book ended. Jamie’s not dead, William has just found out that he is Jamie’s bastard son, and the American Revolution is in full swing. In Scotland in the 1980s, Jem has gone missing, Roger and Buck have gone to the past, and Bree is trying not to lose her mind. Just like any Outlander book, Gabaldon wraps up about half of these storylines, opens up twice as many new ones, then takes you on a ride. I thought this one was very well written, although I wish there was more of Bree’s story.

Rather than alternating between stories for each chapter, Gabaldon split it up into just a few sections and devotes several hundred pages to each story before switching to a new one. So there’s a big focus on Bree, Roger, and the kids, then Claire and Jamie, then Bree again and so on. I listened to this as an audio book, so that meant there were hours where I didn’t hear from one character or another. It helps you keep in one story very well, but at the end of the book I felt like I hadn’t heard from Bree and Roger in days. This book also had tons of my two current favorites, Ian and Rachel, and I was very grateful for that.

Without spoiling anything, I will say that the ending had me in tears. And I cannot wait for Mrs. Gabaldon to get the next one out, although I’m sure that will be quite a while from now.