A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
Book 6 of Outlander series…and HELL TO THE YES I consumed this one by audio too, just like Book 5.
IT IS NOW THE WAY.
55+ hours of listening is SO much easier on my wrists than trying to hold the ENORMOUS dang paperbacks whilst curled up in bed or in my couch nook with my coffee/wine/ and blankie 🤣
Also…I have figured out my “sweet spot” speed for listening to these books is at 1.8X .
I feel like this is a lovely pace for my brain to digest the story and not have it drag on and take forever…… I literally CAN NOT go ONE NOTCH slower than this…if I try, it drives me INNNNSAANNNEEE.
Someone please tell me WTF is wrong with me 🤣
Anyway, for the last few installments of this series, I’m not sure I’ll dive into print versions of the books because I am enjoying the audio ones SOOOOOOOO much.
I am hooked on the narrator’s voice now and found my perfect speed…..
I am friggin LOVING how quickly I am able to absorb the stories!
Here is what this one was all about:
“The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.
With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence—with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.”
Another super short summary for a VERRRRYYY long book….again, par for the course with Outlander. 🤣
Once again, the Fraser/McKenzie crew find themselves in all kinds of troubling and adventurous situations. Like all the other books, there are NOT many dull moments.
The reader is always holding your breath a bit just WAITING for the next crazy, outlandish (see what I did there? 🤣 ) thing to happen. Will it be a death? A robbery? A battle? A long journey? A hidden treasure? A secret revelation?
Something jarring/exciting is always just a page turn away with these peeps.
As per usual, there is WAY TOO MANY things that happen in these long ass pages to dissect all of it AND all my thoughts about it in one of my measly little reviews….but this book did not disappoint with the intrigue and engagement level.
I could not WAIT to have an excuse to pop on my headphones to keep listening to see what twists and turns were going to happen next.
But seriously…someone please tell me WHY is there ALWAYS people being taken somewhere against their will? EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK!
I have HAD IT with the damn kidnapping, yall.
Plus…there was ANOTHER sexual assault scene that is just AWFUL.
UGGGGHHHHHHHHH.
I strongly dislike those pieces of the story so very much.
So. So. MUCH.
Some of the parts of the story I DID LIKE though was seeing how Claire and Bri find ways to use their modern day knowledge to create their own inventions to work with what they have in the past.
Their creativity and innovations in making day to day life easier, safer and healthier for themselves and their communities was so interesting to read about—like the ways Claire performs surgeries with unique homemade tools and finds a way to make ether to make surgeries easier on patients…and the ways Bri figures out how to make daily life in the home easier by creating insulation for walls and figuring out how to make a water piping system.
The author really does have an impressive medical knowledge both of modern day and of the past to be able to write the way she does for the characters. It is quite evident that she throughly educated herself on medical science, homeopathic remedies, natural healing and human anatomy.
And of course…..I ALWAYS enjoy the love story piece of the plot line. ❤
The completely undeterred, uninhibited, unbreakable and COMPLETELY unrealistic bond that Claire and Jamie have pulls me in EACH AND EVERY BOOK.
I can’t help it. I love them. I want to be them.
(Even though there are some SERIOUSLY jacked up pieces that create THAT entire puzzle…but whatevs…it’s complicated and I still love it)
Let’s throw Bri and Roger into that equation too.
Can’t help my adoration (and equal jealousy) of them as a couple too.
Love them too. Want to be them too.
Obviously, I enjoyed this book just like I did the last one….and all the other ones before (even thought the first one had me wondering if I should keep foraging on….but I am SO GLAD I DID)
Every time I finish a book in this series I’m like “What can this lady writer think of NEXT for this family????What ELSE can happen here???”
And she’s like “Hold my beer…look at ALL THIS!!”
The Outlander books are kinda like a historical fiction time traveling sci fi soap opera.
And I am all the way HERE FOR IT.
Bring it, book 7.
Let’s GO.