Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon

(Format used for this read: Audiobook)

I DID IT, YALL!

I made it thru this ENTIRE FLIPPING SERIES and got to this BRAND SPANKING NEW BOOK without ANY spoilers!

Like NONE AT ALL!

I have a lovely bookworm friend named Alicia who always sends me links to all kinds of interviews, podcasts and blog entries related to the Outlander-verse….and they look SO INTERESTING…but I just COULDN’T listen or look at ANY of them for fear of something SOMEWHERE in the books being ruined for me.

Plus, her and my other Outlander loving buddy Jessica have been just WONDERFUL for not personally giving me any spoiler things either.

Thank you, friends…yall truly ROCK and appreciate the entire EXPERIENCE that is reading this series.

I am super glad that I was able to indulge in this series back to back and not have to wait AT ALL to jump into the next book…. until now LOL

As this year comes to a close, I was going back and counting how many books I have read this year.

And it is WAAAYYYY less than usual…this is only the 59th book I have completed this year.

Which may seem like a lot to you…but to put this number into perspective for my personal reading, last year I read 95 books and in 2019, I read 82.

😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

When I realized my lower than usual number, I thought “WTF happened?????”

But the answer came quickly….OUTLANDER happened.

Yall know these books are CRAZY ASS long…just one of them in length is like 3 or 4 “typical” books for me.

Since I have read all 9 of them this year, the lower book number tally TOTES makes sense. Because really, I HAVE read the same average amount of PAGES as per usual….they are just mostly in this series instead of spread out amongst other books 🤣🤣🤣

And LISTEN, it was reading time WELL SPENT, my friends.

Let’s hear the official summary on book 9:

The past may seem the safest place to be . . . but it is the most dangerous time to be alive. . . .

Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same.

It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible.

Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep.

Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family.

Not so far away, young William Ransom is still coming to terms with the discovery of his true father’s identity—and thus his own—and Lord John Grey has reconciliations to make, and dangers to meet . . . on his son’s behalf, and his own.

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. And with the family finally together, Jamie and Claire have more at stake than ever before.”

There were TONS of emotional roller coasters in this book…Outlander perfection in having you feel ALLLLLL your feels.

Ms Gabaldon gets you in your grief, your frustration, your hope, your joy, your terror, your jubilation.

She gets you EVERYWHERE.

As she DOES…. and DOES SO WELL.

Look…even when nothing BIG is happening in the story and the characters are just going about their daily lives with ZERO DRAMA whatsoever, I was CONSTANTLY holding my breath a little bit….I was just WAITING for something crazy and Outlander-ish to happen…because I just KNEW something was waiting just around the corner somewhere.

And right when I DID start to relax into the rhythm of the story just a TEENSY LITTLE…

BOOM.

That is when SHE GOT ME.

A death. A kidnapping. A character reappearance. A mystery revealed.

Every. Dang. Time.

GAAHHHHH.

It’s the BEST. And why we all come back for more again and again and again.

SOOOO much I always wanna say in these reviews but yall know I just can NOT risk spoiling a DANG THING.

Something I DO need to say is this:

How the HELL do Claire and Jamie still have soooo much unbridled physical passion for each other?? I mean, they are now WAY past middle aged grandparents who have been married for decades…and they have ZERO CHILL.

(also another reason we love these books though, amiright??????)

I mean….they ARE constantly in mortal peril situations. Or surviving them. Or preparing for them.

I guess that may make a couple constantly in the hyper aware state of being appreciative of a partner and keeping them in check to make the most of every moment they have.

So…I guess we all know now the answer to keeping things fresh in your marriage bed….

Just be in constant danger 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Also, they sure do use sex as a solution to alllll kinds of things: being stressed out, resolving anger, handling grief, celebrating an occasion, cure boredom, trauma therapy….good sex seems to be a wonderful solution to any problem Claire and Jamie encounter.

(Maybe they are on to something there, though……..)

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Anyway…this story had all the things that makes Outlander books tremendous and addicting. The way this lady writes is just so engrossing and so interesting…I don’t even think I can give it a proper explanation or description.

Best historical fiction time traveling sci fi soap opera romance books IN THE UNIVERSE.

LOVED this book, yall.

The ending leaves on a HUUUGGEEE cliffhanger which had me screaming “WHEN IS THE FINAL BOOK COMING OUT??? I GOTTA KNOW HOW TO IT ALL ENDSSSSSSS!!!!”

So now…I wait.

And get a Starz subscription so I can catch up on all the TV seasons that are not on Netflix.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Because I miss them all already!