I like historical fiction. I've neither pursued nor avoided romance. Should I read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels?

I think you'd enjoy them, Laga. They're very long, but well written and truly interesting.

I will say if you're a history wonk, the second one, Dragonfly in Amber is the one where she got most carried away with her historical research, in that "My research! Let me show you every detail!" sort of way.

For me, it was a little intrusive into the storytelling, but it's the only one of the books in which it's a huge issue for me.

Oh, and if you get started with them, Book 7 does come out later this year (I think).

She has admitted that she'd never been to Scotland until she was writing the third book. And what's so funny is that I loved the first two.

Once they left Europe for the New World, I sort of lost interest. Especially since she'd never been to North Carolina when she wrote about *it*, either. I'm more familiar than I'd wish with Rowan County, and it is definitely NOT in the mountains. It was more about my losing interest in the storytelling that she lost me, though. Again, I loved the first one, and most of the second.

Especially since she'd never been to North Carolina when she wrote about *it*, either. I'm more familiar than I'd wish with Rowan County, and it is definitely NOT in the mountains.

Yeah, that drove me nuts too. There's only so much hand-waving one can do.

I have read the later books though, mostly because I'm Roger MacKenzie's bitch. He's my ideal hero.

The romance in the Outlander series isn't the typical romance and there is a large cast of characters (occasionally too large) but it can be interesting at times. And occasionally it's a bit over the top, but it's good story telling.

I read the first two one right after another, and then never picked up the next one -- I think I read them too close together. I keep meaning to pick them up - I just haven't.

Ok, and I thought I'd crossed rather a personal border when I was planning to buy Dominic West's coffee cup at his moving-out-of-Balmer sale.(He ended up going back to London without doing it, so I'm not sure if I'd give in to "OMG, he touched it!!1" or not), but if I were a teen and someone wanted my clothes, I'd think they were going to tie me up in throw me in their van. But then, as now, I was a procedural junkie, so maybe every young miss would not be thinking this.

I got to the 3rd or 4th Outlander book, and the way it ended (with Jamie making sweeping assumptions of an insane kind, such that the daughter's fiance ended up kidnapped and tortured by Indians) was such a farrago of hamhanded plotting and Stupiditis that I put it down and decided not to read any more of them.

They're possessed of more sex than expected in a standard historical novel, but they do have a lot of historical plot (even if some of the plot is Stupid Plot).

Yeah, but 'Suela, you'd be amazed at how many diehard romance fans were willing to forgive that because that's

"just how Jamie is... so ALPHA. He's protecting his people."

Ptooey.