The Entire Outlander Book Series: Ranked

Photo Courtesy of Book Publisher: Penguin Random House

3. Written in My Own’s Heart Blood

What I loved:

Written in My Own Heart’s Blood or as Diana Gabaldon refers to it, MOBY. This book felt like it was starting to wrap up the series. The lingering questions if Jame Fraser is actually dead is answered quickly. He also finds out his best friend Lord Grey is married to Claire. A comical fight ensues. We also have the worst kept family secret finally come out about who is William Ransom birth father. As a bonus, we finally get the Revolutionary War that we’ve been hyping up for the last four books. As an added treat we even got guest appearances from  George Washington and Benedict Arnold. The pace set by the book was breakneck speed, but I enjoyed it.

Another reason to be grateful for MOBY is it gave birth to one of the best endings that Gabaldon has ever written. You can almost feel Claire and Jamie’s excitement through the book when they first realize their children and grandchildren have come back to Frasers Ridge. They came back home.

What I didn’t like:

There were a few subplots that I felt slowed the pace of the story. The first one being the entire storyline dealing with the Philadelphia prostitute, Jane, in my opinion, was a waste of time. I already knew William was an honorable young man. Dealing with this side plot took away from William address his feelings about his birth father, Jamie.

The other subplot that didn’t pan out as I expected was that of Williams step-cousin, Benjamin Grey. William spent a lot of time trying to get Benjamin’s dead body back from the rebels only to receive someone different altogether. The added subplot of Benjamin’s supposed wife and child being hidden away from the Gray family for no apparent reason was enough to make my head hurt. At this point, I hope Diana leaves this plot in MOBY and doesn’t expand on it.