Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

In this breathtaking novel, rich in history and adventure, #1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon continues the story of Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser that started with the now-classic novel Outlander and continued in Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager. Once again spanning continents and centuries, Gabaldon has created a work of sheer brilliance.

What if you knew someone you loved was going to die? What if you thought you could save them? How much would you risk to try?

Claire Randall has gone to find Jamie Fraser, the man she loved more than life, and has left half her heart behind with their daughter, Brianna. Claire gave up Jamie to save Brianna, and now Bree has sent her mother back to the Scottish warrior who was willing to give his life to save them both. But a chilling discovery in the pages of history suggests that Jamie and Claire's story doesn't have a happy ending.

Brianna dares a terrifying leap into the unknown in search of her mother and the father she has never met, risking her own future to try to change history . . . and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past . . . or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong.

Genre: Historical Fantasy

My Thoughts: From the beginning of this fourth book of the series there was action and there wasn’t a lot of going back trying to ‘recap’ previous books and previous story lines! I liked that because it enabled me to jump right in without the typical 50-100 pages of "getting back into it." I also liked how Gabaldon switched between character perspectives. It's just a style preference for me. It was nice to have the second love interest besides just Jamie and Claire. I thought it helped Jamie and Claire not to become a ‘boring’ couple now that they are older and more settled.

For some reason, though, I still did not like this book as much as the first three. One of my favorite things about this series is the questions it raises which are brought up for us as individual readers to question within our selves and our lives. Sometimes it’s a quote or a thought that one of the characters has which provoke some interesting self reflection. I thought she did a better job of this in the earlier books. For example, in the prologue she says: "We look in the mirror and see the shades of other faces looking back through the years; we see the shape of memory, standing solid in an empty doorway. By blood and by choice we make our ghosts; we haunt ourselves." This leaves me thinking about whether we really haunt ourselves? How? In what ways do my ghosts haunt me? How do they haunt the characters? Do the choices we make haunt us through memories?

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I give it 4 stars.