One of our dear friends Late2thePartee has agreed to make a guest post for us. Many of you already know JAG from RAoR, so without further ado I’ll let her take over. As a side note, I was one of the people pushing her to read the books, having been a fan for 12 years. 😉Â
Recently I had to convince, YES PEOPLE CONVINCE, my BFF to start watching the Outlander Series on Starz. I was baffled, how could anyone NOT want to watch this series, but then I thought back and remembered that there was a time when I too had to be convinced to read the Outlander books. I was truly a reluctant fan from the start.
It was 2009 when I first caught wind of the Outlander series. Ya Ya I know I was way behind the curve, refer to my twitter name. This isn’t the first time 🙂
Vampires Rule!
It was at the height of my paranormal vampire book obsession and these were the guys that were holding my attention. In books, online and on the screen, to me there was nothing better. Hot sexy dangerous alpha vampires. RAWR! I don’t even think I knew what a Highlander was at that point.
Then one day, I happened to be on twitter and some of my besties were sending swoony tweets and hash-tagging then #JAMMF. I totally jumped in and tweetjacked (that always sounds so nasty lol) them because I’m a nosy bitch to find out what they were talking about. Low and behold they started to introduced me to the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s series, Outlander.
Keep reading after the jump!Â
–
Time Travel?! Huh?
I did a bit of poking around and soon discovered that the story was about a woman, Claire, who travels back in time…ah what!? Time travel, arg really? So of course, this is what I’m thinking:
Not convinced yet…
Men in Kilts are not Sexy
Oh man. Then I find out Claire ends up in Scotland in the 1700s and I immediately start picturing men in kilts…old men in kilts. GAH!
I mean really, at that point these are the only men I’d really ever seen in kilts.
Not convinced yet…
A Redhead Really!?
Then I heard about James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser, he is tall, and buff and smart and gallant and swoony and…he is a red head. I have to admit, whenever I hear the swoony boy in a book is a red head this always pops into my head:
This is usually around the time I slip into denial, give the red headed boy in the book brown hair and block out any reference to red, or bronze or golden. No lie, I did this for Edward Cullen too…brown not bronze lol.
Still not convinced…
To Read or not to Read
So at this point, I’m on the fence about reading these books. Don’t get me wrong, I love history and historical fiction (there’s nothing like a good bodice ripper), I even have a t-shirt that says this:
But I trusted my friends and decided to give Outlander a chance and bless their hearts they started to send me inspirational pictures like this.
and this
And before I knew it I was embracing red headed Jamie, adoring brave, strong Claire and devouring these books. I bought them for everyone I knew, I pimped them like it was my job and I remember thinking that:
THESE BOOKS NEED TO BE MADE INTO A MINI-SERIES, TV SERIES or SOMETHING!
I was no longer a Reluctant Outlander Fan!
Oh and by the way, I was TOTALLY WRONG; MEN IN KILTS are RIDICULOUSLY SEXY!
XO
I had to be convinced also JAG! Luckily a friend convinced me right before the 3rd book came out so i have been a fan for awhile. But yeah… LOVE history, not so much the red hair and time travel…eh. Despite having a thing for men in kilts, I will still take a vampire over that any day! But as soon as I started reading the books, I fell head over heels for Jamie! One of my favorite characters! And now that I can put Sam Heughan’s face 9along with the rest of him) and especially his voice to the character… lawd I feel like a 13-year old checking out her very first Tiger Beat magazine! I am rereading the books and I love them even more now!
*sigh* Sam is the best Jamie. It’s fun getting a chance to experience it all over again on tv. 🙂
I also had to be convinced. Finally, I was in the middle of a post-apocalyptic dystopian rut and wanted something different. I remembered someone recommended it to me as science fiction (let’s face it, this series falls into a million categories) and I love history, too, so I gave it a shot. I blasted through the audio books — I definitely recommend those if you’ve already read it. Davina Porter is a wonderful narrator.
I just started the audiobooks, after another reread of Outlander. This hiatus is killing me lol I am really enjoying the audiobooks too, totally recommend them.
Oh my lord, this post is great! I actually started reading Outlander a few years ago after I was permanently scarred by the horror that was Breaking Dawn. One of my bfs recommended Outlander to “cleanse the pallet” and boy did it ever. There used to be all these Amazon message boards dedicated to fictional heroes and inevitably there’d be the post titled “yeah, he’s hot, but he ain’t Jamie Fraser”. Keep up the great work, ladies!
And just when you think Jamie could not get better, along come Sam Heughan… sigh
So nice to hear from you again, JAG. I so miss RAOR! I was a latecomer to Outlander, too. My mom has been reading them since the beginning and told me about them many times over the years, but for some reason I never jumped in. I, too, was lost in the world of vampires (still love & adore Rob, though), so I guess it took the prospect of Outlander becoming a TV series to make me read the books, cuz I always prefer to read the books first. Now, as I’m reading Book 2, I’m kicking myself, wondering what the hell I was thinking waiting this long! Of course, there’s the fact that there are eight books out now, so I don’t have to wait for them, so I guess it’s not so bad being late to the party! I’m having a ball “catching up” on everything. Reminds me a lot of the early days of Twilight, waiting with baited breath to see who gets cast and, of course, the naysayers–“he’s not right for the part”, “he’s not tall enough”, “he’s too this, too that”. etc. Hopefully, now that we’ve had eight delicious episodes and more coming, and have seen Sam totally and completely embody the role, and everyone who said he was all wrong is eating their words (as they did with Rob in Twilight)! I think most of us can’t imagine anyone else in those roles now.
Years ago when my sister, who was stationed in Scotland while in the US Navy, tried to interest me in the books I was turned off by the time travel concept; didn’t think Outlander would interest me. WRONG!! Fast forward to summer 2014 when posts about the upcoming series started appearing on Facebook. Outlander was in my consciousness when I came across the audiobook on the shelf in my library. I have to confess that I haven’t actually read a word but I have listened to all 8 books in the Outlander series plus all of the Lord John books and the other novellas. Having forgotten that it was my sister who originally told me about Outlander I called to tell her about the books and the series coming out on Starz reasoning that she would have an interest because of her Scottish experience. She reminded me in an exasperated tone that it was she who had tried to get me interested in the first place; she went on to tell me that she had read all of the books multiple times. In my subsequent discussions with her I have found her to be a walking encyclopedia of knowledge on all things Outlander. I have become obsessed (as are many of you, I am sure) with all things Outlander.
Hello All ! I’m glad to join the Twlight > Outlander group ! My hairdresser started telling me about Outlander when the Starz promos started since she too is a Twihard ! So I couldn’t wait to see the series. After the 1st & 2nd show I knew I would have to read the books. I started w the audio book which really helped with the names of people & places, but then bit-the-bullet and got it on my Nook so I could bookmark areas to remember. Now I just finished #5 LOL I know I’ll have to go back and re-read and new seasons start (hope they do them all !!!) but the story is so interesting I can’t wait to read about Claire & Jamie’s love story. So glad to find the site ! Someone mentioned that once Jamie was a live person, no one else would fit, same with RP as Edward and I must say Jamie Doran as Christian Gray, too. Looking forward to more discussions too –
funny ! I was (and still am – one can have many crushes right?!!!) really addicted on Rob and Alexander ! and well, that’s maybe because of that we are sooooo addicted to Jamie (or/and Sam), because they kind of look alike.