For the Love of a Good Man

Today I have two lovely ladies guest posting about their love for a certain gentleman in a certain series of novels.  Now if you’re on Twitter at all or if you read either lady’s blog you’ll not have to guess who the guy is because their love for him knows NO bounds, but if you haven’t had the opportunity might I strongly encourage you to visit them both because really, so.worth.it.  Anywhoo, please join me in welcoming Raych from Books I Done Read and TY from The Lit Connection as they profess their unending adoration, in a way only they can, for Outlander.

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Raych: Alright, seriespaloozers, are you ready to have every male literary lead ruined for you forever?’

TY: Are you reading to meet the fictional yardstick to which no male literary lead will ever measure up?

Raych: And we mean ‘yardstick’ both literally and metaphorically, where literally it measures but in a metaphorical sense it means ‘dong.’  Ok, serious question, though: How much do you want to do Jamie?

TY: No yardstick in the world can measure the lust I have for this noble Scotsman.

Raych: HA! Innuendos!

TY: How much do YOU want to do Jamie?

Raych: I would sell all my limbs. Which would be awesome, because then he would have to throw my limbless self on the bed and that would be hot.  Ok, tell me about the first time you read the O series.

TY: I’ve said this about Outlander before. It changed my LIFE. It turned my hair white like Moses when he had that conversation with GOD. The 1st time I read it, it’s like I came down off some imaginary Highland mountain after seeing God (Jamie Fraser) and now I want to preach the gospel and open readers’ eyes to this RED FOX’S Holy Hotness.   Did Outlander teach you about the birds and the bees?

Raych: No, I learned that from Where Do Babies Come From. But O taught me how HOT the birds and the bees can be. Also, kilts.

TY: I learned about the birds and the bees from DAWN. VCA!!!!! Outlander helped me heal.

Raych: If you could tell the uninitiate ONE THING before they read O, what would it be? Because DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY READ the back flap of book 3 before you read book 2, is my advice. It will ruin. everything.

TY: This is the hottest, sweetest romance EVER. Jamie is the most complex, drool-worthy man ever created by a woman.

Raych: Alright, sum up the plot of all 7 books thus far in 140 chars.

TY:

• Outlander: Fiesty WWII Nurse stumbles into standing stone time portal. Deflowers sexy Scotsman. Many adventures later, she saves his soul.
• Dragonfly: Love birds in Paris to stop war. Epic fail. Saddest-rip-my-heart-out-of-my-chest parting EVER!!!
• Voyager: They diddle other people. Jamie has son. Soul mates reunite. Nautical voyage. Hurricane. The Americas!
• Drums: Time travel extravaganza. Pirates. Rape. Indians. Melodrama involving paternity and mistaken identity.
• Fiery cross: Hangings and colonial life. There’s the American Revolution and Jamie doesn’t want to fight, but he has to because he’s a MAN OF HONOR.
• Breath: Abductions, gang rapes, threesomes, and the dread of WAR.
• Echo: War. Hot Young Ian. Pirates. Hot Young Ian. Quakeress spit fire. WAR. Amputations. And that THING with Lord John that is still blowing my mind!

Raych: You have just blown MY mind.  I didn’t think you could do it.

TY: How about the villains? Diana is a master at creating the nastiest literary villains. Not tepid bad guys, these guys make me CRINGE

Raych: How ABOUT the villains? Remember that time Black Jack captured Jamie and reduced him to a shell of his former self?

TY: I love how Diana ‘went there’. I was not expecting THAT to happen to Jamie. A lesser author would have saved him in the nick of time.

Raych: A lesser author wouldn’t be throwing her characters under the bus every time they turned around without looking ridiculous. Gabaldon is mercilessly skilled.

TY: Also, the fact that Black Jack “made love to him” disturbed me more than if he just raped him prison style. Kudos Diana on sustaining UNEASE

Raych: That part definitely made me uneasy. Also, I threw up in my mouth a bit. But she isn’t gibbets-and-brains style, which I appreciate. I also appreciate how she has managed to SUSTAIN THE LOVE between Jamie and Claire well into their 50s (60s?).

TY: Diana took your cliché Highland romance novel and twisted it like a pretzel.

Raych: A deliciously salted pretzel, wherein the salt represents J&C doooing eeet.

TY: J&C doooing eeettt is like the cheese you dip your pretzel in. Sometimes you forget about the pretzel and lick the dip till it’s done.  I use to believe that marriage was the end of the road when it comes to passion. Diana opened my eyes. Your THING is not dead once you slip on the ring.

Raych: And I love how Claire is feisty and competent and makes me want to BE her, not SMACK her.  For all that this is a love story, and for all the Mmmmm, Jamie, I would totally still read it if it was just about Claire.

TY: Rare is the heroine that I actually want to BE. I would never dream of smacking Claire; she’ll snap my neck like she snapped that wolf’s neck outside Wentworth Prision. The woman has brains and balls, the whole package.  Also, the whole young VIRGINAL man + older woman match up was unheard of before Diana came along and broke barriers. She’s like Rosa Parks.

Raych: She basically cured cancer with this story.

TY: Diana invented the atom bomb for which the world can never recover.  My loins are now radioactively charged every time I think about Jamie Fraser. There’s a picture for ya. Thanks Diana!

Raych: Ok, I need to go pop a bag of popcorn while I pretend to make lunch.  Any last words on the subject?

TY: I want to give Jamie my flower and he will make it BLOSSOM!!!!

Raych:Well, kids. You may not have heard it here first but you will definitely hear it here most often.  Outlander: get on it.

TY: I’ll get on it alright… If by ‘IT’ you mean “Jamie Fraser.”

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Seriously girls, you’re the bomb diggity!  Thank you so much for stopping by to spread the Jamie Fraser love.  Here’s to hoping a whole new batch of Outlanders are born!