I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! May you and yours be blessed with all the bountiful gifts of God today and always.  Also remember that we should be thankful not just on one day out of the year for our blessings, but we are to be thankful each and everyday for all that we have been given. For there are many in the world who are not so lucky as we are.  Also for those of you who will be traveling I wish you a safe journey. 

Big hugs to you all my friends!

I was wondering if you could go anywhere in the world traveling for a dream vacation and cost was no object... where would you choose?  If you could grab your suitcase and be whisked off to anywhere where that your little heart desired today where would that wondrous place be? 

For me that fairytale place would be Scotland! I have long dreamed of getting to go and set foot on that gorgeous land of castles and lore! With all of the history and mystery nestled in it's majestic mountains and valleys. It is my dream vacation spot for sure. But isn't it wonderful that even though my bank account won't let me go there as yet. That I can pick up a good book and be whisked there immediately! That is one reason that books are such a great thing for us because they let us escape from our sometimes boring and stress filled lives and be transported to another time and place where we can forget about our problems for a few hours! 

And let's face it in today's world we all need that! Heaven knows I do. So I think I'm going to have to take a trip there very soon if nothing else in the pages of a great book! I have several to choose from in my TBR pile the only question now is which one to choose! ;)

So come on sound off and tell me where would you like to visit and why? And do you like to read about this place in the novels you read as well?

The Exile is a graphic novel based on Diana Gabaldon’s best selling Outlander series. I feel the first thing that I should state about this is novel is that it is not the entire story of Outlander by any means, in fact this graphic novel only covers approximately the first third of the Outlander novel. And even then it is a very, very condensed version of those chapters due to time and the format of this book – (remember this is indeed a graphic novel and is done in drawings and panels just like comic book). So for anyone that is wanting to get this with thoughts of getting a condensed and visual version of the entire Outlander novel that is not what this is and it isn’t going to happen. However that is not saying that this graphic novel isn’t worth the read it is! It is very well written and though I didn’t care for the styles completely of the artist - I thought he had some very good renderings of Claire and the other characters at times. And overall I enjoyed it very much, actually much more than I thought I would when I got it and first flipped through it.

It is told mainly from the viewpoint of Jamie’s godfather Murtagh and it is a great addition to the story. As Diana states in the forward she shows us some things in Exile that she didn’t put in the original novel itself so you get more of the back story and see more of what happens to Jamie and Claire that she didn’t tell us before. So if you are like me and are a die hard Outlander fan this book is a must buy and read for you to add to your collection for that alone! Now with all that being said here is a small condensed version of what Outlander is about…

Claire Randall was a combat nurse during World War II and at the end of the war she and her husband Frank Randall decide to take a second honeymoon to Scotland. Claire thought that it would be a wonderful and sleepy little vacation away with her husband in which they could reconnect after being apart so long during the war. Little did she know that her vacation would take her much farther than she ever dreamed was possible. When Claire pays a visit to the ancient stone circle of Craig na Dun she inadvertently slips through one of the stones and is thrust back through time itself and awakens to find herself in a very different Scotland – the Highlands of Scotland in the year of our Lord 1743 to be exact! In this much different - dangerous and savage landscape she meets a band of Highlanders that takes her for all intents and purposes prisoner. One of the band is a young man who is severely injured and Claire’s nurses training kicks in as she quickly jumps in and administers to the young warriors wounds. This young man is Jamie Fraser and Claire soon finds herself drawn to the handsome young man as he takes on the role of her protector. Through many twists and turns it comes about that Claire is forced into marrying Jamie to protect herself from the clutches of a very evil British Dragoon Captain Jack Randall. And though the marriage was one of necessity and not love Claire soon finds herself being drawn closer and closer to her new husband. They endure many hardships and trials together and Claire does fall in love with Jamie. (And once you read the book you will see how it would be almost impossible for any red blooded woman not to fall in love with Jamie!) But with them being from such different worlds could there be any hope for them at all even if they can survive the dangers and schemes of several villains along the way? Can she stay in this distant and so very dangerous past or is it even possible to make it back to her time and life in the present? When all is said and done will Claire decide to stay in the past with Jamie? Or will she risk everything to try to make it back to the stone circle and try to find a way back to her real home and back to her husband Frank? And how can a woman decide between two loves and times that both hold her heart?

As you can see Outlander is a very complex read and although it is a time travel it is very well written and not corny at all. It seems like you could literally go and fall through the stones yourself and wake up in 1743 Scotland. Diana Gabaldon is a master story teller and her attention to detail makes you feel like you have visited the Scotland of yesteryear yourself. It is one that will have you glued to the pages and laughing and crying right along with the characters. So I do encourage you to give Outlander a try and get Exile as well as a great companion book to the series! And for you Outlander fans that have read all of the books you will want to get this one to complete your Outlander collection! You will be glad you did!

Have mercy where did the last few weeks go??? I totally fell off the face of the earth or at least the blogverse again. My apologizes but RL (real life in all it's hectic glory) reared it's ugly head again and totally had me wrapped up. Many things have been going on mostly just the normal day to day stuff  plus we are getting a new roof put on the house because of some storm damage. So getting that set up and all as well took some doing. They are suppose to be here in a few hours to start it and I will be sooooooo glad when it's over. I plan to try to bury my head in one of my books while it's going on as much as possible. WHEW

Plus this last week I was waylaid with some serious side effects due to some medicine that had to be changed due to our health insurance changing. So this new insurance wouldn't pay a dime at all on the regular brand medicine that I was taking (and have been taking for over 3 years btw) without me trying something cheaper for them first.  NOT right and I was sick as a dog for a week to my stomach and dizzy etc. because of it. I did lose weight which I needed to granted... but that is not the way it should happen! It sure made last week miserable. In my humble opinion if something is working for a person and their doctor prescribed it for them and says they need it and you are paying the insurance weekly by the way (which isn't cheap to begin with either in fact it's pretty expensive to start with more than the medicine they wouldn't pay on grrr) an insurance company or anyone else shouldn't have the right to come in and say you can't take that until you try something cheaper to save us money. THEY aren't the ones that have to pay the price for it with the side effects of some new medicine etc. And to top it all off the stupid new medicine that I had to try for them first didn't work either for what I was taking it for. All it did was make me very sick. Grrrrr but anyway I will stop spewing on that and spare you the other details lol. A big thank you to those of you that checked in on me and that prayed for me I appreciate it more than I can ever tell you my friends. God Bless you!

With all the chaos here I have gotten almost zero reading done in weeks! WEEKS can you all see my eye twitching lol.

I hope everyone of you is doing well out there! Give me a shout out and leave me a comment telling me what you have been up to what are you reading etc. I missed you all!

I got 2 reviews coming up very soon one for Paula Quinn's Seduced by a Highlander and one for Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel by Diana Gabaldon.

And I got these two goodies in the mail just yesterday check it out!

Must Love Kilts by Allie Mackay and Blood of the Rose by Kate Pearce

That's it for now off to bury my head in a book before they start the hammering. I hope you all have a great day! BIG HUGS