A Breath of Snow and Ashes

I am slowly making my way through the Outlander series by listening to the first seven books that I have previously read over the years in the hopes of finally catching up on this popular series. This massive sixth book in the series was one of my favourites and was a whopping 58 hours of listening time!

Once again, I enjoyed getting a look at the daily life of the Frasers and their clan on Fraser's ridge and how they're coping with the American Revolution that, thanks to Claire and Brianna, they know is on the horizon. I'm glad there was less politics and more focus on characters in this book. Gabaldon still waxes poetic about minutiae, but I felt she reigns it in a bit better in this book. There are a few smaller storylines interspersed involving secondary characters and Brianna and Roger have more page time which was fine, but I remain partial to Claire and Jamie. 

The story ends with an interesting plot twist and while I know the seventh book was one of my least favourites, I will listen to it soon in the hopes that the second time (and the audio) is the charm in the hopes that I will inch closer to reading the most recent book in the series which I've already purchased.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Genre: Historical Fiction

Series: 6th book in the Outlander series

Type and Source: Personal Audible copy

Publisher: Recorded Books

First Published in print: 2005

Narrator: Davina Porter

Run Time: 58 hours

Book Description from GoodReads: A Breath of Snow and Ashes continues the extraordinary story of 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his 20th-century wife, Claire.

The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.

With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence — with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.