<p>In addition to her recent books mentioned here, An Echo in the Bone and The Scottish Prisoner, there’s another fairly recent story from Songs of Love and Death, a Gabaldon short story, A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows. It filled in a lot of blanks about Roger and could have been a stand alone short book. I wasn’t interested in reading the other short stories, but Leaf was well worth it. It went into more detail regarding Roger’s past, including a riveting story about his father, as well as more about Frank. Then, we were treated to a jaw dropping cliff hanger about modern day Roger. </p>
<p>I have a love hate relationship with Gabaldon’s books. She can drag story on until I’m numb with boredom (for instance, the gathering…ack), but then she bounces back with a story so compelling, I’ll stay up all night reading. No series of novels have ever grabbed me and sucked me in like the Outlander series. As much as I like John Grey, I don’t find that series as interesting, but I did enjoy A Scottish Prisoner. </p>
<p>I did find the first part of Echo a bit grinding, but there’s a lot not to be missed in the second half. If you have the time, I’d fast forward through the first part of the book, while savoring the second half. I also felt that it had an abrupt ending. The story was very good, but the ending didn’t feel so much a cliff hanger as just a boom/stop.</p>