Hey this is my dragonfly and amber book review on Melissa Elise TV so stay tuned
What's up everyone I'm Melissa Elisa and you're watching Melissa Elise TV
Welcome back to book club it has been two long weeks since we last
met and if you're curious what I've been up to check out this short recap video
We are finished dragonfly and amber so this week we'll be reviewing week three
four and five's reading and since we have so much to cover let's jump in with
a recap of the last 24 chapters where we left off Claire found Jamie and
Black Jack in the woods dueling and then has a miscarriage chapter 25 picks up
with Claire in the hospital with mother Hildegarde and master Raymond doing
their best to save her life Raymond performs this slightly odd
miracle but heals Claire and after weeks in the hospital Louisa comes and takes
Claire to her Country Estate for further recovery eventually Claire finds out
that Jamie was arrested for dueling and has been in the Bastille so she goes to
the king to ask him to release Jamie which turns into this weird meeting of
astronomers Anonymous where Raymond and the Comte St. Germain are paraded out
and accused of witchcraft and Claire must use her skills as a white lady to
prove which one is really evil this doesn't work in favor of the Comte or
Claire really because she still has to sleep with the King as payment for
Jamie's release Claire later finds out from Fergus that
Black Jack molested him which provoked Jamie to break his promise to wait to
kill Black Jack Jamie eventually comes for Claire in the
countryside and they have one of the best reconciliations I've ever read then
from chapter 30 on to 34 Claire and Jamie returned to Scotland and settled back
into life at Lallybroch but only for a brief moment before
Charles Stuart's treasonous letter arrives with Jamie's name signed for him
even though the Highlander army does have a few victories at the start it's
really downhill from here in terms of where the story is heading for
Claire and Jamie there's a reappearance of Alex Randall who is near dying and
Black Jack propositions Claire to care for him in exchange for information
about the English army which she accepts we're also introduced to a few new
characters in the form of Jamie's extended family his grandsire Lord Lovet
and Lovet's son Simon Fraser. Mary Hawkins also returns to care for Alex
Randall. Mary is really the most unexpected character in this book
no one ever expects to see her she just kind of shows up it always makes sense
why she is wherever she is but it's always a little bit of a shock to see er
like later when Claire is taken by the English and brought to the Duke of of Sandringham's house
Mary is there of course because the Duke of Sandringham is her
Godfather and he's seeing about another marriage arrangement for her
Hugh Munro reappears to inform Jamie where Claire is but is killed by Sandringham men
Jamie of course does rescue Claire and Mary runs off with them but not before
we find out that it was the dupe that tried to kill Jamie in Paris and Claire
when she was attacked but Jamie and more to get their just revenge by killing the
men responsible when they returned to Edinburgh
Alex has Black Jack weds Mary who is pregnant with Alex's child things have
already been going downhill at this point but they go from bad to worse as
everyone is starving and the Highlander army resorts to eating their horses
the last straw comes when Jamie is forced to kill Dougal after he confronts them
discussing killing Bonnie Prince Charlie to prevent Culloden Jamie turns to his
last resort and takes Claire back to Craigh na Dun this concludes Claire story
to Brianna and Roger after which she confesses that she hated Brianna before
she was born for being the reason that she had to leave Jamie this of course
does not go over well with Brianna but Roger believes clear and the two of
them set off on a whole nother quest to find Gillian Edgar's aka
Geillis Duncan who is Roger's ancestor this quest ends at Craigh na Dun as
Geillis goes through the standing stones leaving no doubt to Claire's story
Dragonfly In Amber wraps up with Roger telling Claire that he's found proof
that Jamie did not die at Culloden
oh that was a lot but we did it so what did I think of book 2
there are so many things I like about the latter half of
this book overall I'd say Diana dives deeper into the love between Jamie and
Claire which is so beautiful but raw they suffer so many things together and
because of one another but neither one of them can live without the other and
they die for each other I love the end of chapter 45 when Jamie picks up on a
comparison that Claire makes of them to Adam and Eve and calls her his wee rib
I'm not sure if I have a favorite chapter but one of my favorite passages
is in chapter 28 when Claire and Jamie reconcile and Claire talks about seeing
Jamie again as this ripping away of a gray numbness the whole passage is so
beautiful but it also spans like four pages so I'm not gonna read it for you
guys I'll put it in the description and you can check it out later if you like
but it ends with Claire making the decision to fully embrace Jamie like
fully looking into the Sun all my favorite passages have to do with the
expression of Jamie and Claire's love but I did find it interesting that in
the plotline of this book there's this gradual descent as all roads lead to
Culloden I think it starts with Colum's death and then Rupert's then Hugh Munro
then Alex Randall and finally Dougal but things just get worse and
worse but it really is gradual because you almost don't feel it until you're up
on it it's like Claire and Jamie we're in
denial all the way up until having to kill Dougal but it is clear that Jamie
kind of had Claire going back as his backup plan since it was originally the
reason he promise not to kill Black Jack so that
Frank would live and Claire would have someone to go back to and that deeds a
Lallybroch that he whips out right before taking Claire back he was
preparing for the worst another thing I really liked about this
book was the theme that knowledge is power
it comes up frequently as Claire and Jamie decide what they can do to prevent
Culloden and Claire considers her role in all of this whether she can have an
impact or not but it really comes to a head in her encounter with the See'er at
Lord Lovet's in chapter 41 she talks about how knowledge can prevent harm but
it can also perhaps cause harm and the only power she has is in not saying not
sharing her knowledge but they conclude that they basically have to share what
they know because their only power is in knowledge they have no power over the
outcome the symbol of the Dragonfly Inn amber is definitely present diana uses
it as an illustration and as an analogy at least once and of course as a
physical symbol because it is the gift that Hugh Munro gives Claire when she and
Jamie are first married the one thing I didn't particularly like about this book
was the change in narration the last three chapters jumped from Claire to a
third person narrator and it was just kind of jarring to me since the majority
of the book is from Claire's POV and you get used to reading it that way then to
change to a detached narrator just took me out of the drama more than once I did
look back and see that in the beginning the third-person narrator is present but
it really does feel like it's Rogers POV especially as it follows his actions but
it's something in how Diana wrote the last three chapters that makes the
narrator stand apart from the characters more noticeably
Of course as a whole I really enjoyed this book I will say that it kind of drove me crazy because it's
so beautiful but the beauty of the story is contrasted to this really difficult
situation and I feel like that ties back into the whole symbol of the
dragonfly in amber because it's really beautiful but it's also very sad because
the dragonfly died that way and I think that Jamie kind of becomes Clara's
dragonfly in amber because she freezes him in time by choosing not to find out
anything that happened to him but I want to hear from you guys let me know what
you thought of the dragonfly in amber symbolism or if there's another symbol
that stood out to you let me know in the comments section
that's it for this week's book club but next week we start book three Voyager you can find the
reading schedule in the description below and I am pretty excited about this
one so I can't wait to get started thanks for watching guys and I'll see you next week bye
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