what's up everyone I'm Melissa Elise and you're watching Melissa Elise TV welcome
to my July book club in this video I'll be reviewing "An Echo In The Bone" by
Diana Gabaldon book number seven in the Outlander series and of course revealing
the next book of the month so let's get to it
there will likely be spoilers in this video so this is your fair warning if you don't want spoilers don't watch
past this point but if you do please continue
I'll probably jump around a bit with the plot of this book but for now I'll start at the beginning which is
actually seven chapters before the end of "A Breath Of Snow And Ashes" when
William talks with Brianna and meets her family and Breath we only see it from
Lord John's perspective as he watches from his window but this time we get it
for Williams perspective and I love that it has been my wish in this series to
get more Lord John and Willie and so I'm so glad that it finally happened in this
book I also thought it was just a really unique and cool way to start the book
because correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Diana has ever gone back and
shown an event from a different perspective she often recaps things that
have happened when they become relevant again but she's never shown an event
twice so I really enjoyed reading it from Williams point of view and getting
that introduction into his personality
And as with all these books there's so much going on and at least two plot twist
and Echo was no different other than the amount of perspectives we get to see of
course we have Claire who is the main narrator and the only one that's their
first person and then we have Jamie and a little of young Ian in third-person narration as well as Brianna and
Roger but then we also got William in this book and more Lord John and then a new
character Rachel towards the end
I like to think of them in groupings so you have Lord John and Willie who are together as the begin
the end of the book but for the majority of it they're separate and on their own
journeys and then you have Claire, Jamie and Ian but Ian goes off on his own a
few times as well and then you have Brianna and Roger in the future but
everybody has their own sections of the story and are separated from each other
at some point and I think because of that this story as a whole ends up
feeling very fragmented and for me it kind of lacked a feeling a forward
motion or a clear goal
Of course Jamie Claire and Ian's main goal was to go back to Scotland and get Jamie's printing
press which they eventually achieved and I think you could say that Lord John's goal was to find out what the
guy Percival Wainwright or Beauchamp, his stepbrother was up to but then that
turned into him needing to help Henry his nephew and bring him back to England
and with all the different groupings it was rather hard to track with any one
storyline but as with each of these books things really take off near the end
I love love love the end of this book so much mainly because of young Ian and Rachel
So Rachel and her brother Dr. Denzel Hunter are new characters and
Ian comes across them on one of his solo missions but he comes across
William first who's like lost in a swamp and William is hurt so Ian leaves him in
the care of the Hunters and they help him and get him back on his feet and
then they all go off looking for the army William of course the British Army
and the Hunters are looking for the Continental Army Ian and Rachael meet up
again in the continental camp and they share this passionate kiss and basically
proclaim their love for each other but then everything goes to pot when Ian
ends up killing a guy who was trying to blackmail Jamie for killing Dougal way
back it before Culloden well in the resulting fight Rollo gets shot trying to
protect Ian and he has to flee so he leaves Rollo in
Rachel's care this was quite the unexpected love story and one with a lot
of complications first off rachel is a Quaker and Ian is definitely
not and then they get separated when Ian has to run and then again when he
goes to Scotland with Jamie and Claire but then even when he comes back he has
to fight Arch Gug because at the beginning of the book he accidentally
killed Mrs. Bug in defense of his uncle but Arch vows to kill the woman that Ian
loves thankfully both Rachael and Ian survived but they still have to overcome
their religious differences which they do in just such a beautiful accepting
way they both accept who they are and express how devoted they are to one
another and with all the Ian has been through I'm just so happy for him and I
really do like Rachel
the other reason why I love the ending with Ian and Rachael
is because it's really the icing on the cake the cherry on top of a crazy series
of events where Jamie comes back from the dead which I'll talk about in a minute
William finds out that Jamie is his father and Jenny Murray, Jamie's sister comes to America
I really appreciate Diana's subtleties in this book even with all the moving parts she crafted it so well
particularly the plotline of Jamie's death
Claire has to go back to America to perform surgery on Henri-Christian
Marsile and Fergus' youngest well Jamie stays in Scotland to care for Jenny as
the older Ian is dying Jamie writes to Claire to let her know that Ian has
passed and the name of the ship that he's gonna take back well Jamie and
Jenny, who decides to come back with him do not make it onto the boat because it
decided to leave before it was supposed to but Claire doesn't know that and Lord
John gets word that the ships sank so they both think that Jamie is dead and
John insists that Claire marry him for her protection and the protection of her
family because she's about to be arrested as a spy I would never wish
Jamie any harm but I really enjoyed Claire and
John's dynamic and it's crazy that they slept together but it almost makes sense
because who else could even remotely mourn Jamie the same way as Claire but
John thankfully though Jamie is alive though their reunion is short-lived as he
comes running from British soldiers and is forced to take John hostage just to
get out alive but before they escape William comes in and he and Jamie are
finally face to face and the truth can't be denied any longer
one of the things that kind of frustrated me about this story but in a good way I guess was the
fact that everyone was just pretending that they could avoid William and keep
this secret even though they all encounter him like multiple times
Ian meets him like three or four times and even calls him cousin Claire meets
him again after a battle and Jamie even talks to him at one point but they're
all just like no we'll keep our heads down and just not say anything but then
other people start to notice the resemblance and comment on it which was
actually pretty funny but I was so happy when they were finally face-to-face but
William was not happy he throws a huge tantrum and practically destroys John's
house and he storms out but then Jenny walks in with her cute line of like
father like son
this is my absolute favorite ending of any of the books in this series thus far
even over drums of autumn which is still my favorite book in the series but so
many awesome things that I've just been waiting patiently to happen happened at the end of this book so I
just love it so much and I've never been more excited for the next book
there are quite a few things that have been left unfinished in the end Jamie and John are on the run
Jenny has only just shown up and her and Claire's relationship was really the
only regret I've had in the entire Outlander series because they
have yet to reconcile so I'm hopeful that they will in the next book
but then Brianna and Rogers story was cut short
right as Roger and Bucckley his ancestor and the guy that was responsible for
getting him hung who is also a time traveler and has ended up in the future
they go back through the stones because they think this guy Rob Cameron took
Jem but it turns out he didn't and he shows up at Lallybroch and tells
Brianna to take him to the gold
there are at least three or four other side stories that are as usual kind of crazy and mind-blowing but even those
haven't found their conclusion yet so I have a lot of expectations for book 8
speaking of book 8 "Written In My Own Hearts Blood" is July's Book of the Month and again
I'm so excited for this one I can't wait to read it but before I move on to that
I want to hear from you guys what did you think of this book? Did anybody find
it hard to track with like I did or did you just loved every minute of it? Let me
know what you think in the comment section as always thank you so much for
watching and I'll see you next month
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