Let's start by saying trigger warnings for rape and domestic violence. They are contextual to the time period (1743), but if those are a problem for you, don't read this book. Secondly, definite homophobic tones to the book also; and again, while this isn't exactly inappropriate for 1743 Scotland, it was also a choice the author made to apparently equate homosexuality with the more villainous characters, cumulating in a homosexual rape. I found this a problematic choice and it makes me a bit dubious about what direction the rest of the books in the series will take.

Those warnings aside, it IS an interesting story of a post-WWII nurse named Claire who's whisked back in time from 1945 to 1743 Scotland, where she meets fiery-haired James Fraser and is swept into the fighting and intrigue of the Scottish clans, the Jacobites, and the wars against the English, all while trying to survive and get back to her own time if possible. Fortunately for Claire her healing skills give her some personal value and soon enough she's being protected by the Scots and Jamie in particular. There is a lot of interesting interpretation of history and folklore, and also quite a lot of Scottish sex scenes, although for the most part (with a couple exceptions) they're generally pretty tastefully written.

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was a delight to hear the narrator beautifully rendering the Scottish accents. I'm not sure how the accents were written in the text version and it's possible they might have been annoying or difficult to read in print; in audiobook however it worked very well.

Unsure if I will go on to the sequels, I picked this up mainly because it seems to be so highly spoken of, and I did enjoy a lot of it, but the apparent homophobia did leave an unpleasant note.