Book Review: OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon

Claire Randall and her husband Frank took a well-deserved second honeymoon to Scotland to celebrate their reunion. The couple had been separated for a long period of time during their years of service to the British military during WWII. Claire served as a combat nurse and Frank was fully invested in the ultra exclusive MI-6. Both had survived the war but had sacrificed the first years of their marriage to the cause. Scotland was the perfect place for a bit of rest and relaxation while Frank the once historian researched his family genealogy.

They both became quickly immersed in the quiet ways of Scottish life. Seeing all of the sights the couple had decided to venture to Craigh Na Dun, which was similar to the mysterious Stonehenge we know today. Caught by surprise they witness a secretive pagan like celebration dance that was performed around the stones by some of the local village women. Hiding from the women’s site they knew they had witness something they should not have been privy to and they went dashing off before they were discovered. Claire decided to go back the next day and investigate the stones further.

Leaving Frank behind to work on his genealogy of his ancestor Black Jack Randall, Claire decided to head to the stones alone. Standing in front of the stones Claire felt this irresistible urge to touch them as she had seen the village women do the day before.  Once her hands were upon the stones this awful sound of buzzing bee’s overwhelmed her and she was immersed in complete darkness. When she came to after touching the stones she found she was still at the stones and had no idea where the sound or darkness had come from. Deciding to venture from the stones Claire found her surroundings vaguely familiar but not exactly the same and the car was gone. Deciding to walk back to the village Claire found herself in the woods with no clue as to what had transpired. As bad luck would have it the first person she encountered was a man dressed in a military red coat and once her eyes locked on his face she instantly called for her husband Frank. After a violent introduction this man that had the same face as her husband stated his name was not Frank but instead Jonathan Randall, captain of the English Dragoons. With her mind reeling from fighting off an unexpected attack from Jonathan Randall, Claire did what her instincts told her to do and she ran. Unfortunately when she took off from Randall she ran straight into a group of rough Scottish highlanders. Having no choice in matters the highlanders scooped her up and fled from the pursuing Randall.

Now a captive of the highlander men Claire offers her medical service to the men’s obvious injuries. One of the young men in the group was a handsome man that the others called Jamie. He suffered from a dislocated shoulder, which she quickly popped back into place and wrapped up. Her skills were noted by the highlanders and decided she had valuable skills that would be highly useful back at home because they had not had a healer for some time and were in desperate need of one. The highlanders really had no other option than to take her with them because they could not just let her go they knew she was English and could very likely be a covert spy sent to watch the highlanders.  Claire was now a liability that had to be watched at all costs.

Castle Leoch eventually loomed ahead and Claire was in the worst-case scenario. She was now a captive of the Mackenzie clan and their laird Colum and his brother Dougal. With her mind still reeling from being sucked into the stones, not know when or where she was, she began to search for answers. It was a tremendous shock to discover the date it was not 1946 anymore instead the year was 1743! Shocked to the core Claire had no other option than to try and fit in at castle Leoch and bide her time until she could escape back to the stones. She must find a way back to her native 1940’s and her husband Frank. Home was always her first thought in her mind but with time it seemed to fade and she found her heart began to grow towards her highlander patient Jamie. Her heart began to open to Jamie and after a turn of awful events Claire and the band of highlanders were on the run from the evil forces of Captain Randall. Still trying to find her way back to the stones Claire was forced into a marriage that would protect her from Randall. Lucky for her it was Jamie that had offered his protection to her but they both were on the run from Randall and only time would tell if they could escape the evil Dragoons. In her heart Claire still wanted to go home to Frank but with a new love budding between Jamie and her she found she was being pulled between two lives and eventually she would have to choose one over the other.

4/5 Loved it and I know I say that about every novel I read but it is honestly how I feel. I am starting to think that I either loved it or hated it, there really is not much in-between for me.  Can I just say that I ended up picking this novel up because I watched the first part of season one of Outlander on Starz and Jamie is so smoking hot! Before the TV series I have to admit I was really intimidated by this series because there are a ton of books in it and for a Outlander newbie it is kind of scary to see eight plus novels at over 700 pages a piece but I am glad I finally got into it and it was more than worth it. I would highly recommend this novel to every historical and romance reader because it is a unique story line and is really romantic.

R ~ Rating for violence and graphic sexual references.

FTC ~ This novel is from my personal collection. I received no compensation for this review and it is reflective of my honest opinion of this novel.

A M A Z O N

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

STAY CONNECTED WITH ME: 

S U B S C R I B E ~ T W I T T E R ‪ ~ F A C E B O O K ~ I N S T A G R A M ~ G O O G L E +‪

~L I Z Z I E~

Isabella d'Este Marchesa of Mantua

Isabella d'Este Marchesa of Mantua done in watercolor pencil and colored pencil. I recently fell in love with Isabella and her sister Beatrice in one of my new favorite novels "Leonardo's Swans" by Karen Essex. Isabella was a leading lady in The Italian Renaissance. She was a avid art collector and benefactor to many of the artist that had made the Italian Renaissance. I was moved not by her deeds but by her life. Like many of the strong leading women of history I love, Isabella's life was filled with turmoil and tragedy. Considered a great beauty of her times she was also a very well educated woman that excelled in trying new things. She was also politically savvy and played a major role in the Italian Wars that had also involved her sister The Duchess of Milan. I was truly inspired by a bust that I came across on the web of Isabella. Beautiful does not even describe this bust and yet I am saddened by the history that the Nazi's had stolen it during WWII. Luckily for me and the future generations of the world The Monuments Men had a very intriguing story of how the bust was recovered. It is sad to think that the bust could have been lost forever and I never would have even seen it had they not found it. This is my ode to Isabella and the insight she had brought to the start of a art revolution that even today continues on. She is gone but will never be forgotten.

"Isabella d'Este (18 May 1474 – 13 February 1539) was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and at the French court. The poet Ariosto labeled her as the "liberal and magnanimous Isabella", while author Matteo Bandello described her as having been "supreme among women". Diplomat Niccolò da Correggio went even further by hailing her as "The First Lady of the world".

She served as the regent of Mantua during the absence of her husband, Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and the minority of her son, Federico, Duke of Mantua. In 1500 she met King Louis XII of France in Milan on a diplomatic mission to persuade him not to send his troops against Mantua.

She was a prolific letter-writer, and maintained a lifelong correspondence with her sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga. Lucrezia Borgia was another sister-in-law; she later became the mistress of Isabella's husband". -Wiki

Attributed to Gian Cristoforo Romano, Italian (c. 1465– 1512)

Portrait of a Woman, Probably Isabe!a d’Este, c. 1500 T erracotta, formerly polychromed

21-3/8 x 21-1/2 in. (54.3 x 54.6 cm) 

"This summer, the Monuments Men Foundation and Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas announced that a Renais- sance portrait bust in the Kim- bell collection had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II and was one of thousands of works of art found in the Al- taussee Salt Mine in Austria.

This incredible discovery oc- curred in conjunction with an unrelated project. In the fall of 2009, while researching the missing albums containing photographs of the works of art destined for Adolf Hitler’s Linz
Museum, we came across a war- time photograph of the Steinberg salt mine in Altaussee, Austria. In early May 1945, during the closing days of the war, the Monuments Men were in a race against time to locate the last great Nazi repository of stolen works of art. A key tip led them to the Steinberg mine. They arrived to discover that a Nazi plot to destroy the salt mine and its priceless contents, including more than 6,000 paint- ings, had only hours before been thwarted, a harrowing story recounted in The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest
Treasure Hunt in History.

Hidden inside the mine were many of civilization’s greatest artistic mas- terpieces including Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna, Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, and two Vermeer paintings (The Astronomer and The Artist’s Studio), to name just a few. Of the many photos taken inside the salt mine, we had not come across the photo above before. The photo shows the Kimbell's terra cotta bust of Renaissance art patron Isabelle d'Este being removed from the mine. We recognized the sculpture imme- diately and knew it had to be the Kimbell's version and not a copy be- cause of the vertical firing-line cracks on the sculpture's front. We were aware that the Kimbell’s provenance for the bust made no mention of be- ing in Hitler's art hideout. 

When the Monuments Men discovered the cache of artwork in the Altaussee salt mine, they had to remove the art as quickly and as carefully as they could from a narrow mine shaft. The artworks were then taken to the Munich Collect- ing Point, which was housed in the former Nazi party head- quarters in Munich, as it was one of the largest buildings left standing after the war. Upon the arrival of the works of art in Munich, the Monuments Men created property index cards for each object. In researching those cards we discov- ered the “smoking gun”: Altaussee inventory card number 1246, which documented the arrival in Munich on June 28, 1945 of the terra cotta bust of Isabelle d’Este, which at the time was “attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.” The back of the inventory card revealed that the sculpture was returned to the Netherlands on June 3, 1946". -Monuments Men Foundation

For more on Isabella d'Este Check out the other good reads on her:
Light on Lucrezia by Jean Plaidy
The Duchess of Milan by Michael Ennis

~Lizzie~

E-Book Sale THE PARIS ARCHITECT by Charles Belfoure

Featured Daily Deal on Sourcebooks, "The Paris Architect" by Charles Belfoure will be $2.99 on THURSDAY AKA TODAY 4~2~2014 ONLY! I highly recommend this novel and if you would like to check out my 5 star review of it please do so. If you do not get this on Thursday it will be $25.99 for he e-book and it is currently only available in hardback for 25.99. Later this year in July the paperback will be released.

"A beautiful and elegant account of an ordinary man's unexpected and reluctant descent into heroism during the second world war."—Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Outliers

“If you enjoy fast paced, graphic, and fascinating historical fiction, I recommend you read THE PARIS ARCHITECT.” – Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl

"Lucien Bernard didn’t expect to join the French Resistance. It starts out as a game—an architectural puzzle. When a wealthy industrialist offers him a large sum of money to devise secret hiding places for Jews in Nazi-occupied Paris, Lucien can’t resist the challenge.

He begins a secret life, designing expertly concealed spaces invisible to the untrained eye—all while working with the Germans on the other side.

Set during the roundups and deportations of 1942, The Paris Architect is a powerfully human novel of survival, self-knowledge, and the challenge of sacrifice in the midst of uncertainty and fear.

Charles Belfoure is a former lecturer at Goucher College whose writing has appeared in the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times. An architect specializing in historical preservation, he is the author of several award-winning works of nonfiction. This is his first novel. He lives in Maryland".
~Lizzie~

Book Review: THE PARIS ARCHITECT by Charles Belfoure

WOW…. this is an amazing novel. This one is not my normal time period. Yet I really enjoyed reading WWII novels when I was in college. This novel has a compelling story line that I just could not resist.

“The Paris Architect” set in 1942 Paris during WWII; the German’s have been occupying France for some time now violence is an every day part of life in Paris at this time. Lucien Bernard really is not the most likable person at first. He is architect struggling tot make ends meat just like everyone in this time period. He is not a man of high moral fiber. He is married yet he also has a mistress who is part of the Paris fashion elite. Lucien is the type that would never put his neck out for anyone else but in a time where murders happened daily it desensitizes a person and makes horrific uncalled for violence an everyday part of life. Lucien was barely making it and people around him were killed everyday for just trying to live.

Lucien came highly recommended for his architectural skills and when he is approached for a new job that could put his life at risk he really had to consider all his options. It was meant to be a one-time job of the up most secrecy. The job was to make a hiding space no Nazi or Gestapo could ever find. If he took the job then his new employer would make sure as an added bonus that he got a contact for building a brand new war factory for the Reich. Lucien had much to gain by drawing up one blue print for this ultra exclusive hiding spot. On the other hand he could loose not just his life, he could be tortured to death by the Gestapo. It was more than a huge risk to help anyone Jewish because anyone who was caught hiding a Jew or helping a Jew was killed right along with the Jew on the spot. Lucien deiced he would take the job because getting one over one the despicable Nazi’s was just something he could not pass up.

Lucien and his new employer did not anticipate that they would have to move more than once, which meant more than one hiding spot. The Gestapo aka Nazi secret police were closing in and if caught everyone would die. They had to stay one step ahead of the Nazi’s. Lucien at this point became fully invested in hiding some of the Jews and feared greatly the Gestapo were following him. Even with the looming threat he knew he could never just walk away at this point. His heart had changed and now he would do anything to help save people that were being wrongfully persecuted.

5/5 WOW again wow this novel is a quick paced mysterious read. You really have no idea what might happen next. I really enjoyed this one. However I do have to mention that if you are not up for blood or violence then this is not the book for you because there are gruesome torture scenes that are very detailed. I would highly recommend this novel to WWII lovers because it is a unique novel that pulls all your heart strings.

R-Rating for blood, gore, violence and sex
FTC- this novel was sent to me by the publisher for review.

Amazon - The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
~Lizzie~