Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

It has been almost two months, but I still haven't recovered from finishing A Dance With Dragons. I know, I know, most of you are sick of hearing it right now, but I really do love the Song of Ice and Fire series. And since it's going to be at least another two to five years before the next one comes out, I'm kind of at a loss for how to fill the hole in my reading life left by these books. I wander aimlessly around Barnes & Noble, picking up and then just as quickly re-shelving possible replacements, and leaving with only a magazine or two for company. I surf Amazon.com listlessly without making a purchase. I feel a little like I've been dumped. George R.R. Martin is not my boyfriend anymore!

However, just as the scorned ex-girlfriend eventually recovers and hits the bars in search of a new and better man, I hit Barnes & Noble this past weekend with one mission: to find my rebound relationship. I swore up and down I would not leave the store without a book to read. After staring longingly at the Game of Thrones display, placed in the center of the entryway by some heartless B&N employee who clearly wanted to torture me, I began prowling the fiction shelves. Nothing. I circled back to the display. I was convinced. There wasn't a single book in the entire store worth reading if it wasn't set in Westeros. Mr. DeWinter sighed and left me for the nonfiction section. I wandered along behind him like a lost duckling. After about fifteen minutes of haphazardly radiating between George R.R. Martin and random shelves, I could tell Mr. DeWinter had about had enough. So I promised to make my last, desperate attempt to find something, so we could move on to our Five Guys lunch.

And there...in the middle of the shelves...there they stood like the kind-of-cute guy at the end of the bar at last call...the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. And at that moment, in a somewhat resigned manner, I knew they would be mine (mostly because they were of approximately the same size, heft, and binding as the Song of Ice and Fire books...pathetic, I know...and because there were at least four of them, so if I do like them, they'll keep me distracted for awhile).

And so, I brought my new boyfriend (err...books...) home with me. While not as good as my last boyfriend, they make a pretty decent rebound. A quick summary: While on a second honeymoon to Scotland with her husband whom she hasn't seen in about seven years due to WWII, Claire falls through some kind of portal in a fairy ring, and lands in the middle of a Jacobean rebellion in 18th century Scotland. Torn between her old life and the new one (of course there's a new and much more interesting man in the 18th century) Claire must decide where to spend her future.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for historical fiction, and the hint of fantasy and magic doesn't hurt either. Like most rebound relationships, this one may not be destined to last very long, as I'm not sure how Diana Gabaldon is going to keep up the plot for more than one or two books. But for now, it's distracting and enjoyable enough to get my mind off of GRRM (at least for a little while.)

RDeW