On paper the Outlander series

[hopefulpuffin]

should have been right up my alley. Time travel. Love story. Man in a kilt (am I excused for this being an American?).

But.

I hated it. I plowed through the first book thinking it'd get better. Then I thought I'd try the second book thinking it'd get better. I finally gave up.

So.

Now I'm looking for some recommendations. Preferably a series. Preferably some sort of fantasy/time travel/supernatural element combined with romance and better writing. The kilt is completely optional.

I've got a depressing paper to write over the next couple of weeks to finish up an online class and I want to have my kindle ready to go when it's finally over.

The main character travels back in time to a period where the dastardly English were raping and pillaging the valiant Scots ...or something like that anyway.

All a bit of fun but I found the say he Leigh climb her sassenach deeply irritating

Well, she pops back and forwards a bit but that's about it.

If you want some time travel to read with DS, look at some of E. Nesbit's books. At seven he's probably not quite ready to read them for himself yet, and they were written c.1900, so will probably require some explanation.

I've just finished reading Stepping by Shelby Locke. It's a time travel one, the main character finds out that he stopped the Titanic from sinking (with unexpected dire consequences for thousands), and he has to go back in time to correct his previous meddling so that the Titanic sinks this time round.

Ok! Jilly Cooper goes on the list! I've seen her mentioned on here quite a bit. Perhaps this will be my summer of Cooper!

Maybe somewhere down the line I'll try Shogun. I'm sort of Japan'ed out right now (I'm living in Japan). Right now I'm in the midst of writing an essay on the comfort women during WWII and the Japanese government's continued denial/belittling of them.

If you like Japanese history, you might like the detective series by Laura Joh Rowland featuring a samurai detective. I've only read the first one but it was pretty good.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

I enjoyed the first two and a half Outlander books. It got a bit dull after that and I've not bothered since book 4, although the TV adaptation is verra good.

If you like time travelly stuff then I second to Barbara Erskine recommendation, although her more recent books have kind of all blended into one. Lady of Hay and Kingdom of Shadows are probably her best.

If you like a historical series then there's always Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Morland Dynasy novels. There are 34 books, spanning the Wars of the Roses to the 1930s, so they'll keep you busy for a while!