This is the 4th book in the the series featuring Claire and Jamie. Claire is the time traveller and has gone back in time by 200 years to be with the one she loves. However this book, although very much about Claire and Jamie and the phase of their life which is about them making their home in America, is also very much about their daughter, Brianna.
Brianna decides to follow her mother back in time, and we get to know her and become familiar with her character.
Ultimately, I think that this book is too long. It is over 1000 pages, and I think that Gabaldon could focus more on the story and about giving us the excitement and adventure that has been so apealing with these books. Instead, she tries to be a "great writer" and constantly elaborates on the surroundings and on the minute details of her characters, which falls short of the mark. She is not a Steinbeck, and one sometimes gets the feeling that she is putting forth a lot of effort at creating these mesmerizing and unforgetable characters. Instead, her effect (on me, anyway) is to skim through her long descriptions that are not necessary. Ultimately if she were to expatiate less.....the book could be about 700 pages, which is far more acceptable.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the story. Brianna is alarmingly similar in character to her mother, and Gabaldon makes it almost painfully clear, that she resembles her father physically. One would think she is a freak with the amount of time she spends describing Brianna's large size.
I definitely think that this is not her best book, but if you have grown fond of Jamie and Claire....then reading this, along with the others in the series, is defintely a must.