Echo In The Bone (spoilers!)

Ok y'all ... wtf?!?!?

Did Diana Gabaldon go on a walkabout for the last 10 chapters of EitB and someone else wrote it?!?

The below mini-rant contains spoilers. If you haven't read/finished the book, DON'T LOOK!

Claire and Jamie Fraser have a massive all-encompassing love, right? Their love transcends time, right? It's the whole basis for these friggin' books, that they're "blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh." So someone PLEASE explain to me why Claire sleeps with John Grey?!?

I think Diana's in love with John Grey, seriously. I personally don't care for the character - I read the books in part for the sex and, to be completely 100% honest, I don't really want to read about homosexual sex. Sorry. Nothing against the character really, he just doesn't appeal to me for that, and because he's so damn prim and proper.

I'm just so disappointed that she has Claire have sex with John. I mean, I can understand having them marry to save her from being arrested by the English, but then they have a drunken night of hot monkey sex? Not. He's gay. She's made quite the point of that. Why on earth would he want to sleep with the widow of the man he's been in love with for thirty odd years? I don't buy the reasoning of he just wanted to be closer to Jamie. It's still the wrong hole, sorry, no.

Does anyone else think that the end of the book felt extremely rushed in some plot lines and not rushed enough in others? I wanted to hear what was going on with Roger - what happened when he went through? Did he make it through? I assumed he did because he didn't come home, but - what's going on! Aaagh! Obviously he's going to try to make his way to the Ridge, because that's where he thinks Rob Cameron is taking Jemmy, but would he first go to Lallybroch to try to find Jamie, since he knew they went to Scotland?

And she has Claire find out that Jamie's dead, then marry John, have sex with John, think about killing herself, and find Jamie again, all in a whirlwind of like 2 chapters. Granted, they're long chapters, but... I could have done without that plot line at all. Just avoid that crap and have Claire and Jamie wait in Philadelphia and Roger shows up there and they all look for Jemmy, etc. The sex with John is unnecessary and, obviously, upset me and many other readers. (Not to mention that Claire is a physician and she knows that in that time period STD's would be rampant, especially among homosexual men, and yet she sleeps with one unprotected anyway. Right.)

The final scene with Jamie is John telling him that he had "carnal knowledge" of his wife and Jamie's noncommittal response. And that's it. Whuh? Talk about a crappy ending. Would Jamie not care? Hardly. He's taken bullets and bayonets for this woman, he's killed men who raped her - he's not going to just shrug off a man admitting to having sex with her.

Has the Outlander series jumped the shark? I pray not. It's my favorite series of all time and I'm so disappointed right now in the turn it's taken. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a couple of years to find out what happens next.