This one started off a bit rocky for me as I found the writing style in the beginning a bit too "textbook" in setting things up as well as the personalities of the characters. That and there were quite a few stereotypical characters as well as set ups (only girl/youngest in a family of boys trying to stand out on her own, musician automatically equally being gay, etc) but it did pick up speed about a quarter of the way thorugh and I did enjoy it well enough.

The one thing that did bother me though was that you never found out the reason for the obsession with Mozart. It makes it seem like it was just to have an alliterative title or an excuse to have a creepy laugh for the villain. The reason was pretty well laid out, but not why the killer choose to use Mozart. This was also a mystery where you couldn't guess who did it until it was laid out for you, which is not bad it's just a fair warning to not go in and find out why.

Overall not a bad read and a quick easy one. I found that the romance aspect almost became overbearing at some points, which is not a knock against romance since it is oe of my favorite genres. I was just expecting more thriller/mystery than that.

Let me say off the bat, just to set the tone which is different from other reviews, I really enjoyed this book. Maybe it was because I figured out the "secret" early on and was just waiting for the other shoe to drop and it to be revealed to Iris. A lot of people were aghast by it but set-ups like that were not uncommon back then (and honestly aren't even that out of place nowadays). Was he kind of a jerk when it was revealed? Well yeah. Not even going to lie there. And the implication that Iris had to deal with it is a lot for modern women to swallow I'm sure but again it was commonplace at the time. Lest we forget another one of Quinn's heroes Simon flat out told his wife Daphne "I *own* you" (The Duke and I) at one point in the novel, and while that ruffled even my feathers it was true. For. The. Time. Nowadays it would be a completely different situation and set up but this is a historical romance so you have to read it with that time period in mind.

There is a theme of forgiveness in this book all around, which is rare in romance novels even nowadays, and I don't want to expand too much on that for those who haven't read it yet because spoilers. And it was something all the main characters had to grapple with and ask hard questions on if they could forgive not only other people, but themselves. My only true complaint (as it were) was the "solution" was easily reached in comparison to the huge build up but again sometimes they are and usually from outside sources or through a venue that wasn't an option before.

Richard isn't like Quinn's other heroes true. He is more conflicted and does something that, even I will admit, is pretty sneaky and a bit dickish. But he did do it with pure intentions and because he thought it was the best solution, and at the end was ultimately willing to give it up, even before he knew about the solution to the problem that would make everyone happy.

It's not for everyone but my advice is to read it with an open mind and with the time frame it was set in. I will admit had it been a modern story I would have not been about the hiding of the secret at all. But I thought this was a good wrap up to the Smythe-Smith quartet overall.

I waited awhile before reviewing this book because while I enjoyed the writing I was really upset at the sudden and abrupt ending. I do know it is a series but you would hope that at almost 900 pages there would be at least a resolution to the story arc that was started in this volume but I do not feel that way. I can appreciate and will admit that Gabaldon has a wonderful way with words and she is very talented and she certainly knows how to weave a story. But I felt like there were a few branches of stories planted here that were never fully developed and I don't know if they are resolved in the later books. It honestly feels like her publicist was like “You need to wrap it up and submit it” and she just ended there. I also feel like once the marriage happened there was a lot of unnecessary couplings -- it's not so much a matter of Claire technically being married in the future and I love my romance novels and have read quite a few with all the sex scenes, but even I had a few moments where I was like "Again?!?!"

Also (and while the Women's Studies minor in me may want to cringe at this) Claire's actions and decisions left me baffled. She was sharp enough to realize she was popped in the past and how women were perceived there but not sharp enough to adjust her attitude and her approach and decisions in some things. My desire to survive supersedes my desire to “burn my bra” as it were so I found myself getting annoyed with Claire over her inflexibility on that especially in the situations where people almost got hurt behind her. So having to deal with that annoyance of the character was a bit draining as well.

Again Gabaldon is a talented writer I do not discredit that and if she has a standalone book (I honestly do not know if she does) I may pick it up in the future. I am not feeling particularly moved to continue on in the Outlander series, certainly not at this moment if ever though. I am glad I read it since I had heard such good things about it and I agree with all of those. I just felt it was too long, it dragged unnecessarily in some spots, and the ending came too quickly.

This book was enjoyable enough but it didn't seem to have an idea of where it wanted to go until it was almost over. it read almost like vinginettes of a church group which would have been fine on its own instead of trying to loop it all into one big connected story. You got glimpses into these women's lives but no sense of who they were or what they wanted or where they were in their journey in life or in their church. And it seemed to rush to get to an end with no resolution to anything that was started. It wasn't horrible but it left you wanting more overall.