December 3, 2012
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 67 pages
Series: Outlander
Book description courtesy of Goodreads
Orphaned during World War II, Roger believed that his mother died during the London Blitz, and that his father, an RAF pilot, was killed in combat. But in An Echo in the Bone, Roger discovers that this may not be the whole story. Now, in “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows,” readers finally learn the truth.
My Thoughts: (Mild spoiler alerts! I try not to do this but it's hard to review this one without that a bit).
I originally planned to re-read all of the Outlander series in order (again, lol) a few years ago and posted that on my blog. Sadly, I am way behind. I discovered other authors with amazing long epics like Sharon Kay Penman and got sucked into another era! But that's okay because I'd already read all the Outlander books twice and am keeping up with the amazing STARZ series of course. The new prequel spin off about Jamie and Claire's parents, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, is coming out this summer and even though it isn't based off of a particular book, Gabaldon is heavily involved in writing and production and it should be amazing.
Since I'm working my way through other books right now I decided to post a review of this novella and skimmed it (I've already read it twice before). It's been awhile so I truly ended up reading a lot of it again. So fun to remember these details.
I absolutely love the novellas for this series. Normally I don't read novellas and am not a big fan of very short stories. But if you love Outlander as much as I do you have to read these to really understand the whole story and the deeper parts of the characters. This book is a stand alone novella, or you can find it in the bigger book of all the novellas titiled, Seven Stones To Stand and Fall. In this story we find out more about Roger's parents, something hinted at throughout the big, epic books and so it is exciting to get a glimpse into the life of Jerry, the RAF pilot who accidentally travels through time, unlike Roger who knows he's a traveler when he leaves and does so deliberately to find Bree.
I loved the setting of Northumberland where Jerry's plane goes down. The time period and people fascinated me and the author, master researcher that she is! is of course so skillful in detail describing perfectly how suspicious, border, isolated people would have reacted to seeing a stranger, dressed and behaving like Jerry who is from the 20th century. His encounter with two particular men, while coincidental, is perfectly intertwined with the future events that happen when he is propelled back to his time.
One cannot skip this short story if you are a true Outlander fan because it explains a lot. Probably confusing and odd if you've not read any books or watched the show yet so I'd advise either reading the big books first or better yet go to Diana Gabaldon's website and there you will find a timeline of the best order to read all her books and novellas chronologically. This story is heartwarming and a great quick read between longer books.
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