I’m a few chapters into Voyager, the third book in Diana Gabaldon‘s fabulous “Big, Fat Historical Fiction” series, Outlander.

You may have read the books or seen the TV adaptation on Starz, or maybe you’ve never heard of any of it.  I hadn’t until about a year ago, when I finally took the advice of a good friend and world-class bookworm to start reading this series immediately.

Thank goodness I listened.  I am a huge fan of historical fiction (I studied history in grad school, after all) and can’t get enough of adventurous, romantic books set in the past, from Atonement to my childhood favorite, Catherine, Called Birdy.  I instantly fell for Gabaldon’s fantastic writing and interesting characters, and devoured the (quite hefty) book in days.

So if you’re a sucker for Scotland, strong female leads, or (in Gabaldon’s words) “history, warfare, medicine, sex [author’s note: lots of really excellent sex], violence, spirituality, honor, betrayal, vengeance, hope and despair…voyages of daring, journeys of both body and soul,” you simply must pick up Outlander this instant.

All this swashbuckling Scottishness has had me 1) sipping a little too much scotch while feverishly flipping pages and 2) missing Scotland quite terribly.  So stay tuned for a travel guide on the timeless, romantic, and incredibly freezing capital of Scotland: Edinburgh.

(Seriously, Outlander is only $1.99 on Kindle.  Get on with it, will ye?)