Book Review: Finding Fraser by K.C. Dyer

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Finding Fraser
Author: K.C. Dyer
Reading Level: Adult
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Released: February 26th 2016
Review Source: Berkley | NetGalley

Escape to Scotland with the delightful new novel that readers have fallen in love with—inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s #1 New York Times bestselling Outlander series.

I met Jamie Fraser when I was nineteen years old. He was tall, red-headed, and at our first meeting at least, a virgin. He was, in fact, the perfect man.
That he was fictional hardly entered into it...

On the cusp of thirty, Emma Sheridan is desperately in need of a change. After a string of failed relationships, she can admit that no man has ever lived up to her idea of perfection: the Scottish fictional star of romantic fantasies the world over—James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser.

Her ideal man might be ripped from the pages of a book, but Emma hopes that by making one life-altering decision she might be able to turn fiction into fact. After selling all her worldly possessions, Emma takes off for Scotland with nothing but her burgeoning travel blog to confide in.

But as she scours the country’s rolling green hills and crumbling castles, Emma discovers that in searching for her own Jamie Fraser, she just might find herself.

I had some reference from what I read online prior to reading Finding Fraser by KC Dyer that it was a book centered around references from the popular book series Outlander.  I will however admit upfront that I have not read that series.  So with that said my review is based on someone who went in blindly.

The book focuses on Emma, a recently divorced woman who is about to hit her 30th birthday.  She is unhappy with her life, she is in a job that she doesn’t enjoy, she doesn’t have much of a family life and she closes herself away from the rest of the world.  After her marriage crumbled all Emma dreams of is finding that one true, utterly romantic, sweep you off your feet kind of love that you only read about in books.  She is a big fan of the Outlander series, especially its leading man James Fraser, and that is the type of love she is really craving to fill her otherwise empty existence.  So on a whim Emma leaves everything.  She sells all her belongings, quits her job, and leaves Chicago behind to go to Scotland to find “her” James Fraser.  Emma also decides to start a blog to diary her experience.

In reading this book at first I thought “wow this is a bit out there”, but then I slowly started to think of how romantic it was.  How many times have you read a book and fell in love with the lead character and imagined yourself in the shoes of the book’s leading lady?  This is obviously a very extreme example of someone going the distance to find love, but I think at one point or another we have all wished we could just walk away from it all, throw real life into the trash, and go out in search of the dream, the fantasy.

Once in Scotland Emma doesn’t really have much of a plan, so what she decides to do is set off on a trail of key Outlander locations hoping that will help her guide her in what and where to do/go next.  Without giving away too much of the plot I will say generally the book is a journey of her meeting new people, going new places, having experiences that she would have never had back in Chicago, and what is great is that as she posts her journey on her blog she gains so many followers who cheer her on along the way.

The only downside, and this is honestly just a personal thing, is that I probably would have loved it even more if I had actually read the Outlander book series prior.  I probably would have been more invested because the references, places, characters, etc. would have made more sense to me.  I found myself having to stop reading a lot to look things up online about Outlander so I could try and understand the connections more, BUT with that being said…if you are an Outlander fan I think you will utterly love this book.  How many books out there are fictional novels about another fictional novel?  For instances for me…if Emma was a Twilight fan and went in search of her Edward Cullen in Forks, Washington…I would have been OBSESSED!

I definitely recommend this book…especially if you are a fan of the Outlander series.  I think you will find it a real hoot and also a way to live out your fantasy of throwing it all away and looking for your own book romance.  I read an interview online with the author and I think she said it best when she summed up why fans have told her they love this book and I will quote it here.  She said…

– This story is for everyone who has fallen for a character in a novel. One of my readers wrote that it is for everyone who has taken a child to find Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross, or looked inside the back of a wardrobe for a secret door. We all love characters in books — and in this story, Emma Sheridan just takes the action we would all love to take to follow her dreams. ~KC Dyer

So does Emma find her James Fraser?  Well, you’ll just have to read to find out.  I give this book 4 stars.  A definite read, especially for you Outlander fans.