Finding Fraser

By: K.C. Dyer
Published Year: 2016
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 388

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This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads):   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.

                                                          First Impressions

I was a little put off by the cover because it’s a bit cheesy, but it looked like it could be cheesy in a fun way. I also am not an Outlander fan, so I was a bit worried after reading the summary, but it sounded like fun. I figured that if the character loved Jamie Fraser so much, that she would paint him in a light that made him lovable even to non-Outlander readers

                                                           What I thought

This book was split into three parts. This first part I loved, the next two parts were painful.

At the beginning of the book, Emma has just turned 29. She has broken up with her boyfriend and been fired from her job. As a result of a pre-thirties crisis, she has decided that she is going to travel to Scotland to find her Jamie Fraser, the only man who has never broken her heart. She sells all her belongings and heads off to Scotland with nothing more than a few outfits, her laptop, and a well-worn copy of Outlander. Before she leaves, she decides that she’s going to blog about her experience which she names Finding Fraser.

The first part of the story follows Emma before her journey begins. I thought that Emma’s blog was a fun touch to the story and an interesting way to get different versions of her story across. I also liked that they showed a few of the comments and that she took those comments to heart. I did not like that she had a younger sister who was perfect in every way and vehemently disapproved of Emma taking this trip. It seemed a bit played out and would’ve been more interesting if she provided support in some way at least for a short period of time.

The second part was where Emma started to drive me insane. This girl is 29 years old, has been to college, lived on her own, been married and divorced, and had multiple relationships; yet she acts like a 19 year old the entire time. I think if she had been written as a 19 year old, I would have handled her idiotic moments a lot better. Emma is so stupid it’s irritating. She heads off to Scotland with literally no plan, barely any money, and just is beyond ignorant.

I also felt like the story was fun and light and didn’t take itself too seriously, until Emma was robbed of all her belongings. From that point on, the story dragged and I honestly didn’t care what happened to her. I can’t believe that any woman would head off to another country with the intention of literally finding a fictional character to fall in love with. It got to the point where Emma wasn’t using Jamie Fraser as an inspiration of someone to find, which is what I thought she was doing, but like a crazy person she was trying to find an actual Jamie Fraser. And if she didn’t, she felt like she failed! I just could not handle any part of this book and feel like the character of Emma sets strong female characters back tens of years.

There were moments at the beginning of this book that I felt like this story had so much potential, but it went in such a bad way. There was nothing redeemable about Emma and I had no interest in her finding her Fraser. I couldn’t even believe that people were reading her blog and cheering for her. Even if you are an Outlander fan, I don’t think you will find anything redeeming about this story. I don’t enjoy writing bad reviews, but I just can’t say anything good about this story.