7 Book Recs Based on Your Favorite Outlander Character

The second season of the Starz adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s hefty, heaving, lusty Outlander series ended rather satisfyingly, with Claire learning of Jamie’s surprise fate after the Battle of Culloden. She knows her true love lives (if a few centuries back), and we know our collective dreams also live.
Unfortunately, now, we wait. The countdown to Season 3 will be as tense and torturous as any scene with Bonnie Prince Charlie, and even more so for those who’ve read all the way through the Outlander books. With that in mind, we recommend filling the void by picking up reads that remind you of your favorite character(s), whether that’s the Sassenach herself or noted door-lurker Dougal MacKenzie.

Claire: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, by Andrew Sean Greer
Being torn between two worlds has taken its toll on Claire, and that trauma has been explored throughout the series as she strives first to protect Frank, the husband she has no intention of returning to, and then comes to terms with her separation from Jamie. Greta Wells is in the unique situation of understanding that kind of heartache and alternate timelines. In 1985, having lost her brother and her lover in short succession, Greta sets out to treat her depression with a radical psychiatric treatment. That treatment, however, has some unexpected effects, chiefly the introduction to Greta of her alternate lives in 1918 and 1941. In the same way Claire has been forced to make decisions about which time she calls home, Greta too must decide on a course.

Jamie: Into the Wilderness, by Sara Donati
Donati’s series has the Gabaldon seal of approval and a sly, adorable Outlander cameo to boot. It also has a swoon-worthy hero in the person of Nathaniel Bonner, the son of James Fenimore Cooper’s storied Natty Bumppo, here known as Hawkeye. An adopted son of the Mohawk Nation, Nathaniel has an exotic appeal for Elizabeth Middleton, an Englishwoman recently immigrated to the infant United States. Their unconventional love story will win over fans of Jamie and Claire quicker than you can say Craigh na Dun.

Murtaugh: Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
Much like Murtaugh, Thomas Cromwell is usually the bastion of sanity in the topsy-turvy bed of lust and lunacy that is his world. While Murtaugh’s intentions are, on the whole, more pure than those of the ambitious Cromwell, both men tend to cut through a problem logically and more readily than those around them. Seeing the court of King Henry VIII through the eyes of a rational human being is a treat, and a relatable desire for anyone who wished they could see the Jacobite uprising through the point of view of Murtaugh.

Dougal MacKenzie: Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts
Dougal considers himself (well, considered …) a fine leader of men and military might, but his plans rarely tend to go according to plan. Napoleon Bonaparte, statesman and soldier, is a good composite for how Dougal would like to be seen. Whether he achieves that level of esteem is beside the point, because with Dougal, thinking tends to come after action. Would that decisiveness were the only quality a commander needed to be successful.

Geillis Duncan: 11/22/63, by Stephen King
As we learned in the season finale, Geillis did her homework on the mechanics of time travel, though her accuracy on the proceedings probably only earned her a C. Her rather cavalier attitude about changing the past is another matter entirely, and one that finds a soulmate in King’s time-traveling, Lindy-hopping epic. At some point, everyone’s thought about world events they’d change if they could turn back time. The Kennedy assassination tops many a list, including that of mild-mannered English teacher Jake Epping, who has that mission and a portal to the past plopped on him in the back of a Maine diner. Jake’s got copious amounts of notes to guide his journey, but that doesn’t mean he can succeed—or that he should. As Jake and Geillis both learn, the past doesn’t like being meddled with.

Black Jack Randall: Smoke, by Dan Vyleta
Vyleta’s inspired take on the Victorian novel introduces a supernatural element that would have been mighty convenient for anyone who encountered Captain Randall. In Smoke, we find an England where wicked thoughts and deeds are marked by smoke issuing forth from the bodies of those responsible. Smoke and soot are the province of the lower classes, and the children of the aristocracy are dispatched to elite boarding schools to drain them of their impurities. Of course, things are not always as they seem, and more so in this England than most. Still, you can’t help but wish everyone’s least favorite Redcoat had had some telltale plumes.

Frank: How to Conquer The New York Times Crossword Puzzle, by Amy Reynaldo
Look, he’s had a lot of time on his hands through the series. Everyone’s got to fill the void somehow. The man lived and apparently died almost entirely off-screen; he had to have been doing something.