Blue Bells of Scotland is perfect series for Outlander fans

Flipping through my kindle library recently, I discovered a trio of books I had read over the years and then lost track of waiting for the last books. They were Blue Bells of Scotland, The Minstrel Boy, and The Water is Wide. Written by Laura Vosika, the books take place in the present day and back around the time of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.  If you're a fan of Diana Gabaldon and love Scottish history, this series is a no-brainer. If you also love music, then the combo of history and music is the icing on the cake!

I was thrilled to find out that the last two books had been published since the last time I'd checked in on them. I quickly re-read the first three to refresh my memory of the key points of this Scottish time travel story. Then I rewarded myself with the last two books:  Westering Home and The Battle is O'er. I really enjoyed them and I wanted to help spread the word. The books follow Shawn's redemption story as he learns to be a better man. Of note, I read that Mrs. Vosika had originally intended this to be a trilogy (in fact the first three books are still called a trilogy on Amazon) but the scope of the tale expanded into the five volumes.

Here are the descriptions from Amazon:

Blue Bells of Scotland:
Shawn Kleiner has it all: money, fame, a skyrocketing career as an international musical phenomenon, his beautiful girlfriend Amy, and all the women he wants-- until the night Amy has enough and abandons him in a Scottish castle. He wakes to find himself mistaken for Niall Campbell, medieval Highland warrior. Soon after, he is sent shimmying down a wind-torn castle wall into a dangerous cross country trek with Niall's tempting, but knife-wielding fiancee, pursued by English soldiers and a Scottish traitor who want Niall dead. Thrown forward in time, Niall learns history's horrifying account of his own death, and of the Scots' slaughter at Bannockburn. Undaunted, he navigates the roiled waters of Shawn's life-- pregnant girlfriend, amorous fans, enemies, gambling debts--- seeking a way to leap back across time to save his people, especially his beloved Allene. But he finds himself liking Shawn's life...

The Minstrel Boy:
On a misty night in the Scottish Highlands, Shawn Kleiner, a womanizing modern American musician, and Niall Campbell, devout medieval warrior, both fall asleep in the tower of Glenmirril Castle, seven centuries apart. They wake up in each other's time. In The Minstrel Boy, Shawn's girlfriend Amy resigns her position with the orchestra and stays behind in Scotland to trace Niall’s fate through historical records. What she finds is not answers, but more questions. Niall Campbell, a man larger than life, who recovers miraculously from multiple injuries, walks through walls, and appears in two places at once—fact or myth? The thieving MacDougalls built a gallows to hang Niall—was it used? Why is the cop assigned to Shawn’s case pursuing her long after the files are closed? And what can she tell the police and everyone in the orchestra? They want answers, and unlike Shawn, she’s not good at lying. But she can’t tell them the truth: they’ll never find him. Because Shawn Kleiner, the notorious twenty-first-century musical phenomenon is dead.

The Water is Wide: 
World-renowned musician Shawn Kleiner vanished in the night among the ruins of a Scottish castle. While the world searches, one woman, the mother of his child, knows the truth: he is trapped seven hundred years in the past. While they struggle to reunite across the centuries, an unseen shadow crosses their path—an evil that will threaten the life of a child prophesied to protect history. An evil from the past walks today...

Westering Home:
Two years in medieval Scotland will change a man. A month in the modern world will tempt him back. Some people don’t want Shawn to change, while others can’t believe he has.

Modern life is not the haven he imagined. The orchestra has a new star, and Amy has found new love—he may still lose her to the stalwart Angus. He is guilt-ridden over leaving Niall to an unknown fate while he escaped to safety in Amy’s 21st-century arms.

But his life of music turns dark as he learns a medieval foe stalks Amy and his son. Living and fighting alongside Niall, the Laird, Hugh, Robert the Bruce, and Scotland’s greatest hero, James Douglas, he learned honor, virtue, and strength. Will they be enough to win back Amy and save his son? Because history and the whole world depend on it.

The Battle is O'er: 
In the gripping conclusion to The Blue Bells Chronicles, just as Shawn is steadily regaining all he feared he had lost forever—his career, his son, and even Amy’s heart—he learns of MacDougall’s vengeance against Niall, for the act Shawn himself committed. He wrestles with a prophecy and an ancient letter that never changes, a letter that details the fate of his own son, if he cannot stop it—and possibly the fate of the world itself, as he learns of Simon Beaumont’s plan to use his knowledge of the future to destroy it.

Shawn’s selfishness once cost him everything. His newfound selflessness may do the same.

As much as I loved the story, the one comment I'll make is that as huge as the chronicle is, the end really pushed a lot of information into very few pages. I know what happened but a lot of the how it all happened is sort of rushed over or not told. I don't want to give any spoilers away so I'll just say the reader (me) was left with a lot of unanswered questions, especially on some personal family points that I wanted to know. There were also some characters introduced whose relationships with major characters were not flushed out at all, with plot points/prophecies that went nowhere. Possibly/hopefully she is planning another series (although it would seem weird now that this major arc has ended). I spent so much time with these characters that to give them such short shrift at the end left me feeling a little sad and unsettled.

I wonder if you'll agree with me when you read it --  and you should definitely read it because it is a fantastic story with strong characters you will come to care a lot about.  If you love time travel, romance, and Scotland, then this is a series you won't want to miss.

This post was proofread by Grammarly 
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