So far this was the best of the Lord John books. I liked the background history of Lord John and his father, and of course the insight in Lord John's and Jamie Fraser's conversation at Hellwater.

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I enjoyed this book far more than the first Lord John book. I enjoyed getting to know who Lord John was and his view of Jamie. While I tried to skip the explicit scenes, they were no worse than the descriptions of what Jack Randall did to Jamie in prison, which were in the Outlander books.

For me, it was a reader, but not a keeper.

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While I have enjoyed this series very much, Brotherhood is in my opinion the poorest written of the four. In fact, I delayed writing these comments until I had finished The Scottish Prisoner and Lord John and the Hand of Devils, both of which I really liked. The Brotherhood plot is interesting but slow moving as John and his brother strive to remove the blot on their father's reputation following his suicide. He was accused of being a Jacobite and commits suicide the night before he is to defend himself, strengthening belief in the accusation. John and Hal refuse to believe it. In addition, the Seven Years War finds Britain fighting on the side of the Prussians. If you are reading the series and feel it impoortant to include this selection for continuity, do so. However, if it doesn't matter I would skip Brotherhood but read the others. I kept having the feeling that the author went through this novel again and again, adding words and detail to lengthen it. Others may feel differently but that's my take on it. It's an ok read.

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Interesting fill-in to a significant character in the popular Outlander series, this novel is filled with period historical detail and character development. It does not rise to the level of the Outlander books, however, and is fairly tedious to read the first 300 pages or so. Recommended for Outlander fans only.

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Diana's writing is right up my alley. Brotherhood of the Blade really adds in-site into Lord John and Jamie's relationship.

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This book gives a lot of insight into Lord John and his interesting secret and public lives interweaved with a family mystery along with cameo appearances of the one and only Jamie Fraser of the Outlander series. This is really good historical fiction!

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Second in the series.

While preparing for war, Lord John meets a young man who takes his mind off Jamie Fraser and solves another mystery in his personal life. Cameo appearance by Mr. Fraser.

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I really enjoy the Lord John tales by Gabaldon. They have absolutely nothing to do with her Outlander series even if Lord John is a minor character from it. The Lord John tales follow Lord John on his exploits with the Royal English Army (or whatever the hell its called). Of course, you also enjoy his day to day endeavors while he is on temporary leave and between war engagements.

This particular novel shuttles back and forth between the mystery of his fathers murder 15 years ago and his new step brother, Percy Wainwright, as well as, his encounters in Prussia during the war. There is a lot of M/M action and some of it very frank. If this is not your thing, you will definitely NOT enjoy this book. I found this part of the book to be very endearing and even entertaining (laugh out loud funny at times). You may (or may not) know that in this time frame, sodomy was a crime against God and punishable by death so secrecy was required if you wanted to survive a relationship. There were many tender scenes as well as a few rough and randy ones. I must say that the book focused more on the budding relationship between Lord John and Percy and not specifically on the sexual.

By the time the novel came to the end, I completely forgot about the mystery of his fathers death. But Gabaldon did a splendid job of tidying that up. A satisfying conclusion all the way around.

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