Wanted:Â Midwife/nurse practitioner in Virgin River, population six hundred. Make a difference against a backdrop of towering California redwoods and crystal-clear rivers. Rent-free cabin included.
When the recently widowed Melinda Monroe sees this ad, she quickly decides that the remote mountain town of Virgin River might be the perfect place to escape her heartache, and to reenergize the nursing career she loves. But her high hopes are dashed within an hour of arriving: the cabin is a dump, the roads are treacherous and the local doctor wants nothing to do with her. Realizing she’s made a huge mistake, Mel decides to leave town the following morning.
But a tiny baby, abandoned on a front porch, changes her plans…and former marine Jack Sheridan cements them into place.
Virgin River, by Robyn Carr
It’s been a while since my last contemporary romance. I guess in some ways this isn’t really surprising, because I read for escapism. It’s hard to escape when there’s too much of the real world in the book that’s supposed to transport me away to somewhere else. On the other hand, reading a lot – and a lot of different types of books – helps me become a better author, and writing weekly reviews has pushed me out of my comfort zone some.
The Virgin River series has been around for quite a while so in some ways I’m late to the party, but that’s what happens frequently when I’m reading outside of my sub-genre. This is the book that started it all, so at least I know I’m not jumping in partway through the series, which feels like it’s happened far too often recently.
We’re introduced to Virgin River through the eyes of Melinda, our heroine, who moved to the small town in an effort to escape the memories left behind after her husband’s murder in a burglary. It’s a far cry from Los Angeles and conditions are less than optimal when she arrives. The only reason she doesn’t turn around and leave immediately after arrival is the knowledge that she’d just get stuck again on her way out.
Jack runs the local bar, which happens to be the only pace where Mel can get both dinner and a cup of coffee the next morning on her way out of town. It’s very different from serving as a Marine, but he kind of likes the quieter pace of life in Virgin River these days. Still, something about Mel makes him sit up and take notice, and he desperately hopes he can convince her to stay. He doesn’t have much luck until a newborn baby is left abandoned on the front porch, right before Mel can leave. Her professional instincts take over and she agrees to stay, at least until the baby can be settled in a more permanent relationship. That gives him time to get to know her, and Mel time to get to know both him and the town.
What makes this book really shine for me are the characters and how true to life they feel. I live in CA and have driven through my share of small towns in the northern part of this state. Virgin River feels very authentic, from the curvy mountain roads and lack of cell service to the selection of small businesses that pop up in those towns and the air of self-sufficiency they tend to have as a result. I loved learning about some of the more practical aspects of life in a town like that, and the honest assessment of some of the less-fantastic aspects. It’s a slower pace of life and there are some real challenges that take adjusting to, but there are also benefits.
Jack and Mel are the stars, of course, but there’s a wide range of supporting cast members and they all feel real. I know this is the first book in a series but it goes beyond the common feeling of merely introducing the next books’ protagonists. (The most likely candidates for that title hardly have any lines at all.) You’re getting to know the whole town and watching the relationship develop as a slow burn.
There were a few parts that I didn’t like quite as much; some of the conflict between Jack and Mel felt a little forced, and we didn’t necessarily see a lot of Mel dealing with her grief. There was also not an awful lot about who her husband actually was – of all the characters in the book, he was the most one-dimensional and there was no real sense of why Mel fell for him or how that relationship would have lasted. (In some ways, it feels like it wouldn’t have.)
I enjoyed the book overall though, and I would definitely recommend it if you like contemporary books or are curious about life in a small CA town and enjoy three-dimensional characters. I’ll be keeping my eye out for the next one!