Review: Virgin River

Virgin River by Robyn Carr

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



An entertaining bit of fluff that wants to be more Virgin River is the sort of book that you turn to when you want something with a little more depth than your average romance but no real distress. One of my former coworkers at Waldenbooks was crazy about this series, and after having read the first one, I can understand why.

Mel, our widowed heroine, is a strong, intelligent woman. Her love interest, Jack, is a physically powerful and kind retired Marine. Their romance develops out of their respect and admiration (as well as some physical attraction) for each other. I would say that this is a mature romance--despite the steaminess of some of the sex scenes (and they were rather descriptive), the genuine attraction this story holds is that it is about adults falling in love with each other. Jack has been through wars. He has physical and mental scars, but he's OK 95% of the time. Mel is barely holding herself together after her husband's sudden death. It isn't until she's begun to heal and build a new life for herself that she can see how wonderful Jack is.

The town of Virgin River is idealized, although Carr does try to make it look gritty by including some people living in extreme poverty and some pot growers. Unfortunately, they don't really disrupt the town so much because none of them become characters. They might have been there forever, but they're outsiders in the eyes of the town and don't change its daily life much at all.

Will I read other books in this series? Yes. Will I expect much of them? No. Sometimes you just need a comfortable old friend of a book, and I think these might fit that bill nicely.



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