Book Review: Virgin River by Robyn Carr

WANTED: 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 re-energize 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 a former marine cements them into place. 

Melinda Monroe may have come to Virgin River looking for escape, but instead she finds her home. (Harlequin Mira, March 2007)

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 (Excellent)

Whether you're a devoted romance reader or simply someone who trawls book websites for recommendations, it's hard not to have come across Robyn Carr's Virgin River series. This book has over 6,700 ratings on GoodReads, and they vary drastically. I was unsure as to whether I'd enjoy this book or not, given that some people were addicted to the small town of Virgin River while others claimed that Mel was too much of a Mary Sue and that they grew tired of the midwifery tales. Me? I'm pretty squeamish when it comes to blood or sick, but not babies, so I wasn't worried about that element. I can see why women who aren't determined to settle down and have a family would struggle to relate to some of the characters in this book, but this book suited me perfectly.

Mel's story captured me right from the start of the novel. I like to say I grew up in the country, but the little Scottish village I grew up in is a far cry from Virgin River. Stick me somewhere with no public transport and a falling apart cabin and I'd struggle just as much as Mel. Given how many people find escapism in Amish fiction, I'm sure a lot of women dream of finding peace in a small town and come across the same issues Mel did. But there's more to Mel than just her mistaken belief that life in the country is easier. Maybe I was just PMS-ing, but I got a bit emotional when she thought about her late husband and the horrible event that took him away from her. The loss of her husband and her struggle to conceive felt incredibly real, making it impossible not to sympathise with her.

If anyone was a bit too Mary Sue-ish in this book, it's probably Jack, Mel's love interest. Jack runs the town's bar and ends up being Mel's first real friend in Virgin River. Jack has his own baggage from his time in the Marines, but the way that he was always there for Mel and always had the right thing to say occasionally felt a bit too perfect. That said, I did love the way that their romance blossomed out of their friendship. Even though I didn't fall in love with my best friend (although we became best friends after dating for a while) this is probably one of my favourite ways for relationships to develop in romance novels. Mel and Jack have seen each other at their worst and still fall in love.

Even if you're not a big fan of romance, the small-town setting and the inhabitants of Virgin River might well convince you to stick with this series for the long haul. There's the grumpy old doctor who is convinced he doesn't need any help from Mel, the two women who run the corner shop, the teenage boy who helps out in the bar and the numerous women who come to Mel for help with their babies. The one sub-plot that stuck with me long after I finished reading this book was the one featuring Ricky, the teenager who Jack employs to help serve food in the bar. He lives with his grandmother and Jack sort of becomes a father figure to him, but isn't completely prepared to deal with a teenage boy with hormones running rampant over a local girl. Although I'm not a massive fan of teenage romance sub-plots in my romance novels, I thought Ricky's relationship was a very realistic portrayal of how hard it is for teenagers to hold back from taking relationships too far, and how hormones and emotions sometimes push sensible logic out of the way. I have a feeling Ricky will appear in later books, so I'm intrigued to see where his story goes.

The one thing that I don't love about Robyn Carr's novels is her sex scenes. Although I prefer to read novels completely devoid of sex scenes, I don't mind them if they're brief and dwell more on the emotional connection between the characters (such as Barbara Delinsky's more recent novels) than the physical descriptions of body parts, simply for the fact that I find a lot of sex scenes awkward and laughable. Plus, romance novels have a habit of romanticising sex and making every sexual encounter between the hero and heroine perfect, which isn't how it is in real life. I think this book had a total of three sex scenes, which can easily be skipped over. And for those who prefer to avoid profanity, there were a few instances of swearing in this book. 

Despite the perfect sex scenes and Jack's occasional Mary Sue behaviour, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I love small-town settings and happy endings, so Virgin River was the perfect fit for me. I know that some of the events in this novel might have worked out better than they would have in real life, but sometimes we need a bit of escapism, and that's what Virgin River is for me. I'm now working my way through the audiobook of the second novel, Shelter Mountain, and I imagine I'll be hunting down the rest of the series in the near future. I highly recommend this series for fans of small-town stories and contemporary romance readers. 

Sunrise Point - Robyn Carr (Virgin River #19)

GENRE: CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

PUBLISHER: MIRA

PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 24, 2012

RATING: 7 OUT OF 10 – GOOD

PROS: Strong heroine who cares about her children; endearing secondary characters

CONS: Relatively predictable romance; inconclusive sub-plot; includes an awkwardly-phrased sex scene

Nora Crane is desperate for a full-time job that will support her and her two small children. Abandoned by her drug-addicted boyfriend, who was eventually imprisoned, she’s stranded in Virgin River and is thankful to at least have a roof over her head. She’s being relying on the kindness of the residents of the town, and as much as she appreciates the help from the local minister and her neighbours, she wants to make it on her own. But convincing Tom Cavanaugh to take her on as one of his seasonal apple-pickers isn’t easy. He doesn’t believe that the slight, single-mother can do the hard work, and only offers her the job at the insistence of his grandmother, Maxie, who sees a lot of herself in Nora. Soon Nora is spending every day at the orchard, and soon feels like she’s part of Tom’s family. Tom can’t help noticing Nora’s unfortunate situation, and while he doesn’t want to get involved with a woman so young yet so worldly-experienced as Nora, he can’t help but lend a hand every now and then. He has his eye on a woman far more sophisticated than Nora, but when secrets from his apple-picker’s past begin to surface he finds himself becoming more involved in her life. Can he truly stay away?

A friend recommended the Virgin River series to me sometime last year, but I hadn’t been able to find the first book in my local library and was daunted by the long list of books already released. Ultimately I became impatient as I received more recommendations for this series, so I did what any insane reader would do – started at #19.  While frequent readers of this series may be going into a full-blown panic attack right now, I can confirm that I didn’t have any major difficulties jumping into the series at Sunrise Point and that while there are references to characters from previous books, these didn’t alienate me or distract me from my reading experience. However, since I’ve only read Sunrise Point so far, I can’t guarantee that every book in the series can be read as a standalone, but I would hope that this is the case.

I’m a sucker for romances about single mums and dads, and the kids in this story weren’t simply there for “Aww!” factor as they are in some novels. Nora was such a strong character, in both her mothering instinct and her desire to make something of her life and to stop relying on the charity of others. While sometimes this made her quite stubborn, her commitment to finding a job that would support her two children made her an incredibly endearing character. Nora is a woman who made plenty of mistakes in her past and is likely to challenge readers’ assumptions about single parents and how they end up in these sorts of situations, just as she challenges Tom’s judgements when she initially interviews for a job at his orchard. Both Nora and Tom have a lot of personal issues to work through before they can reconcile their differences. In Nora’s case, she has to deal with some ghosts from her past that are holding her back in the present, while Tom has to decide whether he’s ready to settle down on his grandmother’s orchard, and whether his aspirations for his future are truly realistic.

While I enjoyed Nora and Tom’s romance, it is ultimately rather predictable, but the secondary characters were what made it stand out for me. Tom’s grandmother, Maxie is one of my favourite characters in Sunrise Point, and I can only hope that when I’m a grandmother I’ll be just as considerate and loving as she is. I initially thought that she’d turn out to be your typical old-fashioned grandmother, but her interactions with Tom’s potential girlfriend, Darla, proved otherwise. Darla is slightly caricatured, but I do know some women who would think spending over a thousand pounds on a pair of designer boots is reasonable, and plenty who miss out on the joy of good food because they’re too concerned about their weight. Maxie’s witty remarks about Darla’s laziness and eating habits made me laugh out loud in several places, particularly when she suggested to Tom that she should mow the lawn and give Darla the grass cuttings for lunch. Darla’s attitude in general provided plenty of amusing moments in the story, and while I never believed that she was a true rival for Tom’s affection, she created a couple of bumps in the road for Tom and Nora, as well as some light entertainment.

Sunrise Point is a gentle, light romance, and I was surprised by how slow moving it truly was. I don’t read a lot of contemporary romance, mainly because I prefer the old-fashioned values of historical or Amish novels, but the structure of this novel allowed time for both Tom and Nora to develop personally as they got to know each other better, long before they decided to embark on a relationship. The best way to describe their relationship is “sweet”, and it brought many a smile to my face.

To readers who typically read Christian fiction, I must warn that there is one sex scene in this novel, and a couple of references to sexual urges. I read a fair amount of general market fiction and some of my favourite authors include sex scenes in their novels, although most of them tend to focus on the emotions of the characters during the act, not the physical act itself. Sunrise Point’s sex scene was definitely more physical, and some of the descriptions were pretty cringe-worthy, including the awkward reference to the female character becoming “as limp as a noodle”. Generally, I skim-read sex scenes just in case there is some crucial dialogue or internal thoughts as to the relationship between the characters, but in this case, if you don’t care for sex scenes, I’d recommend just skipping this scene altogether. You won’t miss anything important to the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to the Virgin River series, and while I was initially a bit bemused by the subplot revolving around another resident in the town, I expect that his story will be continued in a later book in the series. This isn’t a series where you can pick up one book and not end up wanting to read the ones that come before or after it, and I guarantee that fans of contemporary, small-town romances will get caught up in the lives of the residents of Virgin River, just as I did. Sunrise Point is a great induction into this series, and I won’t be forgetting Nora’s stubbornness or Maxie’s wit any time soon.

Review title provided by Mira.