Helpful Score: 12
Excellent story about two people with past issues and their struggles to let go and enjoy a new relationship together. The story is filled with beautiful settings and many interesting characters, paving the way for the sequels.
Helpful Score: 11
I am a new Robyn Carr fan because of this book. It was such a good story. Mel is trying to accept the fact that she is widowed young. This book really delves into how she works through her guilty feelings and learns to trust again. The book is so easy and smooth. There is not too much sex. Just the right amount to be realistic and necessary to the story.
This is the first book I've read by Robyn Carr. I loved it so much I had to run out and buy the other 2 books in the series as soon as they were out. I almost always try to get new books at the library or a used copy somewhere. This series was so addictive that I went out and bought them new at Borders! Now, I'm going to go back and read all of her other books. I highly recommend this series.
Helpful Score: 6
Robyn Carr was new to me. I was in a reading slump. So I read this book. How wonderful it is. I love the up and downs,the real people and problems. The little town setting and the way love can come when you are not ready. I will be reading more of her books.
Helpful Score: 4
This was the first book I've read by her and it was so good I ran out and bought the sequel. I loved it! This is definitely going on my keeper shelf.
Helpful Score: 3
This is the first of a series by this author. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters. This is an easy read- doesn't tax your brain with trying to keep up with too many characters or plots. I would definitely recommend this series, just be sure to have access to the next book in line because you will want to get started on book 2 as soon as you close book 1.
Helpful Score: 3
Great book. First of three. Contemporary romance. I usually read historical or paranormal. I really enjoyed this author and will finish the series this week.
Helpful Score: 3
Robyn Carr is excellent in developing her characters. You really feel like you know them. This is the first book in the Virgin River series. You'll feel like you know the town.
Helpful Score: 3
This was a great story. One of the best books I've read in a while! Good reading even if you aren't a huge fan of romance novels.
Helpful Score: 2
First time I have read anything by this author. I loved it. It is the first in a trilogy!
Helpful Score: 2
This is the first Robyn Carr book I have read. I have now purchased the entire Virgin River series. I love this author. The books are well written. The characters are warm and fun without being too over the top and unbelievable. You can't help but fall in love with the townspeople and you are rooting for the Hero, Jack from the moment the Heroine, Melinda walks into his bar and he sees her. While they deal with her tragic past it is not one of those books that spends the entire novel with the two main characters at odds with each other. from the beginning of their love affair they work through her past together. It is refreshing to read a book where the lovebirds do NOT spend the entire time fighting and apart. FINALLY.....
LOVE IT... deffinatelyr recommend this author.
PS. there is a back story to these books. If you want to go even further back then read the 3 books of Robyn Carr that are the Grace Valley series ( 3 books) that are about love just over the valley from Virgin River. You do NOT have to read the Grace Valley series to understand everything in the Virgin River books. There are some main secondary characters that come from Grace Valley that have their own stories previously told.
ENJOY
LOVE IT... deffinatelyr recommend this author.
PS. there is a back story to these books. If you want to go even further back then read the 3 books of Robyn Carr that are the Grace Valley series ( 3 books) that are about love just over the valley from Virgin River. You do NOT have to read the Grace Valley series to understand everything in the Virgin River books. There are some main secondary characters that come from Grace Valley that have their own stories previously told.
ENJOY
Helpful Score: 1
Wow! What a great book, and hopefully the start of a great series. I can't wait to check the next book out! :)
I loved the midwifery theme, and how Mel felt so much joy bringing new babies into the world. The fourteen-year old aspect was a little weird....I'm hoping they revisit the couple when they're legal!
I loved the midwifery theme, and how Mel felt so much joy bringing new babies into the world. The fourteen-year old aspect was a little weird....I'm hoping they revisit the couple when they're legal!
Helpful Score: 1
This is the first in the Virgin River Series. There are over 10 books, and I have read them all! I didn't read them in order but still I enjoyed them very much. A small community of dedicated individuals who are an unlikely group form bonds that last a life time. A place you'd want to live and raise your family. Mel and Jack form a romantic relationship that is forged in the furnace of affliction, but comes forth shinning like pure gold. You'll laugh, you'll cry and want to go back again and again to Jack's bar where not only can a man get a cold beer, but food for the body and soul as well. Robyn Carr has become one of my favorite authors since reading this series.
Helpful Score: 1
An excellent story about a young widow from the big city making a life for herself as a nurse/midwife in a rugged small town. The characters are wonderful, memorable, and smart. You get introduced to a whole town full of vital interesting people. I did have a little trouble keeping track of each character, but you come to know the main characters easily enough.
The love story is sweet. The hero and heroine come together gradually like people do in real life so their connection is believable. There isn't any Big Misunderstanding. There isn't an excessive amount of sex taking place of emotional intimacy. There are plenty of steamy hot scenes, but they come at appropriate times in the plot and they aren't substitutes for plot development. The hero is strong without being some extremely over the top alpha male. The heroine is very smart and capable. She's not spineless. She's more than capable of taking care of herself. The hero and heroine don't act out of character. Sometimes you read a story, where one or another does something that is totally not in line with their character, but nothing like that happens here. The story seemed believable and it's rare I read a book where the characters and the situations seem real. I would read more from Robin Carr's Virgin River series.
The love story is sweet. The hero and heroine come together gradually like people do in real life so their connection is believable. There isn't any Big Misunderstanding. There isn't an excessive amount of sex taking place of emotional intimacy. There are plenty of steamy hot scenes, but they come at appropriate times in the plot and they aren't substitutes for plot development. The hero is strong without being some extremely over the top alpha male. The heroine is very smart and capable. She's not spineless. She's more than capable of taking care of herself. The hero and heroine don't act out of character. Sometimes you read a story, where one or another does something that is totally not in line with their character, but nothing like that happens here. The story seemed believable and it's rare I read a book where the characters and the situations seem real. I would read more from Robin Carr's Virgin River series.
Helpful Score: 1
This is the first book in Robyn Carr's Virgin River series. You find yourself laughing and crying with her characters. She draws you into the lives of her characters. I'm looking forward to reading the next books in the series.
Helpful Score: 1
Widowed Melinda Monroe sees an ad in the paper for a Midwife and makes a quick decision to take the job. She wants to get away from the emergency room in Los Angeles and the memories of her late husband. But when she arrives in Virgin River, she finds the rent-free cabin she was promised is a dump, the roads are washed out from a storm, and the local doctor wants nothing to do with her. She's ready to give up and go home. But when she finds an abandoned baby on the doctor's porch, her plans change. And, a local maine who runs a bar/restaurant, may make her decide to stay.
Easy read with interesting characters who have to overcome their past. I loved the smalltown setting. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Easy read with interesting characters who have to overcome their past. I loved the smalltown setting. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Helpful Score: 1
Virgin River is a good read. Mel leaves L.A. to get away from the violence of the big city and moves to Virgin River thinking she'll be able to slow down and life will move at a slower pace. She also wants to do her midwifery in a small town where women aren't prisoners brought in with handcuffs.
Boy was she wrong. All sorts of things happen in Virgin River and she almost doesn't stay her first night. But an abandoned baby on the doctor's office the next morning changes her mind and things she extends her stay several times by a few more weeks. Mel finds purpose and that she is needed, which is exactly what she needs to help her recover from her past.
Jack had come to Virgin River to escape his past life of a Marine, a decorated Marine. He, too, longed for a slower pace and less violence. He's helped the town by renovating the cabin he bought into a grill and bar. Mel brings something out in him that no other woman has before. Can he convince her to stay?
Overall, this was a good read and left me interested enough to continue the series.
Boy was she wrong. All sorts of things happen in Virgin River and she almost doesn't stay her first night. But an abandoned baby on the doctor's office the next morning changes her mind and things she extends her stay several times by a few more weeks. Mel finds purpose and that she is needed, which is exactly what she needs to help her recover from her past.
Jack had come to Virgin River to escape his past life of a Marine, a decorated Marine. He, too, longed for a slower pace and less violence. He's helped the town by renovating the cabin he bought into a grill and bar. Mel brings something out in him that no other woman has before. Can he convince her to stay?
Overall, this was a good read and left me interested enough to continue the series.
Helpful Score: 1
I love this series. This is the beginning of a great series which to date has 7 books with more to come I hope. This story is about Mel a nurse practioner who is tricked into a job in a small town (pop 600) and finds a reason to stay temporarily while Jack convinces her to fall in love with him. If you read the Grace Valley series there are some appearances by those characters throughout the series.
Don't wait another minute to pick up this book. I have read the whole series in the last 2 wks and can't wait until she adds more!
Don't wait another minute to pick up this book. I have read the whole series in the last 2 wks and can't wait until she adds more!
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this book
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this book, makes me want to live in a small town where everyone knows your name!!!
Helpful Score: 1
This is definitely an excellent book. I have read others in the "Virgin River" series and will read all of them!
Helpful Score: 1
Melinda Monroe, midwife/nurst practitioner may have come to Virgin River looking for escape, but instead she finds her home and a new love.
Enjoyed this contemporary novel and have ordered the next book in this prolific series.
I'm not sure this is a perfect book, but if its not, its pretty durn close. I came to love these characters and have now read all of these Virgin River books. This is a great group of people to get to know, and a very engaging and well-written book. Not a thriller, not fast-paced, just a lovely quiet jaunt through the loves of the town. I recommend it!
This was a wonderful book that I enjoyed so much; enough to read again and continue with this series!!
I love this Virgin River series. I wish there was a place like this. I guess there is in my mind...
I enjoyed reading this book.
I was hessitant to read this book because I've read most of the books in the series already and Mel has always been my least favorite character. I actually liked her here. She is still one of the worse midwives I have ever read about but I have a new appreciation for her after reading this.
This is a very sweet story and the concentration is soley on Mel and Jack. If you go on to read the other books, just know Carr throws in stories about three couples per book. There were a couple of parts that brought tears to my eyes.
I haven't read any of the Grace Valley books but I might have to look them up now since there is quite a bit of crossovers.
Good, easy read.
This is a very sweet story and the concentration is soley on Mel and Jack. If you go on to read the other books, just know Carr throws in stories about three couples per book. There were a couple of parts that brought tears to my eyes.
I haven't read any of the Grace Valley books but I might have to look them up now since there is quite a bit of crossovers.
Good, easy read.
This is a really good story with promise of many more installments to come. There was lots of adventure and romance and a much better story than a Norah Roberts-style book. Already have ordered the next 3 books!
I started this series in the middle and enjoyed the books, so I went back to the beginning. I have now read the first 5, and I have heard that after about the 6th or 7th, they become much more predictable and as if Carr cranked them out. That being said, I have loved the first ones, and if you like this type of book, you'll love this one. The first and second were definitely my favorite.
I read a little, enough to know it isn't like driving up the California Highway 36 of my youth (maybe it's Bridgeville of the 1950s, a little cleaned up). I wonder if Robyn Carr pulled a Stephenie Meyer and wrote a book in a setting that she didn't visit. But then, of course, I might not have been observing the right things.
Loved it. Very beautifully written.
Great series.
I give this book 4 1/2 stars. It's an excellently written peice of contemporary romance.
Mel is a recent widow trying to move on. She moves from LA to Virgin River, a tiny town in need of her services as a nurse practitioner and midwife. There she meets Jack, an ex-marine and bar owner who prior to meeting her had no intention of getting tied down to one woman. A relationship develops slowly as Mel deals with the struggles of country medicine, rural living, and healing a broken heart.
The beauty of this book is in the characters. The personalities, emotions, and journeys of each are vividly described so that it's like getting to know real people. Mel develops so much throughout the story, in a way that's touching and easy to relate to. Jack is an amazing leading man, rough but kind, affectionate and sexy. This book is exactly the thing to make you laugh and cry. If I had any complaint it's that at times the author seemed a bit preoccupied with laying the groundwork for other characters who would become important in the series--like the parts about Rick the teenage bus boy. I thought these parts were distracting, but not unpleasant. I was never bored. I recommend this book as emotionally charged, entertaining contemporary romance.
Mel is a recent widow trying to move on. She moves from LA to Virgin River, a tiny town in need of her services as a nurse practitioner and midwife. There she meets Jack, an ex-marine and bar owner who prior to meeting her had no intention of getting tied down to one woman. A relationship develops slowly as Mel deals with the struggles of country medicine, rural living, and healing a broken heart.
The beauty of this book is in the characters. The personalities, emotions, and journeys of each are vividly described so that it's like getting to know real people. Mel develops so much throughout the story, in a way that's touching and easy to relate to. Jack is an amazing leading man, rough but kind, affectionate and sexy. This book is exactly the thing to make you laugh and cry. If I had any complaint it's that at times the author seemed a bit preoccupied with laying the groundwork for other characters who would become important in the series--like the parts about Rick the teenage bus boy. I thought these parts were distracting, but not unpleasant. I was never bored. I recommend this book as emotionally charged, entertaining contemporary romance.
GReat start to a terrific series.. You get to feel like a part of the whole family.
loved it!
This was a great book! I had read such glowing reviews for this series from my fellow PBSers that I just had to wish list them and see what the hoopla was all about! The characters in this book just drew me in....this was one of those that I just couldn't put down. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the rest of the series!
Great contemporary romance. Small town where neighbors actually welcome new people into their town, instead of frowning on strangers. Can't hardly wait to read the next 2 books.
Excellent book - the first book in a great series.
I read this book mainly because I'm a resident of Humboldt county and I was curious to see how my home would be portrayed in the story. I was also hopeful that the story itself would be engaging, but I was disappointed there. The only character that had any real depth was Jack, the hero. He was sympathetic, fun, compassionate, and sexy. WAY too good for the so-called heroine of the story, Mel. I'm not going to continue on with the series, since my curiousity has been satisfied. Ms. Carr did a good job highlighting the beauty of Humboldt, but not so great with the story.
This trilogy is very good! This is the first book, then Shelter Mountain and Whispering Rock are the other two. Then there is a 2nd trilogy on Virgin River, and a third trilogy coming out in 2010. I just loved all of them. You will too.
Book 1 of this new series by Robyn Carr - a very good read and I predict the series will be wonderful. Cannot wait to read the next one.
I loved this book!
Beverly H. (GainesvilleGirl) -
Nice easy read with no depressing let-downs. A youngish nurse practioner/midwife is widowed and decides to leave her extremely stressful and harrowing job at a major hospital in L.A., for a life in the boondocks as an assistant to a grumpy old country doctor who runs the town's only medical facility. The story has romance, which blooms when she meets the handsome 40ish ex-marine who owns the local pub. It also has a little bit of mystery, a small amount of pathos and, and of all things !! a happy ending. Personally it suited my mood to a T.
This is a delightful read. I simply loved reading this book, I couldn't put the book down. The characters in the book are really simply people. A nurse who lived in LA and moved to Virgin River to take a job after her husband was murdered in that she could get a fresh start. From the beginning, she hated living in this town but each day she stayed on it just got better and better for her. I can't wait to start the second book in this series!
The first and perhaps best book in this series, 'Virgin River' introduces the reader to an entire town instead of simply to a hero and heroine destined to fall in love. There are so many wonderful and lovable characters in these books it's no wonder people have fallen so much in love with the place that they want to find it on the map and move there. Jack is practically perfect: a mainstay of the town, a wonderfully masculine man who doesn't feel the need for macho posturing, a terrific son, brother, friend and mentor, a sexy and patient lover and most of all a great example of consideration and responsibility. Mel puts up a great fight but in the end she can't resist either Jack or the town. What woman could blame her. It's a romance so the ending is a foregone conclusion but Robyn Carr does a bang-up job of character building, plotting and keeping the action rolling. All in all I love this book and have no plans to repost it. It's a keeper.
do not care for this writer.
This is one of the best books I have ever read !!
Every time I pick up a book by Robyn Carr, my husband say "I guess we are not eating tonight" I just can't put one of her books down.
Every time I pick up a book by Robyn Carr, my husband say "I guess we are not eating tonight" I just can't put one of her books down.
Loved it! Great read
Loved it! Now collecting all in the series.
Easy read. Thoroughly enjoyed.
This is the first of the Virgin River series which I love. It captures your attention from the beginning and has many thought provoking moments.
good book
WANTED: MIDWIFE/NURSE PRACTITIONER IS 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 dupm, 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.
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 dupm, 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.
