Virgin River by Robyn Carr is another book that I have read this year (It Happened One Summer being the other one) which is a sexy romantic novel, although this one has more hard-hitting issues being tackled and has been made into a Netflix series. 

Mel Monroe has been through the mill as a nurse practitioner in a busy Los Angles hospital, happily married to Mark, an emergency medicine doctor, who dies in tragic circumstances. Making the decision to move on, she goes to Virgin River, a rural small town and almost immediately regrets it.

However, when a new born baby is left on the door step of the clinic and home of grumpy Doc Mullins, she finds a reason to stay, if only for a few days, whilst she cares for them. And having local barman and former marine Jack Sheridan just over the road with a listening ear and broad shoulders to cry on, as well as making her rent-free cabin shipshape to live in, she might just need to reconsider her decision...

I borrowed a copy of this book from Taunton library and listened to it on cloudLibrary. I read this for prompt A is for Alpha for the 52 Book Club mini challenge May 2024. 

Delightful romance! I've admittedly watched and enjoyed the TV show, and so I happily signed on to read the books, which definitely take the plot and characters in some different directions - so a fun way to be in the same universe with some newish story. The book was overall super enjoyable and I'm on to the second - my main issue is the way the male characters sometimes talk to and think about women, not because it's necessarily unrealistic, but it makes them less likable to me (ex. lots of use of the word "fanny"). Otherwise, a fun read and quality romance!

I picked this up for my alphabet challenge after watching the show.

It was right on par with the show. I liked it but I didn't love it.

It had great characters and so much happening. I guess I'm just not much of a romance reader. When I do read romance I like spicy and smutty and the spicy scenes in here were very poorly written with words like "fanny". 

I definitely want to continue the series just to find out how certain things play out but I'll take a break before the next one. 

god this was a struggle to read! i love the series but i found this so hard to get through
i really dislike the way carr writes her female characters in this book — all the physical descriptions felt very icky and distasteful 
dishonourable mention for ricky and lizzie’s relationship??? so so grim!! i’m so glad the age gap is rectified in the series but ricky’s pedophilia is way too normalised in this wtf 

Title: Virgin River
Author: Robyn Carr
Series: Virgin River #1
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: March 27, 2007

T H R E E • W O R D S

Predictable • Quaint • Compelling

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Reeling and grieving from the murder of her husband, big-city nurse practitioner/midwife Melinda Monroe is looking to escape the pain and heartache of Los Angeles. When she answers an ad for a job in the remote mountain town of Virgin River, it isn't anything like she expected. Ready to hightail it out of town as soon as she can, all of that changes when a baby is left on the front porch of the clinic.

💭 T H O U G H T S

As someone who doesn't read a lot of 'steamy romance' novels, I was hesitant to pick up Virgin River. It's just not the type of book I typically gravitate to, and yet I was left pleasantly surprised.

What I like:
• the small town setting. This small town girl has a soft spot for rural romances. Virgin River felt like exactly the type of place I'd want to enjoy the simple life (even though life was less than simple).
• the cast of characters. I grew to love this quirky mix of town folk that bands together like family. I took a liking to Doc especially and I look forward to getting to know them more throughout the series.
• the depth. I prefer my romances with substance, and here the plot had just the right amount of depth mixed with the romance.
• the medical aspect. I think the book contrasted big city medicine to that of a small town really well. And Mel's job fit the plotline perfectly.

What I didn't like:
• the dialogue. It felt choppy at times.
• the writing. At times oversimplified and overly dramatic. At other times long-winded and glossy. All of which threw of the pacing.
• at times it felt dated. Yes it was written some times ago, but let's just say some of the ways of thinking didn't age well.
• how the romance happened so fast. I get that this is a romance novel, but it's a series, and I wasn't expecting them to get together in book one. With the grief aspect it just didn't feel realistic to me.

Every once in awhile a book takes you by complete surprise. I went into this one with very low expectations, but I ended up really enjoying it. Though I haven't watched the TV show, I can definitely see where the appeal lies. Overall, a enjoyable contemporary romance, and I look forward to continuing this series in the coming year.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of rural romances
• readers who like Hallmark Holiday Movies

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"'Mel, it's all right to get on with your life. Maybe you'll never love anyone as much as you loved Mark - but then maybe there will be someone else. Someone next. You don't have to compare them, honey, because Mark is gone and we can't get him back.'"

"People belong wherever they feel good. It can be a lot of different places. For a lot of different reasons." 

TW:child p*rnography
No clue how they let this shit be published...