Every time I read one of the Virgin River novels, I have to remind myself that I'm not reading a typical contemporary romance. In the case of this novel, I was kind of glad that Vanni and Paul's story didn't encompass the entire novel. I felt a little weird reading about a romance between a woman who had just lost her husband, and her husband's best friend. I don't know if I could move on quite as quickly as Vannie did. Overall, I think Carr handled the issue of Vanni's deceased husband really well, and I felt like Paul and Vanni continued to honour him in their relationship. But it did take me a while to warm up to them, and there were some moments when I got annoyed at their stubbornness and lack of communication.

There were several secondary storylines going on, in addition to the main plot--Rick is being sent to Iraq, Vanni's father gets a love interest (probably my favourite subplot!), Mel and Jack are having a second child, Vanni's best friend has gone through a bad break-up and her little brother is going off to basic training after graduation, leaving behind his girlfriend. There are enough storylines that there's bound to be something to interest any romance reader.

As always, Carr's novels include a couple of detailed sex scenes, which are easier to skip over in an actual book rather than an audiobook. I think this book had two or three, which is pretty typical for this series.

I was going to rate this book a 3.5 because Paul and Vanni's romance isn't my favourite out of the books in the series that I've read so far, but I loved some of the subplots (especially the one about Vanni's father) and I just ate up the details about the town and the community. Maybe it's because I moved from the country to a city a couple of months ago, but I appreciated the small-town setting and community togetherness a lot more than usual. Virgin River is a little too perfect, but I still love it. 4*