We have a new guest review! Christie—wife, mom, musician, and BCPL employee—is a first time reviewer here at Book News and Reviews. She is an avid reader and especially loves books with happy endings.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Holiday Fiction
Audience: Adult
Series: Virgin River #20
Christie’s Summary & Guest Review: It is always nice to visit Virgin River. This time Robyn Carr took us on a journey with Jack’s niece, Angie, and the youngest Riordan boy, Paddy. Now that Ms. Carr has introduced us to so many characters I almost feel like she has to skim the surface on each character. Each time she mentions someone that has been in a previous story she has to give a small back story. For someone who has already read the series this is not always necessary and for someone just starting with this book, they wouldn’t know anyway. I felt like some of the back stories took away from Angie and Paddy’s story.
I found Angie and Paddy to be very likeable, but their story seemed very similar to Luke and Shelby’s: A younger girl, who just went through a traumatic experience, falling in love with someone emotionally unavailable and a man, struggling with a life decision and not really knowing what he wants, then they both realize it is each other they want. A lot of Paddy’s thoughts were the same thoughts his brothers had already experienced. I found Shelby to be stronger than a lot of heroines, but still young and naive.
With all that being said, it is still nice to visit the city and see that things have not changed; in fact they just keep getting better. The people of Virgin River still band together to get all things needed done and still put their armed forces up on the highest pedestal. It would be so neat to walk into Jack’s Bar, eat one of Preacher’s meals, and just listen and observe all things happening in that small, quaint town that holds everyone together.