I watched the first episode of the television adaptation of this series a few years ago. It felt like something I'd sooner read than view, so I left the series for my wife to devour (she loves it!) and added this book to my ever-expanding reading list.
Skip to 2024. "Virgin River" finally made it to the top of my list. I've just finished reading it, and I'm happy I decided to do so.

Melinda is a midwife/nurse practitioner. She was married to Mark, a Doctor, and they work together and love together, and everything is perfect.

Tragedy strikes. Mark is senselessly gunned down when he stumbles upon a robbery-in-progress. Melinda is shattered. She decides to leave the ruins of her life behind and take a position in a remote township, assisting the community's sole medical practitioner.

When Melinda arrives in Virgin River, she hates everything about the place and regrets her actions, including selling her city home and disposing of most of her possessions. She decides she cannot stay and resolves to leave as soon as she can extricate herself from her commitment.

This is a story of found family, and I loved accompanying Melinda on her journey as she begins to see beneath the surface of where her life has brought her and reassess her values and self-worth. It is also a story of infatuation that blooms into love.

The day-to-day events in this book revolve around Melinda's work as a midwife and nurse practitioner. We see how she impacts the lives of the women of Virgin River, and pregnancy and childbirth are prominent and repeated themes.
The romance between Melinda and Jack, ex-marine and restauranteur, is a slow burn. If you're looking for sex in the first chapter, then this is probably not the book for you, but when they finally get to it, it's worth the wait.

As I only saw the first episode of the TV adaptation of this series, I don't know how closely it follows this book. I know that Melinda and Jack's relationship is central to the ongoing series, but I understand the focus of the written series switches to a different couple for each book. I prefer fully self-contained stories to drawn-out epics, so this suits me well, and I'm looking forward to continuing with this series. ( )

I can't wait to continue this series! So cute! ( )

I was very disappointed with this one. It could be because I watched the Netflix show first and absolutely fell in love with the first season but this fell short for me.

My main issue is the dialogue. It was incredibly awkward. I wanted to share a couple of examples:

Example 1
Jack: I think I roughed you up a little with whiskers.
Mel: Yeah. Don't worry about it. I like it. It feels right. Natural. Good.

Example 2
Mel (in a dangerous situation): Oh, please. Now stop scaring me. I might panic and throw myself out of the car, and then where would you be?

Example 3
Mel: I'm still afraid.
Jack: Of?
Mel: Of believing in us. My last stab at something like this ended so, so badly. I thought I'd never get over it. I'm not sure I am yet.
Jack: Well you're just going to have to take a leap of faith.
Mel: I think I can do that. If you're there to catch me.

Not only where the conversations stilted, they felt untrue. Jack for instance. He is a 40-year-old man who still acts like a 14-year-old. He says 'nah', 'candy-ass', etc. There is a particularly awful scene where he talks about sex with a 16-year-old boy that likes a 14-year-old girl. He was acting like he was his 18-year-old brother. It came off as unnatural and uncomfortable to read about.

This book was not for me which was incredibly disappointing after becoming obsessed with the show. I won't be continuing this series. ( )

I'm not gonna lie, I gave into the Netflix hype and decided I needed to read this series. And, funnily enough... These books ended up on my doorstep.

No joke or lies! My neighbour came over with a bag full of romance books and plopped them down. She explained her and her friends were sharing books throughout the pandemic and she was the last on the stop. She gave me a whole pile of romance books because she HATES them and figured they would have a good home with me. Oh boy, was I pumped! I really wanted to read this series first so I could jump into the Netflix series, and I was running low on physical copy romances. What a day!

So, the actual review:

This book is one wild ride! We have a Nurse Practitioner whose husband has recently passed away. She decides she needs a break from the insanity and wants to escape. Nothing hurts more than staying in a place where all of your memories are... So she skirts off to Virgin River, a tiny, minuscule town out in the middle of nowhere. She meets a handful of people that at first turn her off (her house was garbage, the town was SO MUCH SMALLER than they said, and almost everything she was told was a lie - except for the contract she signed). Slowly, the town begins to win her over. It definitely helps that there is a sexy, ex-army guy hanging around making good food and sharing beer. As she slowly falls head over heels, she learns that healing isn't always the journey we thought it was... Also, lots of baby drama. So much baby drama.

Melinda and Jack are two fun characters to follow. They are both broken in their own ways, and give each other second chances by the end of the book. It's a nice story, with so much sex and hot scenes you wouldn't believe it! I had no idea this book would have so much sex in it. It didn't seem like it was going that way, but I'm totally okay that it did! Luckily, this book wasn't insta-love and they did take some time developing a friendship before they dove head first into the sparks that were flying.

I think this story has just the right amount of good and bad. There's grief and sadness, but also hope and happiness. There's lots of drama that I could totally see happening (living in a small town and alll...), which also made it nice. It didn't seem totally out there for any of it to be happening. It felt realistic, which is sometimes what I want out of my fiction reads.

Bonus points:
1. Mel was a character who felt both happy and sad. She felt real and understandable. Her grief was reasonable, her growth as a character was understanding, and her seemed like the girl next store. I could relate to her in many ways as she struggled to find her way. I like her. She's great. She's strong but not too strong.
2. The sex scenes are not crazy erotic and but not totally romantic. It felt like a happy medium where I wasn't reading an erotica book but also gave our characters some happy endings.
3. There definitely are some negatives about this book. I did find it rather slow and I had to put it down a few times - but I did finish it. The book feels like the first in a series and doesn't have an ending. It felt like a "to be continued..." as if it's an episode in a television series. That works if you want to continue reading, but as someone who likes having each book standalone in some way... The cliffhanger annoyed me. What if I didn't want to read on?


Overall, this is a great read! I hear the Netflix series is very different, so we will see how I will tackle that one... For now, enjoy the book and read on!

Four out of five stars. ( )

A recent widow, Mel has decided she needs a drastic change to get on with her life. She is a midwife and a nurse practitioner, and takes a job in a small woodland community as an assistant to a doctor. Once she gets there, she finds that what she was led to believe was not at all the reality she came face to face with. She had intended to leave the next day for her sister’s home and regroup there, but one day turns into two, and then a week, and then longer. She becomes enmeshed in the lives of the people she meets, and especially with Jack. It’s a cute story, a somewhat steamy romance, but it goes off on tangents, including really rough backwoods characters and illegal and dangerous drug dealers and marijuana growers. Not sure what the author intended, but the combination of these two storylines was a bit strange. Mel should have been a strong character, but she kept breaking down into emotional puddles. Jack’s character also was not well defined. ( )