S. J. T. (cactuspatch) reviewed on 1/11/2011 + 40 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Robyn Carr's VIRGIN RIVER series are new to me. As the "luck of the thrift stores" would have it, I started in the middle of the series with PARADISE VALLEY (book 7) and then Book 6.....but even so, boy, am I a convert! Like all the other VIRGIN RIVER fans....Want it to be a real place! Want to move there! Want to know these irresistable men and the women who make up this town!
What a great series. Now I am swapping for all the VIRGIN RIVER and GRACE VALLEY books I can find. (Grace Valley, another of her series, is about a neighboring town of this fictitious Virgin River area, but in Robyn Carr style, she overlaps many of the characters of the two towns, making the series even more realistic and fun to keep up with.
Since I read PARADISE VALLEY, I've found 8 books of the intermingled series, and have loved each one. (For me, finding that a book I love is part of a "series," is like being a kid in a candy store!)
PARADISE VALLEY, like each book of the series, also stands alone, if this is the first book you have read in the series..... because each book features new relationships happening with "new" couples...people who have been mentioned in previous books, but now brought out in depth.
Specifically covered in PARADISE VALLEY are a couple of relationships of soldiers back from the wars overseas, and how they deal with injuries and the mental anguish most soldiers bring home with them.
One of the featured couples, who are in fact the town's youngest "couple", is especially realistic as Rick and Liz had been very young lovers (the parent-less young teen boy who was irristibly drawn to the 14-year-old "hottie" who was sent by her mother to live with an aunt in this small "safe" town.)
Their love was honed through an earlier trial of teenage pregnancy and miscarriage, but now are facing seemingly insurmountable odds at overcoming Rick's anger and hopelessness after having lost a leg in the war.
What is so inspiring in this book, is how the townspeople support these young people (and each other) through real and very emotional personal crises....And continuing to show unconditional love, even though their love and support are rejected over and over.
Besides showing how towns can be helpful and supportive of its members, there is much in these series about the bond veterans have with each other, and how they help and support each other in many ways after returning home.
This is brought out as other veterans find their way to Virgin River and are brought into the circle of friends. I think this book would be especially interesting to readers in military families, and I hope is as inspiring to others as it is to me.

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