Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr

Shelter Mountain is the second book of the Virgin River Series

For the last few years, John "Preacher" Middleton has helped his friend Jack to run a grill & bar in the little Californian town of Virgin River. One rainy night, John was closing up the bar when a woman came in carrying her son and looking like she could use a break. Usually, John is the type who keeps out of everyone's business but when he realizes that the woman, Paige, is probably running from an abusive relationship, he makes it his personal business to help her.

Paige is indeed running from an abusive husband, her original plan was to run off and assume a different identity, hoping her husband wouldn't find her ever again. But, once in Virgin River and with John's help, she decides to stay and fight, get a divorce and make a home for herself and her son in this out of the way town that has welcomed them both.

So, I really liked John and Paige's story. Paige has her issues and is understandably jumpy and insecure at the beginning but when her feelings toward John begin to emerge, she has gained enough confidence in herself to follow her heart. Chris, her son, was nice without being overwhelming as sometimes kids-in-books can get. And John was such a nice, good guy.

My problem with these books is that it's not only the main story, it's the whole town's saga and you spend only about half the time with the main couple. I'm pro secondary story lines, but they have to be that, secondary, with this book I felt like I wasn't sure whose story was it, John and Paige's or the whole town's (I'm not spoiling secondary plots). And there are just so many characters! It gets confusing after a while because your attention is so divided.

Grade:
1/2

Virgin River by Robyn Carr

Nurse Practitioner and midwife Melinda Monroe left L.A. almost a year after the murder of her husband, and E.R. doctor, thinking that she needed a change, to slow down and start anew; and she thought Virgin River, up in the Californian mountains, was just the place to go. But she was not prepared for how different Virgin River would be to L.A.

There is no cell phone, the town is tiny and the house she had been promised is way up in the mountains and resembles a hovel more than the charming cabin she was lead to believe she would get. After just one night she's ready to get out of Virgin River and never come back again, but when a baby is found outside the Doctor's office that same morning, she decides to stay for a little while and help out.

This makes Jack Sheridan, ex-marine and local bar owner, very happy, he just met Mel but he knows she's something special. He came to Virgin River a few years ago and loves the town and it's people and is dead set on making Mel fall in love with the town and with him.

Okay, first off, I did like Virgin River: the story is sweet, the town's people were darling and Jack makes for an amazing hero. But I felt that the book went on for a bit too long, going around in circles and there were a couple of plot points that felt like they were thrown in just for the sake of it and then left dangling.

And I also couldn't help to get a little bit annoyed at Mel because - and if my friends from Prep school ever stumble into this I'll be one dead little blogger - she sort of remind me of a friend from Prep school, she was dating this guy and if you ever asked her how they were doing she would shrug and say "I'm dumping him next week," and that was eight years ago, last I head they were still together. Mel, had that attitude toward the town in general she was always "I'm not sure how long I'll be here" "I'm not staying", and in the back of my head I kept thinking, "You already stayed! Get over it!"

Still, it was a nice enough read, good to pass the time.

Grade: