I always enjoy Virgin River books on one level or another, but I really LOVED this book. It hit on all cylinders for me.

Series Note:
12th+ book in the Virgin River series. You probably don't need to read the whole series to read this one, but I would at least suggest reading the previous book, Promise Canyon, first.

Summary:
Jillian Matlock has everything going for her in her life. Then an ill-advised affair with a weasel coworker leaves her without a job and totally disillusioned. She decides to travel and ends up in Virgin River, a place she recently visited on a girls vacation. She's drawn back to a big old Victorian house she seen there and ends up convincing the town (Jack) to rent it to her where she dives headfirst into speciality/organic gardening, something she learned from her grandmother.

Colin Riordan finds himself in Virgin River for reasons not so different from Jillian's. A tragic accident during his military career left him seriously injured and his career as a helicopter pilot all but over. So he retreats to Virgin River to continue his recovery and to do some painting.

From the moment the two meet, they're drawn to each other. Both know their time in Virgin River is temporary. They have lives to get back to, after all. But for the time they are there, they see no reason why they can't spend it together. Neither expected things to get as serious as they did, or for the new lives they were carving out in Virgin River to stick. In Virgin River, anything is possible, though.

Review:
I just want to gush about this book. I wish I'd written my review sooner so I could remember all that I wanted to say about it. But I've been a slow-poke in getting reviews written and now all my thoughts on the book are a little muddled. But I'll try to get the basics.

I haven't read a Virgin River book yet that I've disliked. Some are more engaging than others, but this one was just fabulous. Maybe that's because the romance is more forefront in the story than in some other books. This story is really all about Jillian and Colin, their developing relationship, and the new lives the are building.

And I absolutely LOVED Colin and Jillian, as singular characters and as a couple. I've read some lackluster heroines lately, but Jillian was a wonderful romance heroine. She's totally at loose ends in her life, having lost her job because of a creep guy. She arrives in Virgin River and manages to re-acquaint herself with her love of gardening. She dives right into it full force. I really enjoyed reading about her passion for gardening, her love of everything involved - and I'm not much for gardening myself. There was just something about the way Carr wrote Jillian and her new hobby/career that was so vibrant and engaging. I was totally hooked into it.

Then there's Colin. Poor guy. A mishap while flying a helicopter leaves him gravely injured and then he develops a pain killer addiction that gets him arrested. After a stint in rehab, he's, like Jillian, at loose ends. The military won't have him back and neither will any reputable employer in need of a helicopter pilot. So he ends up in Virgin River, indulging his love of painting while he heals and tries to decide what to do next. It's so easy to empathize with Colin and all he's been through. On top of that, he comes across as such a nice guy.

When these two get together, it's so sweet and heart-warming. They fit perfectly together right from the start. As a romance reader, you just revel in the relationship that builds between them. There's such a passion and vibrancy to everything about them. You just want to keep reading more and more about them. And when Colin decides to move on to the next part of his life, it just breaks you heart (even though you know it'll all work out in the end - which just shows how well Carr wrote these two). It was just a fabulous romance all around and I loved each and every aspect of it.

As usual, you also get doses of other Virgin River residents and past couples. And that's never a bad thing since they are all such wonderful characters. There are bits and pieces of things going on with other characters, but the biggest by far revolves around the new character of Denny (introduced in the last book) and his search for his biological father. He takes a job as Jillian's helper on her garden/farm while he tries to decide what to do about his search.

This part of the story ended up somewhat like I thought. I guessed how it went initially, though Carr through a curveball partway through. It was a fairly engaging part of the story and it involved a fan-favorite character. So getting to read more about that character was enjoyable and I liked how it was handled...can't say too much so I don't spoil it ;)

I was sad to see this book end, though. It was that good for me. I didn't want the story of these two characters to end. But this is Virgin River. Characters never disappear. We always get more of them. And there's one more book in this VR sub-trilogy, and I believe Carr has one more trilogy under contract for the series. So I'm sure we'll get to see Jillian and Colin again soon.