Virgin River (Virgin River, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 20, 2014 Srividya Vijapure rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-romance, 2017-reading-challenge, series-2017, new-series-2017, romance-2017, world-lit-2017, favourites, biblio-hunger-games, 2020-challenge, audiobooks-2020

I first met Robyn Carr a few years back when I stumbled upon her Virgin River series. It was a time when our daughter was diagnosed as being autistic and, needless to say, it was a traumatic time for us. We had just gotten her epilepsy under control and were very happy on her achieving her early milestones at the normal or even advanced rate and just couldn’t wrap our heads around this diagnosis. Nevertheless, she needed our support and strength and we dove right in and haven’t looked back. I wo I first met Robyn Carr a few years back when I stumbled upon her Virgin River series. It was a time when our daughter was diagnosed as being autistic and, needless to say, it was a traumatic time for us. We had just gotten her epilepsy under control and were very happy on her achieving her early milestones at the normal or even advanced rate and just couldn’t wrap our heads around this diagnosis. Nevertheless, she needed our support and strength and we dove right in and haven’t looked back. I won’t say that the journey has been all good but we have had our shining moments as well as those that required more strength than we thought we had but somehow managed to find it always.

It was under this pressure, tension and perhaps a little pain that I came across Virgin River and Jack’s bar. To say that it was therapeutic would perhaps just be the tip of the iceberg of the feelings that this series brought about in me. The series became an anchor for me to find strength upon and more than the books, the Yahoo chat group became haven for me. Aptly named Jack’s Bar, this group made up mostly of septuagenarians and even older, became a lifeline to me. There were a few women my age but mostly they were older than me and to top it all there was one man, the single gentleman in this otherwise women-island, who was 90 years old and madly in love with this series. It brought a smile to my face to see their love for the series and also for each other. Their friendship and warmth brought peace to my angst filled mind and their recommendations and discussions on other books, romances and other genres, made me get back to reading after a really long drought period. That is what this series did for me when I first read it.

This year has once again been a series of ups and downs for me, where reading had somewhat taken a secondary position and romances, the beautiful ones, were eluding me for no reason or maybe for reasons unknown to me. I was oscillating as a reader between reading repetitive eroticas to trying somewhat serious and meaningful reads, with the former not giving me as much pleasure as it usually does and the latter being too few and far between and not to mention short in length. Fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance – they all eluded me and I felt and perhaps still feel their loss very keenly, for I am someone who reads everything and perhaps proud of that fact. Perhaps this very pride was the reason for this fall? I don’t know. Whatever the reason, it is August and despite having read some really good books, I feel that lack of a certain something, I know not what.

The lack of reading led to what I can only call as reader’s envy when I saw the reads of my friends and the casual beauty with which they not only completed their reads but also reviewed them. I had gotten into a block – not being able to read or review, and that hurt and I guess I became quite a morose character due to that. Emotions, which were commonplace in me, were absent and I found out that feelings just didn’t exist. Oh, I read and I loved, I spoke to friends and loved, but I felt it was more mechanical and in that process I just made a few friends exasperated with me and perhaps some even became angry. *wry smile*

And this is when I decided to visit Jack’s Bar and Virgin River again, to see whether it still had that touch. I had attempted re-reading it a couple of years ago but couldn’t, so I started this read with a lot of trepidation, one that I may not be able to read even this and two I may not feel the same way about it. And both were really scary thoughts. Needless to say, both were unnecessary fears, for not only did I finish reading it, I loved it all over again and the magic of this series is definitely running through me as I type this review.

The series is set in a fictional place called Virgin River and revolves around the residents of that town. The first book is about Jack of Jack’s Bar and Melinda, who is an ER nurse from LA who comes to Virgin River for a change of pace and maybe to find some peace. While this is a romance book and does have romance at its forefront, its main beauty lies in the beauty of the town folk, their simple helping nature, their large hearts and capacity to love and accept and a whole lot more. The pace is just right, not too fast and not too slow either. The romance between Jack and Mel builds up slowly and smoothly. The interactions between Mel and the people of Virgin River, especially old Doc Mullins who she has come to help, is beautiful, poignant, funny and just soothing. There isn’t a bad person per se in this book, there is no danger, there are no sad things happening and yet it is full of life and everything that life stands for. It’s a story about second chances, a story about finding something that you never thought you will find, a story about finding strength deep within oneself and knowing that you are not only capable but can actually do things that you thought you couldn’t do, even if it is as simple as finding happiness and peace.

The writing is superb, crisp and entertaining and warms you like a sip of whisky on a cold winter’s night. The characters are alive and not those perfect models that you often find in books from this genre. They have their strengths, their weaknesses, their joys and their sorrows – just as you and me do; but what makes it worth reading is that they are ready to share their strength and are equally ready to depend on other’s strengths to live and face life’s every adversity with a smile on their face, that only people who have support can do. The book teaches you to value family, friends, community while also teaching you that it isn’t wrong to feel low or fail. Life is full of ups and downs, successes and failures, love and anger, acceptance and denial, joy and sorrow, loneliness and companionship – but life well lived is one where you have someone by your side to tell you that it is okay ad that tomorrow will be another day.

I might be waxing poetic about this one because of the way it helped me but I know that I am not alone in loving this one. Take a trip to Jack’s bar, sip on wine or have a whisky or beer, let the chats around you simply flow over you and through you, and who knows, you might just have found something really beautiful about your own life to be happy and proud about.

The Yahoo group, Jack’s Bar, isn’t as active now as it used to be. The group had its own set of loss and sorrow – from death of loved ones to illnesses of some members and death of one. When I joined GR, I was guilty of not being there as much as I used to because I found love here in GR, but my thoughts and prayers are with each one of them and their families, for they gave me back my life and my ability to feel and more importantly read. Life goes on in Virgin River and Jack’s Bar and there are a lot of books in this series before it ends. I want to savour it this time and make every book last before I reach that inevitable end of the series where I will have to say goodbye to Jack’s Bar once again. Whenever the time comes, I am sure that this goodbye will be as teary eyed as my previous one, but despite all that I know one thing for sure, Jack’s Bar will always have a special place in my heart. ...more

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Sep 21, 2019 ☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ rated it really liked it

Shelves: pregnant, love, military, romance, contemporary, chick-lit, womens-fiction-chick-lit, romance-contemporary-romance, doctor, sex

I thought this was a sweet story. Melinda moved to try and take a break from all that had happened in her life in California. She really wasn't expecting what she got herself into but it may just be what she needed. ...more

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Jul 14, 2014 JoAnne rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance

Melinda is a widow. Her doctor husband was killed during a robbery at a market he stopped by to buy something on his way home from work. It's been almost a year since it happened and she is fed up with her life in LA. She is tired of everyone asking how she is and always being talked about. So she answers an add for a midwife/nurse practitioner and moves to the country in Northern California. She was promised a place to live but when she got there it was not a clean or safe place. The doctor she ...more

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Nov 15, 2018 SandyL rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: character-military, character-widow-widower, a-series-read-in-order, zz-wheel-18, a-overdrive, genre-romance, character-medical-professional, setting-california, character-barowner-bartender, 400-499-pgs

After losing her husband and burning out at work, Melinda Monroe needs a change of scenery and a change of pace. When she accepts a job as a midwife in the small town of Virgin River, she didn't realize the scenery and pace would be such a big change! Jack Sheridan is a retired marine who now runs the town bar. He's immediately attracted to Mel, but doesn't realize her past and that she's not really available. And Mel doesn't think she'll stay - things are not what she expected AT ALL! But one d ...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Vickie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: islands-of-the-world, contemporary-romance, in-other-words, chick-lit, small-medium-large-challenge, gemstones, romance, 4-star, people-magazine-40th-anniversary, 2015

OK, so I'm a sucker for characters who are associated with the USMC. Blame that on my retired Marine Corps husband. Jack Sheridan is the retired Marine who runs the local cabin eatery in Virgin River. Melinda Monroe is the midwife who answers an ad and moves to Virgin River from Los Angeles after the death of her husband. I enjoyed meeting up with some of the characters from Carr's Grace Valley series.

What I really like about Robyn Carr's books is that you know what you are going to get. There w ...more

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May 15, 2015 Carissa Brown rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, drugs, romance

I loved this book. It was not something that I would usually read but I really enjoyed it.

Mel has decided to pack up and leave LA for Virgin River. She is tired of the war zone that is the hospital and she is trying to escape the recent murder of her husband, he happened into a gas station robbery and was shot and killed.

Upon arriving in Virgin River she finds that she was led to believe that she was escaping to a wonderland when in reality she landed in a dump that was falling in and a doctor ...more

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Nov 14, 2013 Jan rated it it was ok

Shelves: zz-finished-in-2016, chick-lit-women-fic

Maybe there is something wrong with me...everyone I know loved this book. But I thought it was just okay. Nothing special and I won't be continuing the series. ...more

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