Welcome back to Virgin River. Kaylee Sloan is grieving
over her mother’s death and struggling to finish her book after struggling with
writer’s block. Thinking a change of scenery will help her healing and
struggles, Kaylee settles in a cabin outside Virgin River where she hopes to
find the spark of life again as she mends her heart. The residents of Virgin
River help Kaylee find herself again and a new romance with artist Landry Moore
helps heal the shattered heart since her mother’s death. Kaylee will find that
sometimes healing can take place in many different forms and as she finds peace
and looks to the future, she will find friendships and love will be the best
medicine she will ever have.
Ms. Carr’s newest book in the acclaimed Virgin River
series was anticipated by myself as I just loved the book series so much. A
great cast of characters, events that played out through many residents of this
quirky town and the people who live there but something was missing in this
twenty-first book, maybe that magic that was in all of the other twenty books.
It fell a little flat to me especially as even as Kaylee was the main character
in the book, the other characters I grew to love and adore in past books just
didn’t pop for me as well. Kaylee’s story overran everything and mind you, I am
not tearing down her grief over her mother’s death, but it overwhelmed the book
at times to the point I had to put it down and go read something else to
freshen my palette.
RETURN TO VIRGIN RIVER
gives long term readers a visit back to the beloved little town nestled in the redwoods
and mountains of California. The scenery is exquisite, and you felt like you
were there. What I didn’t get into was the characters. As much as I was
anticipating the return to one of my favorite series by this author, the
characters I came to love felt a little flat for me. It was like the author
only gave us glimpses of them then tore them away to the point where Kaylee,
even as a main character, just annoyed me to no end. I tried to be sympathetic
to her grief and the character herself, but she overwhelmingly came across as
dour, miserable, and plain unhappy and it was not a happy a story no matter
what. I did have hope when the story lightened up a little in spots but overwhelmingly,
the story with Kaylee as center just didn’t do it for me. Unfortunately, even
as I finished the book, I felt this was just not as on par as the rest of the
Virgin River books in the series. The story fell flat and constrained,
characters were at times restrained and a little one-note and the only thing I
really enjoyed the most was how scenic book was. If you are looking to read the
series, I say stick to the first twenty books and maybe enjoy those over this
one. RETURN TO VIRGIN RIVER just didn’t capture the magic of those books
this time around and I wished for more of the beloved characters personalities
to shine on like before.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement.
