I love American country chic. It's an aesthetic I can 100% get behind. I love country music with a passion, I love small town America, and I particularly love TV shows that combine these things.
Shows I have enjoyed in the past include 'Hart of Dixie' and 'Gilmore Girls'. So when I saw the trailer for 'Virgin River' on Netflix, I knew it was going to be a new favourite. Especially since Brick Breeland from 'Hart of Dixie' would be playing another grumpy small town doctor, and Martin Henderson (aka Dr Nathan Riggs from Grey's Anatomy) who is particularly attractive as a rough around the edges, small town American (we'll ignore that fact he's actually from New Zealand). This show had Amy written all over it.
So I decided to watch it with my mum. We binge watched it in a week when we were on holiday in Bridlington between lockdowns last year. We watched it every night after my dad went to bed, since me and my mum are both night owls. It was brilliant, and delivered exactly what I wanted it to. It was clichéd, but sweet and I really liked how flawed and "real" all the charaters were.
My mum and I were both really upset when series 1 came to an end, but were soon got excited as it became clear series 2 would be coming soon. We actually started a countdown to when it would be back. And that premiere day, we were glued to Netflix once again.
A real treat (for us at least) was almost immediately recognising the filming location as British Columbia, Canada (where my sister lives in Vancouver). There is one scene in particular where we had actually stood where the main characters do - which is a salmon hatchery just north of Vancouver. It was super exciting!
I'm not sure how I found out, but I discovered that it's based on a series of books. So, I'm now extremely impatient for series 3, so thought I would pick up the books to get my fill of Virgin River and its inhabitants.
The book differs quite greatly from the TV show - so if you're thinking, "What's the point - I'm more patient than you, I'll just wait for series 3" you might want to think again. The characters we know and love are still there, and Virgin River is still the gorgeous small town we know from the small screen - but that's where the similarities end.
Nurse practitioner Mel Monroe has made a life changing decision. She has sold her house and quit her job in LA looking for a change of pace, and some calm - and has taken chance on a year long contract in a small town called Virgin River. The book opens with her journey into the town, in her sports car which is completely impractical for the remote town. She quickly gets stuck and has to wait for help, as she has no phone signal.
Her first impressions of the town are not what she was expecting at all. It's completely rundown - the photos her new employer, Hope, had sent her were incredibly old. When she gets to the cabin that is included in her contract - well, if the photos of the town were outdated, the cabin was not the photo she had at all. Hope eventually admits she borrowed a photo from Google to send her. Dilapidated doesn't even cover it. What was she thinking?
But something happens and she decides to stay for a couple of days, then days turn into weeks, and weeks into months. Mel realises small town medicine is anything but calm and easy - there are new challenges to face and, unlike the big hospital she worked at in LA, there is no one there as backup. It's just her and the old doctor.
Just like the TV show, the characters are all struggling with their own troubles. Mel lost her husband a year before to an armed robbery - he walked into the wrong store at the wrong time, and was killed instantly. She's still working through her grief, and when she meets the town bar owner, Jack, she doesn't realise he's going to turn her life upside down and inside out.
Although the characters all behave exactly as they do on the show, the story arcs for each charater is dramatically different. Characters who play a huge part in the show are cast in the shadows, and the whole story hinges on Mel and Jack.
I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed the differences from the show, but also the familiarity. Even as a fan of the show, it scratched the itch to have more without just rereading what I'd seen play out already. I'm definitely keen to read more, and will continue with the series. There are currently 18 books in the series, so there's plenty of Virgin River for me to still explore!
However much I enjoyed this, it's not a complicated book. It's not taxing, and I've been picking it up between other tasks, reading a bit here and there. It doesn't take a lot of brain power to read, and the reality is, it's chick lit - a romance novel. It's typically not the sort of thing I would pick up, and not something I would really enjoy. But it was a calculated risk based on how much I enjoyed the show.
I loved this new iteration of Mel and Jack, and I loved the added depth that reading adds. A picture might say a thousand words, but TV and film miss a lot of depth and context, motivation of charaters isn't always explicit, whereas in text, it's unmistakeable.
I'm keen to read more books in the series, and I'm also still excited at the prospect of series 3 on Netflix. The book hasn't ruined the show, or vice versa. I highly recommend this to fans of the show, or anyone who likes the idea of small town America and relocating and trying something a bit different. And just try not to fall in love with Jack. I'm sure it's impossible.