Here we are again! As you know if you read my review for book 2 (which you can find here, and book 1 is here) you will know I was super keen to crack on. I really enjoyed book 1 and to a lesser extent book 2. I was invested in the characters and the small town where the story is set.
Of course I cracked on with book 3, and unsurprisingly we're now in uncharted territory. The series on Netflix currently has only 2 series released, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the plot of the 3rd book is not (currently) included in the show.
I'm not going to say much more, so let's crack into it!
Book 1 was the story of Jack and Mel, book 2 was the story of Preacher and Paige... so who are the lucky couple featured in book 3? I don't particularly remember the characters from the series, but they have popped up in the other books previously. Mike Valenzuela and Brie Sheridan, come on down!
In book 2, you were introduced to these 2 a bit more, and the chemistry between them is clear — though it would appear Mike has chemistry with any woman who'll have him. But something changes for them both. They're both involved in life changing/life threatening situations.
Mike experiences his a few months before Brie, so when Brie experiences her own - Mike is there to support her with a voice of experience. He loves her, but he doesn't want to scare her, and there's one other thing — she's his best friend Jack's little sister, and he's super overprotective.
So Mike settles in for the long haul, recognising his feelings for Brie are completely different to what he's experienced with any women in his past, and just wants to be a part of her life — even if that means supportive friend. So that's the role he takes. Will he win her over? Will she see him as more than her brother's friend?
In the meantime, Mike has just retired from the LAPD to Virgin River. He's looking for a quiet life after his own life threatening incident. However he's soon recruited as a local "cop" to keep the peace in the small town. He won't have any official powers, but the local police departments and sheriff's department welcome the support in the small town, as they currently have no one covering it.
Mel is seeing a pattern in some of her younger female patients. They're all under 18, they all blacked out at different parties having not drunk very much, and woken up feeling bruised, as though they might have been held down, and damage to their lady-parts. She tests each of them and they all have the same STD, None of them believe they've been raped, but they also can't explain it.
Concerned, Mel approaches Mike to investigate. Will he find the culprit? Is there more than one attacker? This wasn't what he signed up for when he moved, but he can't ignore the warning signs that something very wrong is happening in his town.
So I should have realised before getting to book 3 in this series, that the publisher is Mills & Boon - which I've always associated with trashy holiday reading, that's easy to consume and a little bit raunchy (I'm not sure how many millennials use the word raunchy...) The series up to this point is written better than I'd expect but I'm now getting a little bit tired of a recurring pattern: woman comes to Virgin River after suffering something bad, meets a man, falls deeply in love, has lots of sex, is married and preggo within 6 months.
I also feel like it's treading a bit of a fine line between cheesy romance, and glamourising codependency. I'm not sure the author ever really thought about that, but it definitely has the same underlying themes as Disney - these couples all fall in love instantly. Or rather, the men all fall in love with the women instantly, and the women need cajoling into it, as a result of their *insert trauma here*.
I'm still enjoying the characters, despite the cliché of the repetition. This book definitely felt a little heavier — it features rape (I feel like it should come with a trigger warning, since it's the main plot for the two main story threads here) and miscarriage (as did book 2).
If I were to put the book in order of enjoyment, they would stay in the order published. I really enjoyed book 1, it was great escapism. Book 2 was enjoyable, but a bit repetitive. Book 3 has established a theme. Although we have now moved away from the narrative of the TV series entirely, so maybe this book holds some spoilers for the third series.
I've been reading these books far too fast, since I don't feel particularly intellectually challenged/stimulated by them. So I'm going to take a break from Virgin River for a bit before I dive back into the series.