Robyn Carr
About a month ago I became aware of best-selling romance author Robyn Carr through an article in our local paper, The Half Moon Bay Review. She was being interviewed because her latest book, Sunrise on Half Moon Bay, is set here and was about to be released. So, I thought I’d check her out. Online I found that she is a wildly successful and prolific author, with several series of books set in small towns. As my latest novel, The Seal Cove Theoretical Society, is also set at the north end of Half Moon Bay, I’ll be fascinated to see how she frames the local scene. However, since Sunrise on Half Moon Bay was a few weeks from release when the article came out, I decided to try her out by reading the first of a series set in Virgin River, in the mountains north of Mendocino.
In Virgin River, Robyn Carr delivers exactly what you want from a good romance — a love story with believable dialogue, skillful exposition, lovely description, wholesome, and heartwarming characters old enough to have interesting backstories, while serving up some steamy sex on the side. The only fault I can find in it (and many would think this the best part of the book) is that the male protagonist is PERFECT. A young man might learn a lot from this book about what women want in a man. He’s good-looking, tall, strong, polite, protective, understanding, even-tempered, patient, mature, and loving without being overbearing. He’s a good example of what men might aspire to, but he’s just a little too perfect to be real. And his name is — you guessed it — Jack. What is it about the name Jack? At any neighborhood barbecue, you might find a Chris, or Mark, an Archie, a John, a Scott, or a Jerry, Bruce, Brad, or Arthur. But in the romance genre, once the name Jack is dropped, you just know he’s the love interest. Ah, well, that’s a small, nitpicking criticism. If you’re looking for a well-written, predictable, feel-good romance, you can’t go wrong with Virgin River.
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