Goodreads
synopsis: At
twenty-five, after five years as her mother's caregiver, it's time
for Shelby to experience freedom and adventure. Time for travel,
college and romance. But when she visits Virgin River, she runs into
Luke Riordan, decidedly not whom
she has in mind.
A
handsome Blackhawk pilot, Luke exited the army after twenty years,
four wars and having been shot out of the sky three times. At
thirty-eight he's tough and jaded. His major was in one-night stands,
with a minor in commitment avoidance.
Technically,
these two are all wrong for one another. But sometimes what you want
and what you need are two different things...two very good things.
Stats
for my copy:
Mass market paperback, Mira Books, 2009.
How
acquired:
Bought.
First
line:
Shelby was within ten miles of her Uncle Walt's ranch when she had
to pull over to the side of highway 36, the busiest stretch between
Virgin River and Fortuna, behind an old pickup truck that looked
vaguely familiar.
My
thoughts:
After being a tad disappointed with the previous book in the Virgin
River series I'm happy to report that this entry was another winner.
(To be fair, I did give the previous book four stars on Goodreads, but only
because of Joe and Nikki. Well, actually because of Joe. Secondary
characters in that book, but whose story I absolutely loved,more than
the main characters' story.) When Temptation Ridge opens, Shelby,
Vanessa's cousin, has a meet cute with Luke Riordan, a newcomer, on
the side of a stalled highway.
As
with all the Virgin River heroes, Luke is former military, though not
a Marine. He was deeply burned by a woman several years ago, and now
he doesn't do relationships. He's appalled to find himself attracted
to Shelby, who he initially thinks has to still be under the age of
twenty. And learning that she's actually twenty-five doesn't make him
feel much better about it. And as with most of the Virgin River
heroes, I fell head over heels for him.
I
love how Ms. Carr always incorporates characters from the previous
books into each new book, sometimes meandering away from the main
storyline to give another character some significant page time. And
she slips from one plot point or story line to another seamlessly, so
it's never confusing or hard to keep up with the narrative. She's
also great at natural feeling conversations between characters, or at
several paragraphs of narrative with no dialogue. I especially loved
the scenes with Luke's younger brother coming along and charming
everyone while Luke just gets angrier and angrier at him.
My
only complaint about this entry in the series is that one of my
favorite characters, the mysterious marijuana grower, never showed
up. I miss him.
There
is also the beginning of a possible romance between Cameron, who we
met in the previous book when he dated Vanessa for a short time, and
Abby, one of Vanessa's closest friends, as well as a continuation of
the blossoming romance between Vanessa's father, Walt, and Muriel,
the movie star who moved to Virgin River in the last book. And I
loved this quote, from Muriel to Shelby:
"I'm not alone, Shelby,” she said patiently. I'm on my own – there's a difference...”
I
so relate to that.
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