Abandoned by Booklikes

Oh man. This one got me in the feels. The third book in the “Virgin River” series focuses on Mike Valenzuela and Brie Sheridan. There was a minor flirtation between the two in the last book with Mike still thinking about Brie. However, after a horrible incident happens to Brie, our heroine is left feeling shattered with Mike standing by to show her that he’s her guy. This love story gave me all the feels people.

Trigger warning that rape is brought up throughout this entire book.

For once the A plot (Mike and Brie) actually worked well together in one of the B plots (incidents involving teenage girls and wild parties) due to Mike being the bridge in both stories. Of course we have Jack sucking like the wind per usual in this book. At least he got cursed out by his wife and sister in this one though. Seriously though, you would think he learn.

Brie after trying to get past what happens to her has a whole host of things to work through. Not only is Brie still processing her ex-husband betraying her in the last book by leaving her for her ex-best friend (seriously though, the hair pulling people, the hair pulling would have been epic) she is dealing with being the victim of a violent crime. Brie is a tough prosecutor who realizes that maybe this is not a path she wants to be on anymore. Especially when she sees that her brother and sisters are off enjoying their families and she’s single and lonely.

Mike was actually more of the focus in this book and I was surprised. Most of the time romance books have the heroine being the main draw. But this felt like Mike’s story to me. We definitely understand his feelings for Brie and I loved how slow he was to start a relationship with her and making sure that everything was on her terms throughout. Can I also say that even though I really enjoyed book #2, I really only liked the love scenes in this book up until now. I was left rolling my eyes about the best sex ever (Jack and Mel) and Preacher and Paige were not really raunchy or anything, most of it was just sweet. Mike and Brie had a lot of fire. I think it was because he spoke to her in Spanish a lot and we got to read what he was saying to her and she to him. Accents in books do it for me all the time.

We of course get another look at Virgin River residents that many readers should know by now. We have some new characters introduced to us (Tommy Booth, his dad, and also Paul Haggerty). I maybe rolled my eyes a few times about Paul’s plot. I could have done without that one. Like I said, I liked the first few books in the series, but after a while I wondered why anyone got near the place because everyone’s spouse (if they were a man) ended up dying it felt like.

Jack is still acting like Jack and we have party to a lot of couple fights with Jack and Mel. I maybe got tired of these two by this book. Okay, there is no maybe about it, I was 100 percent sick of the two of them by this book. I was also a little put out by Preacher explaining his and Paige’s plans to get pregnant to everyone who came to the bar. I just didn’t find the whole thing funny at all. It was a bit much to me.

The writing is typical Carr, though I have to say that she definitely once again gets very descriptive with describing sex scenes, as well as brutal aftermaths of rape as well.

The flow was once again up and down a bit in this book. I think if we had just stuck with Brie and Mike the book would have been perfect. There was a lot going on in that story. I did think it was odd though that Mike was all up in Brie’s family, but they never met his at all in this book. We just heard a lot about them.

The ending was pretty sweet when it came to Brie and Mike so that made me happy. Of course I realize after the fact that the next book is Paul’s story and that’s a character I read about in later books so I already know how that one ends.