I went on a Virgin River marathon the past week just because sometimes you want to stick with a series because everything after a while feels old and familiar. This is one of my favorites from the series though there are a couple of quibbles here and there, it honestly is just a really good story.

Noah Kincaid comes to Virgin River to re-open a closed church that be buys due to some inheritance. He feels part of the community and wants to do whatever he can to build up the town around him. Realizing that he is going to need an assistant he ends up interviewing residents of Virgin River and that is how he meets Ellie Baldwin. Ellie comes with a lot of baggage, but Noah cannot help feeling more and more drawn to the single mother of two who it seems has been dealing with hardships almost from birth.

I really loved Ellie. I have to say next to probably Paige and Brie from earlier books, she is one of my favorite female characters. I always grieved a bit in later books when you would just hear about her, but the character never speaks again really which is a shame. Ellie is feisty, not afraid to do hard work, and refuses to let those around her dictate what she can wear and how she should carry herself. Fresh off of a divorce from a controlling man who now has primary custody of her two kids would be enough to have anyone feel beaten, but Ellie is determined to get a job so she can prove to a judge that she is capable of taking care of her children. There is so much backstory to Ellie, and though I usually loathe information dumps via conversations with people, it works okay in this book since Noah is a pastor and is used to counseling people.

Noah we find out had a hard father who was also a minister, but one of those tv evangelical types who was focused more on money than souls. He still misses his wife that passed away and is not looking to start a relationship with Ellie or anyone. However, something about Ellie and her plight tugs at him while he can’t help feeling physically drawn to her.

Noah and Ellie as a couple makes sense, and Carr doesn’t draw things out too long before they are together. But it’s a relationship with a sale by date since Ellie decides as soon as she gets custody of her children she is going to move away.

We have familiar characters from previous books showing up in this one, Jack and Mel Sheridan, Mike and Brie Valenzuela, Paul and Vanessa Haggerty. Per usual, there is a secondary plot that involves Paul and Vanessa but at least once again it ties into the main characters. I don’t know how I felt about this little twist for the Haggerty family since it felt a bit too soap operaish, but Carr pulls it off in the end. I had read the previous book that was Paul and Vanessa’s (Second Chance Pass, Virgin River #5) so I was familiar with the background to it.

The writing is typical Carr with her handling what feels like a huge cast of characters, but able to keep the story-line moving. The love scenes between Noah and Ellie were great and I definitely got why they were attracted to each other.

The flow actually works much better in this once, because once again, the main characters are tied to the secondary plot so you don’t notice any abrupt changes.

I loved the ending and I liked how the story-line included characters we had met/heard about before in previous books.

I've been reading the whole Virgin Falls stories out of order as O can get my hands on them from my local library but I've been waiting to find out the full story of Noah and Ellie's courtship and personal stories and I was not disappointed! From romance, to laughter to cursing the bad guy, this story is my second favourite (Preacher and Paige being first favourite)! I can't wait to read more of these stories, I've still got a bunch!

The young widower arrives ready to roll up his sleeves and build a place of worship and welcome, but he needs some help. And the Lord works in mysterious ways. With her tight shirts and short skirts, "pastor's assistant" is not a phrase that springs to mind when Noah meets brassy, beautiful Alicia Baldwin. But the former exotic dancer needs a respectable job so she can regain custody of her children. So the pastor and the stripper revitalize a church . . .

4 Stars!!

Im not sure what happened to all the character arcs in this book- but we only get like 3 and it was a little sad. I missed all my regulars and though I still LOVE this series and enjoyed this book- this was lacking and sort of disappointing at times due to personal reasons.

I did enjoy the premise of this book and expected it to go in a totally different direction. This book was about 10 percent OG character Arcs- and the rest is just the full story of Noah and Ellie. Though that may seem to be a little sad if you are used to seeing all the others, Carr did a good job of keeping the reader interested in the story.

My favorite of the series! I'm a huge Virgin River fan already, but this one topped the list.

Alright, this one was one of my favs in this series so far

3.5 ⭐️