Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr
Mira Books
December 2009
Format: e-book, 384 pages
First line: Recently ordained minister Noah Kincaid was surfing the Internet, killing time, when quite by chance, he happened to find a church being auctioned on eBay – in some little place he’d never heard of – Virgin River.
Synopsis from B&N: Virgin River is abuzz with the
news that a stranger bought the town’s abandoned church on eBay. The
buyer, a young widowed reverend, is a little like the building itself:
in need of some loving care.
Noah Kincaid arrives ready to
roll up his sleeves and revitalize his new purchase, but he’s going to
need some help. An ad in the local paper brings an improbable candidate
his way.
“Pastor’s assistant” is not a
phrase that springs to mind when Noah meets brassy, beautiful Ellie
Baldwin. With her colorful clothes and even more colorful past, Ellie
needs a respectable job so she can regain custody of her children. Noah
can’t help but admire her spunk and determination, and she may just be
the breath of fresh air he needs.
This unlikely duo may come from
two different worlds, but they have more in common than anyone would
have expected. And in Virgin River lasting happiness is never out of the
question.
My thoughts: This is the ninth book in Robyn Carr’s Virgin River series and once again I find that I love Virgin River and all the people who live there just a little bit more. As is usually the case with this series, characters we have come to love pop in and out of this story and we get brief updates on their lives. We even get a surprising update on the puppies from the novella, Under the Christmas Tree.
Forbidden Falls is primarily the story about Noah and Ellie. Noah has just bought the old, abandoned church in Virgin River and is desperately in need of an assistant. Ellie, a former stripper, is in desperate need of a respectable job in order to get her children back from an ex-husband. Both have their own troubled past, but sparks start flying and Noah does everything he can to help Ellie fight her ex-husband. Both Noah and Ellie defy assumptions and stereotypes – he a widowed pastor and she an ex-stripper,but while they develop a friendship and a working relationship, they’re
both making new friends and allies in Virgin River and in the process,
they’re also helping those friends change their lives.
There
is a secondary story that plays out involving a couple we’ve met earlier in the series. Paul
and Vanessa have a heart-tugging change of events brought into their
lives.As soon as they
decide to finally try for a baby of their own, Paul’s ex-girlfriend
dies and names Paul guardian of her baby. The situation puts their
marriage to a test as Vanni struggles with the job of being a mother of two
and also accepting and loving this child as her own daughter. This story line in particular brought me to tears a few times.
As I mentioned above, each time I get to visit Virgin River, I fall a little more in love with the town and the people that live there. I love meeting new characters in each book as well as catching up with familiar ones and I can’t wait to see who we meet in the next book, Angel’s Peak.
(I purchased this e-book.)
Books in this series:
- Virgin River 11. Moonlight Road
- Shelter Mountain 12. Midnight Confessions
- Whispering Rock 13. Promise Canyon
- A Virgin River Christmas 14. Wild Man Creek
- Second Chance Pass 15. Harvest Moon
- Temptation Ridge 16. Bring Me Home for Christmas
- Paradise Valley 17. Hidden Summit
- Under the Christmas Tree 18. Redwood Bend
- Forbidden Falls 19. Sunrise Point
- Angel’s Peak 20. My Kind of Christmas – due out Oct 2012
OOOH, This is one of the ones I missed. I've loved him in the books though – guess I'll have to grab it!