Mel gets to know some of the locals, and a woman comes to her to ask for help with prenatal care – it seems that Doc is getting too old and arthritic to deliver babies. When Mel goes to the tavern for a cup of coffee, she discovers that Preacher, an excellent cook, btw, can make better coffee than Starbucks. Jack fixes up the hovel into a comfortable little home which helps Mel feel better. Clearly she can’t leave this child (and it takes social services a long time to get there) so Mel says she’ll stay – a few days. Someone leaves a newborn baby on Doc’s steps and Mel bonds with her. However, things happen to change Mel’s plans. The scenery is to die for with beauty to spare, but for an urbanite used to her comforts, it’s too rural and too much to be endured and Mel declares she’s out of there! The center of the community is a bar/café owned by Jack Sheridan where most of the locals hang out along with the hunters and fishermen who are drawn to Virgin River by the excellent fishing. The doctor in residence, old Doc Mullins whom she is supposed to help, defines the word grumpy. There’s no police force, no school, no stores – it’s mostly a collection of homes and farms, and to get food or just about anything else, you have to negotiate those treacherous mountain roads. But when she finally arrives, after almost falling off the mountain on the twisty roads, she finds the cabin is a hovel and the town isn’t really a town at all. So Mel sells everything and takes off with dreams of a pretty little place like Mayberry running through her head. The job comes with a rent free cabin, and the opportunity to work as local doctor’s assistant and resident midwife. She found she couldn’t cope with the tension and crime in Los Angeles anymore and accepted a job in the small northern California town of Virgin River. When Mark was killed by a robber in a convenient store, Mel shattered with grief. The only thing that marred the perfection of their lives was that Mel couldn’t get pregnant – but they are ready to try in vitro, and they’re still young. They loved each other, they liked each other, they loved their jobs, they had a beautiful house, and all the goodies they could want. She and her husband Mark lived in Los Angeles and pretty much had it all. Melinda Monroe was a nurse midwife, married to a doctor. The good thing is, it’s the first in a trilogy – I will be at the store to buy the other two books as soon as they come out. After reading two not very enjoyable books, I picked up Virgin River and was totally engrossed in a charming story.

Virgin river books