Title: Down by the River
Author: Robyn Carr
Series: Grace Valley Trilogy #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Dates read: 23rd – 24th March 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Mira
Year: 2003
5th sentence, 74th page: That’s the half of it.

IN THE PEACEFUL TOWN OF GRACE VALLEY, NEIGHBORS ARE LIKE FAMILY – AND JUST AS MEDDLESOME, TOO.

June Hudson is the town’s doctor, a craing, capable woman who now has a bit of explaining to do. People are beginning to notice the bloom in her cheeks – and the swell of her belly. Happily, DEA agent Jim Post is back in June’s arms for good, newly retired from undercover work and ready for new beginnings her in Grace Valley.

Expecting the unexpected is a way of life in Grace Valley, and the community is overflowing with gossip right now. Who is the secret paramour June’s aunt Myrna is hiding? Does the town’s poker-playing pastor have too many aces up his sleeve? But when dangers, from man and nature, rise up with a vengeance to threaten June and the town, this community pulls together and shows what it’s made of. And Jim discovers the true meaning of happiness here in Grace Valley: there really is no place like home.

I loved this conclusion to the Grace Valley Trilogy. Everything has come full circle and June gets her happily ever after. It was a great way to spend the day… reading this while I had a serious migraine and really couldn’t stomach the idea of moving. There is just something inherently sweet and cute about Carr’s writing and, with this trilogy focusing on just the one woman and the town that she loves… that feeling of sweetness just increased.

From the blurb of this story, I was kind of expecting a whole lot more conflict throughout this story. Something a little more dangerous from Jim’s past maybe. That really didn’t happen, but I wasn’t disappointed. There were still challenges and dangers. Still things that needed to be overcome. But they were a little more innocent and it made this such an uplifting, heart-warming series conclusion to read. After turning the final page, I seriously considered jumping online to buy another few Robyn Carr books, but you know… money.

I love that the Mills (who are introduced in the first Grace Valley Trilogy book) make more than a bit of an appearance throughout this. There are so many secondary characters throughout this whole series which make an appearance, and it isn’t until the final book that you realise they’ve been popping in and out all the way through. In the best, most subtle way possible. It was really nice that there was closure to not only June’s story, but also the stories of the other characters that I quickly came to love over the two, three days that I just devoured this trilogy. I absolutely adored this novel. I adored this trilogy. It had enough suspense and turmoil to keep me hooked, but not enough that it destroyed the happy-feeling that it all inspired. There is a great balance between action and sweet romance. Difficulties and solutions, heavily geared towards the happily ever after feelings. I’m so glad that I have these books on my shelves. And I look forward to reading them again and again and again.

Image source: Robyn Carr

Title: Just Over the Mountain
Author: Robyn Carr
Series: Grace Valley Trilogy #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Dates read: 23rd March 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Mira
Year: 2002
5th sentence, 74th page: He was looking for a kinglet and a bobolink.

WELCOME BACK TO GRACE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, WHERE THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE NEVER CHANGE…

Here in this peaceful community, folks look out for one another like family, though sometimes a little too well. In a town like this, it’s hard to keep a secret – but Dr. June Hudson has managed to keep one heck of a humdinger…

Though visits from her secret lover, undercover DEA agent Jim Post, are as clandestine as they are passionate, somehow it fits with her demanding schedule as the town’s doctor – a calling that requires an innate ability to exist on caffeine, sticky buns and nerves of steel.

But how can a secret lover compete with a flesh-and-blood heartthrob from her past? June’s old flame has just returned to town after twenty years – and he’s divorced. June is seriously rattled. So when the town’s most devoted wife takes buckshot to her husband and some human bones turn up in her aunt Myrna’s backyard, she’s almost happy for the distraction.

Sooner or later, love will have its way in Grace Valley. It always does.

High school sweethearts are always an interesting topic. An interesting thought process – the entire centre of the whole “what if” thought. So a novel in which June has finally found a guy, but then her big “what if” returns home? It was always going to be one that drew me in… especially when there is this sense of unanswered questions and serious history rife throughout the story. And anger, because where would a history and intensity be without a sense of anger and outrage?

One of the things that I’ve loved so far about the Grace Valley Trilogy is that it actually embraces some of the more awkward, uncomfortable aspects of small town life. One of them being that everyone knows everyone. Everyone knows everyone’s business… and that high school sweetheart that you’re mad at? Well, he may just be the son of one of your best friends… this story doesn’t try and make this awkwardness and annoying factor of small town life seem trivial and kind of cute… it embraces the fact that it’s kind of shit at times, but then there are enough times that it can be amazing to make everything worthwhile.

Yet, for all of the angst in this story, it gives a great sense of closure at the end. Everything is starting to move to an ending, even if there is another whole novel to go. But, everything is being set up for that. Most of the big difficulties begin to become not-so-big and the realities of daily life become a little more important. Not to mention a number of intense medical emergencies and moments of revelation to just sweeten the pot…

If the conclusion to this series is anything like the first two books, this will definitely be one that I will read again and again and again. I’m already ranting and raving about how great this book series is to my sister, so I can’t wait to see how it all ends! Alright, I know a little bit… because I read Virgin River before I even knew that this series existed. But I still can’t wait to see how it all ends! Especially with a final scene like the one in this novel!

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Deep in the Valley
Author: Robyn Carr
Series: Grace Valley Trilogy #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Dates read: 22nd March 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Mira
Year: 2000
5th sentence, 74th page: She parked behind the last of four law enforcement vehicles, grabbed her bag, jumped out of her truck and went straight to Tom.

WELCOME TO GRACE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA – WHERE BLOOD RUNS THICKER.. .TIES ARE STRONGER… AND LOVE IS ALL THE MORE SWEET

Visitors to the town often remark about the valley’s peace and beauty – both of which are plentiful. Unlocked doors, front porches, pies cooling in the windows – this is country life at its finest. But visitors don’t always see what lies at the heart of a community. Or just beyond…

June Hudson grew up in Grace Valley, the daughter of the town doctor. leaving only to get her medical training, she returned home and followed in her father’s footsteps. Some might say she chose the easy, comfortable route… but June knows better.

For June, her emergency room is wherever she’s needed – or wherever a patient finds her. She is always on call, her work is her life and these people are her extended family. Which is a good thing, since this is a town where you should have picked your husband in the ninth grade. Grace Valley is not exactly the place to meet eligible men – until an undercover DEA agent suddenly starts appearing at all sorts of strange hours.

Everybody has secrets down in the valley. Now June has one of her own.

I read this after reading the first two Virgin River books (Virgin River and Shelter Mountain) and I kind of wish I had have known about the Grace Valley Trilogy first. After all, it talks about characters that you come to love in Virgin River, so you kind of know what June has in store for her future. Which made it a little less exciting. But only the teensiest, tiniest bit.

I’m from a kind of small town in Australia, so the whole eccentrics in the small towns, that slightly different, off-kilter way of viewing life… I totally get it. In fact, I had the same doctor from the time I was born (literally) until I was about fourteen, then his partner until I was twenty-two. Then I moved and whatnot… but that whole country doctor, country practice, staying in the same place with the same people. There’s a beautiful bit of nostalgia attached to that for me. Something that made me keep sinking my nose as far as I could into the pages… literally. Sometimes I couldn’t even read the pages I was getting so excited… and close.

Unlike the Virgin River books, Deep in the Valley focuses solely on June. There is the introduction of a love interest, but it’s not the full-on romance that the follow-on series is. I liked this. I’m already ridiculously attached to June, so I can’t wait to read two more books that solely feature her. And her friends and family is this ridiculously cute and quirky little town. A town that, although it is still that whole “simpler way of life” (which really isn’t, but I digress), is starting to face the changes of modern life. And I look forward to finding out how they cope with this in the next two books.

More than anything in this book, I loved, loved, loved the discussions about women’s rights. From the man beating his wife and children that no one did anything about; to the preacher who is harassing women and being laughed at… there are so many little instances that are ignored by the men throughout this book. So many instances that I’ve seen ignored in my own life. Yet, at the very end, there is a kind of wake up to how things that others think they can’t do anything about have dire consequences, and maybe, just maybe, sometimes you should actually do something to help those in your community.

Image source: Goodreads