Review of Moonlight Road (Virgin River #10) by Robyn Carr

Moonlight Road is the tenth book in the series Virgin River.

Erin Foley is experiencing empty nest syndrome... at thirty-five. Her siblings are successfully living their lives, all she wanted for them, and now she feels lost. So, she's taking a break from her busy life for a summer in a secluded but modern mountain cabin near Virgin River. She's there to recharge, not meet bushy, smelly mountain men.

Under the faded fatigues and bushy beard, Aiden Riordan is a doctor on a summer break after leaving the navy while he decides on his next step. He doesn't expect to meet the beauty in the cabin who doesn't seem to know the first thing about mountain living, but he's hooked.

If Aiden's crazy ex-wife doesn't hold him back, the romantic air in Virgin River may bring the unlikely pair together like many before.

This book was a lot of fun—funny and heartwarming in turns, and I couldn't wait to see what happened with every turn of the page. The main couple was a delight, and I became heavily invested in their story. There was also an additional storyline between Mel and Jack that was the first real threat to their marriage we've seen in the series. I was concerned for them and wanted to know that everything was okay.

The character of Erin Foley, a surprise re-emergence of a character from earlier in the series. She's the sister of Marcie Sullivan from A Virgin River Christmas, book four. She came across much differently when she arrived in Virgin River to take Marcie home, but now she's back after updating Ian's cabin in the woods to spend the summer relaxing. The problem is she hasn't taken more than one day off at a time in twenty-five years, ever since her mom died and she took over the job of mom at age eleven. Erin doesn't know how to relax, and after only a few days, she's bored. Then a bearded and filthy man with a bow, arrows, and machete walks out of the woods, scaring her and causing her to hit her head and knock herself out. To her surprise, he takes care of her and gets her to the hospital. Erin soon thinks there's more to this mountain man than his dirty clothes and machete.

Aidan Riordan is the brother of Luke Riordan from Forbidden Falls and Sean Riordan from Angel's Peak. Aidan has been an OB/GYN with the navy for many years, but they want to send him to sea again, taking him away from his specialty. He takes that as the sign that he needs to move to civilian life and leaves the navy. He decides to spend the summer in Luke's series of cabins while Luke's wife Shelby approaches her due date for their first baby. Luke's helper, a man named Art with Down's syndrome, reunites with his old girlfriend from the group home where he used to live, throwing a few gray hairs on Luke's head.

As Aiden and Erin get to know each other, seeming to be opposites in the mountain environment, especially when Erin gets a visitor in the form of a black bear, Aiden shows a sweet side Erin didn't expect. If only his crazy ex-wife would leave him alone.

To me, this was one of the strongest books in the series so far. There were many subplots and the main plot with stakes, not just the telling of a sweet story. So often, Robyn Carr just tells a sweet story between a couple with not much in the way of stakes, and while I enjoy that, it was nice to see stakes involved, like in Mel and Jack's trouble in their marriage, Luke dealing with Art and his girlfriend, the Riordan brothers coming to terms with their mom on a cross-country trip with her new boyfriend in an RV, Shelby pregnant with her first and the baby being breech, Aiden's ex-wife consistently insisting on speaking to him, and more. I loved reading every one, and they added to the excitement of the story between Erin and Aiden.

The characters were strong, most of them already established in previous books. We'd met Erin and Aiden in previous books, but they had received little focus. I loved the way Robyn Carr layered them and gave them depth, especially Erin and her relationship with her siblings. On the surface, she seems like a powerful, driven attorney, but there's so much more to her than that.

This book is one I'll read over and over along with my favorite so far, Shelter Mountain—also one of my favorite romance novels of all time.

Photo Credit: Katherine Elizabeth

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