Customer Reviews

Hidden Summit (Virgin River)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leslie Petrusco needs to get away from Grants Pass where she's constantly running into her ex-husband. His cheeriness and delight at his new wife's pregnancy is more than Leslie can take, especially when he didn't want children with her. He's a changed man, apparently, one who wants to stay in touch, however, Leslie's had enough and accepts a transfer to Haggerty Construction's Virgin River branch where she fits in as the ultimate office manager.

Connor Danson (real name Danson Connor) had a bad marriage, but he's got worse problems. After having been the only witness to a murder in Sacramento, and having his hardware business burn to the ground, he's gone into the witness protection program. He arrives in Virgin River and finds a job with Paul Haggerty's crew. He also finds Leslie, and though he's not about to lose his heart a second time, the chemistry between them burns hotter than a forest fire.

Neither Leslie nor Connor wants a relationship, but this one seems to take on a life of its own.

Robyn Carr has hit another home run with Hidden Summit. This reviewer, along with thousands of Virgin River fans, has been anxiously awaiting the latest installment. Hidden Summit surpasses all expectations introducing new characters while reacquainting the reader with old ones. I was glad to see Dan Brady reappear, and it was delightful to have Brie Valenzuela as a secondary character. Now I'm awaiting Redwood Bend. Just can't get enough of Ms. Carr and Virgin River.

Five stars for this one.

I liked this one a lot, but it's maybe not the best Virgin River book. For me the highlight was the excellent dialogue between the two lead characters. They were funny - and FUN.

If you are new to the series and aren't sure you want to invest all that time and effort to catching up with eighteen or so novels and novellas to get up to date, you're in luck. This would be the perfect place to jump into the series. There're two brand new faces, and there's just enough of an introduction to the town to get you interested without overwhelming you.

Danson Conner's life was ruined even before he became the sole witness to a high-profile murder. Now he's separated from his sister and nephews and is in hiding in Virgin River until it is time for him to testify.
Leslie Petruso not only suffered the humiliation of her husband cheating on her - and then leaving her for the woman when she confronted him about it - but he now wants to keep up appearances by acting as though everyone is still the best of friends. Not only is everyone convinced her ex is the good guy, but they're working in the same industry in the same town. So she makes her getaway, arriving in Virgin River to work for Paul Haggerty - the hero of Second Chance Pass (Virgin River) - and getting caught up with Conner at the same time.

The thing that made this book really work for me was the way Conner and Leslie interacted. They - Conner in particular - were funny. They had fun, and proved falling in love didn't always have to be serious business. Conner was a Virgin River hero I fell in love with; he's one of those I'll remember.

I am not usually a fan of crossovers, but was very happy to see Walt Arneson make an appearance in this book. He is perhaps my favourite male character Robyn Carr has written, and features in A Summer in Sonoma - a book not at all connected to the Virgin River series. He'll be back in the next book - Redwood Bend (A Virgin River Novel) - too.

Something else that made me very happy about HIDDEN SUMMIT was that we FINALLY got to revisit Brie. One of the series originals, she's been almost completely overlooked in every book since her own, Whispering Rock (Virgin River). I would have preferred for her husband, Mike, to get his time on the page too, but alas he was still shoved firmly into the background.
However, I'm not entirely sure Brie's big return was handled especially well. She came off as a bit of a cold and distant character here, which I found disappointing!

This is not a perfect book, but if you're a fan of the series you pretty much know what you're going to get before you even begin. Carr has a tendency to tell instead of show - there're some infodumps that seemed especially unnecessary in this one (including all the details about Brie's rape case from way back in book three!). On top of that, there's only so much I want to hear about the greatness of small town life and the particular wonders of Virgin River.

It is inevitable that there'll be people who want more of the "good old days" from Virgin River. The series has evolved - as it had to - and I think that after a few shaky books around the #6 - #10 mark, Robyn Carr has got her formula well sorted. There's a far stronger focus on the leading pair in the books these days, with just enough of the town to remind us what this series is all about. Virgin River needed new characters to stop the place becoming incestuous, and while long-time readers aren't going to respond to every book as favourably, HIDDEN SUMMIT worked out very well as far as I'm concerned.

**I received an ARC of this book for review purposes.**

The first few pages of Hidden Summit by Robyn Carr were like the first few bites of a Birthday Cake Sundae with Reece's Peanut Butter cups mixed in.....Really Good.....and then halfway to the middle, I start to get a stomach ache, or in this case.....my focus was gone.

Conner Danson was just the kind of hero I like....Cropped hair, broad shoulders, goatee and blue, blue eyes behind thick lashes....I mean...OH yeah!! And the way he wanted to take care of his sister and her two boys, and his trust issues from a cheating spouse...I mean..who wouldn't want this sexy, bad boy to have a starring role in her dreams.

So we started out good...and then we meet Leslie, who is trying to escape the pressure from her image-conscious Ex and his new pregnant wife...UGH!! I liked Leslie from the start and was definitely in her corner when it came to her weasel of an ex. I was pulling for her and Conner to get together, but then it was just.....I don't know...Boring??

I felt as if I was reading about a couple that was reading a scene from a movie. The dialogue was just...OFF. Some of the things he said were unbelievable and it just didn't match up with the kind of guy that he was portrayed to be. This was where I stopped caring about what happened to this couple, ok...I kind of still cared and skimmed through the rest of the book to the end.....BUT...I wasn't invested in the story and I HATE...HATE when that happens.

All in all...Hidden Summit was just OK...

On a bright note, I did like Katie, Connner's sister, who will be the heroine in Redwood Bend, the next Virgin River book due out February 28th, 2012. Maybe Katie and her sexy biker, Dylan will keep me reading the Virgin River Series!!

I am a huge fan of all things Carr and Virgin River. So when I was half way through this book and had to make myself read it, I knew that wasn't a good sign. I really didn't connect with the lead characters, and their romance seemed....forced. I am hoping this is a fluke and the next book will be back to what I expect from a VR book, but I wasn't impressed with this one. The redeeming quality that Hidden Summit brought, was we got to see quite a bit of past characters, so it was kind of like catching up

First I need to say that, I absolutely love Robyn's work, I have read every book she has written, so, writing this review, really sucks..
I'm a huge fan of Virgin River, I don't even remember how I found them, but, I haven't stopped reading since. I was so excited about this release, as most of her fans are, waiting for the next installment, check in on all the friends and family that live there, which this book touchs on a little bit. The new story line, this time, to me, was flat, predictable, and in a way boring. There was no punch at the end, for that matter, there was no excitement during the entire story..which as you know, Robyn always has a little surprise for us, didn't happen in this book..there are so many lose ends to tie up, I hope the next book will do that..I will of course continue to read her work, 1 out of like 20 isn't bad

This story had all the potential to be a heart wrenching love story: one down-on-her-luck heroine, one very sexy but very flawed hero, scandal and danger, and the ruggedly beautiful town of Virgin River, with all it's loved characters. But even with all that going on, what was supposed to be the main struggle in this story - and the reason I love reading romance so much - the struggle of their love, was pretty non-existant. There was a little identitiy confusion in the beginning of the book that led the hero to unsavory and false conclusions about the heroine, but that got cleared up pretty quick. And once that was out of the way they sort of just fell in bed together and pretty much stayed there. I'm not saying this book had too much sex in it. If anything I felt it could have had a little more sparks. I just feel liket the romance was too easy for them. They had no internal struggles. There was a lot going on outside of the two of them that sort of affected their relationship but it never felt like there was anything that was truly at risk between them. I felt like the trial was the main plot and their romance was a side story. I was really looking forward to reading this book but it lacked the emotional angst of VIRGIN RIVER or TEMPTATION RIDGE.

One of my least favorite in the series. Very bland and pretty boring. I was still able to finish the book. Hopped in the sack pretty quick, fell in love to quick. No surprises, no drama. I have really enjoyed all of the books in this series but was quickly let down.

Sadly, this was my least favorite Virgin River book. The writing was so jagged and rough it was hard to keep track of transitions. There were so many transitions that I just had to laugh at. They were absurd. The hero says something like "let's go be romantic" to the heroine, and the heroine says, "Let's have fruit and waffles for breakfast tomorrow." Seriously?

I wasn't really fond of the hero either. He came off as rude and angry in the first chapter, then as kind of a big lug dumb construction worker for the 1st half of the book. He does get a little better as time goes on, but he never really proved himself as this great hero.

I'm just really, really hoping that the next 2 new Virgin River books are good!

I usually love this series, very easy fun reads with my favorites being promise canyon and harvest moon. This was boring and seemed like it just kept going. I hope the next 2 in the series come back up to the usual standard because this one fell flat.

The Virgin River series is one of my favorite series by a favorite author. I have loved each and every one of Robyn Carr's books. There are very few authors I can say that about.

I wish I lived in magical, imaginary Virgin River, California. I can picture the inhabitants and I want to know them all.

"Hidden Summit" was another delightful story about new residents, Connor and Leslie. We get to follow their romance, getting to pass the time with some prior Virgin River friends.

Great series, great town, great people, great feel-good book.