Are you the sort of person who reads one book by an author, hates it and then writes that author’s future works off? I am totally that kind of person. HOWEVER. When I have several books by said author and a slew of good reviews from people I trust, I am more inclined to give the author another chance. Y’all, I loathed the one book that I read by Robyn Carr. I don’t know why. It just was too tame for me. However, I kept getting her books in the mail, unsolicited. SO, I decided eh, I would give The Wanderer a chance because it takes place outside Virgin River and is the start to a new series, Thunder Point. Turns out, I liked The Wanderer okay.
When Hank Cooper’s best friend Ben Bailey dies, it is discovered that he left his beachfront property and bait/bar/laundromat and basically all of his things to Cooper, which comes as quite a shock. Cooper is more of a nomad and wanderer type, never setting down roots, never getting into serious relationships. Cooper has quite a lot on his plate as he has to decide whether he wants to see his newly inherited property for a heck of a lot of clams, or stay in Thunder Point. Either way, a lot of people will find themselves affected by his decision. Along the way, Cooper manages to fit right in at Thunder Point, making friends with local residents and some more colorful characters as well as getting involved in a romantic entanglement with another newcomer to the town, Sarah Dupre. The Wanderer is one of those gentle sorts of romances that has more than one couple, interesting characters, and bonus, a side mystery plot.
Hank Cooper is kind of boring. I think that’s why I did not love this book but merely found it okay. I mean, okay sure he is all about helping the downtrodden. But, I don’t know. He’s just missing a certain spark that makes me swoon. Maybe it’s because he’s old and that’s sort of not my thing? Anyways, to me he was sort of dry.
As for the leading lady, Sarah Dupre is interesting up to a certain point. Like, she’s a helicopter pilot for the US Coastal Guard which is so cool. And she has custody of her teenaged brother because her parents died. She’s also very hurt from a divorce that went bad, lol he cheated on her on their wedding day — that’s super ridiculous to me. Head for the hills girl. Anyways, she forms a sort of take things as they come relationship with Cooper and it is super cute and okay at one point they have a steamy bedroom scene, but idk, no real magic on my end as the reader.
I did like the scenes with Landon Dupre, Sarah’s teenaged brother. He’s 16 and a football player and starts dating the sheriff’s daughter. Also, he’s super good at football which pisses off his psycho teammate, Jag Morrison to the point where Jag beats him up. Landon is cool, I would read more scenes with him in them.
I guess the good thing about this book is that it took me like two months to read and like every time I would set it down and then come back in a week it wasn’t like I was confused or anything. It’s very easy to follow. I think though, this author just might not be for me. Like, the characters are all kind of MATURE for me, if you guys know what I mean. I think you can guess. So, there it is, this book was okay but I think I’m going to pass on her future works.
Disclosure: Review Copy Provided By Publisher
Other reviews of The Wanderer by Robyn Carr:
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books – “It wanders allllll over the place”
Smexy Books – “I enjoyed the various story lines”
Into The Hall Of Books – “I absolutely adored this book”
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This doesn’t sound like a book I’d be into, but I the same thing you do, I write off an author after one bad book, but usually the opinion of friends/bloggers can sway me to give them another go eventually!
Yep, I get you. I try not to write an author off completely, but sometimes they just don’t work for you! Robyn Carr is one of those for me. I tried the first Virgin River book a while back (and by a while, I mean I’m pretty sure it’s been like 3 years, LOL). Hypothetically, it was one I would enjoy because the storyline sounded totally ME. Unfortunately, it just didn’t hold my interest. It took me several days to even get a little more than halfway through, and I wound up accidentally DNFing. I intended to come back to it; I just kind of forgot about it because I didn’t care about anything that was happening, haha. I know a lot of people love her, but I just don’t think Carr is for me.