The Hero by Robyn Carr (Thunder Point #3)
Contemporary Romance
August 27, 2013
Harlequin MIRA
Reviewed by Helyce
As a young girl, with no family left after her Aunt dies, Devon falls for a handsome charismatic man who takes her under his wing and invites her to live in his home. With little choice, the opportunity to be safe with shelter and food, is too much to pass up and she accepts. Once there, he showers her with attention and she falls in love with him, gets pregnant and has a baby girl, Mercy. Sadly, though, she quickly learns that she is not the only woman that he’s sleeping with. There are other women in the “compound” known as The Fellowship and he has children with them as well. She has little choice but to stay; but when an opportunity presents itself and she’s able to leave, she doesn’t think twice about it.
When Rawley Goode comes across Devon and Mercy walking along the highway, he stops and picks her up. Rawley is an older man, a veteran, and he senses that Devon is alone in the world and needs some help. He takes her to Thunder Point and offers her safety and shelter with no strings attached. Devon accepts because she has no choice and she is worried about what will happen when everyone realizes she’s left the compound.
Spencer is embracing his new life in Thunder Point and he’s looking forward to his new job at the high school. He’s made friends and his son Austin has adjusted very well to the move there. He certainly isn’t looking for romance, his wife only died a few months ago, but there is something about Devon that calls to him and he decides to pursue it. When Devon finally feels comfortable enough to tell Spencer the truth about where she’s been, The Fellowship, and what she thinks was really going on there, Spencer encourages her to tell Mac, a local police officer.
What follows is a bit predictable. The Fellowship certainly wants to get Devon back. She knows their secrets and the leader, Jacob, has a lot to lose if those secrets get out. He’s not about to take that chance and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to make sure that doesn’t happen. It all comes down to a big battle with guns and arrests-but we get an HEA. The bad guys go down and the good guys prevail.
As a big fan of Ms. Carr’s contemporaries, it feels like a sin to say anything negative about her books. Truly, it hurts my heart-but after reading the first three books in this new series the parallels to her previous series, Virgin River, cannot be denied and I’m a bit sad. The setup is similar but the names have been changed and even the damsel in distress trope in this story with Devon and the trouble she finds herself associated with have glaring similarities to certain events in Virgin River, in my opinion.
I love Ms. Carr’s stories because I know that I’ll get a well written story with likable characters in a set up that warms my heart and makes me want to live there. It’s why I didn’t hesitate in starting this new series, Thunder Point.
Ms. Carr’s exceptional writing will always draw me in and The Hero is a well written book. We get a bit more focus on the main couple, Devon and Spencer, in this one, but we are still treated to updates on characters from the first two books which always makes me happy when reading a series. There is a wedding, baby news but the multiple story lines flow smoothly and are easy to follow; not overwhelming at all.
The character of Spencer says the following in The Hero and it nicely sums up why these stories usually work for me:
He took a drink of his beer. “I haven’t been here too long, Devon, but there’s something I know about this town. Unless you’re a really bad person or someone who stirs up a lot of trouble, they just hope things work out. That’s all. They want their kids to be safe and make something out of themselves, they want their neighbors to get by all right, they want their friends to be happy and they want to be blessed with work. Everyone around here seems to work real hard. They seem to always be pulling for the good guys. It’s so uncomplicated.”
So, while I’m saddened by what I consider blatant parallels to her previous series, I did like this story. I like Thunder Point and I like the characters that have been introduced so far. Will I continue to read this series? I’m not sure. I’ll probably be tempted, because I do adore Robyn Carr-but there are too many good books out there to read a story that feels like I may have read it before only the names have been changed.
Rating: C
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