Review: The Newcomer by Robyn Carr

The Newcomer (Thunder Point #2) by Robyn Carr, AF, 2013, 400p, Rating=2.5
Source: provided by publicist/author through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Adult content: language and sex
Mild SPOILER at end of review

Single dad and Thunder Point's deputy sheriff "Mac" McCain has worked hard to keep everyone safe and happy. Now he's found his own happiness with Gina James. The longtime friends have always shared the challenges and rewards of raising their adolescent daughters. With an unexpected romance growing between them, they're feeling like teenagers themselves-suddenly they can't get enough of one another.

And just when things are really taking off, their lives are suddenly thrown into chaos. When Mac's long-lost-and not missed-ex-wife shows up in town, drama takes on a whole new meaning. They're wondering if their new feelings for each other can withstand the pressure...but they are not going down without a fight.

This installment didn't enthrall me as much as the first book in the series.  There was too much going on and was overall not balanced even though everything ironed out by book's end.  For example, the process to get to the answer to Sarah's dilemma in the beginning of the book seemed to promise a great anticipatory romance resolution.  There was a solution but before getting there, we had to read through the heavy subject of Ashley's emotional dealings with sexting, the arrivals of exes and their baggage, more new characters, and yes, definitely chaos as the blurb stated.  I see the concept of giving more details on characters for background and depth.  I just felt that the emphasis went to the wrong people and not enough for others.  It made for a stressful read.  Also, the cursing, however minimal, bothered me this time.

Yet with all the chaos, I still enjoyed the Thunder Point arena of towns people and find myself interested in their lives.  You know why?  Because they came alive in my head.  Life does throw us fastballs, screwballs, and curveballs so it was interesting to see how they would play out.  Hence, beyond nitpicking the incongruence of character page time, you find most of these small town residences going through challenges of substance.  Plus the romance department was generally satisfyingly hot and the budding ones cute.  I still have enough love for Thunder Point to see it through to the very end. 

Oh, my favorite character this time around was Lou.  She was the glue.


(SPOILER ALERT starts here) I do have a qualm about the title.  It can very well be the alternate title for book one but not the perfect fit for this installment in that it didn't align with all that was going on in the book.  Haha, I suggest, "The Chaos".   However, knowing who "the newcomer" is gives me an assumption that Ms Carr was theming the title to characterize the same person throughout the series and so the hero in the next book will be none other than ******!  I'll have to see if my assumption pans out in the next book. (SPOILER ALERT ends here)