Just when you're in love, life goes wrong. A Coast Guard search and rescue pilot working out of Thunder Point, Oregon, is told she's up for a promotion and transfer to the Atlantic coast. She's got a partner who's just settled in and built a business, and a brother a year away from college. Similarly, a young girl still at school has lost her boyfriend to the lure of college dating now he's eighteen. She feels her life is over.

In THE NEWCOMER Sarah Dupre the pilot brings Hank Cooper to visit her SAR station and as he's been a helicopter pilot he gets on fine with everyone. He doesn't know yet about the transfer, as Sarah can't make up her mind whether to accept or resign. Hank has been great for her, but she's not sure she wants to ask him to support her with his new beach bar, and the college fees are her problem. Ashley James, the dumped teenager, has finally stopped texting the boy she'd been dating and joined a support group. Her mother Gina wishes such support had been there for her, when she was dumped as a fifteen year old in the family way. Some ladies about town still look down on her for that, she discovers. Small towns do have drawbacks, though in other ways the kindness and solidarity is wonderful. One woman who walked out of this town however has just driven back in - the ex-wife of Gina's new partner, twice as glamorous as Hollywood.

THE NEWCOMER is the second in Robyn Carr's new Thunder Point series, and all those who've followed her Virgin River series won't be disappointed with the new setting. Her characters feel very real, with normal human reactions and crises. Topical issues are addressed like cyber- bullying by teenagers and DNA testing of suddenly- discovered children. In Thunder Point we see grey whales, wild flowers and woodland as setting, with the crashing waves of the Pacific to draw fishermen and boarders. I liked this town and while I was reading the book as a standalone, not having read the first, I'll be picking up the rest of the series. The first instalment is called The Wanderer and the third will be The Hero. Enjoy!