Jack Sheridan from Virgin River by Robyn Carr was my all time favorite hero of 2007.

I loved him. I wanted to marry him and have all kinds of babies in the mountain with him because he is everything that I’ve always wanted in a man. He’s strong, he’s caring and he’s a sexy beast to boot. There are too many things to love about Jack Sheridan and the bad things about him, like his temper and his overwhelming protectiveness only make him ever better. He wasn’t this perfect hero who always had the answers and who always did the right thing. He made mistakes and he pouted and he got angry and he got rip roaring drunk and he was just….

…a man about it.

Those are the things that I love most about Jack Sheridan. I loved that even though he was such a man’s man, he had a good heart. He was one of those good guys and it was okay. He wasn’t really the bad boy who was mysterious and dark. He was just a regular guy who had problems and needed love just as much as the next guy and his normalness (is that a word?) was sexy to me.

He was sexy to me.

I can picture the kind of man Jack Sheridan is. He’s the hot and sexy guy at work that works out at the gym and minds his own business and is super sexy. You see him smile and you melt, you see him scowl and you think, damn and then you see him interact with others and you want to be closer to him. You want to know him and you want to love and be loved by him in return.

To know Jack Sheridan is to love him. It’s as simple as that. Jack Sheridan is one of those heroes that you’ll be hard pressed to find a woman who doesn’t love and think he’s one sexy beast. You just won’t.

And here’s why:

She had made it all day without falling apart, but now but now in the dark, in the cold night rain, she felt as thoughshe was going to collapse to the ground and just lie there in the mud long enough to perish, to be with him. She stumbled toward a tree and grabbed the trunk, embracing it, holding herself up and holding on at the same time. The cries that came out of her were loud and wrenching. Why couldn’t we at least have had a baby? Why couldn’t even that small thing have worked in our favor? Just to have a piece of him to live for…

Inside, Jack paced back and forth in the bar, feeling his own helplessness because he couldn’t do anything for her. He knew all about the crushing pain of loss; even more about the difficulty of getting beyond it. He hated that she’d be left without at least letting him try to comfort her.

Frustrated, he opened the door to go after her. There sat her BMW, right in front of the porch, but she wasn’t in it. He squinted to look into the car, but then he heard her. Sobbing. Wailing. He couldn’t see her. He stepped out onto the porch, went down the steps into the rain.

And then he saw her–holding on to the tree, the rain drenching her. He ran to her, embracing her from behind, holding the tree with her, holding her against the tree. Her back heaved with her cries, her cheek pressed against the rough bark. The sound of her anguish broke his heart; no way could he let her go, no matter what she said about being alone. This crying made her weeping over baby Chloe loo like a mere rehearsal. She was wracked. She started to crumble to the ground and he put his arms under hers and held her upright as the rain soaked them.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” she howled. “Oh God, oh God, oh God!”

“Okay,” he whispered. “Let it go, let it out.”

“Why, why, why?” she cried in the night, her breath coming in jagged gasps.

Her whole body jerked and shook as she cried. “Oh, God, why?” “Let it all out,” he whispered, his lips against her wet hair. She screamed. She opened her mouth, tipped her head back against him and screamed at the top of her lungs. He hoped she wouldn’t wake the dead, the sound was so powerful. But he only hoped she wasn’t heard so that no one would disturb them and stop this purging. He wanted to do this with her. He wanted to be there for her. The scream subsided into hard sobbing. Then more quietly, “Oh, God, I can’t. I can’t, I can’t.”

“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered. “I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Her legs didn’t seem to hold her up anymore; he was keeping her upright. He had the passing thought that no amount of emotion he had ever expelled in his lifetime could match this. It was almost phenomenal in its strength, this pain that gripped her. What had he thought? That his few days of brooding, a good drunk, had been demonstrative of his pain? Hah! He held in his arms a woman who knew more about gut-wrenching pain than he did. His eyes stung. He kissed her cheek. “Let it go,” he whispered. “Get it out. It’s okay.”

….

“I loved him so much” He touched her wet cheek, unable to tell the tears from the rain.

“I know,” he said.

“It was so unfair.”

“It was.”

“How do I live with it?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. She let her head drop against his chest.

“God, it hurt so much.” “I know,” he said again.

To hold the woman you’re falling in love with while she cries her heart out for someone else takes a lot of strength and courage and Jack had both in spades. Jack Sheridan is the man of all men and the wealth of love he has in himself for one small woman, to love a woman who was still in love with her husband when they met takes a lot and I can go on and on about why I love Jack Sheridan but if you haven’t already, you should really read his book to find out all the many reasons YOU’LL fall in love with him. Find your own reasons for loving Jack. And then come back and share them with us because this scene is only a small part of how strong Jack is. It’s only a small part of why I love Jack.

Not only is Jack Sheridan sexy and everything you’ll ever want in a man but his book, Virgin River is one of the best books I’ve read last year. It’s got a small town you’ll love, characters you wish you knew in your real life and steamy romance all thrown into an incredibly written story.

And once you’ve become a big fan of Robyn Carr like all of us here on Book Binge, come back on November 13th because Robyn Carr herself will be here herself hanging out with us over here at Book Binge.

Seriously, don’t walk but RUN to the bookstore and read this book if you haven’t already. You won’t be sorry.

This book is available from Mira Books. You can buy it here.