In Take a Chance on Me by Susan May Warren, Darek Christiansen is a single father working with his parents on the resort they've had for years: Evergreen Lake Resort in Minnesota. Darek had been a firefighter, but when his wife died, he worked at the resort to help take care of his son.
He and his wife, Felicity, and friends Jensen and Claire had grown up together in the area. But Jensen was responsible for Felicity's death. Darek is angry at Jensen, at himself, at God.
Ivy Madison has just moved to the area as the new assistant country attorney. When she bids on Darek for a date at a charity auction, she doesn't know what to make of his curmudgeonly behavior. But she sees a tender side of him when he's with his son.
Ivy had grown up in the foster care system, and Darek's family feels like the one she had always longed for.
But then she has a stunning realization. Before moving here, she had been asked to write a proposed plea deal for a man guilty of vehicular homicide. Since the incident was an accident, she suggested that the man do hours of community service rather than jail time.
After learning Derak's story, Ivy realizes Jensen is the man whose plea deal she crafted. When Darek learns that Ivy was the one who kept Jensen out of jail, will he forgive her?
Meanwhile, a wildfire rages nearby. Firefighters are on it, but can they keep it from engulfing the town and resort?
Another plot line involves Claire, her unrequited love for Jensen, and her desire to stay in town while her missionary parents want her to go to college at age 25. There's also a tussle when Claire's grandfather has an accident. She wants to take care of him; her parents want to move him to a home.
I thought this was the first Susan May Warren book I had read, but I see I had read a few of her Christmas books in past years: Evergreen: A Christiansen Winter Novella (which I just realized involved the family from this book), The Great Christmas Bowl, and Baby, It's Cold Outside.
The point of view switches back and forth between Darek, Ivy, Jensen, and Claire. One interesting thing about this story is that at first, Darek seems like the innocent wounded party and Jensen seems like the bad guy. But as we learn more of what happened and get to know them better, we see Darek (as well as Felicity) has done things he's not proud of, and Jensen has good qualities no one appreciates at first.
I thought the faith element was woven in naturally.
Favorite quotes:
I knew your future would take you far from Evergreen Lake. I feared it would take you far, also, from your legacy of faith. Watching your son leave your arms has no comparison to watching him leave God's. You never seemed to question the beliefs your father and I taught you. Perhaps that is what unsettled me the most. Because without questioning, I wondered how there could be true understanding.
"Small acts of justice can make great ripples in the community." "Or tear it apart."
We can't hold onto something so hard that it destroys everything else we love.
I disagreed with one character saying that God acts almost entirely out of the emotion of love. Love isn't just an emotion. And I wouldn't say God acts primarily on emotion.
And I was disappointed Susan spelled out a metaphor that arose with the wildfire and something that was going on in the plot. It was kind of neat to make that connection, and I felt it would have been stronger if the reader had been allowed to make it for herself rather than being told.
But overall I liked getting to know the characters and their situations and where everyone ended up in their journeys. I enjoyed the audiobook narrated by Carol Monda. I didn't realize that this book was the first of seven involving the Christianson family. I was able to find several of them for free with Audible's Plus Catalog,
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