Chance Encounter By Jennie Hansen Covenant Communications, 2000. Trade paperback: 231 pages. ISBN: 1-57734-671-8 Suggested retail price: $14.95 (US)
Reviewed by: Jeff Needle

Jennie Hansen has made an art form of combining romance and suspense in a way that does justice to both. Her stories are always entertaining, a pleasure to read.

Chance Encounter is the story of two people, both single, both lonely, brought together by fate (or by God, depending on your point of view). Kendra Emerson is a 35-year old accountant in Salt Lake City. After the death of her father, Kendra was left to raise her two younger sisters while their mother worked to support the family. As a consequence, she never developed the normal romantic interests of a young woman.

Chase Kirkham lives alone on a sheep ranch, having lost his family in a terrible fire some years ago. His face is scarred from that fire; his discomfort with his appearance only adds to his desire for solitude. Chase had given up on ever finding happiness again, and elected a solitary existence, not even a telephone.

En route to a Christmas celebration with her sisters in California, Kendra suffers a flat tire and stops in a small town to get it fixed. With time on her hands, she decides to do a little last minute Christmas shopping at the local department store. There she meets a little 5-year old boy named David Rolando.

Armed robbers arrive at the store, taking Kendra and little David hostage. They are subsequently released, left to freeze to death in a snowy wilderness. But Kendra and David somehow make their way to the main road where Chase Kirkham spots them. He takes them back to his ranch, where they spend the next several days together.

No surprise -- Kendra and Chase fall in love. It takes several days before they can get word out that Kendra and David are all right, and David is eventually reunited with his family. But the three have formed a strong bond that only adversity can effect. This bond helps them as the robbers stumble upon Chase's farm, and the three must escape their evil intentions.

By far, the strongest part of the book is the middle section, where Chase, Kendra and David learn the true spirit of Christmas. They celebrate December 25 together with little more than their ingenuity and a developing love for each other. I was genuinely touched by the strong message of this book -- the centrality of Christ to any celebration, and the relative meaninglessness of material things.

True to Hansen's style, the main characters have difficulty expressing their feelings for each other. I wonder if Hansen doesn't overdo this in her books. Because of the genre, we've all pretty well figured out how it will end up. So have most of the people around them. The protagonists seem to be the only ones who are clueless. I've only read a few of Hansen's books, so I don't know if this formula is a constant. Wouldn't it be fun if the hapless lovers *didn't* get together at the end?

Find a copy of Chance Encounters before this Christmas, and read it with an open heart. There's a richness in this story that will stay with me for a long time. I'm glad to have read this book.