With its breathtaking vistas and down-to-earth people, Thunder Point is the perfect place for FBI agent Laine Carrington to recuperate from a gunshot wound and contemplate her future. The locals embraced Laine as one of their own after she risked her life to save a young girl from a dangerous cult. Knowing her wounds go beyond the physical, Laine hopes she’ll fit in for a while and find her true self in a town that feels safe. She may even learn to open her heart to others, something an undercover agent has little time to indulge.

Eric Gentry is also new to Thunder Point. Although he’s a man with a dark past, he’s determined to put down roots and get to know the daughter he only recently discovered. When Laine and Eric meet, their attraction is obvious to everyone. But while the law enforcement agent and the reformed criminal want to make things work, their differences may run too deep…unless they take a chance on each other and find that deep and mysterious bond that belongs to those who choose love over fear.

Let me just say that the FBI/criminal thing really doesn’t go that far in this book. Instead The Chance is about two people with normal, complicated lives who fall in love and have to figure out how to make it work regardless of their other obligations. I think that is my favorite part of Robyn Carr’s characters – they are just like you and me, with normal problems and normal feelings and normal issues. They have to figure out how (or even if) they can make one life together with all the associated complications from two individual ones. It’s sweet and honest and straight-forward and I loved every minute of it.

Laine has some family complications she has to figure out, as well as trying to decide what she wants to do with her job going forward. Considering she’s on a year-long hiatus from her East Coast job, it isn’t surprising that Eric is a little hesitant about what that means for a future together. He’s got a job, friends and family in Thunder Point and he wants to be there at least a little longer. It doesn’t lead to a lot of large scale drama, instead it’s a very real one that could happen to anyone you know.

I really enjoyed both of the main characters (and I’ve never been shy about saying how much I love the rest of them) – Laine is sweet and loving, but being an FBI agent she also has a spine of steel. She’s smart, wily, funny and caring. Eric will be the first to say he was an idiot as a kid but he got his act together and he’s turned into a wonderful man. He’s considerate, loving and quite sexy. He’s smart, hardworking, but he’s learned from his past and come to grips with it. He could be bitter but instead he figured out how to be a better person for it. He takes care of those around him and loves very well.

And while we get some updates on previous characters, although not as much as maybe some of the other books in the series, we mainly focus on the central plot and one other subplot.  It’s a sweet story with a couple of Eric’s workers that just about broke my heart before everything was tied up nicely at the end.  The two storylines worked well together and I didn’t feel cheated or rushed with either of them.

The Chance is part of a series, but I think that you’ll be able to keep up even if you haven’t read any of the previous stories … although I will tell you that you are missing out on something great if you haven’t read the rest.  If you like home-grown, real-life, small-town romances, you can’t miss with Robin Carr.