Book Review: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow by Carlene Havel

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Carlene Havel

Prism Book Group

September, 2013 

ISBN: 978-1-940099-13-2

$3.99 ebook; $10.99 pbook

Contemporary Inspiration

 

Havel’s newest novel takes the reader into the life of Casey Slaughter, a cliché divorcee working hard to put the pieces of her life together after her cheating husband leaves her for the other woman. Casey never had the opportunity to figure who she was, or who she wanted to be because she was so busy putting her husband through law school, and just shy enough not to talk about her suspicions over her cruddy marriage to anyone else. Everyone has problems sometimes, so it never occurred to her that the problems were not normal.

 

Added to the above a lower than average self-esteem and what could be a health issue, Casey spends two years stepping outside her comfort zone, not wildly, but enough to find a happy medium life. She establishes herself in a hobby she enjoys, and even buys a house. During this time, Casey also takes the time to step down from her pity party and listen to that still small voice, inviting her back to fellowship with God. When she realizes there are always two sides to the story and she wasn’t a perfect marriage partner, either, she is able to move on.

 

Casey’s new neighbors are both loving and exasperating, as are her co-workers, who enjoy gossip both for fun and for vicarious escapes from their own problems. When a new neighbor moves in, he is ripe for the picking. Casey even listens to some of the gossip and makes up her own mind about Carlos Tucker, who she first meets while he’s decked out for…something…in a pirate costume and full make up. But nothing, of course, is what it seems.

 

Join Casey and her fun family as they all work out their relationships and identities, as they learn who they can trust when the going gets tough, and that the only thing that won’t be gone tomorrow is the Lord who is in control of it all.

 

Havel has created a pleasant read, a sweet story that’s a step away from the typical romances. It’s a piece of life that’s all too real, but a nice diversion from your own. Time passes a little quickly in some spots and there are a few leaps in logic which I had no trouble following. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the setting, and even the hurricane, experienced safely from my chair. Readers who are looking for something different from the same-old same-old will enjoy this tale.