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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

Life Is Full of Second Chances What Was Yours?

by Chautona Havig · 8 Comments

Sometimes, second chances change the whole course of your life, and sometimes they don't last long enough to. Sometimes... sometimes it's both. via @chautonahavig

We planned a fiftieth wedding anniversary party–across the miles and one we never actually held.  My parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary happened smack dab between #1son’s and #5daughter’s graduations from college.  Oh, and just after that, I had to teach at a conference.

It would have been awkward, I told myself.  Dad’s in a home now.  Mom wasn’t.  Since being at my mom’s house in Noel, I know even better why the Lord decided that our grand plans for a party weren’t to be.  He’s pretty good at that stuff if we just don’t try to force our ideas about things.

Around that time, I had a chance to read a book about another woman’s experiences in marriage–a long one and a short one.  I figured it would be a good book, so I requested a free review copy.

My parents had a second chance, once.  I’ve had second chances.  How about you?

Second Chances Review

Links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.  Additionally, I received a free copy of the book for review purposes and the following review is my opinion alone.

Life Is Full of Second Chances What Was Yours?

The genre for this book is listed as “Family and relationships/Death, Grief, Bereavement.  I’d call it a memoir.  Written almost as a diary of the author’s life over the span of about five years, we learn much of the two very different men she married, what she learned from each of them, and how the Lord blessed her with both easy and difficult marriages.

Saying goodbye to one husband is hard enough, but having to do it back-to-back has to be one of the hardest things a woman can live through, and while Ms. Mozena is raw and real about her pain, her faith shines through.  She encouraged me by her trust in the Lord in difficult times.

Still, I have to admit that some parts confused me. I find it difficult to understand why people choose which details they share. Some of the details in this are clearly very important to the author–clothing, food, decor.  But aside from a couple of things, they only confused me because I kept waiting for the point to them to show up. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

I’m glad I chose to request a review copy of the book.  If I’d known it was a memoir, I wouldn’t have, and I would have missed some encouraging stories.  Recommended for people who enjoy memoirs, seasoned romance, and encouragement in the Lord’s goodness even when it seems that He isn’t.

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Filed Under: Book Reviews

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Comments

  1. Trixi says

    November 3, 2019 at 7:43 pm

    Thank you for your review on this book. I like to read how people find strength in the Lord through difficult circumstances because it gives me hope for when I go through my own. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Bea LaRocca says

    October 25, 2019 at 6:29 pm

    Thank you for sharing your review of Second Chances. Your comments on the story were helpful.

    Reply
  3. James Robert says

    October 25, 2019 at 5:49 am

    So happy to have gotten to know about your book. Thanks so much for sharing.

    Reply
  4. Melissa Wenger says

    October 25, 2019 at 4:56 am

    I’m always looking for ways to understand what others are going through. Sounds like this book will be helpful!

    Reply
  5. Amelia says

    October 24, 2019 at 10:30 pm

    This book sounds really good.

    Reply
  6. Dianna says

    October 24, 2019 at 8:02 pm

    I’m not typically a fan of memoirs but just finished two. So, maybe I should start reading more of them!

    Reply
  7. Debbie P says

    October 24, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    This book sounds like a fantastic read.

    Reply
  8. Rita Wray says

    October 24, 2019 at 11:30 am

    Sounds like a good read.

    Reply

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Episode 579: A Chat with Lauren Smyth
byChautona Havig

Dystopian in the desert? Sign me up! Seriously, listen in while Lauren Smyth and I chat all things “glowy” in the desert!

note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

Not a lot of people write books about the boring Mojave Desert. When they do, I take note. Especially when it’s a super-cool dystopian delight! EEEP!

All That Glows by Lauren Smyth

The apocalypse didn’t take everyone. It just took us. Ever since the rain turned green, Kyrie’s world has been bathed in glowing dust. She packs it into old mascara tubes and sells it as makeup alongside dried cacti, threadbare blankets, and long-expired canned food. There’s not much else to do when everyone outside Kyrie’s small town in the Mojave Desert died from the plague-bearing rain ten years ago. Everyone—except the man in the rubber mask. He’s on the dangerous side of the fence, huffing infected air like it’s nothing, babbling to Kyrie about college and umbrellas and yogurt and everything else that disappeared the day it rained. He doesn’t seem to know that the world ended, and he has no explanation for how he survived the apocalypse. But Kyrie doesn’t believe in ghosts. She can’t trust him, but he’s right about one thing: Towns without secrets aren’t surrounded by chain-link fences. And chain-link fences won’t keep out the plague forever.

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Episode 579: A Chat with Lauren Smyth
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Avelino Carrillo is home from the Pacific Theater and wounded in more ways than one. Determined to earn back his family's vineyard, despite the underhanded machinations of a local "land baron," his new life home is everything he could've hoped for and nothing like he expected. It's heartache and joy, love and acceptance, and rejection and disdain. As he shares his family's stories with the people living in his family home, he's even more determined to succeed than ever. If not for himself and his family, then for the young woman who has stolen his heart.
Deepest Roots of the Heart is available on Kindle, "free" through Kindle Unlimited, and also as an audiobook narrated by the fabulous Thom Rivera @thomriveraofficial. His ability to flip between accents is astounding.
When Reid decided on "no girlfriends" for his firs When Reid decided on "no girlfriends" for his first year out of prison, he hadn't counted on prayer-singing, guitar-playing nurse Kelsey. Oh, and he hadn't counted on a matchmaking florist (not to mention said florist's obsession with daisies!). When a floral fiasco says all the right things to the right woman at the wrong time, Reid has to decide if his decision was God-directed or if romance was part of His plans all along.
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