Nora St. Laurent runs two book clubs near Atlanta, Ga., and is the coordinator for the ACFW Book Club. Nora currently writes a Book Club Column for the Christian Fiction Online Magazine. She writes reviews and interviews authors on her blog Carol Award: Debut Author Winner: Crossing Oceans
Title: Crossing Oceans
Author: Gina Holmes
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (Kathryn Olson, Editor)
ISBN: 978-1-4143-3305-3
Category: Women’s Fiction
Reviewed by: Nora St. Laurent
Time – there never seems to be enough time to do the things that matter. Knowing you only had months to live, what would you do? I didn’t think I could read this book because I had lost my dad to cancer a short time ago, but Gina Holmes has penned a brilliant story of love and sacrifice. It’s one I won’t soon forget!
Gina Holmes has penned a brilliant story of love and sacrifice. It’s one I won’t soon forget!
Holmes’s story, Crossing Oceans, reminds me of A Walk to Remember and The Notebook both written by Nicholas Sparks. Homes has an amazing gift to masterfully blend together a memorable story filled with a special tenderness, hope, love, forgiveness, mixed with a sense of well timed humor, throughout her book that touched my heart deeply. It ignited warm feelings of love and hope I can’t explain.
Isabella’s mom, Jenny is sick. Jenny is on a mission to go to North Carolina, to make peace with her family and her past. She knows what it’s like to lose a mom at a young age. She was going to do everything in her power to make this journey easier for her daughter.
Six-year-old Isabella is the common denominator between two families not fond of each other. She looks to her mom, Jenny, for understanding about the change taking place in her world. Jenny reaches out to God for the strength to do the impossible. I could only hope God would give me the strength to be like Jenny when my time is near.
I anxiously turned the pages of Crossing Oceans, as I read of Jenny’s last days and remembered my dad’s. As I finished the last page, healing tears slid down my cheeks and a knot formed in my throat – I was forever touched in my heart, mind, and emotions by the words I had read.
Holmes gave me a peek into how it might be to have my heavenly daddy and my earthly daddy waiting for me when it’s my time to run into their loving arms! Home at last! God prepares us for this passage if we let him. Gina gave me a glimpse into a young woman’s crossing to the life after this one – a journey we all must take.
This book was a gift to me and I suspect it will be for many others. I’ll be waiting in line to read your next book for sure! Yes, I’m sure there will be a line.
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