Book Review: Crossing the Oceans

Written by Gina Holmes –
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? Thanks to the publisher for the review copy of Crossing the Oceans. I have to be honest I didn’t think I could read this book because I had lost my dad to cancer a short time ago. But Gina Holmes pens a brilliant story of love and sacrifice. It’s one I won’t soon forget!Gina Holmes’s story reminds me of A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, both written by Nicholas Sparks. This author has an amazing gift to masterfully blend together a memorable story filled with special tenderness, hope, love and 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 inside 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 an understanding to 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 the 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, forever touched in my heart, mind and emotions by the words I had read.

This author gave me a peak 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 all of us must take.

Gina Holmes, this book is a gift to me and I suspect it will be for many others. I had no idea you could write like this. I’m excited at what God can do through your obedience to Him, your writing and this book. I’ll be waiting in line to read your next book for sure! Yes, there will be a line!

Nora St. Laurent is the ACFW Book Club Coordinator.