Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes

I’d heard a box of tissue was required for the reading of Gina Holmes’s debut novel Crossing Oceans. And although I’m generally a crier, I took that as kind of a challenge to get through the book without enough tears to require the assistance of Kleenex.

But I didn’t make it.

The thing I loved about this book is that while the story line seemed guaranteed to tug at my heartstrings, Gina drew her characters with such realism that what could have been a bit melodramatic came across as true-to-life. As the characters’s emotions rollercoastered from joy to anger, fear to faith, frustration to resignation, mine followed. And though the ultimate end was known almost from the beginning, it was poignant and beautiful and worth the ride.