2011 Carol Award winner for Debut Author from ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers)Jenny Lucas swore she'd never go home again. But being told ...
read full description
reviews
May 28, 2011
Cecelia
rated it: 
http://ceceliadowdy.blogspot.com/2011/05...
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes
What would you do if you found out today that you had less than one year to live?
Jenny Lucas left home years ago, pregnant and alone. Now a life-altering medical condition brings her back to her hometown. Her childhood house brings back painful memories - including memories of her de More...
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes
What would you do if you found out today that you had less than one year to live?
Jenny Lucas left home years ago, pregnant and alone. Now a life-altering medical condition brings her back to her hometown. Her childhood house brings back painful memories - including memories of her de More...
May 08, 2011
Renee
rated it: 
Maybe all of us have asked the question at one time or another, “Is there more to life than this?” One of my favorite country songs says it this way, “You know I’m more and more convinced the longer that I live that this can’t be–No, this can’t be. No, this can’t be all there is!” (from Believe)
A book I read recently brought this strongly to mind. It put me through an emotional wringer (for reasons I might share in a future post) and sent me to my Bible to soak in some of God’s familia More...
A book I read recently brought this strongly to mind. It put me through an emotional wringer (for reasons I might share in a future post) and sent me to my Bible to soak in some of God’s familia More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 04, 2011
Serena
rated it: 
Book Review: Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes
Reviewed by Serena Chase
Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes is one of those rare novels – a book that gouges itself into your heart so completely – and in so many different ways – that you ache with the desire to put it down, but can’t seem to rip yourself away. If you finally do manage to pull yourself away (you must, after all, sleep!) you hesitate to pick the novel back up because you’re not sure you have anything left in your em More...
0 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Aug 22, 2010
Martha
rated it:
Crossing Oceans – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat
‘Remember that night in the car, David? I started to tell you, but you broke up with me first. You said things could never work for us. You told me our fathers would never get along. You told me you didn’t share my desire for having a family. How could I tell you you were going to be a father right after you said you never wanted children? When she was born, I called you from the hospital as I held her i More...
‘Remember that night in the car, David? I started to tell you, but you broke up with me first. You said things could never work for us. You told me our fathers would never get along. You told me you didn’t share my desire for having a family. How could I tell you you were going to be a father right after you said you never wanted children? When she was born, I called you from the hospital as I held her i More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 13, 2010
Fran
rated it:
Crossing Oceans
Author Gina Holmes
Life dealt Jenny a bad hand. Returning home with her five-year-old daughter, she is greeted by a father who is about to meet his granddaughter for the first time. Knowing that time is of the essence and major decisions have to be made, Jenny needs to choose a caregiver for her daughter before it is too late.
A bright and shining star, Isabella enters a world that will forever change her life including her natural father. Knowing that More...
Author Gina Holmes
Life dealt Jenny a bad hand. Returning home with her five-year-old daughter, she is greeted by a father who is about to meet his granddaughter for the first time. Knowing that time is of the essence and major decisions have to be made, Jenny needs to choose a caregiver for her daughter before it is too late.
A bright and shining star, Isabella enters a world that will forever change her life including her natural father. Knowing that More...
Jul 09, 2010
Tamela
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
May 15, 2010
April
rated it:
Death has a way of forcing one’s hand, which is the only reason Jenny has come home. With her five-year-old daughter, Isabella, in tow, she re-enters small town life with the hopes of setting things right with her dad, the world’s most stubborn man. David, Isabella’s father, is another challenge she’d rather not face, but who else will care for her daughter after Jenny’s gone?
Arrogant and controlling, David hasn’t changed one iota since he got her pregnant just out of high school. When h More...
Arrogant and controlling, David hasn’t changed one iota since he got her pregnant just out of high school. When h More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
May 12, 2010
Molly
rated it:
Wow. Simply wow. What more can I say about a story that is as heart-wrenching as this one? It's beautiful. It's heart-breaking. It's real. It's life. Period.
Gina Holmes brings a wonderful story full of heart ache and pain. It's also a story of forgiveness, family, and love. Not to mention a bit of humor from time to time. But above all it's about leaning on God's ways and trusting Him to know what's best for everyone. I literally read this book in less than a day. I coul More...
Gina Holmes brings a wonderful story full of heart ache and pain. It's also a story of forgiveness, family, and love. Not to mention a bit of humor from time to time. But above all it's about leaning on God's ways and trusting Him to know what's best for everyone. I literally read this book in less than a day. I coul More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Apr 12, 2010
Nora
rated it:
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 wont’ soon forget!
Gina Holmes’s story reminds me of A Walk to Remember and The Notebook both written by N More...
Gina Holmes’s story reminds me of A Walk to Remember and The Notebook both written by N More...
May 12, 2010
Jennifer
rated it:
How far will a mother go to protect her child? Gina Holmes delves into this question in her debut novel, Crossing Oceans. When Jenny Lucas returns to her childhood home – something she swore she'd never do – she comes face to face with the consequences of the choices she's made over the last six years. Jenny and the people she left behind must repair relationships and put aside their own feelings in order to see to the needs of Jenny's daughter, Isabella.
Holmes takes a storyline that More...
Holmes takes a storyline that More...
Feb 17, 2011
Jenny
rated it:
I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought it had some real thoughts to meditate on. I did feel like some of it was unbelievable and that the author overdeveloped things that shouldn't have been and didn't develop other subjects that should've been.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 15, 2011
Rachael
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Oct 13, 2011
Kelly
rated it:
Although this book starts and finishes quite sad, it is a beautifully told story about one woman's journey as she copes with dying. Following a diagnosis of a terminal disease, Jenny and her 5-year old daughter Bella return to Jenny's childhood home to a family that has never met Bella in an attempt to reestablish a family bond for the sake of her daughter. Upon finding out she was pregnant years ago with the child of a boy her father disapproved of, Jenny fled her father's home and hasn't bee
More...
Jan 02, 2011
Annika
rated it:
Another free download for Kindle...and worth it. I wasn't sure how I'd handle this, because just the synopsis was pretty emotional...a woman is diagnosed with cancer and is dying, and she accepts this. She returns home to her estranged father and grandmother, to face her past and make amends. She also has a five-year old daughter, Isabella, whom she needs to prepare for the inevitable, and to find someone to raise her.
The story is written in first person, Jenny's point of view, as she More...
The story is written in first person, Jenny's point of view, as she More...
Jul 19, 2011
Julie
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 20, 2011
Kati
rated it:
This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It grabbed me from page one and held on tight. Be prepared with Kleenex though, it has its sad moments.
Although this one was already on my TBR list, the main reason I read it right now was because I saw a post on a blog I follow "<ahref="http://overweight-bookshelf.blogspot.com/">The Overweight Bookshelf</a>" and decided I'd join in the discussion for this month's book club. I am supposed to ans More...
Although this one was already on my TBR list, the main reason I read it right now was because I saw a post on a blog I follow "<ahref="http://overweight-bookshelf.blogspot.com/">The Overweight Bookshelf</a>" and decided I'd join in the discussion for this month's book club. I am supposed to ans More...
Dec 08, 2010
Sarah
rated it:
How do you prepare for your own death? It's a sad coincidence that I finished reading this book the same day that Elizabeth Edwards died. The heroine of this book had less time than Mrs Edwards to prepare. She had been diagnosed with cancer, and given less than a year to live. Jenny Lucas returned home to the father she had not spoken to in almost six years, and to the ex-boyfriend who didn't know he had fathered a little girl now five years old.
I bought this book because DailyCheapreads.com More...
I bought this book because DailyCheapreads.com More...
May 05, 2011
Angie
rated it:
This book really moved me. As in sobbing in the car like a lunatic in the doctor's office parking lot for a half hour after my appointment because I couldn't stop reading until I finished the book and got some closure. The story is incredibly thought-provoking and really took me on an emotional roller coaster. Beautifully poignant interactions between the mother and daughter. Those were my favorite parts of the book. I felt like the descriptions of the mother's emotions and physical pains were r
More...
Jun 11, 2010
Che'lyssa
rated it:
Gina Holmes wrote this book with her heart on her sleeve, and that's just an understatement because of my lack of finding a better explanation of how much love this story poured out.
This was one of those "finish in 2 days because you can't put it down" kind of books. The love I felt while reading a heart wrenched story of sorrow and death was unexplainable. The author put such an authentic and genuine touch on the loathing and gruesome truth of death. I don't know if experi More...
This was one of those "finish in 2 days because you can't put it down" kind of books. The love I felt while reading a heart wrenched story of sorrow and death was unexplainable. The author put such an authentic and genuine touch on the loathing and gruesome truth of death. I don't know if experi More...
May 29, 2010
Staci
rated it:
I was immediately drawn to this story: young woman loses her mom early in life, find "true" love (she thinks), ends up pregnant so she flees from home, only to return five years later because she doesn't have long to live and she needs to make things right with her father and the father of her daughter. This is an impressive debut novel by Holmes, one that took her ten years to bring to completion. I enjoyed this one very much and only found myself being upset a few times at certain ch
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jul 04, 2011
Linda
rated it:
In this book Gina Holmes creates a world where a mother’s love and a child’s innocence join forces to twist, pull and tug at every emotion. Jenna learns she has one year to live. As a single mother, estranged from her family this means one year to establish a future for her five year old daughter. The story sounds sad but it’s really thought provoking and inspirational; one that will resonate with women in particular. As Jenny prepares for her daughter’s future she makes some tough but realistic
More...
Apr 25, 2011
Katya
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 06, 2012
De'Zsa
rated it:
"Crossing Oceans" was an inspiring book. It had me screaming, crying, and laughing at the pages. I wasn't going to read it, but I didn't have anything else to read and I do not regret it. I had to give it 4 stars; everything went by a little too fast (book should be a bit longer). Other than that, I enjoyed it.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 13, 2011
Gail
rated it:
A free book I downloaded for my kindle. Not quite sure what to say about this one, I'm still a little emotional from reading it!
Jenny Lucas left home alone and pregnant, reeling from her mom's death and a father she felt was too distant. Now she's been given a cancer diagnosis that changes everything for her and causes her to return to her small North Carolina hometown. Jenny tries to navigate the unknown and secure a future for her 5 year old daughter. But all family members involv More...
Jenny Lucas left home alone and pregnant, reeling from her mom's death and a father she felt was too distant. Now she's been given a cancer diagnosis that changes everything for her and causes her to return to her small North Carolina hometown. Jenny tries to navigate the unknown and secure a future for her 5 year old daughter. But all family members involv More...
Jun 15, 2011
Peggy
rated it:
How does a mother describe death to her five-year-old daughter? Looking out over the water from her father’s property Jenny tells Isabella that death is like crossing from one side of the ocean to the other. Jenny is forced to do this because she is dying. Only a reason so dire could have forced her return to the North Carolina town she turned her back on six years ago, grieving her mother’s death and abandoned by the men in her life. Her father was overwhelmed by his own grief and her boyfriend
More...
Dec 27, 2011
Denise
rated it:
This is an interesting read. I probably would not have picked this book on my own but it was one of the Kindle Daily specials so I took a risk. This book has a strong religious (Christian) theme that might no appeal to everyone. A young mother is facing a terminal illness and gaining some perspective on her life and her past decisions. She apparently left her family and her boyfriend abruptly after finding out she was pregnant at 18. She has been living on her own and raising her daughter w
More...
Oct 19, 2010
Cricket
rated it:
This book grabs you from the very beginning and doesn't let you go. Be prepared to laugh, and cry. So full of meaning and love, this book is a must read. Jenny has come home to confront her past. She left her home town 6 years previously and is forced to come back to try to put her family back together for her daughter's sake. Jenny is going to die and she must mend the bridges that were burned when she left. She must fight for what is best for her daughter, Isabella, even when it hurts.
More...
May 13, 2010
Clockstein
rated it:
Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes is a stunning debut novel. Jenny Lucas has returned home after five years to do the hardest thing she's ever had to do. She left home after being dumped by her childhood sweetheart, David, just before she could tell him that she was pregnant. Her father's cold treatment after the death of her mother made her turn to David for comfort, but feeling abandoned by both of them, she left town to raise her daughter, Isabella, alone. Facing a death sentence from cancer, Je
More...
Feb 18, 2011
Sylvia
rated it: 
I wanted to like this book but found myself totally annoyed. I had very little sympathy for Jenny, even given her tough situation. I was really sympathetic at first, but her behavior, anger, jealousy, very poor treatment of others (except her daughter) was unbecoming and selfish. I scratched my head wondering why her high school friend was so in love with her. How can you so deeply love someone who you never knew in high school and now who you haven't seen in how many years? Pure fantasy. I
More...
Jun 24, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
I really loved the wisdom in this story. I can relate to parts of it personally but I think we all can relate to losing your first love. The main character is Jenny and she realizes she is pregnant when her boyfriend breaks up with her. Over the years, she never tells him because he has moved on and married. Jenny decided she has to let him go. Estranged from her family, Jenny has to go back home when she is diagnosed with incurable cancer.
Family is at the center of this book. We More...
Family is at the center of this book. We More...
