Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes

Title: Crossing Oceans
Author: Gina Holmes
ISBN: 978-1414333052
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers/2010
Pages: 400

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Back Cover:
Sometimes love demands the impossible

Nothing deepens a stream like a good rain . . . or makes it harder to cross.Jenny Lucas swore she’d never go home again. But life has a way of upending even the best-laid plans. Now, years after she left, she and her five-year-old daughter must return to her sleepy North Carolina town to face the ghosts she left behind. They welcome her in the form of her oxygen tank-toting grandmother, her stoic and distant father, and David, Isabella’s dad . . . who doesn’t yet know he has a daughter.

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Right from the beginning we know Jenny is dying. She has a young daughter, Isabella, who needs looking after. Jenny has no option other than going back home, in North Carolina town. Her father is a seemingly cold hearted person with whom she could never connect and David, who is not aware of the existence of his own daughter Isabella. Jenny has to make sure that one of them can take care of her daughter, after she is gone.

Meanwhile, in the five years, David has married. And does not have any children. He and his wife are keen on a child. When he becomes aware of Isabella, he wants her in his life. Jenny's father blames David's father, a doctor, for his wife's death. They don't have any love between them. Jenny wants the best for her daughter and will do any thing for her.

A novel which starts with despair and sadness moves us through various family equations. WE see the deep abiding mother-daughter love. The dynamics of relationship can sustain in the face of any adversity. That is what Gina Holmes has brought forward. The deep faith can take anyone to the top. When Jenny passes away, she lives behind families united. All due to her daughter Isabella.

One of most endearing characters in the novel is, Jenny's grandmother, who is always toting a oxygen cylinder. One simply can't help loving her. It is a beautifully told story, one which touches us.