Author Gina Holmes Has Done It Again With Driftwood Tides! A CFBA Blog Tour.

One of my auto-buy authors is Gina Holmes. Her debut novel, Crossing Oceans, blew me away. I knew immediately she was an author that would be around a long while. That story still resonates with me. Then came Dry as Rain, followed by Wings of Glass. Each story as different as the one preceding it, and each one pulls the reader in until you don't want to put the book down until you've read the last page. Holmes can turn a phrase, saying ordinary things in a new and fresh way. As an author, I always say I want to be like Gina when I grow up.

Gina's new novel, Driftwood Tides, releases this month...in fact it's releasing right now! Like her other stories, this one is totally different from the others. But the one thing they have in common is the way Holmes touches deep in her characters' hearts and pulls out the very thing that has been driving them. Issues that many of us face are written into her stories. Each one says much about God's redemption without preaching it.

Here's the blurb on Driftwood Tides: He made himself an island until something unexpected washed ashore. When Holton lost his wife, Adele, in a freak accident, he shut himself off from the world, living a life of seclusion, making driftwood sculptures and drowning his pain in gin. Until twenty-three-year-old Libby knocks on his door, asking for a job and claiming to be a friend of his late wife. When he discovers Libby is actually his late wife’s illegitimate daughter, given up for adoption without his knowledge, his life is turned upside down as he struggles to accept that the wife he’d given saint status to was not the woman he thought he knew. 

Together Holton and Libby form an unlikely bond as the two struggle to learn the identity of Libby’s father and the truth about Adele, themselves, and each other. 

If you would like to read the first chapter of Driftwood Tides, go HERE. To learn more about Gina Holmes you can go to her Website 

To purchase Driftwood Tides you can buy it at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1414366426 


Note: I received a complementary copy of Driftwood Tides from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Gina Holmes is the founder of Novel Rocket, regularly named as one of Writers Digest’s best websites for writers. Her debut novel, 

Crossing Oceans, was a Christy and Gold Medallion finalist and winner of the Carol Award, INSPY, and RWA’s Inspirational Reader’s Choice, as well as being a CBA, ECPA, Amazon and PW bestseller. Her sophomore novel, Dry as Rain was a Christy Award finalist. Her latest novel, Wings of Glass has been named as one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and was a SIBA Okra pick and a finalist for Romantic Times’ Reviewers Choice Award. She holds degrees in science and nursing and currently resides with her family in southern Virginia. She works too hard, laughs too loud, and longs to see others heal from their past and discover their God-given purpose. 

Hatteras Girl by Alice J. Wisler - A Great Read for a Cold Day

I've never been to the Carolinas, but I've always thought a beach vacation along the shore in either North or South Carolina would be wonderful. I'd take my laptop, plenty of suntan lotion, and rent one of those beach houses you see--the one's on stilts that always seem to survive the threat of hurricanes. I'd sleep on a screened in sleeping porch, and rise in time to brew coffee and watch the sun rise over the ocean. Then hunker down and write till noon before spending the afternoon on the beach. Evenings I'd go into town and have fresh seafood in one of the many hangouts. Ahhh. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Well, right now I can't afford such a vacay, but what any of us can afford to do is buy a copy of Hatteras Girl by Alice J. Wisler and be transported instantly to the seaside community of Cape Hatteras NC. Each time I picked up the book to read, I was instantly sucked into life in the small community through the eyes of Jackie Donovan, the book's POV character.

All Jackie wants to do is own the Baily House, an old home situated on the ocean. The antique building holds a lot of wonderful childhood memories, mostly created by the elderly couple who lived there than the building. But, her job as a writer for a village paper can hardly pay her rent, let alone the gigantic mortgage she'd have to incur to own the now-empty structure. Then she meets Realtor Davis Erickson and it appears God is answering her prayers. As the heir apparent of the Baily House estate, he's willing to rent her the house, and all seems to be falling into place until she finds out he has a few skeletons in his proverbial closet.

Wisler's easy going story, written in first person present sucks the reader in so much you are sure you are sniffing the salt air and feeling the sand between your toes. I love this POV because you cannot get any closer to the character than this. You are Jackie as you go through her highs and lows, hitting the speed bumps of her life and doing cartwheels when she is joyous. As a single woman, I could relate to her watching the phone and willing it to ring while she waits for Davis's call. Yep. I've been there, done that in the past, and then, like Jackie, made my best attempt to act nonchalant when the phone finally rang.

I highly recommend this book. You can pick it up at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Christian Book on line, or at your favorite Christian book store down the road. Do it. You won't be disappointed.

Please note that I was provided with a free copy of Hatteras Girl in order to write this review, but I was not asked to write only a favorable review. All comments in this review are my own and they are my own personal opinions.