Thursday, October 16, 2014

Gina Holmes's Driftwood Tides ~ Reviewed


Driftwood Tides
by Gina Holmes
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (August 15, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414366426

Description:

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 drifwood 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.

Review:

Gina Holmes has produced her best novel yet. I love escaping into fiction where the author's voice enhances the story but doesn't intrude. Holmes has done this with Driftwood Tides. I didn't think about her previous books and compare. I was pulled into the story of a young woman who discovers a shocking secret and who's life gets turned upside down. 

Holmes tackles heavy subjects and produces deep characters. Her debut was a woman coming home to die and to find a family for her daughter. Her second novel was about the destruction and tentative rebuilding of a marriage, her third domestic violence. So, those who prefer inspirational escapism aren't likely to find Gina Holmes an easy author to read. But for those who want reality, even ugly, and to see the ever hopeful evidence of God's character find so much to love in Holmes's novels. 

Driftwood Tides dives deeply into human dysfunction and deception. The characters have chosen so many unhealthy different ways of coping with life's disappointments. But hope wins. If you have loved any of Gina Holmes previous work you should love Driftwood Tides.

Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer

2 comments:

Southern-fried Fiction said...

Driftwood Tides is my favorite of GIna's books, too, Kelly! I'm delighted to see you felt the same.

Scrambled Dregs said...

She gets better with age, like a fine wine. : )