Can we just take a moment to appreciate how this book did not make romance a primary focus?

Content: mentions of abuse, rape, neglect of children

4 Stars ( )

Title: No Ocean Too Wide (McAlister Family #1)
Author: Carrie Turansky
Pages: e-book
Year: 2019
Publisher: Multnomah
My rating is 4 out of 5 stars.
Laura McAlister is a 21-year-old woman who has left home to be a maid to earn money to support her family. Her mother works as a seamstress after the untimely death of her husband. The remaining children are younger than Laura, so they remain at home with their mother. Mrs. McAlister becomes ill and is admitted to the hospital. Laura isn’t informed of this for weeks, and when she arrives in London to look after everyone, she discovers her younger siblings have been placed in a home for orphans. Her mother is still in the hospital but seems to be improving. Laura tries, unsuccessfully, to see her siblings at the orphanage.
Andrew Fraser is a young solicitor in London whose father wants him to take up the life of a country gentleman and not work. Andrew has other ideas. He wants to help the underprivileged. His mother’s maid is such a person. He offers to help Laura once she travels to London and discovers what is going on. In the meantime, he and his mentor have been asked by the government to study orphanages and their program to send emigrant children to Canada. He unexpectedly encounters Laura who has become employed by one of the orphanages to escort a group of children to Canada. Can they work together to find her lost siblings? How will they even begin the search in the vast country of Canada?
This was an interesting story but a bit depressing. Laura encountered disappointment after disappointment. The conditions these children endured were atrocious, and the fact that they were taken from their biological families and sent to Canada without permission was criminal! There was a message of hope and one of God’s love for His children. I would have liked more historical details about this time period. The story continues in book two of the series, No Journey Too Far, where readers discover the fates of Grace and Garth McAlister.
Note: The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility. ( )

Great start but a little slow; ending was rushed and I would have liked more around the conclusion ( )

This is the most incredible story - one that I am quite sure everyone should read. I would imagine that anyone that enjoys history and all we can learn from it, has heard of the British Home Children (BHC) as well as the Kindertransport during the war. In many ways the same, but also so very different. While the children from war-torn countries were sent away for their safety, the BHC were sent to America to reduce the number of destitute children roaming the streets of London and other places. Unfortunately some of those sent away were from loving families that were temporarily unable to provide for their needs. This is the story of one such family.

Garth and Katie, 14 year old twins, were sent to different homes, since boys and girls were not in the same home. Young Grace, 7, was allowed to stay with her sister, Katie. Child emigration was regular at that time - the children were sent to Canada, where they were then put into homes that were prepared to accept a child into their family as well as care for them. The people overseeing those homes didn’t value family connections, so were these siblings likely to ever see each other again?

Andrew Frasier and Henry Dowd were given the task of following this emigrant cycle to see if it was all done legally. Were these children all orphans or were some taken from their families without permission? What were the conditions the children were living with in Canada? Answers for these and other questions were what they hoped for.

This incredible story has been on my desk, just waiting for me to sit down and read. Published by Multnomah the comments and impressions given are my own and were in no way solicited. ( )

Make sure to have plenty of tissues on hand because this will definitely make you cry. It is hard to read about some of the things that people do to children even when they say they are doing it to help them. This is so interesting to read about what happened to some of the children that were sent from England to Canada. It was fascinating to learn why this was done and what bad and good that came out of it. The characters were great. I am looking forward to reading more about how this family finds each other after being pulled apart. I received a copy of this book from the author for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will. ( )