Just could not get into this book, so I did not post a review. I don't like to DNF books, but there are so many great ones. Thanks for the opportunity.

This WWII historical fiction book was a different focus. Children are sent from England to Australia when the orphanages are full and cannot accommodate additional children … whether they are orphans or their parents have put them in care until they can retrieve them later. The boys are expected to work hard and they are abused in horrendous ways. While the story will touch your heart. It moved slowly and I found it difficult to stay focused.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

An enjoyable and emotive read covering war, separation, love, racism, endurance and love. It was an easy readwhich tucked along nicely with appealing characters.

An utterly gripping read that sucked me right in from the start. A Book full of emotional drama that I loved,

The Oceans Between Us

by Gill Thompson

A very good storyteller, Gill Thompson discovered a story that needed to be told and related in such a way that it reached past the bare facts. In The Oceans Between Us, she has done just that.

I was pulled into the story relating to each of the characters as we explored them and their part in making history. Molly and Jack are British mom and son separated when a wartime bomb is detonated destroying their home. They end up oceans apart and although the thread flowing through the book is their longing for each other, their lives continue on with highs and lows. Other themes are institutional abuse and racial discrimination. Those are hard and cold terms that come alive as we watch them played out in this story. The events are a part of history I was unaware of. You’ll want to read this book to see one author’s view of how it may have played out on a personal level and discover if justice was actually ever served.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Headline for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Historical Fiction

Publication: March 21, 2019—Headline

Memorable Lines:

Everything seemed out of kilter. Like when she’d tried for hours to do a jigsaw here at Warlingham, only to realize half the pieces came from another set.

Jack was a frozen child, forever trapped in her mind in his five-year-old body. Molly could no more imagine him at eighteen than she could fly.

But the lawyer in him resisted the child. He couldn’t risk his career before it had started. Bindoon had given him brawn but it hadn’t robbed him of a brain. Besides, you didn’t fight violence with violence. You fought it with cunning.

Wow Just Wow!! What can I say? This book felt like a wrinkle in time. I was completely lost in this story and would recommend it on every level.

A memorable emotional read. There is so much pain in this book. Molly and her son Jack get split up and Jack ends up in Australia. This is a story of loss and love and of Jack seeking justice for all the children who were sent to Australia. It is very moving and emotional and is brilliantly told.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

"The Oceans Between Us" is exactly what the title calls it: a gripping and emotional novel of separation after World War II. Gill Thompson did a great job of bringing us into the hearts and minds of each of the characters. I was heart-broken as I read some of the accounts. The story is about Jack, a young boy who is separated from his mom Molly when a bomb takes out their neighborhood. Molly loses her memory and can't figure out who she is. Jack is taken to an orphanage, where he is treated cruelly and eventually he is sent to Australia, where he is supposed to have a great adventure. His adventure turns out to be a terrible ordeal, more of a child labor camp than anything else Added to that is abuse at the hands of the people set to care for him. When a young couple who can't have children decide to adopt a child from the ones sent, they settle on Jack. Katherine, his adoptive mother, knows the abuse he suffered but does nothing to help the other children. John, his adoptive father, does not even allow them to discuss it. Jack suffers in silence, hoping for the chance to save and avenge his friends one day, all while hoping his mother Molly will come back for him. The book was based on the migration of thousands of children to Australia and the true events that unfolded then. It was riveting and a good read!
I received a free copy of this story from NetGalley for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Couldn’t put this book down. Similar title to a book I had read and loved.
Very heart wrenching of all books at that time period.
Great characters, Jack told a great story.

The long journey home

The Oceans between us is a sad story. As with so many historical stories, I once again learned about a segment of history that I had never heard about.

There were actually two stories. The story of the children taken from orphanages in England, some without parental consent, and sent to Australia. They were promised a better life. They were actually sent to places where they were working in horrible conditions with little food, no education, and harsh caretakers. Some were beaten, some were sexually abused, and some died.

This book tells the story of Jack, a young boy separated from his mother during a bombing raid in England during the war. He was sent to an orphanage because his mother could not be found and subsequently sent to Australia as an orphan. His mother Molly was injured and taken to the hospital but did not know her name and could not remember her past. It took many years before she remembered. The book tells the story of both their lives after the war and how they finally found each other.

The second story is about the Aboriginal children that were taken by the government and put into service as maids and such by the Australian government. It is the story of Rosie, a maid in Jack's adopted families house , in Australia and how her and Jack above all odds against them, against his adopted parents wishes, fell in love and were married.

Both stories are sad and should never have happened. This is a book of fiction, but the immigration of some 10,000 children from England to Australia after the war actually happened, as did the forced servitude of the aboriginal children.

The book was very interesting as I was learning something new. The characters were believable. I would recommend this book.

Thanks to Gill Thompson, Headline Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of the book.

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free, electronic ARC of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: March 21, 2019

The idea of this story was very heart-wrenching! However, the execution of the story was not very polished. The writing was too simple and unremarkable, and I truly could not get into the book in the first 3-4 chapters; however, I continued to push through to the end.

This is a story about how a mom loses her son, when he is 5 years old, during the WWII blitz and how both of them go on through life wondering about the other. The story is a bit sad when it talks of Jack losing his mother, him being an assumed orphan, and him feeling lost or pulled apart involuntarily by circumstances that befall him. I was heartbroken for the mother who had to go through her life not knowing where her son was, or if she would ever see him again in her lifetime. I was confused in the first part of the book trying to figure out voices, and who was speaking and telling their story. However, about halfway, the story picks up and smooths out, and I'm glad I finished. Jack and his mother's love is very powerful, and you see how being separated across the ocean motivates them to live life despite not knowing whether the other was alive or not. They both work tirelessly to see if they can find each other no matter the length of time and circumstances that have separated them.

There is a lot of misogynistic views and male chauvinistic perspectives throughout this book by some of the male characters in this story. Furthermore, I was actually quite offended by the way black people were depicted and treated in this book. Classism and racism was heavily prevalent in this time and I felt sorry for Reggie and Rosie in this book who represent the minorities that exist in both Australia and England.

I did learn some historical information that I wasn't aware of; however, it was a bit hard to swallow. Seeing that Australia had an ongoing project to bring white people to their country so that they could outbreed/eliminate the Aboriginals is sad and horrible. However, I am very appreciative in the way the author brought both Jamaicans and Aboriginals into the story to show how both monitories were able to live and survive in this environment despite the racism that they experienced.

Overall, I would rate this book a 3. I had a tough time getting through the first part of the book, and the writing is not very polished, in my opinion. The book does appear to be realistic in nature and that it was well researched, but the writing is just too simple and not memorable enough to have a lasting impression on me. The beginning is very confusing and it takes about halfway through the book to get to a point where the writing smooths out to be able to tell the story of Jack and his mother. The ending can also be seen as predictable, but it was a very moving story line to work with.

A fantastic,sensational fictional book about a little boy named Jack,who lost his mother during the Blitz in England.
She was presumed dead and he was declared an orphan which was far from.the truth.
It took many yrs.,many tears and many lies that were told with perfectly straight faces,to right a wrong that was done to.both Jack and Molly
Jack,was finally adopted by a family,in Australia,where,one half of the pair,especially the woman loved him with all her heart.
John,the father just tolerated him.
Molly,his mother,whom he thought had died,languished in a hospital.for several yrs.with her memories scrambled or lost.
She knew she had lost something and was constantly searching,but for a long,long time,didn't realize it was Jack,her son,she was looking for.
This is one of the real.good,fictional stories about WWII, that you won,'t want to end.
Although,the fighting is mostly over,there is enough factual,events happening,that you will find yourself,getting very involved.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review,this super book and a special thank you to.Gil.Thompson for his research and awesome writing.

Highly emotional and very thought provoking. I loved the fact that it was based on real events, even though the book is obviously fiction.

This book commences with two families -Molly and her son, Jack, in England. We also meet Kathleen and John in Australia.
The story is set from WiW2 onwards. Jack’s father has been killed in action, so Jack only has his mother, Molly. Whilst he is at school a unexploded bomb detonates in his home. He returns to his house, searching for his mother - but she can’t be found. Jack finds himself in an orphanage run by nuns. They tell him that his mother is deceased. Jack never ceases to hope that this is untrue. The second family presented in this novel are Kathleen and John, John is extremely controlling and domineering. They are unable to have children, and Kathleen yearns for a child.

Britain and Australia agree to send British orphans across to Australia to increase the ‘white stock’ and flush out the indigenous Aboriginal population. The children are promised a better life with sunshine, oranges, horse riding and driving tractors. The reality is something else.

The main theme behind the story is the post war child migration scheme scandal. But the book also covers a wide range of issues including racism, infertility, and child labour. It is shocking that the governments were passing laws allowing this.

Through the author’s writing you can see the unconditional loving bond Molly has with her child. During the novel you feel the depth of Molly’s pain with the loss of her child, her anguish searching and pining for him.
You feel upset for Jack, so young to have been through so much, losing his mother, being mistreated and being shipped across the world.
With Kathleen you feel her desperate desire for offspring and the sacrifices she makes to placate her husband. You experience the saddening, prejudicious and racist events that occurred during this time period.

Overall, this is an enlightening and thought provoking read which denotes the behaviour of the government during and after WW2 and the devastating repercussions that followed.

Riveting book that I couldn’t put down - upsetting read of how brutal the nuns and Christian brothers were to the children who thought they were going to Australia for a better life. Gill Thompson descriptions went in to enough detail without going into full explanations of what was actually happening to the children. I always know if it’s been a good read if I have a good cry during or at the end of the book. Will definitely investigate reading more of Gills books.

I was given a copy of The Ocean's Between Us by Gill Thompson by the publisher in exchange for a honest review. The book although fictional is based on true events of children being sent to Australia after the war. The book was well written and handled some very difficult subjects, children being sent away and racism. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I liked the characters and thought it was well thought-out. I will be looking out for more books by Gill Thompson.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gill Thompson for my copy of his book The Oceans Between Us.

The book tells the story of Jack, a young English boy and his mum Molly.
Jack is five when during the Blitz his mother Molly's is presumed dead after a bomb explodes in their backyard and he is sent to an orphanage.
Molly was injured from the bomb blast, she spends years in hospital and has no idea who she is or anything about her life.
Jack is taken to an orphanage, he is told that his mum has died and he had already lost his dad early in the war at Dunkirk.

England had so many orphanages that are full and Australia offered to give home's to children who had lost their parents during the war and it was part of a migration scheme to increase the population of Australia.
Jack is sent to Australia by boat, the children are told stories about how wonderful his life would be in Australia, sunshine, oranges and wide open spaces.
The horrible fact was many of these children are abused, siblings are often separated and Jack was sent to Bindoon.
Bindoon is in Western Australia, it's a horrible place, boys are expected to work hard, conditions are primitive and boys are abused and some in the worst possible way.
Jack is lucky, he catches the attention of Kathleen she is married to John and he works for a department that organized the migration scheme.
They decide to adopt Jack as they don't have children of their own and Kathleen is desperate to be a mother.
Jack's life changes, yes he is given a good home but he finds is difficult to believe his mum has really died and John isn't an easy person to live with.

Molly spends years in hospital, she has lost her memory and has no idea who she is or where she lived or if she's married or a mother.
Years go by, Margaret as she is called, is given all kinds of treatment and slowly she recovers enough that she can leave the hospital, and now given a job at the hospital where she was once a patient and lives in a boarding house.
As time goes on, she starts working in a dress shop and little pieces of memory return, she remembers her name and eventually that she had a son called Jack, her husband had died and her real name is Molly.

She spends years looking for Jack, she contacts the orphanage in England to then find out that he had been sent to Western Australia, she writes letters to the orphanage at Bindoon and they do forward the letters on to John who hides them and never tells his wife or Jack that his mother has tried to contact him.

It's a sad story based on true events so many children were sent to Australia after WW2, many were orphans, others their parents had put them into care for only a short period of time while they tried to find work or a place to live, they returned to collect them and to find out that their children had also been sent to Australia.

It's very hard to believe that children were treated this way in Australia, but it's true and Gill Thompson's book "The Oceans Between Us" tells us about the sad details of the children's migration scheme in Australia and he writes a interesting story about this sad time in Australian history. I enjoyed the book but I did find it was a little slow for me in places and due to this I only gave it three stars.

Depressing. Realistic with a small ray of hope.
Mostly an account of what it may have been like for a young boy who was separated from his mother in war torn England, and sent to Australia. It's hard for me to imagine what it must have been like since I was brought up by two parents in a loving home. A family that always had what we needed. I doubt that most of us feel that things were always rosie, but the kind of existence that these kids experienced was horrendous.

Australia felt that their population needed a white strengthening, and Britain had a long history of shipping people there. Most of these children were orphans, but not all were. They were told that they were being sent to farms where it was sunny, there were oranges to pick off trees as they wanted, they would have horses to ride, and they would become strong. None of it true. I don't understand though - if they really wanted to strengthen their population with these young people, why they mistreated them so and deprived them of food and education. Instead working them to death. Perhaps it was because of the hands they fell into.

This story tells of those sent to a monastery where the boys were mistreated and abused. Not a loving Christian environment. By including the story of the mother who was back in England, it helps show the injustice even further.

It took 43 years for the truth to be exposed about this tragic happening. It’s estimated that 150,000 children were sent to Australia in total, around 10,000 since 1947. The horrors of German prison camps combined with this horrific treatment of people truly illustrates a time when Satan had his way. Its amazing that there is still a human race at all. But at least people are moved by hearing stories like this about what happened.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This is a truly amazing story which shows us that the love between mother and son is everlasting, even if they find themselves so far apart they can’t imagine finding each other again. It is also one which shows the horrific things which happened to children who were shipped to Australia and who were supposed to be under the protection of people they thought they could trust.

What is even more horrific is the fact that, although this is a fictional account, it is based on events which actually happened. Even with the heartbreak throughout, this is a story I believe everyone should have the chance to read.

Huge thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy.

I enjoyed this book because I learned so much about the true facts of what happened to children during the war. I did not realise that they were sent to Australia. This book was written sympathetically and honestly. I recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.