About Crestance

Crestance began with a simple, restless love: a love of books, of history, of the way stories stretch across time and quietly shape who we become.

I’m Cindy Cruz — reader, writer, and the voice behind Gateway Books by Crestance. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn not just to stories, but to what lives underneath them: the forgotten lives behind novels, the histories that echo through fiction, the human questions that never really leave us. Crestance grew out of that curiosity — and out of a desire to build a space where literature, reflection, and beauty could live together.

At its heart, Crestance is about presence. About slowing down enough to feel a paragraph, to sit with a difficult history, to notice the quiet companionship a book can offer. Through the podcast, I explore the meeting place between historical fiction and real history — where imagination opens the door, and truth steps through. Through the shop, I create and curate book-themed pieces meant to carry that love of reading into everyday life: objects that feel lived-in, thoughtful, and quietly expressive.

Whether it’s a mug held during an early-morning chapter, a journal opened beside a nightstand, or an episode listened to on a long walk, everything under the Crestance name is designed with the same intention: to make space for meaning. To invite reflection. To honor the inner life that books so often tend.

Crestance is not about speed, or productivity, or collecting. It’s about connection — to stories, to memory, to the unseen threads that link past and present. It’s about meeting the moment with curiosity, and allowing art, history, and literature to shape us in return.

If you’ve ever felt changed by a book, comforted by a sentence, or drawn into a history that refused to stay distant — you’re already part of this space.

Welcome.