WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR
of
What the River Keeps
By Cheryl Grey Bostrom
Book Summary
Kirkus Reviews recently chose What the River Keeps for its “Best Indie Books of June 2025” list
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Reclusive biologist Hildy Nybo returns to her childhood home on Washington’s Elwha River, where she untangles her mysterious past.
Hildy Nybo is a successful biologist, her study of the Pacific Northwest’s wild fish both a passion and a career. But behind her professional brilliance, Hildy’s reclusive private life reflects a childhood fraught with uncertainty. Haunted by the confusion of her early years, she now records her life in detailed diaries and clings to memory-prompting keepsakes.
Then her mother’s health fails, and Hildy accepts a job near her childhood home, joining a team of scientists who will help restore her beloved Elwha River after two century-old dams fall. There Hildy settles into a cabin on her family’s rustic resort—a place she both loves and dreads, for reasons she can’t fully explain.
When a local artist rents an adjacent cabin for her pottery studio, Hildy resists the intrusion—until intriguing Luke Rimmer arrives to help with the cabin’s renovation. Now a few years beyond a tragedy that brought him to his knees, Luke recognizes a kindred soul in Hildy. As he earns her trust, they uncover her mysterious history, and Hildy dares to wonder if she can banish her shadows—and follow her river’s course to freedom.
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction (August 12, 2025)
ISBN: 1496481585
ISBN: 978-1496481580
AISN: B0DK3ZW85L
ASIN: B0DYG3PK8T
Print length: 368 pages (also available as ebook and audiobook)
Purchase a copy of What the River Keeps on
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/What-River-Keeps-Cheryl-Bostrom/dp/1496481585/ref
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-the-river-keeps-cheryl-grey-bostrom/1146416644?ean=9781496481580
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/what-the-river-keeps-cheryl-grey-bostrom/21884304?ean=9781496481580&next=t
You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220587152-what-the-river-keeps
Guest Post: Should Women’s Fiction Have a Spiritual Layer?
To develop our characters, we writers of women’s fiction mine the deep earth of our protagonists’ inner lives. Composed of the fascinating, dimensional heart responses to change, loss, love, and self-discovery, it’s fertile soil, from which we extract characters’ most intimate emotions as they navigate relationships, careers and personal growth.
But should these stories go further—beyond the emotional, into the spiritual?
I believe they often should.
My stories do, because I write from the conviction that we humans are more than our bodies and brains. We’re also spiritual creatures, whose yearnings for connection, meaning, forgiveness, and belonging all arise from somewhere deeper than mere psychology.
In Sugar Birds, Leaning on Air, and What the River Keeps, my characters must navigate deep hurts and hard choices. But they also ache for things beyond themselves, like safety and peace, redemption and grace. Sometimes those characters consider—or refuse to consider—God. Sometimes they wrestle with silence. Often, nature speaks to them where words fail.
It’s there that the spiritual dimension enters my stories most powerfully: in the natural world that surrounds and shapes my narratives. The flight of a hawk, the slap of a salmonid’s tail, the hush of an ancient forest—these elements echo truths my characters may not articulate. The created world becomes a mirror, drawing characters toward healing, and pointing, subtly, toward their Creator.
I don’t preach or proselytize in fiction like this; the spirituality is organic, foundational, and in my stories, essential. Readers don’t need answers handed to them—but they deserve stories that don’t shrink from the questions that matter most. Because when fiction reaches the soul, it does more than entertain. It can restore.
Not every narrative must go there, of course. There’s room for all kinds of storytelling. But in a world where so much feels broken and hurried, women’s fiction with a spiritual layer can invite readers to pause and ponder, to look inward and up. To discover hope.
And hope, I believe, is always spiritual.
So yes—when it’s authentic, a spiritual layer in women’s fiction can not only deepen and complete a story, but can nourish souls in readers.
And in us who write for them.
About the Author, Cheryl Grey Bostrom
A keen student of the natural world and the workings of the human heart, Pacific Northwest author Cheryl Grey Bostrom captures the mystery and wonder of both in her lyrical, riveting fiction. Her novels Sugar Birds (Christy finalist, Amazon bestseller, and Book of the Year) and Leaning on Air have won more than two dozen industry honors, among which are CT’s Fiction Award of Merit and American Fiction, Reader’s Favorite, Carol, Nautilus, Best Book, Foreword Indies, and International Book Awards.
An avid birder and nature photographer, Cheryl lives in rural Washington State with her husband and three irrepressible Gordon setters.
You can follow the author at:
Website: https://CherylBostrom.com
Birds in the Hand (blog): https://cherylgreybostrom.substack.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cgbostrom/ and https://www.facebook.com/cherylgreybostrom/
IG: @cherylgreybostrom https://www.instagram.com/cherylgreybostrom/
Blog Tour Calendar
August 11th @ The Muffin
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Cheryl Grey Bostrom’s nature infused love story What the River Keeps. Read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of her book.
https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com
August 12th @ One Writer’s Journey
Stop by for a post about the Five Birds that Make Life Better and a review of What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom.
August 13th @ Writer Advice
Novelist Cheryl Grey Bostrom is visiting with her thoughts on The Deliciousness of Book Clubs.
https://writeradvice.com/blog/
August 14th @ Knotty Needle
Read a review of What the River Keeps and author Cheryl Grey Bostrom’s guest post: Re-wilding Ourselves Through Nature Novels.
http://www.knottyneedle.blogspot.com
August 16th @ Boots, Shoes and Fashion
Enjoy a fun interview with novel writer Cheryl Grey Bostrom.
https://bootsshoesandfashion.com
August 18th @ What Is That Book About
Luxuriate in nature with a spotlight on the novel What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom.
August 19th @ Word Magic
Author Cheryl Grey Bostrom is stopping by to write about Nature as Guide through Wilderness of Heart.
https://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com
August 20th @ Nikki’s Book Reviews
Nikki’s sharing her thoughts on the novel What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom.
http://nikkitsbookreviews.wordpress.com
August 21st @ Lisa Haselton Book Reviews & Interviews
Meet the author behind What the River Keeps and other novels set in the Pacific Northwest.
https://lisahaselton.com/blog/
August 25th @ Beverley A. Baird
Need a good read for the waning days of summer? Beverly’s sharing her review of What the River Keeps.
https://beverleyabaird.wordpress.com
August 26th @ A Wonderful World of Books
Enter to win a copy of What the River Keeps. Have fun with author Cheryl Grey Bostrom translating Bird Language for Our Inner Lives.
https://awonderfulworldofwordsa.blogspot.com/
August 27th @ Create Write Now
Cheryl Grey Bostrom writes about the power of nature in Created to Heal: How Nature Illustrates the Design of Our Hearts.
https://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog
August 28th @ Words by Webb
Jodi reviews a novel that is ideal for nature lover and women’s fiction: What the River Keeps.
https://www.jodiwebbwriter.com/blog
August 29th @ Beverley A. Baird
Author Cheryl Grey Bostrom is visiting with a guest post on What’s the Draw to Faith in Women’s Fiction?
https://beverleyabaird.wordpress.com
September 2 @ A Storybook World
Novelist Cheryl Grey Bostrom is writing about Three Ways Nature Novels Speak to Our Hearts and recommending a few of her favorites.
https://www.astorybookworld.com/
September 4th @ Reading Is My Remedy
Take flight with author Cheryl Grey Bostrom with Bird Lessons – What Winged Creatures Can Teach Us. They’ll also be a review of her latest novel What the River Keeps.
https://www.instagram.com/reading_is_my_remedy/
September 5th @ Storeybook Reviews
Check out the spotlight on Cheryl Grey Bostrom and her latest novel What the River Keeps.
https://www.storeybookreviews.com
September 9th @ Boys’ Mom Reads!
Looking for a new book for a new month? Karen’s reviewing the novel What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom.
https://karensiddall.wordpress.com/
September 10th @ Choices
Cheryl Grey Bostrom shares lessons she’s learned after writing three novels.
September 12th @ Chapter Break
Today’s guest is Cheryl Grey Bostrom, author of several novels set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
September 14th @ Jill Sheet’s Blog
Today’s the last day for the blog tour for What the River Keeps! We’re ending on a high note with a post by author Cheryl Grey Bostrom about Improving Your Writing through Photography — and Other Art.
https://jillsheets.blogspot.com/
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