What the River Keeps

Author: Cheryl Grey Bostrom
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 368
Release Date: August 12, 2025
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers

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. Despite her father’s love and her mother’s sympathy, she grew up constantly losing even her most cherished belongings, unable to recall where she misplaced them. Haunted by the confusion of those early years, she now records her life in detailed diaries and clings tightly 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 the demolition of two century-old dams. There Hildy settles into one of the cabins on her family’s rustic resort—a place she both loves and dreads, for reasons she can’t fully explain.

When local artist Miranda Rimmer rents an adjacent cabin for her pottery studio, Hildy shrinks from such a close neighbor. But then Miranda’s carpenter brother, Luke, shows up to help with construction and captures Hildy’s attention. Now a few years beyond a tragedy that brought him to his knees, Luke recognizes a kindred soul in Hildy, and they build a relationship that dismantles the walls Hildy’s built to keep people out. As troubling pieces of the past surface, Hildy dares to wonder if she can banish the shadows that have burdened her and follow her river’s course to freedom.

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Reviewer: Lori Parrish

I’m going to be honest and say that I really don’t like sad books. I almost decided not to finish and review it because it talks about hard subjects and, in all honesty, it scares me.

This is a subject that I don’t like to think about—losing one’s mind and not remembering anything. To me, it’s a slow and painful death.

I do feel sorry for Hildy. In my opinion, she comes out the true heroine of this story.

June and Otis are cool characters too. I love June’s support of Hildy. I love her saying: “Many hands make light work.”

I feel that this is a healing story for Hildy, because family secrets do come out eventually. No matter how hard you try.

This story also talks about forgiveness and redemption, along with healing.

I loved the many biblical verses scattered throughout the book. They are gentle reminders that God is always near, that He does answer prayers, just not the way we want sometimes.

4 stars for how this book made feel and the slow pace. I had a hard time getting into this one, but as I kept reading, it finally turned out okay. Just not my favorite.

My thanks for a copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers through Interviews & Reviews via NetGalley, for my honest opinion.

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