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Author Interview,  Giveaway,  Hope-filled Fiction

Interview with Cheryl Grey Bostrom & a Giveaway

August 13, 2025 /

I hope you enjoy this week’s Q&A with Cheryl Grey Bostrom (courtesy of Tyndale’s Crazy4Fiction blog) about her new release, What the River Keeps.

Be sure to comment below by August 19 for a chance to win Cheryl’s book in your choice of paperback or audiobook! (US resident only)

What the River Keeps is set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest—as are all your novels. Can you tell us a little bit about why you’ve chosen this region? 

For much of my life, I’ve studied, photographed, and lived here in the Pacific Northwest, which speaks to me through all my senses. It was only natural that I decided to set my stories in this land I’ve long loved; I want my imagination to dwell here as I write. 

And so, for the setting in my first novel, Sugar Birds, I chose a northwest riparian forest to hide and nourish young Aggie. In Leaning on Air, I picked the Snake River and the vast, rolling hills of Washington’s Palouse to frame both the fracture and mending of Celia and autistic Burnaby’s unusual love story.

In this newest novel, What the River Keeps, I returned protagonist Hildy to her childhood home in the Elwha Valley to confront her mysterious past. Seven miles from where I grew up, it’s a rugged Olympic National Park watershed, located in wilderness that both blessed and haunted me as I came of age—as it does Hildy. 

In the story, readers meet Hildy Nybo, a biologist working alongside a team of scientists who oversee restoration of the Elwha River. What is the significance of the river and why did you want to write about it? 

Until the early twentieth century, all five species of Pacific salmon swam and spawned, grew and died along the entire forty-five-mile length of Washington’s Elwha River. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples had built cultures and livelihoods around the river and those fish, which grew to legendary size in their sea-dwelling years, then returned to spawn in enormous numbers. 

Enter Thomas Aldwell. By 1910, the Toronto entrepreneur had finagled the construction of a hydroelectric dam five miles from the river’s mouth. While the Elwha and (a few years later) Glines dams brought much-needed power to the primitive Olympic Peninsula, those dams—built without fish ladders—severed fish passage, interrupted sediment and nutrient movement between mountains and sea, compromised wildlife and forests, and devastated the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. 

Persisting all the way to the Congress, the Klallams lobbied for their river’s freedom until, in 1992, The Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act was signed into law. That law authorized the Secretary of the Interior to acquire both of the dams and to restore the Elwha and its native, sea-going fisheries. Though it took another two decades to begin, the largest dam removal in U.S. history ensued, and the river began to heal. 

Why write about it? It’s a staggering story of redemption and hope—and a mirror of both our human condition and our potential to heal. Who doesn’t need stories like this?

Too, from what I read in Genesis, I believe stewardship of creation is an ongoing call and commission. The Elwha’s travails and recovery showcase our connectedness to nature’s ecosystems and display how, based on our choices, those systems either suffer or flourish. I pray readers will emerge from the novel with fresh awareness of, and care for, the created world. 

How does Hildy’s journey parallel what is happening with the Elwha River in the story? What do you hope readers will glean from Hildy’s experiences in the novel? 

The Elwha’s story matches Hildy’s step for step! Control and deception have trapped them both in long bondage—the river behind concrete barricades; Hildy behind a barrier of lies and confusion. As the physical dams crumble, the ecosystem begins to recover. Likewise, as Hildy’s dark strongholds disintegrate, truth and peace replace her inner turmoil, and she too finds healing . . . and real love.

I hope that as readers recognize those parallels, they’ll grow in insight. I also pray that the natural world revealed on these pages will draw them nearer to our Creator Christ by illustrating not only his majesty, but how he redeems and restores those he loves. 

Just for fun: If a reader who’d never been to the Pacific Northwest visited Hildy, where would she take them to get a glimpse of the wonder and beauty of the natural world she loves so much?

Hmm. By the time Hildy would be showing a reader around, she’d have reached the end of this tale, and responsibilities would likely keep her close to home. I’m guessing her non-negotiables would be a sandy walk along the Dungeness Spit nature preserve and the curvy drive to panoramic mountain views on Hurricane Ridge.

If time allowed, they’d row on Lake Crescent, wander the Hoh Rain Forest, and scramble old-growth driftwood and wave-worn boulders on beaches near LaPush. 

And of course they’d visit the reborn Elwha estuary. “Bring your backcountry gear next time,” I think she’d say. “I’ll take you upriver.”

Thanks so much for the interesting and informative interview and for the giveaway, Cheryl! I pray God will continue to bless you as you write for Him.

Visit the #HopeFilledFiction blog & comment on Cheryl Grey Bostrom’s interview by 8/19 for a chance to win a paperback or audiobook of her new release, What the River Keeps! (US only) #giveaway

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Join the conversation. Have you read any of Cheryl’s books? Do you have a favorite? Does What the River Keeps sound interesting to you? What aspects of Cheryl’s interview most pique your interest?

Be sure to comment below by August 19 for a chance to win a copy of Cheryl’s book! US winner’s choice of paperback or audiobook.

What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom

Click the book cover for purchase link

In the beautiful Pacific Northwest, a reclusive biologist returns to her childhood home on the 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. 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.

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, surprising 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 Christianity Today’s Fiction Award of Merit and ACFW Carol, Nautilus, Best Book, IPPY, Foreword Indies, American Fiction, Reader’s Favorite, and International Book Awards. Kirkus Reviews listed her newest novel What the River Keeps among its 2025 “Best Indie Books of June.” 

An avid birder and nature photographer, Cheryl lives in rural Washington State with her husband and a pack of half-trained Gordon setters.

Connect with Cheryl: Website / Blog / Facebook / Instagram

Please share Cheryl’s interview on social media to help spread the word about her new book!

If you missed Kelly Goshorn’s Zoom interview last week about her new Historical Romance release, The Undercover Heiress of Brockton, FIND IT HERE.

As a Jesus girl for more than thirty years, Deena Adams understands how important hope is to daily life, which fuels her passion to inspire others through hope-filled fiction based on true to life stories. She is a multi-award-winning author, an active ACFW member, and a six-year ACFW Virginia board member. Connect with Deena through her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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