What the River Keeps

In the beautiful Pacific Northwest, a reclusive biologist returns to her childhood home on the Elwha River, where she must untangle her mysterious...

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What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom
Cheryl Grey Bostrom

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, surprising fiction. 

Her market crossover novels Sugar Birds and Leaning on Air have won critical acclaim and more than two dozen fiction awards. What the River Keeps, winner of Christianity Today's 2025 Fiction Award of Merit, was awarded a prized Kirkus Star and named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Indies Book of June 2025. 

Her widely published short-form work currently includes her column in the American Scientific Affiliation’s God and Nature Magazine and her Substack: Birds in the Hand. 

She has also written two non-fiction books. An avid birder and nature photographer, Cheryl lives in rural Washington State with her husband and a pack of half-trained Gordon setters. Learn more at CherylBostrom.com. 

Books

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What the River Keeps

What the River Keeps

In the beautiful Pacific Northwest, a reclusive biologist returns to her childhood home on the Elwha River, where she must untangle her mysterious past . . . or lose her mind.

“Bostrom’s writing is vivid . . . moving and satisfying. A touching love story.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS (Starred Review)


Hildy Nybo is a successful biologist, her study of the...

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Leaning on Air

Leaning on Air

A Beautiful Mind meets The Notebook.

He's autistic. She's adrift.

A most unusual love story.

They last spoke as teens—but on a country road twelve years later, a surprise encounter reunites ornithologist Celia Burke with equine surgeon Burnaby Hayes, and they dive into a love that carries them for years.

After a decade of marriage, Celia and...

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Sugar Birds

Sugar Birds

Young Aggie lights a tragic fire, then flees into a Pacific Northwest forest, evading searchers who must bring her home before wilderness claims them all. Sugar Birds is "A true page-turner . . . an engrossing tale of survival and redemption." —KIRKUS REVIEWS.

NORTHWEST WASHINGTON STATE, 1985

For years, Harris Hayes has taught his daughter,...

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Other Writing

When a Character Shows Up in the Flesh Meet Tessie, from What the River
When a Character Shows Up in the Flesh

Meet Tessie, from What the River Keeps! She surprised me the other day. A fun piece to write.

Blog

Elwha Love: Behind the Scenes of a River and Dancers and Gatherings—Plus a
August 30, 2025
Elwha Love: Behind the Scenes of a River and Dancers and Gatherings—Plus a GIVEAWAY!

https://cherylgreybostrom.substack.com/p/behind-the-scenes

Meet Hildy: An excerpt from What the River Keeps! Best if you read/here it
August 2, 2025
Meet Hildy: An excerpt from What the River Keeps!

Best if you read/here it here, friends—where the videos are live: https://cherylgreybostrom.substack.com/p/meet-hildy-an-excerpt-from-what-the


A Match Made in Heaven: a hummer, a book trailer and giveaway for WHAT THE
July 5, 2025
A Match Made in Heaven: a hummer, a book trailer and giveaway for WHAT THE RIVER KEEPS, & thoughts on aging. Whew.



Friends,

I caught the tryst on camera a few years back, mere days past summer’s solstice: a secret encounter, in a pairing so mismatched, few ornithologists or botanists suspect it ever happens at all.

Nor did I, until I stumbled on the dawn scene in our asparagus bed, then a mass of six-foot ferns riddled with shy, green, solitary blossoms no more than a quarter-inch long. There, before heat or bees arrived, a female Anna’s hummingbird flitted from flower to flower, sipping. Usurping breeze...

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Copyright 2025  Cheryl Grey Bostrom 
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