Catch a Kirkus Star . . .

For What the River Keeps! (Be first to read it? Join the team?)

Friends—

To remember the moment, I tweaked that old Perry Como song:

Catch a Kirkus Star and put it in your pocket,

save it for a rainy day . . .

It’s just a little blue star with a circle around it.

Kinda brings that old Texaco logo to mind.

But to see it attached to the Kirkus Review of my forthcoming novel What the River Keeps has me doing backflips.

Well, trying to.

Because folks tell me that little star is a plum for this psychological mystery—and that it’s hard to earn from the notoriously picky trade reviewer Kirkus.

“. . . Awarded to books of exceptional merit,” Kirkus wrote me. “Only two to three percent of books [they review] earn a star.”

Oh my. I don’t know if that’s all contemporary fiction they review or books from all genres, but still.

To God’s beautiful glory.

Either way, I thought I’d share that happy news—and the review—before I twist an ankle. Here you go:

What the River Keeps

A young woman finds love, faith, and freedom when she confronts the painful truth about her past in Bostrom’s novel.

Fisheries biologist Hildy Nybo grew up on her family’s fishing resort on the Elwha River near Olympic National Park in Washington State. She sometimes sees eerie “shadows” others can’t, and, doubting her own mind and memory, keeps detailed diaries and hoards strange keepsakes—stones, feathers, and yard-sale finds. Despite a successful scientific career, she lives like a hermit, with only a canary for company.

When Hildy’s offered the dream job of lead project biologist with the ambitious Elwha River restoration project, she must return to the scene of past emotional traumas, including the disappearance of her beloved father when she was 14. Her unstable, hypercritical mother is falling into dementia, and the family business and property will be swept away forever in a couple of years when the Elwha Dam is demolished to allow salmon to return to their ancestral spawning grounds far upstream.

Soon after returning home, she meets tall, handsome Luke, a former fisherman turned carpenter and farmer after the tragic deaths of his wife and young daughters on their boat.

Luke is entranced by Hildy’s ethereal beauty and gentle spirit, and he patiently coaxes her out of her self-imposed isolation despite her many attempts to rebuff him. Navigating obstacles, sidetracks, misunderstandings, and shocking revelations, they slowly begin to trust in each other.

Bostrom’s writing is vivid: Windshield wipers in a rainstorm “whapped like a terrier’s tail”; grieving Luke wears “suffering’s dark cloak.” The author deftly captures the way slight gestures can convey strong feelings and evokes the magnificence of the Olympic Peninsula . . . Though the trope of two damaged souls finding healing and romance in each other is nothing new, readers will find this version moving and satisfying.

A touching love story.

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Of course I’m telling you all this to whet your appetite before the book releases on August 12.

And to encourage you to PREORDER NOW because preorders—which are all processed on release day,—drive up the book’s rankings and visibility online.

Which is also very good for the book.

Besides, early readers are saying that if you like books by Lisa Wingate, Delia Owens, and William Kent Krueger, you’ll love this one. 🧡

Right now you’ll find discounts at these sites:

Baker Book House: 40% off - $11.39

Tyndale: 20% off - $15.19

ChristianBook: 18% off - $15.49

Would you like to read it before it releases? Join the launch team? The real team kickoff will be in a month or so, but if you’re interested, reply with TEAM in the subject line and confirm your preferred email address for more info.

I’d love to have you join us.

***

📙 📙 📙 More bookish stuff:

The WINNER of last month’s Leaning on Air audiobook giveaway is MARIA MAST!

Congratulations, Maria! Reply to confirm your email address, and I’ll send the link right off to you.

And I have a NEW GIVEAWAY for you, this time of a Sugar Birds audiobook, read by award-winning narrator Jayne Entwistle.

Subscribers can reply with SUGAR BIRDS AUDIO in your subject line by April 30 to enter. I’ll announce the winner in this Saturday Letter on May 3.

***

Meanwhile, some pearls, from me to you.

Because nature does a body good.

(Does hearts and souls good, too.)

Teenager—out on a limb. (A juvenile bald eagle along our creek.)

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine . . ."

—Isaiah 30:1

***

Perma-pressed.

"You are a God who does what is right, and you smooth out the path ahead of them."

—Isaiah 26:7

***

Water off a duck's back.

"Love . . . is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged."

—1 Corinthians 13:4

***

Kilroy, here.

(Mt. Shuksan sunrise.)

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you."

—Psalm 143:8

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Ferrous gluconate.

(How to take your iron.)

***

Friend Barb reminded me that the adjective for metal is metallic, but is something else entirely for iron.

Not ironic at all.

Love,

Cheryl

P.S. Speaking of iron, how about THIS wonder?

Shared from somewhere on FB ages ago. . . happy to credit if this is yours. Let me know?

***

Word Count on my WIP: Somewhere south of 3,000, after additions, cuts, more research, more additions and cuts. My protagonist is full of surprises.

So glad you’re here.