Book Spotlight: https://travelingwitht.com/2023/09/09/book-spotlight-womens-fiction/ Posted on September 9, 2023

Amazing book! I love the setting and the era of time! It’s not a typical book I would read but Aimie Runyan is a great writer that just captivates you!

A lovely story split between two lines and told by 3 people which worked really well. There is a really good mixture of WW2 action, mystery and secrets to unfold. I will definitely be looking for more books by this author

This was my first book by Aimie and it definitely won’t be my last! Across the Winding River is a beautifully wound story of war, sacrifice, secrets, loss, and love.

An unexpected photograph, a search for answers from the past, and a missing sister post WW2 all come together in Across the Winding River.

I really enjoyed the dual timelines and 3 POV’s we got with it here. I read a lot of historical fiction but with the contemporary and “then” settings, it really gave this book a fresh and unique feel. It didn’t feel like “just another WW2 story”! Without spoiling anything, this winding story led to a satisfying ending for this reader, and for that I was happy!

This is a fantastic historical fiction book that I think will leave any reader who picks it up just as thrilled to have read it as I was. Highly recommend!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the gifted e-copy.

This story told from three viewpoints in two timelines was more than your typical WWII book. Figuring out who the war characters were in the modern timeline made for a compelling narrative.

While this reader feels there are quite a lot of World War II stories to choose from lately, this one was unique in its use of three narrators over two timelines—there was a contemporary timeline with Max’s daughter Beth, a WWII and modern timeline with Max, and a mostly WWII timeline with a woman named Johanna. The variety gave the story a different cast than other WWII novels, and the contemporary angle made it more relatable for a modern reader.

This was a beautiful recounting of a WWII love story that ended with a search and unanswered questions. While Max didn’t know Margarethe well, he knew they loved each other in a soul-deep way that would surely carry over into their lives when the war was over. That being said, and without spoiling the ending, it was satisfying to find out the rest of the story years later.

Overall, this was a charming book that blended a contemporary story with a WWII story quite well. I’d give it a high 3 out of 5 stars and recommend it for those who enjoy family stories or WWII historical stories.

Aimie has become one of my favorite historical fiction writers of all time. She is absolutely amazing. Her ability to put you in the action, in the emotions of her characters, the research she does to create these stories...she is nothing short of magnificent.

Across the Winding River is another home run by Runyan. If someone wants a great historical fiction to read, this book is it.

A powerful wartime novel by the bestselling author of Daughters of the Night Sky. Alternating between WWII and the present day. A taste of history and well researched. A story of family, love, and loyalty. I loved the several POV and alternating timelines. A wonderful story from an author I love!

Once again, Runyan proves herself a master of pacing and character development: not to mention brilliantly integrated research. I always find her books so immersive.




I hosted the author for a fb live chat and shared on instagram, facebook and twitter

Inspired by true events, Runyan weaves a dual timeline story of sacrifice, courage and love in the post Pearl Harbor years. Undoubtedly requiring endless research, she has crafted three memorable historical perspectives bringing the reader to the heart of the action. Beautiful prose and swift pace. Recommend for historical fiction fans who want a lesser know angle of WWII fiction.

Aimie K. Runyan’s fifth novel is anchored in two historical periods – California in 2007, and Germany during WWII – and told from three perspectives. The story combines a classic plot pattern of a young woman discovering her father’s secret wartime history with his first-person account of that history, along with a third strand from the viewpoint of a German woman, a female pilot and aircraft designer who’s an aristocrat by marriage, and who has secret Jewish heritage. The stories interlock, but not the way you’d assume.

In the modern era, Beth Cohen is startled to discover a decades-old snapshot of her father, Max, gazing into the eyes of a pregnant young blonde. At the end of his life, at age 90, Max Blumenthal is finally ready to reveal his involvement with the woman he loved and lost before he met Beth’s mother, hoping to solve a mystery that’s lingered for decades. In 1944, as a newly minted dentist, Max decides to enlist rather than wait to be drafted, feeling an obligation to do his part for the war because of his lost relatives from Latvia. Part of a medical detachment during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest near the German border, he gets pulled into the resistance movement after one night when he intercepts a young woman stealing medical supplies for a friend she claims is working against Hitler. He chooses to let her go.

Of the three protagonists, Johanna Schiller is the most intriguing. As a skilled test pilot, she doesn’t fall into the Nazis’ preferred role for women, and she grows uneasy about her brother’s quick absorption into the Hitler Youth and fellow Germans’ reporting on each other’s “unpatriotic” activities. Johanna also has a younger sister, Metta, who seems resigned to the life planned out for her as a loyal wife to the Reich. The story moves from the sexism German women faced under Nazi rule to the heroism of the resistance, and the courageous paths traveled by those who actively yet covertly rebelled. The plot has a couple of incredible coincidences but wraps up in a way that enables the characters to heal from the wounds of the past.

This is a lovely story of WWII, family, love, and secrets. The story gripped me from the beginning and was very compelling.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Beth Cohen’s dad Max is 90 and living in an aged care home and one day he asked his daughter to find a box containing his mementos from his time serving as a medic during WW II. Of course she has a look at the contents of the box and she discovers a photo of her dad with a pretty pregnant woman and the lady isn’t her mother?
1944 Max finished his dental training; he decided to serve his country and joined the army as a medic. While stationed in Germany he met a young married woman called Margarethe, they had a very short romantic relationship, after the war ended he tried to find her, he couldn’t, he had no idea what happened to Metta and her baby. Older Max had one wish; he would like Beth to find out what happened to Metta and her baby. After 60 years Beth doesn’t like her chances of finding them and her dad doesn’t even know her last name.
Johanna Patterson is Metta’s older sister, during WW II engineer in Germany she designed and flew planes.
Post war Germany was a mess, people lost contact with each other during the chaos and it was difficult to find someone missing. Both Max and Johanna separately spent over two years trying to find Margarethe and they had no luck eventually they had no choice and moved on with their lives. All three main characters stories are connected, you have Max who knows his time is running out and he wants closure. Beth has recently divorced and wants to make the most of her time that she has left with her dad and let him rest in peace knowing what happened to his first love Metta. Johanna has married again; she no longer lives in Germany and after 60 years and still wants to find out what happened to her beloved sister Metta?

Across The Winding River's plot is based around Max, Metta’s and Johanna’s experiences during WW II; it’s a gripping dual timeline story about war, love, loss, sacrifice, destiny and finally finding closure.

This book sucked me in to a fabulous story of war and love. Runyan's writing is as timeless as this story is. Her novels are always packed with lovable characters and her portrayal of historical times is entertaining and intriguing. I have not read a book by Aimie K. Runyan that I didn't love!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* ngl this book really ended up drawing me in, these books tend to be more hit and miss for me but this was really great and i found myself wanting to get back to this book when i had to, against my will, take breaks lol

I've enjoyed every historical fiction book I've read by this author, and this story was no different. It's a wonderful heartfelt story about Beth uncovering history about Max, her elderly father from his time as a medic in WWII after she stumbles across an old photo in a box of his old treasures.

We often hear of how veterans never discuss the horrors of the war and family often doesn't hear about everything they endured until late in their life (if ever.) In this book, Beth has already lost her mother, has ended a troubled marriage, and this old photo of her dad with his arm around a pregnant woman gives her a glimpse into possibly uncovering family she'd never known.

The author (as always) does a great job researching history, and it's a wonderful story about family, heart, and hope. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this wonderful book!

I've really enjoyed Ms. Runyan's previous book and this book didn't disappoint. I loved the story itself and getting to meet these characters.

A lovely historical fiction story. Max, an elderly man at the end of his life asks his daughter Beth to retrieve a box of WWII memorabilia from his storage unit and starts her on a journey into the past. Told from the perspective of Beth in the current day, Max during his time during the war and Johanna, an engineer with a crossover story. An enjoyable interweaving tale.

This is a historical based women's fiction story based on a true story told in three narratives. It is a heartfelt story of love during war time and how the war changed lives forever. I loved the charcters as they were beautifully drawn to the story and all told their side of the story with great depth. The war time descriptions were spectacular and very true to fact. The three narratives blend perfectly for a outstanding read that I highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley. My review opinions are my own.

A women finds an old photograph in her father's WWII memorabilia and that is where the mystery begins. I found it helpful to read the author's notes before I started the book because the book has three timelines and three POV's, so can be difficult to keep it all straight at times. Reading the author’s notes helped simplify the complexity of the story for me.

This is a story about family, love and loyalty. There are many characters and throughout the story you become invested in them all. It is a complex and entertaining story based on facts that kept me engaged to the end!!

I would recommend this book if you like WWII genre, you won’t be disappointed!

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my review
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#NetGalley #AcrosstheWindingRiver

This was the first time I had read anything by Aimie K. Runyan. I recieved this as an Arc from NetGalley. I really enjoyed this historical fiction book because it was wrtitten from a male character point of view. It was well written and I could imagine the hole book in my mind. I will be reading more of Amie K. Runyan's future books.