Across the Winding River

 Book 65 of my 2020 Reading Challenge

read from August 17 - September 30

Across the Winding River

by Aimie K. Runyan

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2020

Beth Cohen wants to make the most of the months she has left with her elderly father, Max. His only request of his daughter is to go through the long-forgotten box of memorabilia from his days as a medic on the western front. Then, among his wartime souvenirs, Beth finds a photograph of her father with an adoring and beautiful stranger—a photograph worth a thousand questions.
It was 1944 when Max was drawn into the underground resistance by the fearless German wife of a Nazi officer. Together, she and Max were willing to risk everything for what they believed was right. Ahead of them lay a dangerous romance, a dream of escape, and a destiny over which neither had control.
But Max isn’t alone in his haunting remembrances of war. In a nearby private care home is a fragile German-born woman with her own past to share. Only when the two women meet does Beth realize how much more to her father there is to know, all the ways in which his heart still breaks, and the closure he needs to heal it.

My Opinion

5 stars

I read this book through the Amazon First Reads program for Prime members.  I don't know if that needs a disclosure but since I downloaded it for free I wanted to mention it just in case.

I loved this read!  There was a bit of a leap regarding a coincidence in the present day but it didn't take long for them to make it before moving on with the story so that helped, both because it was easier to accept since it wasn't made into a big discovery and because it opened up the story to spend more time in the past.  My favorite parts of the story were during the flashbacks.  I was nervous as I read even though I knew the narrator (meaning I knew at least certain characters were going to survive), which shows how invested I was.