Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was an interesting story. Cover is gorgeous. Very intriguing story. Would read more by this author.

While more Death on the Nile than The Mummy in tone and genre, this was a fun romp with high stakes and memorable characters; while the pacing in the final third of the book felt inconsistent and perhaps suffers from feeling like it ended (or could have) one too many times, it’s an overall solid book that holds its own even to those who normally don’t enjoy teen/YA fiction such as myself, and leaves a lasting impression.

I picked this up because I heard it was perfect for fans of The Mummy. I said, sign me up! I loved the writing and the atmosphere. Can’t wait to read the sequel!

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez.
What the River Knows is a historical fiction about Egypt and archaeology. The story of a young girl who goes in search of information about her parents. The book gives solid details about Egypt in the late 1800s, but I don't know if the subject will attract teens.

My attention was caught by the comparison to The Mummy, but WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS was definitely its own story. I loved the idea of magic being imbued into various artifacts, so it was present in the world but a thing that was of the past, which made the book feel a lot more like straight historical fiction. I also loved the brief glimpse we got of Argentina during the late 1800s, and would love to see if Inez returns there at some point.

I've been in such a reading rut lately, but finally getting around to reading this book got me out of it for a little while. Between the adventure, the magic, and the slow burn romance, it had everything I needed to keep me hooked.

Ibañez’s vivid descriptions bring the Egyptian setting to life, immersing readers in the rich culture and history of the time. I really enjoyed the subtle magical elements. The romance is a slow-burning, enemies-to-lovers trope that adds tension to the plot.

I’m here for the richly detailed historical setting, but the romance won me over. I will read anything and everything by this author.

I really enjoyed this book. There was a wonderful blend of mystery, adventure, romance, with a touch of magic. The FMC was fierce, determined and very likeable. Upon meeting the MMC, the reader could tell that he would be a complex and interesting individual. I like a character with depth.

What The River Knows sounds like exactly the type of book I should love. It starts in the glittering upper crusts of Buenos Aires. It's centered around a female character. There is a murder mystery. Travel to Egypt. Shenanigans. A rugged, rough male sidekick. All of that is right up my alley. Sadly, this book failed to connect with me.

Inez, our main character has been raised as a lady in polite, upper class Argentina. When her parents disappear in Egypt, she impulsively takes off on an adventure to find them. Look, I get that Inez is supposed to be young and young people often make foolish or impulsive choices, but she is literally one bad decision after another. She also has a very bland personality. Aside from being impulsive, I can't say there is any other characteristic that stands out. It's a shame because she could've been a potentially interesting character.

And the male love interest. Gross. He's emotionally manipulating Inez and leading her to believe he is single until he magically remembers that he has a fiancee back home waiting for him. I get that you can't control chemistry sometimes, but he should've been upfront with her. I think he's also supposed to be sort of witty and sarcastic, but he just comes across as immature and rude quite often.

I feel like this book also didn't really have much plot after Inez arrives in Egypt. The action sort of stalls halfway through the book and that was weird for me. Maybe this was originally intended to be one book, but the publishers wanted it stretched into a duology for sales or something...but it just seems like the pacing was way off, the climax was way off, and there were perhaps some scenes that could've been edited out to make this a more concise, tight novel that keeps the suspenseful feel.

Also, I don't want to dunk on YA because I actually really enjoy some YA...but this one just felt very young to me. Some of it was due to the characterization and some of it due to the narrative style.

All in all, this one just didn't work the way I wanted it to. It is a cool concept and the writing itself isn't bad. It just was clearly written for someone much younger than me and because of that and the toxic romance, I just couldn't get behind it.

The audiobook of this was well narrated and smooth. If you are a fan of audio, I would recommend it.

I will say that whoever does the cover design for Ibanez's books should get a raise. Her covers are some of my absolute favorites.

Ibañez had me at “The Mummy meets Death on the Nile.” Who wouldn’t want to read that? Ibañez creates a lush world with gorgeous descriptions and imagery while giving readers a perfectly timed reveal. This is the perfect book to read on a rainy day to disappear into Ibañez’s delicious story.

This has such a fun atmosphere. I really enjoyed the pacing as well as the characters. An absolute need for any library serving teens.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A breathtaking adventure I didn’t want to leave!

What the River Knows swept me away from the very first page. 🌿✨ The setting was lush and vivid, the writing absolutely gorgeous, and the story felt like stepping into a dream full of mystery, danger, and heart.

I loved the strong, clever heroine and the delicious slow-burn tension woven throughout the adventure. Every twist kept me hooked, and the worldbuilding was so rich I could practically feel the heat of Egypt and the cool river breezes. 🏺🌊

This book had everything I love: magic, history, romance, and a heroine finding her voice in a world full of secrets. I’m so glad I was able to dive right into the next one 📚💛

I really loved this book. It was the prefect mix of adventure and romance for a YA novel. I thought the FMC was so great and I loved her dynamic with the MMC.

Does lack of critical thinking skills count as a content warning?

Before we start: I'm writing this as someone who is half Egyptian and spent 6 years in the Egyptian school system getting Egyptian history shoved down my throat.

This book got on my bad side from the very first page, which is "a (broad) timeline of Egypt":
639: Arab invasion of Egypt
1798: Napoleon's expedition to Egypt

Wikipedia calls Napoleon's "expedition" what it actually was: an invasion. For a book that's supposed to be against colonization, the author has a funny way of showing it. My bullshit radar was immediately on, and once that happens, it's rare that a book manages to recover.

The second strike had to do with a description related to the Fajr prayer:
Dawn came outfitted in rosy streaks of light that penetrated the thick gauze of the mosquito net enshrouding my bed. Dimly, I heard the last sounds of the Fajr prayer drift into my bedroom from the open balcony.

So, as a Muslim, I'm glad the author decided to not erase the fact that Egypt is a predominately Muslim country, but here's the thing: mosques perform prayers when the prayer time starts, not when it's close to the end of the timeslot, and for Fajr that is the break of dawn/astronomical dawn. As someone who has been praying Fajr for decades, trust me, there's no light to be seen. Once again, Wikipedia does get it right, so it just makes me wonder why the author, the editor, or anyone, really, didn't bother to fact check any of this.

At this point, I was rolling my eyes a lot, and the main character didn't help. Inez makes one bad, ill-thought-out decision after another. Consequences? She's never heard of the word. She's also been obsessed with Egypt for years, and has spent a lot of time learning to read hieroglyphs, but she couldn't be arsed to learn any Arabic so that she'd be able to communicate with the locals.

I didn't hate everything about the book, though. It's very readable, and I liked the parts where they were discovering ancient tombs, as long as I could manage to ignore how ridiculous Inez is. But this plot has more holes than a chunk of cheese. It's tied together by relying on Whit to keep readers distracted enough to not notice how much of this is convenient handwaving. And sure, he was a decent enough distraction, up to a point. But this entire ridiculous drama could've been avoided if Inez and her uncle had had ONE honest conversation. I guess that would've been too much of a stretch, though.

Writing this review brought my rating down, I was being too generous.

After being informed of the mysterious deaths of her parents in Egypt, Inez finds she has inherited a fortune & a mystery. She travels to Egypt to find out what happened to her parents. In the process,, she meets her estranged uncle, & his enigmatic, attractive assistant.

So disappointing. I was excited for this book. I was looking for more like Raiders of the Arcana. And this was getting marketed as “The Mummy meets Death on the Nile”. And instead I got a book full of weird pacing issues, inconsistent characters, & a romance I was actively rooting against by the end.

It was a good thing I was invested in the mystery of Inez’s parents because I was not interested in Whit or the rivals to lovers thing with Inez. And I was so interested in how the fusion of historical fiction and fantasy was going to go, and I felt that that was also underdeveloped.

I had been planning on rating this a little higher, but the epilogue pissed me off so much. There’s cliffhanging, and then there’s leaving literally everything unresolved and introducing a new character in the epilogue that changes everything I thought I knew about the story, and not in a way I liked.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc.

This was a very fun read! I like how it was reminiscent of Indiana Jones! I loved the exotic Egyptian setting and the slow burn romance! I can’t wait to read the sequel!

I love the setting and the characters. The plot was fun with lots of twists and turns. I'm excited that there is a sequel.

**DND @ 50%**
This is not a fantasy book guys. This is historical fiction with the bad attempt at trying to be a historical fantasy. The whole magical objects things is mentioned but it is only convenient that the main girl deals with it and has "visions" when she is in Egypt with her uncle and the "love interest." (Don't get me started) I have no idea how the publisher didn't catch this. If you're going to have the main girl experience the effects of the magic, open the book with it! If you just drop it in there are a few chapters into the book, that's not only jarring but makes the protagonist into Mary Sue territory. Plus Whit is not "boyfriend material." He is a drunk, carries a knife, he has killed people (it's obvious in a scene that he's done it before) and I did read some spoilers about him and there's some of his back story that doesn't help him either. Plus if her uncle actually cared about her safety, he would have explained WHY he didn't want her coming to Egypt. I'm sorry but not telling the truth when she makes this huge journey, knowing what I read ahead later is very stupid. This plot hinges on an uncle who actually does not keep his niece safe. Plus there's no tombs and going into them by the end of part two. This book takes a long time getting to what's promised. Inez was also not a person I really cared about. She felt like a social justice warrior from our time put into an 1800's setting. The author also felt like she was forcing her and Whit to like each other; it never felt organic. A long enough rant though. The covers are beautiful but the story in here really needed some better editing to make up on the magical objects promise. Another hyped book bites the dust

I didn't think I needed an Indiana Jones-esque book about a teenage girl who travels on her own from Argentina to discover the truth about her parents' death, but this hit the spot. I loved every moment of this book, I loved the romance, the mystery, the backdrop, it was beautifully done and I've already read the sequel and man, do I wish there was more of it.

When Inez receives word her parents have died in a tragic and mysterious way, she follows them across the world to the place that captured their hearts, and frequently left her alone to travel to… Egypt. She had heard so much about this mysterious and magical place, and after receiving a ring in the mail from her father, she realized the old world magic was real. Her parents had been on an expedition to find Cleopatras’ tomb, and she gets caught up in the search too while she investigates her parents’ deaths. But there is something sinister happening in Cairo, and she’s going to find out what it is!

I loved this!! I loved the setting, the little doses of magical realism, the Cleopatra mythology, the adventurer vibe throughout the book! I loved her banter with the MMC and how clever and fearless Inez was. The Mummy was one of my favorite movies growing up so I was so psyched when that was in the description. This was definitely a cute, cozy YA mystery book but one I’ll definitely be excited to read again! 4/5 stars!

Unfortunately time lapsed on this and I was unable to fit it into my reading schedule so I will have to refrain from commenting and reviewing on it.