Book : What the River Knows
Author : Isabel Ibañez
Release Date : 14 Nov 2023

Thank you Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press and the author of this book for an opportunity to review this ARC.

This book cover OH MAN. STUNNING! This book was incredible. I love a good historical fantasy and this touched all the things on my list that makes a great one! I got massive The Mummy vibes from this.

If you love :
Rivals to Lovers
Forbidden Romance
Touch Her And You Die
Historical Fantasy
Slow Burn
Forced Proximity
This book will be for you!

This book with such a great adventure. I sat down and read this book quickly. I didn’t want to put it down and wanted to keep immersing myself into this story. It took me away with the very well written characters. The character development, world building and dialogue was perfection. The characters seemed so realistic to me. Pharaohs and temples for the WIN!

I haven’t stopped thinking about this book. It will live in my mind for a very long time. One of my favorite books of 2023.I can’t wait to read more from this extremely talented author!!!

Race and put this on your TBR NOW!

2.7
You know how much I hate it when the entire plot structure rests on people just being too ninny to tell one another important shit as relates to their mutual goals, and there's a great deal of that going on here. But what really irks me is that slapdash, I bet someone told you this was a cute thing to do, stupid, stupid epilogue.

I loved this book so much I literally clutched my kindle against my chest when I was finished. What the River Knows is a historical fantasy set in Egypt where a young woman, Inez, sets out to find answers to her parents disappearance along with some ancient magic. As a big fantasy reader, sometimes I feel a bit burnt out with the same Fae Kingdom type stories, so this felt like a huge breath of fresh air. The setting of Egypt was perfect, and Ibanez writes in such a lush, beautiful way I felt truly immersed. What I Inez could smell, I could smell, what she could feel, I could feel. This book also had so much more action and adventure than I am used to from a historical fantasy, which really added to the fun element. I think if you are someone who doesn’t always read fantasy, this is a great one to pick up because it does have a be try cinematic adventure quality. Of course, I always love a romance plot, and was done especially well, it enhanced the story and my emotional investment in the characters, rather than drag it down. As I previously mentioned, the authors writing is so stunning. I was not surprised at all to see they were friends with Rebecca Ross, another author I adore. Some people may find the writing too flowery but I didn’t think so at all, I loved the reading it and I thought it contrasted so well with the fun plot. Even though I have finished the book, I still have the dreamy feel of still being there, and I can’t wait to reread this.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

Intriguing settings and great mystery, but the female lead turned me off pretty quickly. Her attitude was far too preachy for someone hailing from the same background she was condemning. Beautiful cover though.

Actual rating 3.75/5 stars.

The Mummy has been one of my very favorite movies since I was a child. Because of it, I had childhood aspirations of being an archeologist. I was obsessed. So I was very excited when I read the premise of this book. I feel like there are far too few books exploring Egypt and it's vast history, culture and creations.

I'm very happy to say I really enjoyed my time reading this book, and I was absolutely left wanting more. I wish the plot had given us a bit more spread throughout the length of the book instead of packing all the major excitment and emotion in at the end. But I still thoroughly liked the story as a whole, especially the inclusion of it's magic. It was charming in it's casualness. It didn't need a reason, it was just an accepted little spark in their world. I liked the whole cast of characters, especially our protagonist, but hope to see more bridging in the different relationships. The possibility for amazing characterization and character relationships is there. They all just need a little more push to really feel the relationships and emotions of the characters. I want to say I'm very excited for the sequel, but then I remembered the epilogue and I really do not want to face whatever that was.

Interesting young adult novel that reminded me slightly of The Mummy. The main character Inez has bad thing after bad thing happen to her throughout the story which is a little frustrating as a reader. The romance was pretty mellow. Overall the story was interesting with most of the action happening in the last quarter of the book. Not my favorite type of book (historical fiction) with some magical realism thrown in there but I still enjoyed it for the most part. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

What the River Knows has me torn - there were elements and pieces that I enjoyed and others that left me feeling blah. Inez and Whit’s dynamic gives off Evelyn and Rick vibes (The Mummy), but their relationship doesn’t work for me as well as it should. The action picks up towards the middle of the story and gives the novel the push that it needs to keep the reader interested. The cliffhanger ending leaves the door wide open to a sequel. (3.5 rounded to 4)

There are endings that make you eager to read the next book in a series and then there’s the ending of What the River Knows. Why give any character a modicum of comfort or resolution after heaping trauma upon them when you can leave them all miserably listing like a dahabeeyah that has run aground in the Nile?

To be fair, this was a big story with an epic journey for the heroine who leaves Argentina to discover how her parents died in Egypt, the country where they spent half their year while lives mostly neglected with a judgmental aunt. While this is said to be historical fantasy, it’s more like historical fiction with paranormal elements. There is no world to be built - we’re in Egypt in 1884. Everything is decidedly normal except that some objects hold onto magic that’s been out of use for many years and some people, like the heroine, can receive that magic.

If this had been a story of betrayal by a loved one and retribution, it would have been fine. But when everyone seems to be working against the heroine except one person and that one person dies, it just isn’t a satisfying read.

The writing has a few wobbles, where you find yourself wondering why and how something is happening, but if you refuse to pause for too long, it’s a pretty fun read until the last 10%.

I hope The River Knows how much I loved this book! After finishing reading, I immediately went to Ms. Ibanez's Instagram to see if there was a sequel in the works because I need to know what happens next!

There was so much to love about this book. The atmosphere was beautifully written, the characters were complex and well developed, and the plot was epic! The last quarter of the book was fully unpredictable and, in my opinion, challenged the boundaries of most fictional relationships. We don't generally see twists like this, and I was so here for the novelty of it. I loved the strength Inez showed despite everything she'd been through, and the chemistry between her and Whit was just.. mmm!

My only nitpick about this relates the magic. I loved the way the magic was involved with Inez's journey and the connection to Cleopatra and would have loved more of that. However, some of the other magic references were so sporadic that they seemed to come out of nowhere. I understand how it was essential to the plot, so it's really a minor negative, in my opinion.

I loved this book. I am a huge fan of Isabel’s stories and I devoured this book. I will definitely buy this book when it comes out to add to my collection
10/10 would recommend.

“You are the most annoying human being I’ve ever had the displeasure to meet,” Whit snarled. “I could strangle you myself.”

Inez Olivera finds herself on an adventure in Egypt after learning about the tragic passing of her parents. Once in Egypt, Inez meets the infuriating, charming, and handsome assistant to her uncle, Whitford Hayes. Rivals with undeniable chemistry and both so feisty.

I am not going to say a lot about the plot because there are lots of twists and turns. The book immerses you into Egypt and the search for magical artifacts. It is beautiful, witty, emotional, and filled with unexpected plot twists.

This is an incredible YA fantasy that includes a rivals to lovers plot, forbidden romance, slow burn, secrets, magical artifacts, and Egyptian history.

All opinions are my own but this was read as an arc for Wednesday books.

Oh my gosh, THE ATMOSPHERE! If you're a fan of the dynamic between Rick & Evelyn in The Mummy movies, you are going to fall all over yourself when you read Whit & Inez in WTRK! The tension and the banter between these two was PERFECTION, and I can't wait for book 2!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this arc. This was a light, fun, and pretty quick read. There were so many elements to love about this story. From the beginning, the author establishes both the problem the character faces and a bit about the magic that exists in the world. As the narrative unfolds, the character is faced with challenge after challenge that she has to navigate, which really gave this a fast-paced quality that made it such an enjoyable read. I can’t say that some of the reveals were too surprising - some of them are predictable, but that doesn’t do away with the enjoyment of the read. I particularly found myself impressed that the author did such an amazing job with getting elements of the ancient history right and even going to experts to get feedback. Ibanez really did her homework, which for me was crucial - nothing throws me out of a story faster than getting facts wrong. That she got those elements right really increased how much I enjoyed the story.

Plot-wise, I liked that Ibanez kept readers guessing about Inez’s uncle - was he an antiquities smuggler responsible for killing her parents or not? That was well done to a point. When her mother showed up, it seemed clear that she was a much shadier character than Inez realized and that the uncle was not the villain Inez believed. But Inez’s trust in her mother was understandable, despite the fact that her mother was terrible - from the get-go, Inez’s parents had very little concern for her, evident in the way they never bothered to take her with them to Egypt. Still, Inez is a young woman who has clung to the memory of her parents, so the fact that she believed in her mother made a lot of sense to me, while I could still see that her mother was no good.

I will say it took me a bit to get into the romance between Inez and Whit. I’m not sure what it was about his characterization early on, but he seemed pretty arrogant and distant and I couldn't really get into why it was that Inez had any sort of interest in him. But as the story progressed, he did grow on me. It seemed clear that he was fighting off his interest in her because of something in his own past that he was still having to contend with. That ending with him wanting to marry Inez (for her inheritance!) and with his brother showing up has now really made me want the second book so I can see what they are up to and what it is that Whit is dealing with.

The one element of the story that I do think could have been handled differently, given that there is "sort of" an attempt at an anti-colonial slant to this, is the lack of Egyptian primary characters. There is one Egyptian character - the uncle's partner - who gets a little time on the page (he has a daughter, but she isn't much of a character in this at all), but I would have preferred if Inez's love interest or she herself or other major secondary characters were Egyptian. I hate to say that there are many stories set in the colonial or interwar periods that treat Egyptians as incidental to their own histories (thinking Elizabeth Peters, Tasha Alexander, Mary Doria Russell, Erica Ruth Neubauer, Agatha Christie to name a few). Going into this book, I had hoped Ibanez would have been able to write against that. I absolutely loved the idea of Inez being Argentinian in Egypt, but it still seemed as if there was a bit of paternalism at work with raising awareness about the exploitation of Egypt without involving Egyptians in a story of how to overcome that.

Other than this, I think this was a fun read - my first of Ibanez's - and it's left me very curious to continue reading her other published work.

This book was so good. The magical realism was fun and I loved the historical knowledge built in. The twists were unpredictable and that ending whatttt! Book two stat please!

I adored Ibañez’s previous release (Together We Burn), so when I saw the book announcement for her YA Egyptian historical fantasy, I was immediately hyped. What the River Knows was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 and I’m so thrilled that it (almost) lived up to my incredibly lofty expectations.

This book is exactly what you get if you mixed The Mummy with Indiana Jones and the atmospheric setting of Death on the Nile. The vibes are immaculate, and it really lives up to the pitch of an Egyptian treasure hunt against the backdrop of 19th century Egypt. Ibañez’s research with her Egyptologist really shines, especially when describing the contrasting worlds of the Westernized, white-dominated high society of Cairo and the isolation and solitude of Philae. As with her previous book, Ibañez successfully blends her main character’s Latin (in this book, Argentinian) heritage into the plot. I loved how she unapologetically included phrases of Spanish without translation, and the small sprinkling of Egyptian Arabic made the Egyptian characters more fully-realized. I could clearly picture all the settings in my mind—yet another testament to Ibañez’s research and writing.

While I thought Inez was a decent protagonist, her motivations felt a bit too simple, as did her conviction about her various relatives’ character. I questioned how frequently Inez sorted her family into stereotypical good/loving and bad/cold; this often made me feel like some of the supporting cast wasn’t totally fleshed out since the book is from Inez’s first person POV. She did experience a good and believable amount of character growth, though, and I look forward to reading more about her development in the sequel. The disillusionment inherent in her character arc felt earned at the end.

The real star of this book is the love interest, Whit (who, much to my surprise, had several scenes from his POV). He honestly felt more developed than Inez; whereas she was stubbornly set in her beliefs, Whit’s backstory was devastating and fully justified his general mistrust of people. I loved how multifaceted he was, and his wrestling with multiple identities to fit into various social worlds felt relatable, if dramatized. His pithy one liners had me giggling multiple times, and the banter between him and Inez was fun without becoming mean or juvenile. Though their chemistry took a bit longer for me to believe following their initial attraction, Ibañez developed it fantastically. Also, huge props to Ibañez for writing a romance where the characters actually *admit* they’re attracted to each other—an absolute rarity in YA. Though I would characterize their relationship as slow-burn reluctant-allies-to-lovers, their “will they won’t they” came from societal pressures and not a lack of communication, further contributing to Ibañez’s strength in writing a historical setting.

I think my reading experience of this book was severely impacted by my schoolwork. I read the first 60% on and off before finally having time to binge the rest of it, so my experience was disjointed and full of gaps. As a result, my main critique of this book was the pacing. It felt like a laborious journey traveling from Buenos Aires to Cairo to Philae, and it took halfway through the Philae arc for me to get *fully* sucked into the book. The magic, while unique, felt under-explained. However, as I read an early version of the book, I’m hoping the pacing gets cleaned up and streamlined. I think cutting a few scenes in the beginning could definitely help the pacing. Similarly, while I eventually became invested in it, Whit’s POV felt underutilized and less-polished compared to Inez’s, so I’m hoping that also gets tightened up before official publication.

This book earns an extra 0.5 stars for the ending alone, both for the climactic showdown and the epilogue. I GASPED when I read the epilogue; it was the same kind of emotions I experienced after reading Stephanie Garber’s The Ballad of Never After. I will not be okay until the sequel to this book comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan Children’s) for the e-ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4.5/5 stars

This gave me the *strongest* Stalking Jack the Ripper vibes - like get rid of the magic, change the protagonist’s country of origin, and you could convince me this was SJTR book #5. I did love the Egypt setting, especially after having read Death on the Nile recently. My main complaint with this book is that the magic felt superfluous; we could have gotten rid of the magic completely (substituted for deduction skills) and the plot wouldn’t have changed at all, which is disappointing considering it is an interesting magic system. I sped through this one, and am unsurprisingly attached to the love interest. I’m curious to see where this story goes, especially with that epilogue!

I really enjoyed this book! It was such a fun adventure that I could not put down. They're was danger, mystery, adventure, history, romance, and a little bit of fantasy too. (Tbh, I thought there would be a little more to the fantasy element, but it didn't take away from the book). It is described a The Mummy meets Death On The Nile, and I would even throw in some Indiana Jones vibes as well. The plot flowed well, the mystery was set up great, and the bits of magic for in perfectly to the story. The chemistry between the mc's was so good and the twists kept on coming. I definitely felt immersed in the story and loved going along for the ride. The only negative is the awful (but really amazing) cliffhanger at the end and the fact that I'll have to wait so long to know how things will move forward.

Content: A handful of swears and a passionate make out.

I have never read a book like this before. And as someone who has read hundreds of YA books in the last few years, that is really saying something. What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez is a unique combination of archaeology, historical fiction, fantasy, and adventure with just enough romance to keep things interesting. The story follows Inez, a Bolivian-Argentina lady, as she journeys to late 19th-century Cairo to discover the truth behind her parents’ sudden and mysterious death. Rebelling against social conventions at every turn, she is accompanied (albeit begrudgingly) by Whit, a dashing British gentleman accompanying her uncle’s archeological digs. Caught in a dangerous hunt to find Cleopatra’s lost tomb, Inez will have to face dastardly villains, political upheaval, and the secrets her parents left buried in the Saharan sand.

One of the wonderful aspects of What the River Knows was the magic system. Subtle and well-constructed, the magic relied on magical objects from antiquity. Essentially, humankind once understood how to channel magic into objects, but just as hieroglyphics have been forgotten, so too has the way of magic. Yet some of the power remains in artifacts, giving a whole new meaning to the discovery of ancient objects. As a nerd and self-proclaimed Classical history enthusiast, I loved that the past quite literally had power and the large role history played in the development of the story. That being said, I didn’t particularly care for the story's portrayal of Augustus, Cleopatra, and Marus Antonius (Mark Antony for non-Latin nerds). Since I’m already familiar with the history, I found a lot of facts were ignored in favor of an easier narrative, which does make logical sense in a light adventure novel but did often mean complexities were overlooked.

Beyond the historical background, the setting of 1884 Cairo was wonderfully portrayed. It was easy to picture racing through the markets, staying in a decadent colonial hotel, or traversing the Nile. I appreciated that the colonial history of Egypt wasn’t ignored: part of the plot relies on keeping precious artifacts out of the hands of imperial powers so that they remain part of Egypt’s cultural heritage. That being said, the story was a little preachy at times, with an overemphasis on the evils of colonialism in conversation rather than showing the impacts of imperialism.

I absolutely adored the main character. Inez was smart, spunky, and stubborn, with flaws that felt real. I genuinely cared about what happened to her and loved the dynamic she shared with Whit. The banter was amazing and I went from laughing to rolling my eyes to tearing up within a matter of pages. Grief and the way it was portrayed was well done. Rather than focusing merely on the pain of losing someone, What the River Knows grappled with losing the dream of someone as well as the actual person. Overall, I enjoyed this novel and can't wait to see what the rest of the series (I’m hoping it’s a series) has to offer! Fans of the Mummy, The Gilded Wolves, and Egyptian history won’t want to miss this one!

Loveee fantasy with a cute little romance mixed in. So was excited for this. And it was good. A little too YA for me, but it is said it’s YA so that’s my bad. But I could see this being the gateway type series for a YA person who then grows up to read blood and ash and ACOTAR and stuff lol

Inez Olivera is a young woman living in high society in Buenos Aires. She lives under the care of her aunt and two cousins half of the year while her parents are off in Egypt searching for ancient burial sites. While Inez loves her aunt and cousins, she longs to join her parents on their expeditions. But when a letter arrives announcing the disappearance and presumed deaths of her mom and dad, Inez knows she has to stop asking for permission and get herself to Egypt to figure out what happened to her parents.

When Inez reaches Cairo with sketch pads and mysterious ring sent from her father in hand, she doesn’t receive a warm reception from her Tio Ricardo. But following the pull of the ring’s magic, Inez discovers that her parents’ disappearances may be linked to something shady in the underground antiquities business. Inez will have to follow the pull of magic and her heart to uncover the truth.

This book showed what a melting pot Egypt became in the nineteenth century following British occupation. I loved Inez’s determination and independence, and I found it so frustrating when none of the men would support her or tell her what she needed to know! The infusion of magic into the historical fantasy was done nicely, adding to the story instead of being flashy or excessive. After taking 6 years of Spanish in my high school and college years, I really liked the Spanish phrases sprinkled throughout!

There were many surprises that I did not see coming in this book, and a fantastic cliffhanger in the epilogue that gives me hope for a sequel. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in stories with a bit of fantasy, mystery, and romance!