Beautiful story of love, family, and magic. Lots of drama and suspense. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Nothing like Ancient Egyptian magic tied to a ring, from a dead parent, passing on bottomless funds, in the care of a just introduced uncle, on his way to Cairo, chasing the legendary tomb of Cleopatra, all landing on the person of a bossy girl living in Buenos Aires in the 1880's to get my attention, folks!

Inez Olivera gets all of that and a trip to Cairo, River Nile tours, threats on her life, and a hunky on-again-off-again ally with special attractions. Cleopatra is involved, and a family reunion, and at the end. . . .a cliff hanger. . .this is #1, and one is definitely left wanting #2. Which I am.

*A sincere thank you to Isabel Ibañez, St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #WhattheRiverKnows #NetGalley

This book captivated me from the start. Although this was a slow burn, Ibañez’s descriptive story telling kept me hooked until the very end.

I absolutely adored Inez! She’s exactly what I’d expect out of a young Latina lead — witty, stubborn, curious and fueled by fire. I equally loved Whit, too. His darkness and mystery kept me wanting to find out more about him and his past. I loved their banter and enjoyed watching their relationship grow.

There’s a little bit of magic, Egyptian history, love, mystery, some twists I did see coming and a bunch more I didn’t! This book is the first in a series, so I cannot wait to find out how Inez’s story plays out, because that ending…

What the River Knows is a historical fantasy set in Egypt. Say no more, I'm in! Inez Olivera is the daughter of Egypt enthusiasts who are tragically reported dead on their last trip. Suspecting that there may be more to the story, Inez decides to go to Egypt by herself to find out what she can about their deaths. Upon her arrival, she meets a dashingly annoying boy who works for her uncle. She ends up teaming up with him to find out what really happened to her family and solve questions that have plagued archeologists for centuries.

I was soooo excited for this book!! As a former child who got very into Ancient Egypt once upon a time, I was excited to see a book that incorporated Ancient Egypt, magic, and archaeology. I definitely had super high expectations leading up to this book, which I think did me a disservice. I thought this book was just okay. This hurts me to say because I wanted to love it!

First, we have the main characters. They were both very prickly. I somewhat get it because of enemies to lovers/both of them had difficult pasts, but it didn't make for super fun reading. I also thought that the magic system could have been explained/incorporated a bit more. It doesn't come into play too much, so I kept getting surprised when someone used a magical item, like "oh yeah there IS magic in this world." I think that this was a missed opportunity because it's such a cool idea!! I would have just wanted more magic or none and have it be more of a straight historical fiction book.

Generally, there is more violence than I expected in this book. There is a moment at the end of the book that I thought was unnecessarily brutal and cruel. It really made me think about whether I wanted to keep reading and/or read the sequel. I would take this into consideration if this is something that might bother you.

Overall, I thought this book was okay. It wasn't really what I wanted it to be! I recommend it if you are super into Egypt or historical adventure novels. 3 stars from me. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC of this book, my thoughts are my own!

What the River Knows is a historical fantasy that was marketed to me because I am an archaeologist and anthropologist. And to get it out of the way quickly, I think this book did a good job of saying "stealing is bad, taking historical artifacts out of the country where they belong is wrong, and grave robbing is really wrong."
My favourite part of this book by far is the point where the Tumblr text post "mummies are rare because we ate them" was referenced /j. I greatly enjoyed the descriptions of the tombs, ruins, and temples, as well as the geographical exploration. I really liked the swearing that came up, it always felt very realistic. Teenagers and young adults swear all the time, even historical teenagers and young adults. I liked the romance between Witt and Inez. I liked the mystery, even though I was mostly confused for the whole book. One of the only things I didn't enjoy was the writing style for physical movement descriptions. Something just felt off there. But the prose and dialogue were lovely. I think this might have been about 200 pages too long, unfortunately. The first 40% reaaaaally dragged. And the last 15% was faster than a bullet... And if you want happy endings, this isn't the book for you. Overall I would give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*shakes fist at sky* damn you, surprise series openers! Getting me all excited and then making me wait

Okay, I really did like this a lot, I just hate when I'm tricked into reading something that's not actually finished!

Where to start with this book…
I love the historical fiction aspect of it! The Mummy-esque setting was lovely!
Inez was obnoxious at first. Okay, she was obnoxious the whole time, but I got used to her. 😅 Whit was lovable and endearing. I loved their little crew, all of the side characters.
I’m looking forward to the second book to find out what happens next!

I LOVED this book! As a huge fan of The Mummy and Indiana Jones, I just knew I had to pick this up, and, wow, it did not disappoint! I love Inez - I love her spirit, her energy, and her stubborn nature. I love the immense amount of research the author clearly put into her worldbuilding. I loved this so much I bought a copy for a friend!

Rating: 3-3.5
I picked this up, like many, because of it's comparisons to The Mummy. When I started reading this I LOVED IT! But sadly as I got further into the story some things started to irk me and and I ended up liking it less and less. However, that is not to say this was a bad book by any means. It was hard to understand what this book was trying to be. Was it fantasy or historical fiction or romance or mystery or all of the above? At times it read very YA and other times very adult. I will say I want to know how this story ends and will pick up the next book---so it did it's job of keeping my attention.

Things I enjoyed (for the most part)
Setting- I will literally read anything that takes place in Egypt and a bonus for anything about Egyptology.
Enemies to lovers? Check---well maybe...more on that later.
Inez- I honestly really liked our main character (well at first anyways) She seemed like a head strong female lead, maybe a bit shelter but curious and seemingly smart.
Reminded me of one of my favorite series ever--The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.

Things that irked me by the end:
The magic. - What magic system you may ask? Exactly. While the magical aspect was super interesting at first it was so under-developed and just used as a plot device to move the story where needed and ignored it the rest of the time.
There were many characters that were introduced and seemed important to the plot but then just disappeared and reappeared randomly? Can we get more Isadora please!?!
Inez- not a compelling main character- her personality seems to do a nose dive when she sees an attractive man. She makes the worst decisions and given how paranoid she is--she is the worst judge of character. I'm not sure if that was initially and the next book we'll see a whole new Inez (I hope so)
The plot is repetitive- We get it Inez is clever at escaping (while I mean she thinks she is anyways) It wasn't until halfway through the book that the plot finally picks up. But sadly that is where it lost me.
There were a lot of reveals in this story---which isn't a bad thing---but I think the author took it too far at the end. The way a certain character was treated made no sense to the story other than as a plot device to push Inez over the edge---which wasn't necessary given all the other events of betrayal she encounters in the story, which was more than enough to carry the conflict over to the next book.

I read another book by this author a couple years ago that I really enjoyed. When I saw her name on this one and the comp titles of The Mummy and Death on the Nile, I had high expectations. They were absolutely met.

I loved the nineteenth century Egyptian setting as a backdrop for this adventurous story filled with magic, mythology, and mystery. At times I felt like I was watching an Indiana Jones movie. Inez was raised in the upper society of Buenos Aires, but don’t expect her to conform their expectations. She’s headstrong, impulsive, and curious, three traits that lead her into one perilous situation after another. I immediately liked her. When she receives word from her uncle about her parents’ deaths, Inez leaves a note for her aunt (who’s serving as her guardian while her parents are working in Egypt) and travels to Cairo – without a chaperone. Which is unheard of during this time and also dangerous, but Inez is determined to discover what happened to her parents.

Upon arriving in Cairo, she meets Whit, her uncle’s assistant. He’s charming, infuriating, morally gray, and isn’t entirely forthcoming about his past. He’s also been instructed to send Inez back to Buenos Aires and is shocked when she outwits and outmaneuvers him and stays in Cairo. Whit is probably my favorite character.

This story is filled with twists and turns, secrets, betrayals, Egyptian artifacts and mythology. Like Inez, I wasn’t sure who to trust. The banter between her and Whit is fun and a little snarky at times, and their chemistry is evident from their first meeting. And that ending! Wow – I didn’t see it coming. I had to reread it a couple times, and the next book can’t get here soon enough.

At over four hundred pages, this novel is a bit long and started slowly for my tastes, but quickly picked up. It’s classified as young adult, but is easily a crossover so don’t let the genre deter you. Recommended for readers who enjoy an engaging mystery, well-crafted characters, and an adventure filled with unpredictable twists.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A 3.5, but I hate to say that I had to round this one down. I love the concepts in this novel. Magic? Egypt? Archaeology? Love it! I even mostly enjoy Inez as a character, and I’m interested in her dynamic and romance with Whit moving into the next book. Without spoilers, I also love a few big moments that happened in the last few chapters that will leave lasting consequences. It takes guts to stick to that and I think it’s great. I particularly enjoy Ibanez’s knack for writing complicated family dynamics.

My problem is… the first 70% of this novel, which unfortunately is way too long for it to drag like this. It took soooo long to get to the tombs. So long!!! So much of this novel is Inez whining about getting the truth out of her uncle, trying to escape whatever room she’s confined to, run off and cause more problems. Nothing really happens except her trying to make stuff happen and it’s not all that exciting. The last 30%? Great! I wish that we had spent more time on the archeology digs instead of getting to said digs. It would have had more exciting action, more interesting conversations. It just felt really slow until we got to Cleopatra’s tomb, and then that went by too quickly.

The prose itself is really good, and I’m invested enough to pick up the second one – in fact, there’s a lot I’m excited to discover – I just wish the good parts of the book hadn’t been stuffed into the backend.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. However, I found the plot to be a tad bit too slow. Once it picked up, I began to get excited over what was to come, but then it got slow again.

I LOVED this novel: secrets, family drama, adventure, mystery, fantasy, twists and turns. An incredible historical fantasy, perfectly adding a touch of magic to Egyptian mythology. We follow Inez as she sneaks across the globe from Buenos Aires to try and find the answers behind her parent's mysterious death in Egypt. Her trip is almost cut short by her uncle's hired man who meets her immediately on the dock to try and send her back home. Through ingenuity, determination and sheer stubbornness she successfully manages to firmly plant herself in the middle of the mystery, to the frustration of her uncle. As the story unfolds and details are uncovered, Inez eventually realizes that she never truly knew her parents and has lost almost all chances to learn.

I loved how cheeky Inez was. I'm still torn on Whit. I enjoyed their adversary-to-lovers all the way up until the last page, which SHATTERED my heart. I can't wait for the next installment in the series.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday books for the e-ARC in exhange for an honest review*

I received a copy of What the River Knows from Netgalley for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

This will likely be a short review, as I was supposed to write this a while back when I put the book down, but here we are. I am genuinely disappointed that I could not finish What the River Knows. I had heard such great things about it, and from all appearances, it seemed like something I would love. And I did enjoy (kind of) this book up to the point where I put it down, which was over halfway through. I don't think that there was anything glaringly wrong that made me put it down. The problem I had was with the story and the fact that it just wasn't pulling me in.

I wanted to be invested. I wanted to be there for these characters and this story because it sounded fascinating. But there was just something about it. I wasn't drawn in. I wasn't as fascinated as I thought I was going to be. The story was interesting, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me coming back. I felt like it lacked the stakes I was looking for despite all of the things that were happening. It was, unfortunately, and to sum all this up, boring.

I probably should have just said that instead of talking in circles, but I didn't not like the book. That's the problem. I wanted to read it. I was just really bored and couldn't get through it. And the characters weren't interesting enough to drag me through the plot. However, I'll be honest and say that I'm not really sure what the overall plot was besides Inez trying to figure out what happened to her parents, and then it becomes a whole thing, which, again, is an interesting plotline, but it wasn't interesting here.

All this is to say, What the River Knows wasn't for me, which I've noticed puts me on the short list of people who didn't really enjoy it, which is okay. I might return to it at some point, but it was time for me to move on.

A fun read, I enjoyed this one more that Ibanez's previous novel (Together We Burn) as I felt the writing was better. A solid four stars.

i will not be reviewing this title in solidarity with the ongoing st. martin's press boycott. if you want to find out more about the boycott, please visit https://r4a.carrd.co/

As a lover of history and the Mummy movies, this book scratched an adventure story itch for me! I love the inclusion of Egyptian mythology and archaeology in addition to the standard romance and mystery elements. It pieced together so many cool details from the era and setting, and combined with well-rounded characters with interesting dynamic, it made for a historical fiction that was so fun to read! I can't wait to see what Isabel Ibanez does with the second book! Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the ARC!

A young Bolivian-Argentinian, Inez, adventures away from home after news of her parents’ disappearance in Egypt. This is a time when young ladies were not supposed to be out traveling on their own, let alone crossing the ocean to solve the mystery their parents left behind! But Inez is bold, clever, and resourceful. She can and did handle things really well, considering literally everyone was against her.

As she infiltrates her uncle’s secretive archeological dig, she slowly uncovers more pieces to the puzzle. Her battles of wits with Whit were some of my favorite scenes. He is yet another mystery in this book- someone who is often present but we don’t get the full story on. Even in his POV chapters, things are shrouded in shadow.

The writing in this one is vibrant and lush, making for an atmospheric and immersive read. The incorporation of a little light magic added to the charm of the story, as well as increasing the stakes behind the purpose of the dig. While this was all great, it did slow the pace of the story down and sometimes I felt bogged down in the atmosphere. But! The characters are delightful and multi-dimensional, their emotions jump off of the page, and this romp in the desert does get a bit emotional.

With multiple mysteries threading through the story, each chapter feels like a new revelation, building up to a very intense and gasp-worthy ending. It ended up being a wild ride there, and I am so looking forward to What the Library Hides!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy!

This was a fun read that is a part of a duology this is a fun, rich story, with mystery, magic, treasure hunting, adventure, and romance. i could not get enough of this story it was fantastic my only issue is i have to wait for the sequel

Thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Isabel Ibañez for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a great mixture of Death on the Nile and The Mummy. I’ve always been fascinated by Egypt and the descriptions in this one are beautiful. Inez and Whit are both great characters that I hope to learn more about in the next book. The pacing was pretty slow in times, which made me take longer to finish it than normal, but it was worth it. I can’t wait for book two!