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Book: “What the River Knows” by Isabel Ibanez
Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, October 2023
Where Did I Get this Book:
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.
When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and an ancient golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.
With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.
Review: I’ve been highly anticipating this book ever since I saw it floating around as a title that was releasing this fall. While the author’s previous book wasn’t a homerun for me, I did enjoy it and was excited to see what she had in store next. I also liked the sound of this one, with its mixture of fantasy and historical genres. All of that said, luckily for me I didn’t see the fact that it was also being promoted to fans of “The Mummy” (Brendan Fraiser version!) until after I had read it cuz…yeah, that’s probably one of my favorite movies and this book ain’t that!
This book really didn’t work for me, but as always, I want to start with some positives. First off, I think the true strength of this book comes in the form of dialogue. There were some genuinely funny lines that had me chuckling, and I liked our main characters best in these moments. Once they went back to their internal thoughts, I immediately went back to having problems with the story. I’ll also say that for readers who enjoy will-they/won’t they rather angsty romances, this one might be a good fit. But ultimately, I do think the book struggled in many different arenas.
First off, the pacing of the book was odd. It was one of those strange cases where the action almost started off too quickly. In this instance, I was told quite quickly why I should care about Inez and her concerns, but I wasn’t given enough time with the character to actually establish this myself. Instead, the plot starts off right away and Inez’s decisions immediately come across as foolish as best and downright ridiculous at worst. Foolish decisions can work, but the reader needs to care about the character and understand them as a person to be willing to go along with silly choices without damaging the perception of the character. That said, I’m not sure I was ever going to like Inez, as things didn’t improve as the story continued.
Once she met Whit, Inez became even more difficult to sympathize with. It’s a classic “lust at first sight” situation, and her continued interest in what she soon learns is a man in a committed relationship was pretty unappealing. From a basic structure standpoint, much of the “tension” of the story is built around rather ridiculous inner angst, rather than any actual build-up in the romantic interactions between them. We don’t get any real movement on that front until well past the 50% mark. Whit was fine as a leading man, but he also didn’t strike me as standing out from “classic good looking guy,” complete with all of the stereotypical descriptions that come with that type of character.
Beyond the characters, I also was disappointed with the world-building. There was so much potential to this world, and I was immediately intrigued by the concept of magic that was halfway forgotten and the ties to Egypt and the history of archeology at the time. But…it just kind of went nowhere? Especially the magic. There was never any greater explanation about how any of this worked, why it would ever be forgotten if it was as powerful as it seemed to be, and how any of it really worked together.
Lastly, I have to admit that I was immediately put on my guard in the very first chapter when the writing itself seemed to falter over fairly basic concepts. I can point to two points in the first few pages where the writing actively changes tenses between first person past and first person present and this continued throughout the book. This is just sloppy writing, unfortunately. These weren’t changes used to break between perspectives or chapters, but switches made from one sentence to another. It was incredibly distracting and threw me out of the book each time it happened. Other readers may be less bothered by things like this, so if you’re the sort who doesn’t bat an eye, this may not even be noticeable. But as it significantly impacted my experience of this book, I have to mention it.
I won’t be continuing with this series. And, honestly, given the pacing of the romance and the conclusion of this book, even if I had been enjoying it more, I think I would have struggled to want to continue, as I don’t think this ending lands well at all. Given a quick glance of the Goodreads page, I know that my opinion is a minority opinion, so definitely still give this book a go if you’ve been greatly anticipating it. However, if you love “The Mummy,”… temper your expectations.
Rating 5: Struggles all around: an unlikable leading lady, a strained romantic plot line, and some writing missteps that I just couldn’t get past, unfortunately.
Reader’s Advisory:
“What the River Knows” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Archaeology in Fiction and Palm Trees.
The Library Ladies 