Review: What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez

What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile, Book #1)

by Isabel Ibanez

Release Date: October 31, 2023

2023 Wednesday Books

Softcover ARC; 404 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250803375

ASIN: B0BQGCPHB5

Audiobook: B0C4C63K8F

Genre: Fiction / Historical / YA / Fantasy

Source: Review copy from publisher

3 / 5 Stars

Summary

Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires; she 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.

My Thoughts

What the River Knows has its intriguing moments, and I definitely loved how this book was set in Egypt. And I didn't mind Inez even though I could shake her at times. I always tried to keep in mind her sheltered upbringing and how little she knew of the world despite her reading a gazillion books and dreaming of traveling the world.  But this book did require a bit of suspension of belief and while I did enjoy the overall story, it was a bit predictable. Plus, I wasn't a fan of the love interest and I personally think it would have been stronger without it.

Inez was a bit of a contradictory character; in some moments she was pretty strong and acted logically and with great strength of character, and then in other moments, she behaved so unpredictably that I actually winced. A lot of the contradictory behaviour had to do with her mother and what she discovered about her. Her actions just didn't make sense in this instance and I couldn't help rolling my eyes. And honestly, if it was just to add action and suspense to the story, it didn't work for me, not like this. I also didn't feel any connection between her and Whit, another contradictory character. He was set up to be this mysterious figure, and while I like mysteries, I just felt like the way it was set up in the story didn't work as I didn't feel the connection between them. As with both of these situations, I didn't feel any empathy for what happened and their story line seemed stilted at best. Inez's cousin however, was a completely different matter.  I think part of the problem is that I didn't really connect to what Inez was really feeling as her feelings seemed so superficial, even when she discovered awful things about people. There was no real depth to what was happening, almost as if it was happening to someone else.

I actually enjoyed the overall story, but there were holes in it a mile wide. I liked Inez's perseverance in trying to stay with the group in Egypt as everyone was trying to send her home, but I grew really irritated with the dialogue as it seemed to be a repetition of them telling her they can't tell her anything and trying very hard to send her home.  In reality, there wasn't too much of Inez actually solving the mystery of her parents' death, but more of the author guiding the reader along into what happened and this is not the type of story-telling I like. The pacing could be quite slow at times due to this repetition, and some things weren't developed or expanded on leaving the reader questioning what was happening or even why they were there.

Verdict

What the River Knows had an interesting premise and there was a lot of promise in this book. Unfortunately, the pacing was off and the story seemed to go off on tangents as if the author wasn't quite sure in which direction the story should head. I also thought the characters needed more development as I couldn't really empathize with most of them.  There was enough in this book however, that I will take a look at the second book to see what happens. I also enjoyed the narrator and thought she did a great job. I think if I had read this book, I may have not finished it, but the narrator kept me engaged enough to push through. If you like things set in Egypt, then you might want to take a look.