I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Although I didn’t really enjoy the magical elements of this story, the description and clear research that has gone into accurately portraying Ancient Egypt, and Egypt at the time the story is set, is fantastic.

The character development was paced perfectly for me, I couldn’t put this book down as I wanted to know the ending but didn’t want the story to end!

I wasn’t aware this was the start of a series, so was very surprised with the cliffhanger ending. I cannot wait for the sequel!

A fantastic jump into an ancient Egyptian mystery filled with romance, mythology and magic, with a likeable, determined and resourceful young protagonist.

I adore the elements of both the ancient Egyptian mythology and magical nods, feeling both emerged in the culture and the overall plot.

While the beginning was a little slower than I would’ve liked, the pace soon picked up and it became a truly enjoyable and engaging read. I cannot wait to read the second book and see how the plot continues to unfold!

This was one of my most anticipated books of this year and it did not disappoint me at all! Fantastic and beautiful I loved every second of my read through! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for my honest review.

There is a unique kind of grief that a reader feels when they fall in love with a book, its characters and its location, and there isn't a sequel already available.

Reading this book was a pure joy. It was a fun, fast-paced adventure through Egypt and I couldn't put it down. The world-building was fantastic and set up a stunning world with old magic in an 19th century context where the reader felt immediately at home.

I was instantly sucked into the world and I desperately need a sequel where we can join Inez and Whit on another adventure.

Thank you to netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:3.5/5
This was a fun adventure, but pretty much nothing else. I loved the setting which was lush, atmospheric and immersive, thanks to the extensive research done by the author. Inez was a great MC,but the romance between her and Whit just didn't work for me. The magic system was not very well-established and clearly explained. It was featured so less that the book almost felt like magical realism instead of fantasy. I really liked the illustrations featured in the book, which reminded me of the gilded wolves, aka my favourite series of all time.
The pacing of the book was a little off. Pretty much nothing happened for the first 35%, and even after that, it lacked the excitement and the adventurous feel I was hoping for. The ending felt a little rushed as compared to the rest of the book, which is slow paced.

Ancient Egypt, 1800s, Argentinian leading heroine, cultural sensitivity to the whole ethical mess that was the archeology/Egyptology in the late 19th century, and a bit of romance? Yes, please! The synopsis captured my attention right away, and I was glad to have been given an e-ARC to this new-to-me author’s work!

It’s a very scenic book with beautiful Egyptian imagery and great characters that you end up having opinions about. The pacing felt a bit off at times for me, and biggest “what in the eff did I just read?!” conclusion gave me whiplash. I had to keep re-reading the very brief epilogue and then go to GoodReads’ reviews to confirm what I just read. Those who don’t like plummeting cliffhangers, you are forewarned.

Overall, it was a fantastic story that was a bit different for typical 19th century historical fiction. The lingo is very contemporary which normally bothers me but this one didn’t. It captivated my attention with its historically accurate details (Ibañez clearly did her research!) that the anachronistic language was accepted as a lovely mix of two worlds.

Definitely will be checking out the author’s other books now! But not before I leave this review without saying where is the sequel?!

// Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! //

This book is going down as one of my all time favourites!

What The River Knows by Isabel Ibañez is a highly addictive historical fantasy for people who love treasure hunts and mysteries. Our heroine, Inez, is a forward thinking and resilient character, who's curiosity and bravery really leads the story.

Looking for closure after the news of her parents demise, Inez travels to Egypt and gets caught up in the hunt for Cleopatra's tomb. Her constant rebellion is highly entertaining, especially when it inconveniences Whit, the swoon worthy love interest.

I absolutely loved the archeology and found it completely fascinating. I really admired the respect that Inez had towards the tomb and ancient relics. Although the magic is only a subtle aspect of the story, I found it to be very unique and interesting and I found Inez's connection to the magical objects to be fascinating.

The many illustrations throughout the book are gorgeous and where a lovely addition!

I was under the impression that this book was a standalone but as it turns out, it's book one of a duology. The cliffhanger is absolutely brutal and I'm so desperate to find out what happens. Waiting for the sequel is going to be absolute torture!

Overall, What The River Knows is a fun and fast paced book! I highly recommend that you do yourself a favour and pre-order a copy because you are not going to want to miss out!

Thank you so much to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC!

A good illustrated front cover to entice the reader.
Interesting, descriptive words, and lots of words which are not often found in childrens books, so it's a great example of introducing new vocabulary.
The story was written well and descriptive enough to encourage the reader to read more.
Although young adult themed, I personally think it is a shame to include the occasional swear words. The story could be used in school lessons to introduce new vocabulary to them and show the depth of the character, amongst other features. So, due to this, I think it limits the potential of a wider audience, especially as the story was so good!

Nevertheless, what a delight, subtle budding romance, funny escapades, a main character with strong intentions and stubborn qualities, twists, and turns. Some elements were predictable, but this made the story endearing. I liked how the story ended with the possibility of a future book. I can honestly say I would be invested to read the next part of the story to find out Whits story.
In conclusion, this lovely story is recommended by me purely for its entertainment and ease of reading.

Excuse me, but archeology? Cleopatra? Speculative touches? This book is made for me!

It's ambitious and daunting to attempt conceptualising what the tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony must be like. The former has grown to have a legendary status in ancient Egyptian history, for her brilliance, political maneuvering and the tragedy of her life. Similarly, Ibañez has refrained from giving physical descriptions of the famous last pharaoh, instead relying on imagery through smells and the like to visualise Cleopatra. This is smart considering her appearance has been debated by historians for ages, wondering what the Greek queen from a ruling Greek family residing in Egypt for centuries would've looked like. It also draws more attention to her personality and life rather than her appearance, allowing one as the reader to think more about her as a person. Better yet, to draw connections between her and Inez.

Speaking of, I enjoyed Inez's arc in the novel; her bright, brave but naive spirit being tested and weathered by grief, betrayal, and maturity. I like that the novel roots itself in her family relations, keeping the story from feeling too epic and emotionally distant and making it personal throughout the various events and twists that occur. While I had hunches of the bigger twists of the story since the beginning (not a bad thing!), the tiny ones are always the ones that catch me off guard! And the teases between Inez and Whit! Deliciously addicting, that's all I shall say.

It's great that Ibañez touched on the ethics of tomb raiding as the cast, to varying degrees, are involved in the complicated trade of salvaging items for preservation or auctioning them off for money. With classic archeology action-adventure flicks like Indiana Jones and the Mummy (starring Brendan Fraser), it can be easy to get swept up in chasing after the mystery and spellbound by the anticipation to touch history. Yet, it's not a glittering, clean process. So I appreciate the nod to the real-life morality/cultural issues in archaeology.

Oh, and that ending is illegal. I need a sequel for this. I'd beg for it as Inez had with her parents to visit Egypt.

Thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-ARC/DRC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful story of 1990's Egypt, which is full of magic, and one young woman's adventure to find out who killed her parents and to discover who Cleopatra is. It is full of wonder and history, a young woman's journey into full adulthood as she has to unravel the mystery and decide which side she has to fight on. It is beautifully written, descriptive and clever, the kind of book that once you start you can never put down.

The book begins with a cracking start, it reminds me of the Romancing the Stone and the Mummy films, except we have a plucky 19-year-old heroine in the form of Inez, who is running away from home to Egypt to find out what has happened to her parents.

There is a magical element which was fun, although I thought more could have been made more of it, as it was a great concept, but a rather fizzled out.

The illustrations didn’t particularly work on Kindle; a drawing taking up several pages, but that might be a proof issue, which will be resolved?

Although the story is set in the late nineteenth century there is nothing resembling 1894 in manner, convention, language, attitudes of the characters or dress. But the story is so fun and bounces along at a good pace, at least to begin with, that it almost doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately the pace of the story seemed to flag and the dialogue (and inner monologues) of Whit and Inez became slow and repetitive, to the extent that I became bored and began reading reading another book for a while. I picked up the story again to discover a very disappointing ending, which is not really an ending at all. It will obviously lead to another book, or series. Ultimately I feel I could have read a more satisfying and complete story.

Thank you to NetGalley in the publisher of the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

The Mummy meets Death on the Nile in this lush, immersive historical fantasy set in 19th century Egypt, filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race.

Need I say more? It was gripping, immersive in the atmospheric setting. And the romance was slow but realistic. Brilliant.

Really enjoyable although somewhat predictable. A few twists and turns kept me interested. Overall a nice easy read.

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

I loved the first half of this book; the banter, characters and world building were good, the use of magic in this story was unique and I loved it! I would love to see more of it, unfortunately that didn’t happen.

The second half of this book was because of that a disappointment. There was a lot of drama, the pace was slow and the characters working even more against the main character and the only person who really cared for her dies so I really couldn’t really care anymore.

Besides that, it turns out this is not a standalone which would be a better option because it drew on too much, but a part of a duology or series, the author hasn’t confirmed it yet. There’s too much drama and betrayal and deception for me to want to read the second book.

Because of the first half of this book I decided to give it 3* but only looking at the second half it would have been 1,5-2*

A beautiful lyrical story that will captivate you from the very first sentence!

Historical fantasy is such a superb genre that one needs to be careful about writing in, but this book did the genre JUSTICE.

A PERFECT ya novel, with some very solid characters and some VERY good world building. The vivid descriptions of the world will immediately transfer the reader into the story.

All in all, I 100% recommend

I really wanted to enjoy this book. I liked the characters and the plot line was really good… it just felt a little slow at times.

Thank you to the writer, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

Enormous thanks go to Netgalley and Hodderscape for sending me an advance copy for review and thereby completely dominating most of my thoughts for the last forty eight hours or so.
If you were, are, or ever have been obsessed with the 1999 movie The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, then you need to read this book. It's a love story to all of our wild childhood imaginings of Egypt, but it's also a timely, and sensitive reminder of the reality of colonialism and the stolen histories and artefacts, many of which are still scattered to the winds of international museums and private collections.
As a book (independent of my childhood nostalgia), it still works well. The pacing is fast and the action keeps the tension high. There's a lot of twists and turns - some expected, and some devastating.
Inez, as a heroine, can do no wrong. I loved her and her determination, her dry sense of humour and (less fortunately) her occasional short-sightedness. I was slightly less sold on Whit as a love interest, though he grew on me and by the end I was seriously invested. Their relationship and banter reminded me a great deal of Kerri Maniscalco's Stalking Jack the Ripper series, and I mean that in the best possible way.

it has an intriguing premise. I'm curious how the story of Inez, who journeys to Egypt, unfolds, especially with the existence of magic and the myth of Cleopatra. I also enjoy the 1800s setting. I can't stop reading the first few chapters. Notably, the scene with Inez and Whit had my heart skip a beat.⠀
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However, as the plot unfolds, I become increasingly bored. I also noticed that this book contains more dialogue, which, in my opinion, doesn't go anywhere and the scenes are repetitious.I was curious about Inez's parents as well, and it wasn't until the end of the story that it was gradually revealed, which bored me to tears 😭 ⠀
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Perhaps I have unrealistic expectations for this book lol, or perhaps it is not for me, but I enjoy the writing, which is easy to follow.

The setting is great, good descriptions, realistic and atmospheric. However, nobody seemed to care much about the magic, did they? The whole thing was so focussed on the personal relationships, the magic, what actually sells the book, fell short.
For me, Whit is too stereotypical male, I can't stand these kinds of characters. I do think, however, that he's not totally unlikeable for many readers.

My main point is, however, that this would have been perfectly fine as a standalone; no need to make this into any more! It would have helped the plot a lot if it was put into 400 pages or so.

I love this author’s work so much. This book was everything!! Literally, everything about it was purely magical; and it was fascinating enough to have me finish in one single read! Definitely a full 5 stars read for me