Buckle up, I have many thoughts.

I received an advance reader’s copy (ARC) of What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez. Since this version is just a proof and not the final version, I won’t quote directly and will keep my comments general.

In the What the River Knows duology by Isabel Ibañez, Inez Olivera has grown up in Argentina, feeling cut off from her parents, who spend at least half of each year conducting research in Egypt. So when Inez receives a letter from her uncle, informing her that her parents are missing and presumed dead, she decides enough is enough. Despite her family’s disapproval, she heads to Egypt herself to discover what really happened. But Egypt isn’t what she expected, full of rich Europeans determined to bring artifacts back to their home countries, whether on the black market or in plain sight. Nor are there many clear-cut answers to be found for Inez. The more information she uncovers, the less she feels she can trust everyone—except perhaps Whit, her uncle’s assistant. Together, they face mysteries and seek ancient, powerful artifacts while trying to avoid those who are determined to stop them.

Most of the above description is of the first book in the duology, to avoid major spoilers, but this review covers both books since I read them back to back. For the first one, I read the ARC, and for the second installment Where the Library Hides, I listened to the audiobook (narrated by Ahmed Hamad and Ana Osorio).

I saw this described as Death on the Nile meets The Mummy, and while I can totally see that, I think that both of those things are still better than this duology.

The best part of this is definitely the exploration of how Egypt was so exploited and looted by Europeans during the 19th century. Seeing the ways political machinations enabled this was infuriating, though I admire the amount of research that went into this; it helps the reader become immersed in the setting. It’s also great that Ibañez incorporated a couple of real life figures as minor characters to heighten this sense of realism.

The magic is pretty cool too—because not only is this a historical mystery with a romantic subplot, there are also magical elements. I like the idea that certain old objects carry special abilities, even sometimes the memories of the original owners. The latter is the most important, as Inez acquires a ring that belonged to Cleopatra, enabling her to glimpse moments from the pharaoh’s life. I think these magical objects could have been used more, as there was a bit of missed potential to a lot of them, but they were still cool when they popped up.

However, while I liked these elements, I really did not like the romance. At all. Please get it away from me. In the first book, I tolerated it, though I did feel that it moved way too quickly. Whit and Inez don’t know each other for long enough for me to feel that their attraction is anything more than surface-level. This isn’t out of keeping with other teen romance stories, though, so I was ready to shrug it off. But as the duology progressed, it got worse for me. Not only does Inez conclude she’s deeply in love with Whit after what feels like a mere few weeks, he also proves himself to be kind of awful. That’s a subjective opinion, but can that young man not just… be honest with Inez, even a little bit, one time?! Can he not respect her enough to actually tell her things?! He’s the mysterious brooding handsome man archetype in the most annoying way, and even reading the scenes from his perspective didn’t help. I don’t care that his reasons for his actions are in the interest of a loved one, he still does terrible things that Inez frankly should not have forgiven him for so easily (or at all, in my opinion).

Oftentimes, I simply don’t care whether or not a fictional couple end up together, but this was one of those rare instances where I actively did NOT want them together at all. So you can imagine that the second book was a bit of a struggle for me, as the romance is quite a significant subplot and takes up a good amount of pages. I was so relieved when we got back to the real plot, though unfortunately Whit was there for pretty much all of it. I can’t stand that guy.

There are other side characters who I liked getting to know, especially Farida and Isadora. And the antagonists are fine, but nothing special. There are, however, some major plot twists that I didn’t really expect—though I can’t decide if that’s because they were clever, or because they were so bonkers that no one could have predicted them. I think if I were more invested in all these characters and their relationships to each other, I would have been devastated by some of the twists, but… I wasn’t.

Furthermore, I’m sure that some readers will be extremely frustrated with Inez as a character. Some of the choices she makes (maybe even most of them) are steeped in naivete, and yes, that does make it harder to sympathize with her. Then again, the reader has a distinct advantage on her, knowing both the genre tropes and another character’s POV, so I’ll cut her a little slack. At least at first. By the time Inez is betrayed the third or fourth time, even I could admit that it was getting old.

So in the end, I’m really conflicted about this duology. The setting is amazing, and the amount of historical context is marvellous (even while it makes you really upset for how Egypt has been treated over the centuries). I would have really enjoyed this if it had leaned more toward a The Mummy or Indiana Jones sort of vibe, and been less about the frankly aggravating romance and family drama (which I barely even touched on in this review because I don’t even know how to explain how wild it is). There was so much potential here to make a magical, historical mystery story, if only the male love interest hadn’t gotten away with everything bad he did, the main character weren’t so gullible, and the other women characters in this story had more dimension and weren’t exclusively villains.

I’m not saying I won’t ever check out a book by Ibañez again, as she’s a more than competent writer, I just will be wary of her books that have a romantic subplot. Because I cannot do something like this again. Just let me duel Whit, please.