Format: ebook
Published: October 31st, 2023
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Rating: 5/5 Stars
I really liked Together We Burn, so I went into this expecting to enjoy it. I wasn’t disappointed. What the River Knows came out last year, but it feels like there’s a trend shifting towards books set in Egypt, pre-1900, grappling with the colonisation, the Egyptologists, and the ‘discoveries’, and I really liked Ibañez’s take.
It reads as historical fiction with a dash of fantasy, namely in the use of magical objects. Some objects in this world are touched by magic, giving them different uses and properties; a sandal that works as a torch, a handkerchief that produces boiling water, and so on. Inez receives such an object from her father with no explanation, while her parents are on one of their frequent trips to Egypt. All Inez wants is to join them, until she receives word of their death. Desperate to discover what happened, Inez sails to Cairo, taking the opportunity to visit the country that claimed her parents.
The book blends historical and fantasy really well, really immersing the reader in nineteenth century Egypt while not shying away from the difficulties the country faced at the time, and incorporating real historical figures into the plot. There’s adventure here, along with romance and magic. My main issue with the book is that Inez is often mentioned as being too trusting, which in some ways she is, but it feels like a lot of the time it’s not that she’s too trusting, but that her trust is more misplaced.
Still, she’s a young woman in an unfamiliar country, and she’s incredibly determined, not letting her uncle or his assistant stop her from what she feels she needs to do, even when it gets her into a fair bit of trouble. It’s engaging and enjoyable, and I really liked the characters, especially Inez and Whit, the grumpy, mysterious assistant who Inez is drawn to in ways she can’t fully explain. He tries to keep her at a distance, but the two inevitably end up in each other’s company a lot, slowly getting to know each other bit by bit.
The ending, too, had me reeling – without going into too much detail, the very last paragraph had me going “…what???” in the best possible way, and I really love when books are able to take me by surprise like that! I’m very much looking forward to the second book in the series, and will be looking to pick it up ASAP!
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2024
Prompt: Annie Get Your Gun – Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) – Rivals
Progress: 18/24 Completed
Unwrapping Words 