Dropping the first BONUS Sketch-a-Wish this year, frequently requested by my lovely Patreon members! Featuring Inez and Whit from WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS by Isabel Ibañez!
Absolutely adore these two and the abrupt twists and turns in their relationship while they were unraveling the mysteries of Egypt. As a fun Easter Egg, I took the passage from this scene, used a phonetic translator, and drew it as hieroglyphics in the back. Starting from 'Do you always kiss your friends like this?' to when the candle goes out.
I started reading the second book of What the River Knows, What the Library Hides, and I'm so in love with Whit. (And super glad I have a new book bf to obsess over). Evangeline from Once upon a Broken Heart and Inez have to be the two characters I relate most to.
I love how Inez is so disobedient, kind hearted, romantic, and intelligent. She over analyzes every situation, she cares about others, and she listen to her heart.
I love Whit because he is like her partner in crime. In chapter five when Whit and Inez come out to Ricardo about their marriage, I find it so sweet(and hot) how Whit defends Inez.
"Whit stepped between us. "You can yell at me," he said quietly.
"You can be disappointed, feel betrayed. But you do not raise your voice at my wife. If you want to battle, you battle with me, Ricardo."
I especially love how in the first book the two of them got closer because Inez snook out her hotel room to see the city. Instead of returning her, Whit acts as her chaperone and treats Inez like a tourist.
He does a similar thing in Where the Library Hides when Whit faked an argument with Inez (about ordering her to stay back when they traveled) because Ricardo was listening. When they were out of earshot he started cackling and gave Inez a mischievous plan to busy herself with while she remained home on their travels.
I just love Whit. He might have the classic insecurity: "I'm not a hero." "You don't know me." "I'm not kind"
And end up being the most compassionate soul. But he brings out parts of Inez that she had to suppress because she is a woman.
Inez is driven, determined, full of spirit, and rebellious. She is also soft and generous.
Though I am not far into the book yet, I'm glad Whit can support both sides of her.
While he is full of many secrets(that I am suspicious of), I do beleive Whit will remain true to his vows.
First, the publisher’s promotional claim that it’s Death on the Nile meets The Mummy is accurate. I told my hubby it was like reading a sexy Indiana Jones story set in Egypt.
Second, the characters were morally grey. Pretty much all of them. Whenever Inez thought something to herself about another person—any sort of concrete assumption based on her knowledge of their character—I was absolutely suspicious. Anyone could do anything at any time, and Inez was wrong/shocked over and over again. Not because she was a bad judge of character, but because they were written with such human characteristics.
Spoilers below:
Third, I loved the romance. With all of the morally grey action I mentioned above, I wasn’t sure about Whit until book two. The telegram to Porter seemed to suggest that he didn’t really care about Inez at all. For the first half of book two, I couldn’t decide if he was using her or if he just didn’t realize that he hadn’t communicated his feelings. This was peak irony:
Their eventual realization that neither was lying or hated the other was wonderfully written. Whit’s declaration hit me like a physical zing—I loved the growth that took them from “don’t trust anything I say” to “jump and I promise I’ll catch you.”
What bothered me:
There were a few things in book two that just didn’t add up.
1. Inez was inconsolable when her parents died. Her parents who spent very little time with her, proved quite quickly to be liars, and had very few redeemable qualities. She absolutely shreds her family apart trying to find out what happened to them. When Elvira is murdered in front of her, Inez wants to erase the mental image. She doesn’t vow undying revenge for the death of her favorite cousin, doesn’t cry too much about it, and even thinks at one point “wow that happened just a few days ago.” Book two just didn’t capture the grief I expected Inez to experience—as if by that point it wasn’t convenient to the plot. Real missed opportunity for Inez and Whit to connect over that, since he often thinks about seeing the horrors of war.
2. The war between Lourdes and Cayo makes absolutely no sense. Inez is a wealthy heiress in book one. I can understand that Lourdes was fencing artifacts because laws at the time restricted the access women had to their own finances. Cayo had access to the fortune the entire time. When he “faked his death,” was he leaving the fortune there for Inez? For his brother in law’s expeditions? The auctions began as a means to add to that fortune—but why? Cayo got greedy and saw a chance to make more money? The big “reveal” at the end that situated Cayo as the villain was the most poorly executed part of this series. If he had done it out of a pure desire to destroy his cheating wife’s criminal empire, that would have made more sense. Casting him as a treasure hunter made no sense because of the fortune he already had that he left to Inez.
3. The rose bushes, damn it. When Whit is finally taking the time to try a little alchemy in the end, it’s so difficult to place the scene in time. At that point he and Inez have a house and they’ve adopted two cats. They have planted a garden. That suggests they have been living there for at least a year. But Inez says they’re on their honeymoon—implying it’s shortly after their wedding. Did they get married in a big ceremony like they discussed? How much time passed between that event and the farewell dinner?
Being the fanfiction girly I am, I also felt cheated out of some scenes where Whit and Inez realize they’re pregnant. With all of the turmoil they faced throughout the series due to their parents I would imagine that would be a difficult transition for both of them. It’s implied that Lourdes got away with it all when her flimsy house arrest is brought up—and would she have any sort of interaction with their eventual twins? I’m certainly not going to sit down and write it myself, but that’s the novella/bonus chapter my heart desires.
All in all, I think this was a very compelling series. When I read Woven in Moonlight/Written in Starlight I was so sad that we didn’t get the romantic happily ever after that got set up in the first book. I was very pleased that Where the Library Hides delivered on Inez and Whit’s romance, but I was worried the whole time that there would be some sort of horrible twist.
I’m channeling any sort of manifestation powers I might have into this post hoping Isabel Ibanez will someday see it just so I can say this one thing to her.
