Reviews

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

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bookishlittlebird's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lyakimov's review

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4.0

This was an incredibly immersive story! The author is talented in storytelling and I felt like I was present in the story. I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting and exciting this book was! I will be honest, for some reason I thought this book was going to be a horror/thriller about La Llorona in Argentina for some reason...that goes to show that I never really read synopses fully. Embarrassing for me. However, even though this book was not at all what I was expecting, I found myself so immersed and excited in the mysteries and the character dynamics.

The book started off pretty slow but I got quickly entertained by Inez not ever following what men tell her to do because, in that time period especially, women were barred from everything unless a man allowed them to do things so I liked that she was so independent and would attempt to get past these strict rules. It was also super entertaining too. I typically find myself getting annoyed at the "girl who never follows the rules like all other girls" but we see in the story that Inez's actions are actually pretty common amongst the other girls in the story - Isadora and her cousin act in a similar manner. They have to be sly, subtle, and cautious, all of which make their characters so interesting.

The plot and the characters were all interesting and so I was really enjoying my time reading it. There was quite a bit of romantic tension, but I felt like it balanced really well with the plot. I didn't feel like it was insta-love and the plot was not impeded by the romance, so I felt like it went well with the story. I don't care THAT much about the romance necessarily, but I was so excited at the end when Whit proposed for them to get married so Inez could get her money back. I have always had an extreme weakness for secret marriages that are not supposed to happen and then cause a ton of chaos when they are revealed. The end of the book is building up lots of exciting things to come for the plot, so I am very excited for the next book.

normalgirl42's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

meganfitz7's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

i really liked this book so sad i have to wait a long time until the second book but i suppose i did that to myself i knew there was an unreleased sequel when i started to read it. really liked it though

pennedbymaria's review

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I was really excited for this one but the writing style felt so flat and choppy. The main character didn’t read like she was 19 she read like she was a lot younger and her inner monologue reminded me of a rom com protagonist which didn’t fit the tone of the story.