Hey mersquad coven!

Ahh I’m so freaking excited for this because this was the FIRST ever official tour that we confirmed with Hear Our Voices and I was so glad that we had the opportunity to support and advocate for this novel. So of course, I had to do multiple things for this tour to really show my love for this novel and for Jordan Ifueko. I hope you enjoy all of the stops on this tour and I hope you continue to support these amazing creators long after this tour.

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Is this author feeling *terribly smug* at managing to finish signing BOXES & BOXES of books before a deadline? Reader, she is. These are on their way out to @parnassusbooks, so if you'd like a signed copy, You can order from them! I'll also be signing copies for many other indie bookstores. Details forthcoming 👀👀 I've also updated my website with ☀️RAYBEARER TOUR☀️ information, including where you can register for each event! Link in bio. Grab your spot quickly, and can't wait to see you all August 18th 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿 #authorsofinstagram #blackauthors #raybearer #yafantasybooks #yabooks #yalit

A post shared by Jordan Ifueko (@jordanifueko) on Aug 1, 2020 at 5:05pm PDT

Enjoy this IG post of Jordan surrounded by all these signed books she’ll be having through Parnassus Books, an indie bookstore in Nashville, TN!

So for Raybearer, I made a tag based on the 11 Council positions that are in charge of the global empire of Artisar along with the Emperor. Each position plays an important part in making sure that Aritsar runs smoothly and its people are taken care of. I won’t be posting any spoilers for the novel, but I will be telling you each title position. Let me know what you end up thinking of these positions while you read the novel, and what position you would want to have if you’re on the council!

THE RULES

• Thank the person that tagged you and link to their post.
• Link to the original creator: Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads! Please note that she used the artwork/graphics if you end up using them.
• Answer the prompts to the best of your ability. No wrong answers here!
• Tag some people you think would would have fun doing this tag.
• Copy-paste the rules and prompts.

Gosh, I feel like I really needed this book at the time in my life that I read it. It may have seemed like nothing in particular was happening with me, but behind the scenes, there’s always something that I’m dealing with that I feel like I can’t handle. I eventually do, and I’m immensely proud of myself for being able to keep going when baby Lynn didn’t see herself around past 18… but that’s a conversation for another day. But yes, this book really healed my soul and always will. I highly recommend.

I’ll pick Daisuke for this one, although I feel like all of our main characters have some warrior qualities and I enjoy them so much. I love Daisuke and he’s one of my favorite humble nobles in a novel. Like, even though he is rich as hell and is considered super important in Iwagoto, he still slums it with everyone else. Yeah, maybe it would be cool if he used his funds to uh… let them not sleep in the woods all the time or whatever but it’s fine. They had some really fun bonding times that made them stronger in the end so I guess it’s okay. It’s fine, really.

Something about the way that JY Yang wrote Akeha makes me feel like if they ever took control of their land – I’m forgetting what the name of it is right now and apparently I didn’t reference it in my review – I feel like they would take the experience that they went through under their mother’s rule and make sure that those monstrosities would never happen again. Especially after it got to the point that they had nothing to lose pretty much. It was pretty emotional to read, and that’s the kind of vibe that I see if I were to read more of Akeha’s journey.

The celestial kingdom in the SKY! Since I don’t have the book in front of me and I don’t want to butcher the name of the kingdom, I’ll reference it as such. Everything about this place just really, really made me wish that it was real, and that I was a Star so I could live up there. Honestly, sometimes I need a break from humans so I wouldn’t even mind being up there for a long period of time. It felt so beautiful and peaceful and even though there was some drama – which place DOESN’T have some sort of drama? – I think I would have loved to live there for a long period of time.

Okay well… I don’t know if I would want to be in this book BEFORE the events of this story, but I’d definitely want to be involved in the journey that Sophia and Constance end up having. Three’s company, after all. Plus they could have all the cute romantic moments that they want because I would not want to get in the way of that. I wanted them to explore that more but I love what ended up happening in this book either way.

Because honestly there aren’t enough special edition books of diverse novels, but I digress.

Any special edition version of The Silence of Bones would be in my collection, no questions asked. I absolutely loved this book so much, and I am due for a reread – listen – so I can be in this novel again. Plus, I can’t freaking wait to read June’s second novel! Someone make a special edition of this book NOW damn it!

I haven’t read the second book yet, but I can’t deny that one of the things that attracted me to Rin in this novel was how smart she is, and how smart her strategies were. Sure, maybe some people thought they were pretty ruthless but that doesn’t mean they weren’t smart. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions for the good of the people, at least that’s what they tell me. I would not want to be her enemy, let’s just say that.

I need to do a reread for this one, but I do remember that there was some food described in here and I was dying to eat them. Especially since this was a fantasy world and I don’t know if I would ever be able to find anything similar in this world, I’m dying to have someone figure it out. Is there a secret recipe of all the meals mentioned in books? Is that a thing?

The drake type creatures in this book totally intrigued me. Sure, I was hoping that they had wings, but honestly I liked that they used these animals to travel across land. It kind of reminded me of the creatures that Azula and her unholy trinity used when tracking the GAang.

The Mayan god of Death is a main – main supporting? – character in this novel, and honestly I thought that was one of the coolest things ever. He may not have been at full power for the majority of the book, but seeing him in the human world and having to deal with his environment as someone passing as human was super interesting. Plus getting to see some of the other gods was fun too. Very entertaining and I totally loved it.

I really loved how Bethany seamlessly mixed mythology with contemporary aspects and honestly it felt so real to me. Like, if I didn’t know better, there were people that were supernatural creatures in the world and I just wasn’t aware of it. Not like they were in hiding, but that they didn’t live in this area. I mean I wouldn’t blame them. It’s way too hot for me here. But I felt like that was super creative and one of my favorite things about this book.

• Nox
• Lori
• Whitney
• Tessi
• Kerri
• Tee
• Brittaney
• Annemieke
• The Gem Chronicles
• Paige
• Sammie
• YOU!

I asked some people on Twitter if they want to be tagged in this, but honestly if you want to try your hand at this one, consider yourself tagged! I am so glad that I was able to come up with some different prompts for this book tag, and I can’t WAIT for you all to read Raybearer when it comes out on August 18th! If any of you already read an ARC, let me know your thoughts! I need to squeal about what happened already without spoiling anything! Seriously, this is why we need reading buddies.

Who wants to be tagged in an original Raybearer tag? I just finished making it and it's going up live on the 11th!

— 🧜🏽‍♀️🌺 Leelynn 🇨🇳🇬🇺🇯🇵🇰🇷🇪🇸 (@LeelynnReads) August 9, 2020

Don’t forget to follow the rest of the hosts on the tour, and stay tuned for my review + dream cast post going live on August 15th! I’m so excited for that one, and I’m hoping that I do justice to the dream cast. It’s been a whiiiiiiile since I’ve done one, so it’s going to be fun trying to get back in the groove.

Until next time, friends!