Time to be honest. It's a very long time since I listened to an audio book. Years, possibly (mumble) decades. But I wanted to try out this new option Netgalley have given us, so I requested the audio book of a book I've read and really enjoyed. I thought that would be the best way to try this.

So I loved the narrator. Perfect speed, beautiful tone, differentiated between characters really well. I was never confused about who was speaking. Joniece has a wonderful voice and I really enjoyed listening.

However, I've decided that audio books aren't really for me. This has nothing to do with the narration, or the story itself, which was also brilliant. I just don't do well at listening; my attention tends to drift and I have to find my place again.

If you're looking for a wonderful story with an excellent narrator, this is definitely the one for you.

Wow, this is a debut? Jordan Ifueko is one to watch. This was absolutely BRILLIANT and YA fantasy at its best. The world was so lush, I felt like I was transported into another realm while listening. It was well paced and every time I thought I knew where the story was going, Ifueko proved me wrong. I think this book is best read just diving in without knowing too much and just allowing yourself to experience the magic. 

The narrator was fantastic and really brought the story to life. I definitely recommend reading it on that platform if you are an audiobook fan. 

The only negative about this book is that I don't already have book 2 to dive into. 

READ THIS BOOK!

Full review will be live on www.readandwander.com on 17 August

I'd give if 6 if I could. Ifueko writes beautifully. This was one of my most anticipated so I am still shocked I was approved. Everything from world building to character interactions was spectacular. Tarisai is a competent baddass who also shows vulnerability and desire for companionship. This delicate balance is never contradicted but instead works to create a character fully realized and developed.

Abbott-Pratt is an excellent narrator. The pacing is even and crisp. A narrator can make or break the audio for me and I highly recommend this narrator.

Overall, buy it. I will be adding a hard copy of the book to my collection. And So Should You.

A wonderful story with a strong female protagonist. Tar is smart and powerful and the story is captivating with pacing that makes you not want to put it down. The narration was excellent.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of the book to review! 

I loved this book! It felt like everything I was missing in many YA fantasy books I’ve been reading these days. The world building was excellent and had a complex and interesting magic system. I found myself really compelled by the magic system and it’s rules. 

The one thing I think that really made this book for me was the fact that it doesn’t shy away from exploring racism, misogyny, patriarchy, intergenerational trauma, classism, and colonization. The interweaving of these topics within a fantastical world really worked for me. Along with the characters who were well flashed out and really lovable. 

I seriously loved Tarisai (Tar) so much, she’s loyal, badass, and absolutely sweet. The loneliness Tar undergoes in the beginning of the book was so completely compelling and as we are going through this pandemic is sat heavy on my heart. It was the perfect time to read a book such as this because I felt a deep connection to Tar. I also felt the side characters were fun, but at times a little flat.

I guess my only complaint is that about the half way point the story gets a little slow until almost the end. Since I enjoyed the characters it helped me get through. 

Otherwise I’m excited for the rest of this series!

This story is richly detailed (which does slow down the pace). Joniece Abbott-Pratt does a fantastic job with the various songs and sounds of drums throughout. She also makes all the characters (and there are several) sound unique and alive. The author, Jordan Ifueko, does a brilliant job surprising the reader. Whenever I thought “oh no, here we go again” Ifueko had her characters behave in a way that was still appropriate for their age, but also authentic.This is one you just need to read.

Ifueko's writing and the narrator worked so well together that it sold this book to me and I couldn't put it down. Sometimes, especially with high fantasy books, authors fall between a too simplistic writing style or too descriptive, but Raybearer does such a good job with being readable but not sacrificing prose that are pure magic. 

Does this book have flaws? Sure. But they were personal and so inconsequential to how wonderful this story truly is, especially for a debut. I'm serious, if you're thinking about reading this book you should. Ifueko has such a talent for storytelling that I will definitely read whatever she writes from now on.

Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?
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Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood.
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That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?
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Raybearer releases on the 18th, go get your preorders in now.

Raybearer was my first advanced audiobook from Netgalley.  I like to consider myself a bit of an audiobook connoisseur and believe me when I tell you that a bad narrator can make or break an audiobook.  Well, Joniece Abbott-Pratt did a fantastic job.  I loved the different voices she used for the character.  I was never confused about who was speaking.  She was wonderful and I would certainly listen to more books narrated by her. 
Not only was the narration great, but the story was wonderful too!  Tarisai was such an interesting character.  I loved all of the internal struggles she went through throughout the course of the story.  The world-building was great!  The political system that was set up was so interesting and the more I learned about it the more impressed I was with how well it fit into the overall story.  
There are a ton of side characters in this book, oftentimes that leads to confusion, but it was handled very well in this book.  The different levels of side checkers helped with really 3 main side characters and others that played an important role but were not mentioned as much. 
I really enjoyed this book and am already looking forward to the next book in the series.

This story immediately captivated me. I absolutely loved the exotic and enticing feel of a culture I'm not super familiar with (West Africa) blended with my favorite genre (fantasy). It was breathtaking and beautiful, and the audiobook narrator was absolutely incredible. Thank you so much, Librofm and Netgalley, for the audio!

This one was good! Not a new favorite or anything like that, but very solid. I loved the friendships best. The characters were a little young for my reading tastes, and I think that's what held me back from really loving this one, but I definitely would highly recommend it to young teens. The magic system was really unique, another aspect that I enjoyed. A perfect read for young readers looking for something other than the normal, cookie-cutter YA fantasies crowding the shelves!

***ARC given by publisher, Hot Key Books, and the audiobook given by US publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction***

I'm not sure how to write this review/write-up as I did like it. Hugely. I found the world building and the magic system really interesting and rich. The plot, once it found its feet, was strong and had many twists. The characters were engaging and the ideas of how the characters respect their culture and traditions, but also to individuality felt fresh. 

However, the pacing. The pacing is a problem because, several times, I almost DNFed because the first half of the book was so slow. The book is split into four parts. Part one is very much a prologue, setting everything up and explaining details (very similar to how Sarah J Maas wrote Part One of [book:House of Earth and Blood|44778083], something I didn't like either). Part two is really when the book begins, so the pacing begins to pick up, but it's parts three and four when the book really finds its stride for me. Now, I get why the first two parts are slower - the world building, the culture, the magic system, the detail and character development - but I can't help but wonder if there was a way to show us all this but have the pacing a tad faster... A happy medium? 

But, saying that, this is a solid and quite unique debut, and am intrigued to see where the next book in the series goes...

Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book, as I was incredibly bored. I did like the choice of narrator, but at three hours in the audio, you would think that something interesting would have occurred. It seems this one is just paced a little too slowly for me.

This book is everything I want in a fantasy novel. It's perfect and I can't wait to read the second book in the series.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of Raybearer in exchange for an honest review. What an absolutely wonderful read. The world-building was amazing, the pacing and plot were perfectly aligned; and, the narration was impeccable.. Tarisai was raised in isolation, but yearns for the closeness she could have as one of the Crown Prince's Council of 11; however, her mother, only referred to as "The Lady," has coerced her, through magic and manipulation, to kill the Crown Prince.

I was fortunate enough to receive the audiobook of this book and I could not have been more thrilled. I first learned of this book back when they did Ya'll West online this spring and I couldn't contain my excitement to read it after seeing and hearing all about it.

If you have read Tomi Adeyemi's books that is the closest thing I can thing to compare it to. Like those books, this one is a book filled with magic, maybe laced with magic is a better word. Right from the start the reader is thrown into this magic system and world and that's where I want to start.

Though I loved the magic system of this world, it took me a bit to understand what was going on. I was not sure if that was because of the audiobook (the speeds on mine weren't working properly) or because I just wasn't grasping it. Either way, it took me the good first hour of my listen to fully grasp the magic system and it's restraints and abilities.

One thing that I loved in regards to the audiobook though, were the rich accents. Like I said, the audiobook I received was having issues with the speeds, so I had to listen to it slowly. Usually I will listen to adiobooks at double the speed, but with this one, if I did the speech was nearly unrecognizable. So, I chose to slow it down and am I ever glad I did. The accents used the voice actor's reading was fantastic and made the story so much more enjoyable!

Overall, this was a solid 3 star read me. I really enjoyed the unique magic system as well as the attention to detail put into the characters and the voice actor for the audiobook, but in the end it wasn't a story I meshed with or related to as much as I would like. I would say this is a great fantasy book for anyone who has read Tomi Adeyemi's books and are wanting something more like that.

This review is for the audiobook, so please forgive the inevitable misspelling of names and places. 

In this story, Tarisai is a young girl, raised in isolation with a revolving door of tutors and a cold and distant mother. When she turns eleven, her mother essentially puts a geas upon her to gain the love and anointment from a boy in a painting, and once she has those things, she must kill that boy. After this, Tarisai is sent to the capital city to join other children from around the continent in becoming candidates for the next Emperor's council. Of course, when she meets prince Dayo, it is the same boy her mother has tasked her to kill. Tarisai spends the next few years learning all she needs to know to become a council member, but refusing to accept the magical bond of The Ray from him, to avoid the task her mother set for her. What follows is a story of action, adventure, betrayal and redemption. 

This story is complex, loaded with secondary characters, and their political machinations. There are many moving pieces to the plot that one can't quite piece together until another part snaps into place. The pacing sometimes felt like it dragged on a bit, but the story and the world are solidly built, and the end is wide open for a follow up.

The narrator, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, confidently handles character and place names with a natural sounding variety of African accents. The pace of the reading, mostly the pauses between some words or sentences, felt a little stuttered. The one fatal flaw to this narration was the inconsistent use of a lisp for one character-- it was jarring, distracting, and felt inauthentic.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook.

Most fantasy books feel like a trip to the middle ages.  Not so with Raybearer by Jordan Ifeuko!  Raybearer is a rich fantasy filled with African culture and folklore.  I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it to students.

I received this audiobook from NetGalley exchanged for an honest review!

I usually listen to non fiction audiobooks and this is my first fiction and fantasy.  I loved the voice actors . She made all gene  characters distinguishable and it felt like I was listening to a movie. The authors words are lyrical and I the story is really engaging.

I do want to read the physical book because my mind drifts off sometimes and then I missed a chunk of the story. But overall I like the main characters and the story flows well.

I was soooooo bored listening to this audiobook. After about halfway, I really considered DNFing, but decided to stick it out. 

The second half of the book was much more interesting than the first. I did not like the characters or always understand their motivations. I did however enjoy the asexual representation. I wish that was explored more. 

The plot had so much going on, that I don’t think enough pagetime was spent on each part. Again, this made it to where the plot didn’t draw my interest.

The narrator of the audiobook did a decent job. All of the characters were distinguishable. There were a few things I didn’t like that were out of the narrators control. First, a cultural accent was described as a lisp. I have never heard of an entire region speaking with a lisp, so that was odd to me. Secondly, many stories were told through a griot, or storyteller. It makes sense when hearing this spoken in person that they use a lot of action words. Unfortunately they took me out of the story.

I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.