Welcome to my stop on the TBR and Beyond Tours Book Tour for Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne. I was so excited when we scheduled this tour and couldn’t wait to start. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the tour schedule for other content creators.
Thank you to Shakirah Bourne and Scholastic Inc. for providing me with an ARC for this review
Meet Author

Shakirah Bourne is a Barbadian author and filmmaker. Her first feature film, the comedy-drama, PAYDAY, was screened throughout the Caribbean, USA and UK. She has written three films since its debut in 2013: Two Smart (writer/co-director), Next PAYDAY (writer/producer) and A Caribbean Dream (writer/director). A Caribbean Dream is distributed by Verve Pictures and had a cinema release in London in 2017. The film won several awards, including Best Drama at the National Film Awards UK, Best International Feature at the Charlotte Black Film Festival and best UK Feature at the London Independent Film Festival.
Her short stories have been featured in many literary journals (see below). Her self-published collection of short stories, IN TIME OF NEED (2013), won the prestigious Governor General Award for Excellence in Literary Fiction. She was a finalist for the BURT/CODE Award for Caribbean Literature in 2018. The Caribbean edition of her middle grade novel, MY FISHY STEPMOM, was published by Blue Banyan Books (2019) and the North American edition, JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA, will be published by Scholastic in 2021.
She was a Part-time Lecturer at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and is a Part-Time Lecturer in Screenwriting at the Barbados Community College. She currently holds Certificates in Screenwriting from the Barbados Community College and the University of Edinburgh, and an MA (Hons) in Arts and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University.
About The Book

Title: Josephine Against the Sea
Series: Josephine Against The Sea #1
Author: Shakirah Bourne
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publishing Date: July 6th, 2021
Page Length: 304
Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: Middle Grade
Rating: ⭐
Synopsis:
Meet Josephine, the most loveable mischief-maker in Barbados, in a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology.
Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That’s why she’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team. She’ll get to play her favorite sport AND make sure her fisherman daddy is too busy attending her matches to date.
But when tryouts go badly, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . .
The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, she doesn’t scare easily. Josephine knows there’s something fishy about Mariss–she sings in a strange language, eats weird food, and seems to exert mysterious control over everyone she meets.
Josephine knows that Mariss isn’t what she seems … she might not be human! But who’s going to believe her? Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss’s clutches before it’s too late?
Goodreads – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Book Depository – Chapters|Indigo – IndieBound
Tour Schedule
Blog Schedule
July 5th
SubtleBookish – Interview & Review
Confessions of a YA Reader – Promo Post
July 6th
Stuck in Fiction – Top 5 Reasons to Read Josephine Against the Sea
Inkhaven – Review
July 7th
The Book Dutchesses – Review
stormereadsalot.wordpress.com – Review & Diverse Middle Grades
Cinelinx – Review
July 8th
Kait Plus Books – Interview
Sometimes Leelynn Reads – Review & 15 Reactions While Reading Josephine Against the Sea
Rajiv’s Reviews – Review
July 9th
Nine Bookish Lives – Promo Post
The Bookwyrm’s Den – Review
Notes From a Paper Plane Nomad – Review & Top 5 Reasons to Read Josephine Against the Sea
July 10th
The Wandering Wordsmith – Review
The Reader’s Game – Review & Favourite Quotes
July 11th
Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile – Interview & Review
The Nutty Bookworm Read Alot – Review
Instagram Schedule
July 5th
tbrandbeyond – Promo Post
subtlebookish – Blogger’s Choice
July 6th
808bookdr – Review & Favourite Quotes
feliciareads11 – Blogger’s Choices
July 7th
tinybooknest – Review & Mood Board
thebookdutchesses – Blogger’s Choice
stormereadsalot – Blogger’s Choice
July 8th
ram_reads – Review & TikTok Post
sometimesleelynnreads – Blogger’s Choice
rajivsreviews – Blogger’s Choice
July 9th
djreadsbooks – Review & Favourite Quotes
ninebookishlives – Blogger’s Choice
thebooklovingpanda – Blogger’s Choice
July 10th
luna_reads – Favourite Quotes
de.the.wordsmith – Blogger’s Choice
July 11th
fangirlpixiebooks – Promo Post
hdbblog – Blogger’s Choice

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