PDF The Queen of Ieflaria Tales of Inthya Book 1 edition by Effie Calvin Romance eBooks
Download As PDF : The Queen of Ieflaria Tales of Inthya Book 1 edition by Effie Calvin Romance eBooks
Princess Esofi of Rhodia and Crown Prince Albion of Ieflaria have been betrothed since they were children but have never met. At age seventeen, Esofi’s journey to Ieflaria is not for the wedding she always expected but instead to offer condolences on the death of her would-be husband.
But Ieflaria is desperately in need of help from Rhodia for their dragon problem, so Esofi is offered a new betrothal to Prince Albion’s younger sister, the new Crown Princess Adale. But Adale has no plans of taking the throne, leaving Esofi with more to battle than fire-breathing beasts.
PDF The Queen of Ieflaria Tales of Inthya Book 1 edition by Effie Calvin Romance eBooks
"The last book I read was excessively long and quite heavy in subject matter, so I felt in the mood for something shorter and lighter. This entertaining novel met both criteria. The plot offered a fresh take on several fantasy tropes, while providing the main characters enough complexity and development to be satisfying. I found the world building enjoyable, especially how gender could be fluid in that culture, and a variety of orientations were accepted as normal.
All in all, The Queen of Ieflaria is a good effort, especially for being the author's first published novel. I look forward to reading the next book in the series."
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Tags : The Queen of Ieflaria (Tales of Inthya Book 1) - edition by Effie Calvin. Romance eBooks @ .,ebook,Effie Calvin,The Queen of Ieflaria (Tales of Inthya Book 1),NineStar Press,Fiction / Romance / Fantasy,Fiction / Romance / Lesbian
The Queen of Ieflaria Tales of Inthya Book 1 edition by Effie Calvin Romance eBooks Reviews :
The Queen of Ieflaria Tales of Inthya Book 1 edition by Effie Calvin Romance eBooks Reviews
- The last book I read was excessively long and quite heavy in subject matter, so I felt in the mood for something shorter and lighter. This entertaining novel met both criteria. The plot offered a fresh take on several fantasy tropes, while providing the main characters enough complexity and development to be satisfying. I found the world building enjoyable, especially how gender could be fluid in that culture, and a variety of orientations were accepted as normal.
All in all, The Queen of Ieflaria is a good effort, especially for being the author's first published novel. I look forward to reading the next book in the series. - 3.5 stars
This book lost half a star for an unfortunate first chapter, but retained the high end of 3.5 because it was a standalone, despite being in a series. I'm not kidding, it was a seriously bad first chapter with confusing names being dropped every five seconds and explanations of who everyone was in a very infodumping manner. To make things worse, some names being dropped were pretty similar, and one place seemed to have multiple names for it, so that I had to go back and check information a couple of times. A bad first chapter might not have held as much weight if the chapters weren't each so long. If this had had a (once-)standard 10% sample and I had previewed it instead of buying sight-unseen, I probably wouldn't have continued. The first chapter goes to 14%.
Luckily, as soon as we switched to Adale's POV in chapter two, information was dropped more naturally. Where Esofi's friends were each described in detail as they were introduced, we were left to infer the history of Adale's friends based on their interactions, and it worked so much better. Adale also had a more personable POV, endearing me to her as soon as we got to her POV (whereas in Esofi's first chapter I didn't feel a connection to either girl).
A lovely aspect of this book is that there was no heteronormativity at all in this world. Even when talking about whether an heir is needed, the magic of the world allowed for a temporary sex change to allow for a f/f pairing to have a child (m/m still needed a surrogate, though; sorry, guys); it's also mentioned that the sex change could be permanent if that was where the person's gender belonged. There was also a neutral gender in this world. Neither the magical sex change nor the neutral gender affected our main characters in this book, but it was nice to see it included. I wasn't sure at first if Esofi was asexual, and I was hoping she was, but I think she just hadn't allowed herself to considering anybody romantically, since she had been betrothed from the age of 3.
I liked the gradual nature of the girls' romance in the book. Their initial relationship comes from a place of duty for both of them (one reluctantly so), and there are hints of "I hope we can develop a relationship" "Wait, I might actually want to court her" before anything resembling love blossoms. My last read was pure instalove, and it was nice to see this one go with a slower burn.
I also enjoyed that the characters proved competent in their own ways. Esofi, who comes in all pretty pretty princessy (and overweight!), is competent in battle and diplomacy from the beginning. Adale has further to go to get to a point where she has confidence in herself, but she proves herself competent in picking up clues (thank you for not dragging them out so we figure them out long before the characters do) and researching. I was hoping there was more to some of Adale's contributions, but nothing was ever explained about them, and I get the feeling that this book ends Esofi and Adale's story.
Speaking of which, I really love the pacing of this book and that it had its own conclusion on every account. The author has left the world open to more stories, but this story feels so satisfactorily finished.
So, if you can get past the first chapter, the rest of the book is really good )
Recommended for fans of F/F relationships; characters all over the LGBTQIA spectrum; dragons; standalone stories in bigger worlds; slower burn relationships; names beginning with A, E, I, or L; apology kittens - I really appreciated that this book was more fantasy than romance. I am a fantasy/sci fi nerd, and I found this to be the perfect balance of fantasy and love story. The world the author created is interesting and well developed. I would love to read more about this world and these characters.
- Lesbian princesses! Fighting dragons! Ruling a kingdom! And they're kind of star-crossed! Plus, the pretty, pretty princess is super badass!Â
Wow. I really could not have loved this book more. The pacing was good, the action and emotion well developed, and the romantic arc was done well, front and center.
I loved all the interactions between Esofi and Adale, and their will she?/won't she? romance.
Now for SPOILER TERRITORY!Â
Okay, can I just talk about Esofi for a hot second here?
Holy shiz, you guys! This pretty, pretty princess kicks some major ass--both literal and figurative. Her voice was so rich and wonderful. The author did an amazing job developing her.
First, I just love Esofi's attitude! She's royal and gracious, never using her position to her advantage. Second, she's very brave and capable and smart. She fights dragons, but she's clever about it. (Also, the author let her get hurt in the final battle, which I liked/appreciated). Third, in contrast to her confidence in court, Esofi is pretty awkward in matters of the heart, which makes total sense for a woman who was arranged to be married since birth.
It also leads to some amazing scenes with her and Adale.
Speaking of... I loved every interaction between Esofi and Adale. Every scene with the two of them is fraught with angst and adorable awkwardness. They clearly have an initial spark, which I liked and was necessary considering they have a very push-pull type of romance.
Also, the lesbian relationship with two princesses marrying was normalized, something that I very much appreciated. No one bats an eyelash at the two marrying, although one foolish boy tries to stop it--perhaps my favorite scene. So. Amazing.
All in all, the book's not perfect. I would have liked to have seen Adale arc a little bit more emotionally and externally, and I would have liked her to fight side by side with Esofi, but I'm very willing to wait for these things to happen.
There's always Book 2! I'll be preordering it the second it's available. - I loved this story. It was a sweet story about Esofie and Crown Royal Princess Adale who are betrothed to marry but Adale is not sure about being married and being Queen. Theirs is a sweet and slowly evolving love story. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
