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Effie Calvin

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The Queen of Ieflaria (Tales of Inthya Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Effie Calvin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 784 ratings

Book 1 of 5: Tales of Inthya

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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.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B079H3T4XW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ NineStar Press (February 19, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 19, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2572 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 249 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #787,124 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,494 in Lesbian Romance
- #17,254 in Fantasy Romance eBooks
- #25,558 in Fantasy Romance (Books)

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4.4 784 ratings

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Effie Calvin

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Effie is definitely a human being with all her own skin, and not a robot. She writes science fiction and fantasy novels and lives with her cat in the Philadelphia area.

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4.4 out of 5

784 global ratings

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Genevieve Eldredge

Lesbian princesses! Fighting dragons! Ruling a kingdom! And they're kind of star-crossed! LOVED IT!

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018

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Lesbian princesses! Fighting dragons! Ruling a kingdom! And they're kind of star-crossed! Plus, the pretty, pretty princess is super badass!

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!

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.

5 people found this helpful

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Sage Collins

Enjoyable read after the first chapter

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2019

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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

26 people found this helpful

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Simon Magid

Short but sweet queer fantasy romance!

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2019

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This was a *really good* read. Worldbuilding appealed to me, the main lesbian relationship developed very naturally and the plot complications followed logically and without annoying contrived misunderstandings. (It did have misunderstandings. Just not contrived ones.)

Both protagonists turned out to be likable, charming and had human flaws. They both had moments where I wanted to slap sense into them. They both helped each other get past them. The magic system did not get much attention but then did not really need it, either. One interesting magical idea was that the local Ishtar expy’s priestesses were capable of changing a person’s gender (allowing F/F couples a way to have children) but that the change only lasted as long as ‘the target’s soul felt comfortable.’ In other words, the change for 100% cis people would last like a few minutes. For those less completely cis, it would last longer and for trans people it would be permanent. Also, and somewhat infuriatingly, they had agender people around called Neutrois THAT WE NEVER REALLY LEARNED MUCH ABOUT T_T

Weak spots: The villains. Thankfully, they did not take up that much space.

Also, it was not a very long book. But that is only really a problem in that I wanted more at the ending. Essentially the author wrote enough to tell the story and then The End. 5 out of 5 stars, would recommend to anyone who likes queer romance fantasy.

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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle-Kunde

Fantastic sapphic love story

Reviewed in Germany on June 29, 2021

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A sapphic love story with dragons, what do I need more. I absolutely enjoyed this story and the characters. I liked how the world-building happened and all the characters seem to have a very interesting back story.

Leslie Dunnett

I loved this book

Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2018

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I loved this book. Esofi and Adale are a sweet couple, each with their own strengths and vulnerabilities, and the mystery surrounding the dragons was genuinely fascinating. I loved the world-building and supporting characters (my only disappointment was that Lisette didn't get to kick more ass). Calvin's magical system was satisfyingly complex, but still very easy to follow.

A fantasy retelling of Cinderella with dragons-what more do you need to know?

Montse Guardia

An union. Duty on one side, distrust on the other. Will it grow into something more?

Reviewed in Spain on June 12, 2019

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I loved the tension! The crossroads Adale finds herself in, what with having to follow Albion's steps all the way into marriage now he's gone, and to a foreigner that is quite mysterious... Who is this Esofi exactly, and why is she always so mature? Why has she come here to ruin her future? Why did Albion have to go and die?!
Meanwhile, Esofi is burdened with her purpose, ready to go through with the plans that have been laid for her since she was an infant. She's more than ready to command the forces needed to protect Ieflaria from the dreaded dragons, and to do anything the kingdom needs in order to be safe in the future.
Also the mysteries!! Very mysterious! 10/10!

Sarah

Perfect for a reluctant fantasy reader

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2018

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So the thing is, I love fantasy, but I struggle with it. I don't like getting into any new series, because I don't know how to be moderate, and have this compulsion to learn absolutely every piece of lore, which it makes it kinda hard to enjoy the story.
Usually, I only start really enjoying a series with the second installment, (or when I reread the first) because my obsession with learning the world can take a backseat.
This was the perfect fantasy for me though. It had no big info dumping, but it still had a rich world and plenty of interesting lore. I was able to actually keep up with the information it was feeding me, and still focus on the story!
And the story, dang! I loved it!
The characters were so charming, and even the ones with very little time were so fleshed out
I loved the two leads, they were both slight trainwrecks, but they tried so hard and wanted to be so good, they were really endearing.
The background characters were wonderful, I still remember all of them, a month after finishing it (again that's unusual for me with fantasy)
It was paced really well, and it didn't ever drag
Honestly I'm still shocked at how much I enjoyed this, I almost never have this experience with fantasy.
I'll definitely keep following the series, and read anything else the author writes

Madeleine

I absolutely loved this book and read it in one afternoon

Reviewed in Australia on April 7, 2018

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I absolutely loved this book and read it in one afternoon. Great world with dragons, magic, some romance and a nice ending that leaves you wanting more (not a cliffhanger). I am looking forward to the rest of the series and any other characters the author throws into the mix. I can't wait to see what a bit 'older and mature' version of these two main characters look like. Thank you for a wonderful adventure.

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The Queen of Ieflaria (Tales of Inthya Book 1) Kindle Edition

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Effie Calvin

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