Princess Esofi is headed to off to her engagement...despite the fact that her betrothed passed away three months ago.

Nevertheless, the kingdom of Ieflaria desperately needs her and her people's magic, and Esofi cannot go back home. She needs to do whatever she can to stay. Even if it means marrying her betroth's sister—who is an undisciplined, heavy drinking huntress and wild child.

But Esofi is determined. She has a mission. Her magic is needed. And there are dragons that need to be slayed....
~
This little gem snuck up and surprised me! I wasn't expecting to like it nearly as much as I did, particularly because of some of the very odd treatment of changing sexes to make babies (view spoiler), but I did like the plot.

It dragged a bit in the middle third, but the final 20% flew by due to nonstop action.

I loved that both heroines change for the better, and that they each realized that being together wasn't something awful or horrible. Their feelings and actions made sense, especially when Esofi's background was finally revealed—and there are a couple of very entertaining plot twists that made the world-building so much more delightful. I want to read more, and it looks like it's going to be a series!

Despite the ages of the protagonists (both are late teens), this read more like an adult book—or maybe a new adult book (minus sex), than a young adult book. It felt like a much better developed and mature Of Fire and Stars, fixing what didn't work in that book and adding dragons!

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

*Rating: 3, 8 stars*

The Queen of Ieflaria has two main characters, Eofi and Adale, who are complete opposites, but both of them manage to be complex, flawed and compelling characters. A big portion of this book is focused on developing their relationship from reluctantly liking each other to being friends to having romantic feelings. While their relationship is explored, the book maneges to show a bit of the world, how the kingdoms are divided, how things work in Ieflaria, the problems the kingdom is facing and how the magic system works. It’s not a super detailed description of these aspects, but it shows the basics.

In this book, the magic system is intimately related to gods, goddesses and the mythology that surrounds them. What we get to see a magic system that it’s interesting even if it’s similar to the magic system in other YA fantasy books. Nonetheless, there’s an elements that made this world and this magic system especial: the dragons. This is definitely not the first book in YA to have dragons, but this book does something a bit wacky in regards to the dragons right at the end, which is gonna play a bigger role in the rest of the series.

I did have a problem with this book because there are some elements in terms of worldbuilding and magic system that are fascinaring ideas, but that are never fully developed and are left in the air. Some of those elements I will not mention because they are spoilers, but one example is a secret cult that exist around one of the goddesses, which sounded like a fascinating addition to the story but it was never really explored. Also, there were several mentions of a tension between magic and science within this world, and it was a source of disagreement between the main characters, Eofi and Adele. That tension could have given more depth to the book and made it more thought provoking, but unfortunately it was never fully explored either. Even if we are left with these holes, I think in future books a lot of the aspects that were left unexplored are going to add very compelling elements to the story.

Now into the romance, which was my favorite part of this book. The romance in this book is a slow burn and a fantastic one at that, they have a bit of a rough start but it becomes obvious pretty fast that they good for each other and they complement each other really well. There were a lot of sweet moments between the main characters, Eofi and Adale, and the reader gets to see how they slowly build a friendship. Both characters had things to learn from the other and they managed to do that. Even when there’s some miscommunication between them, it’s resolved quickly.

Even if the exploration of the world, the characters and the relationships between them is really interesting, the set up for the story and the build up of the relationship between the two main characters lasted way too long. Around 70% of the book is set up and then all of the sudden, in the last part of the book, it feels like everything happens, all the action takes places and it does feel a bit rush. Nonetheless, the last 20% of this book hints at a very fascinating and unique story in the rest of the series.

Overall, this books has complex and compelling characters, an amazing romance and an interesting magic system. Nonetheless, it very much feels like a set up book for the rest of the series. There’s ideas and plot elements that are mentioned but left for later. Hopefully, all the set up pays off in the future books.

This had a rough start and I put it aside for a long while because I wasn't feeling it, but the allure of a f/f pairing in a fantasy setting was too much to give up on that easily, so I came back determined to continue with this and ended up really enjoying it! I'm so glad I persevered because The Queen of Ieflaria has such a good-natured humor and charm to it with an endearing ship, and I would've been sadly missing out.

The first chapter is a bit of an info-dump, and that doesn't normally bother me too much as I can skim-read past it, but the issue I had was that Esofi has been corresponding with her fiance for at least a decade and had studied up on Ieflaria for so long that she knows as much about it as her own home country of Rhodia...but she had no idea that Albion's only sister would be the heir apparent? That was a pretty big oversight and out of character for Esofi, pretty much negating what little we know of her right out of the gates. 

It seems as though there is some mystery being seeded with Esofi's past, given all the hints about how she can 'no more return home than she could transform into a bird and fly away' and how there's nothing left for them back home. However, nothing ever comes of this - we do learn a little about Esofi's overbearing control-freak mother, but not enough to explain why it is that Esofi feels she has no option but to make the best of it in Rhodia. 

I did enjoy the world-building with the details about the myriad of gods that are worshiped in this world, with the Ten main deities reigning supreme and the hierarchy of the other gods varying from region to region (Ieflaria being a farming country, it makes sense that their Eleventh would be Cyne, the God of Animals and son of the God of the Harvest). But where it failed for me was the sudden introduction of Rhodian science out of nowhere, setting up a religion vs science conflict that never eventuated. I didn't see the point of having this anachronistic counterpoint to magic come into the picture only for the span of ONE CONVERSATION and then never having any relevance again whatsoever. I wondered if it was to make Esofi seem more flawed because of her prejudice against science, but it seemed to be played more for laughs (haha, Esofi wants to burn down a hospital because it's against the will of the Ten!) and just landed very awkwardly for me.

At 182 pages, this was a relatively short read and the supporting characters didn't have a great deal of development. I would've liked for Esofi's ladies in waiting to be more well-rounded instead of given one main trait and left at that (Lexandrie - the harpy, Mireille - the sweetheart, Lisette - the spy), and the rest of the cast fare little better. Our antagonists, the twins, have the complexity of stereotypical cackling Disney villains, which is disappointing. 

And yet for all these criticisms...I really loved this book, so much that I've ordered it because I need to add it to my LGBT+ book collection! The diversity on show is a really strong selling point - not only do we have two princesses falling in love (my catnip!), but this world easily accepts same-sex marriages and also features a non-binary god with exclusively non-binary followers, as well as trans wish fulfillment where characters who feel that they are in the wrong body have the chance to undergo the Change where they can switch to the gender they identify with. This is all so lovely to me, I love books where acceptance is the norm and I don't need to struggle through horrible homophobia and prejudice towards the main characters, there's enough of that in the real world for me and I personally like the escapism offered in fiction.

All that would count for nothing if I didn't fall for the main characters, and I'm happy to say that Esofi and Adale both won my heart. Esofi was easier to love from the start, she's such an unusual princess - I'm used to reading about the 'rebel royal' stereotype like Adale who's 'not like other girls', so I found it heartwarming to read about Esofi in her flowery frilly dresses and full-bodied figure, who is sweet-natured and politically savvy and eager to do her duty. The fact that she was keen for an arranged marriage was so interesting to me, this is normally the burden most protagonists would be struggling to escape!

Esofi embraces her upbringing that has shaped her to become the perfect queen, and as kind and giving as she may be, she's got a spine of steel and will not allow anyone to stand in her way of achieving that goal, I adore her so much. She's a stealth badass, who may appear to be a fluffy cupcake, but will kick ass when required!

Adale took a little longer to win me over, given that her introduction made her appear to be lazy and entitled, more intent on enjoying the benefits of living in the lap of luxury and throwing a tantrum about having to do her duty as the royal heir. But as I read on, her reluctance was borne more out of crippling insecurity and fear of not living up to people's expectations, of feeling like a failure and impostor if she were to take the throne. That made her so much more realistic and sympathetic, especially as she isn't actively fighting Esofi (as the blurb suggests), but is more conflicted and unsure of her path. 

I liked that she stood up for Esofi when her friends mocked the new princess, and how awkwardly and earnestly Adale courted her once she realized she wanted to marry her after all. The romance was sweet and felt earned, there wasn't any insta-love (given how horrified Adale was at the prospect of marriage!) and we see the protagonists work to develop their relationship and slowly come to care for each other. 

So all in all, I'm a big fan of this book, and while I admit it has its rough patches and could've done with more fleshing out and character development, the heroines and central romance worked very well for me and made me giddy with joy. 

PS. the cover is gorgeous and partly the reason I wanted to read this, but I don't understand why Esofi isn't depicted (that's clearly Adale, the slender brunette) - this felt more like her story as it was about her path to becoming Queen of Ieflaria, and marrying Adale was how she achieved that, but nobody (least of all Adale herself) saw her as the real Queen...it would make more sense to have Esofi on the cover or even title this QUEENS of Ieflaria and feature both ladies!

Thanks to Netgalley I was able to read this book.

I don't know what I expected from this book, but I got a lot more than I bargained for. The story is told from a third point of view and flips between Princess Esofi and Adale. Princess Esofi was betrothed to Adale's brother Albion but he ended up doing do to an accident. But since his death, Esofi couldn't go back to her home in Rhodia, instead the King and Queen of Ieflaria make the offer of Esofi marrying Adale instead. Here's where things get thrown into the mix; Esofi also has the option of marrying Adale's twin cousins, either Svana or Brandt. At first Adale doesn't think she's fit to be queen any time soon and even thinks her cousins would be a better option for Princess Esofi. Eventually, Adale gets to know Esofi and she develops feelings for her. The cousins do try to court Esofi despite the fact that Adale really doesn't want them to.

Ieflaria has been having dragon attacks more often than lately. One of the reasons the marriage was arranged was so that the famous battlemages from Rhodia were to come with Princess Esofi and to defeat the dragon issues that they've been having. Only thing is that the battlemages can't be spread too thin and no one really knows why the dragon's have been attacking.

This book was short but it packed such a punch to it though. There was a lot of information to take in from the worldbuilding like all the gods, their powers, who worships them, the gifts they grant, etc. Sometimes I ended up forgetting who was who, but the prominent goddess was Talcia it was easy to keep up with her.

Obviously, the thing that drew me to this book was that it had a f/f pairing to it. (It's also widely accepted in this setting for their to be two queens to rule. As far as heirs to produce that was further explained in the book, but I couldn't wrap my head around it.) Also, DRAGONS, I love dragons and the fact that this book had them also made me want to read it.

Only downside is that I would have liked to see more time and better feelings to develop between Esofi and Adale. Two weeks doesn't seem like a lot to develop such strong feelings for someone.

My ratings: 3.5/4 stars.

This was a good YA read with a strong female heroine where sexuality isn't a factor. I believe if more was made of going from marrying a man to a female it would have held my interest. Instead, it's just a regular royalty arranged marriage read.
It has that feel good YA feel and lacks the traditional YA angst found in relationship reads. If you enjoy YA that is more on the sunny side then this definitely recommended.

I have a terrible weakness for a scoundrel with heart of gold, and most especially scoundrelly princesses in lesbian fantasy novels. This particular book gets off to a slow start (so many fantasy god names, and we only just got here!) but the pace picks up as soon as Crown Princess Adale of Ieflaria stomps grumpily onto the page with a hangover and grass stains on her silver gown. Adale is being pressured to marry Esofi, princess of Rhodia, who was betrothed to Adale’s older brother until the crown prince’s recent death. Esofi brings an entourage of battlemages to help with Ieflaria’s current dragon problem, and her arrival naturally stirs up long-simmering political tensions and conspiracies. Adale has nothing against Esofi (whose blonde, plump prettiness appeals to her) but believes herself completely incapable of being the kind of queen her country needs. Her late brother’s shadow looms large and brings on a torrent of endearing self-doubt.
Gentle, devout Esofi, meanwhile, may look like “a fat little rosebud,” but that’s only until she gets angry enough to send a bolt of raw magic through your face with her bare hands. Because she’s a badass dragonslayer. Who is very aware of her responsibilities to her adopted people, even though she yearns to be loved for who she is and not just how useful she can be.
Reader, I loved them both so much by the end.
The book admittedly is not without flaws—the prose is at times painfully direct, which makes it skew toward YA even though it’s marketed as adult—but what it does well is so rare and to be treasured that I have zero qualms recommending it. I almost put it aside in the early chapters, and I shudder at the near-miss, because by the halfway point I couldn’t put it down. Remember last month’s Old Skool story with dragons that I felt was almost something special? This new one is the real deal: a queer-femme-centric, trans-inclusive, lushly realized fantasy romance with nonbinary forms of aristocratic and military address, political intrigue, dragons, political intrigue among dragons, and manipulative gods. And a stupidly gorgeous cover. Do not miss this one.

15,5/20 | 3 stars.

This is one of my first F/F romance, and surely this won't be the last.
I shiped Esofi and Adale from the start. They have both different personnalities, and they are everything but cliché.
Esofi is not only a pretty and innocent princess with beautiful dresses, she is a fierce dragon slayer. How could we dream of something better? She's feminine and she's a warrior.
I loved every pov of Adale where Esofi is present. We can see far much through her perspective than Esofi's. By the way, I'm fond of Adale. I think she's my favourite; She is very sensitive, she cares about others, she lacks of confidence. She's the one we could easily relate to.

Adale and Esofi's romance is sweet and slow, but I think I would have been happier with a bit more passion between them two. They have a great complicity that is too much hidden by the etiquette to my liking.

The story set place in an interesting universe that I hope I will see further developed in the second book. The author keeps a lot of mysteries for herself but in this first book we have quite a lovely introduction: dragons, gods, princesses, magical creatures.

In conclusion: A lot of surprising moments await the reader. The Queen of Ieflaria is a good first book, with strong and sensitive female leads.

A lovely well-written fantasy with intrigue, action, dragons and a unicorn. Add in queer leads and it has to be one of the best books I've read in this genera. I would recommend it to anyone, including middle-grade children (11yrs+) and adults. The romance between the MCs is sweet, and I found myself rooting for them the entire time. I wish this kind of novel had been available when I was growing up, as it was wonderful to see queer characters, where their identities are not questioned and are not the focus of the plot. Effie Calvin's take on the classic trope of arranged marriages is delightful. I look forward to more from this author.

I wanted to love this book. Lots of good world building, good build up, and then..........half a page of ending. That was it. the ending was rushed and underdeveloped. The whole book started great, in fact it was ideal as a worldbuilder to start a series but it was almost as if someone else finished it. The other issue was that if I'm going to read a lesbian book I want to actually see some lesbianism in it. Just saying "oh look these two girls are going to have to get married" and one poorly rushed kiss doesn't count. I want an actual relationship built between them because frankly it seemed like she was getting on better with the twins (who other than being bratty didn't seem especially bad) than the girl she was engaged to. It's really a 2.5 stars. The writing is excellent and so is the worldbuilding, it just needed more je ne sais quoi and a better written ending.

I feel bad for giving this one such a low rating, but the fact is, I did not like it. Here's why:

-Infodumping. The author has imagined this huge, detailed world, which is great. But we do not need to know about these details unless they are relevant to the story. The information is also conveyed in the most boring ways possible. For example, at one point, Esofi is lying in bed and it says something along the lines of, "As usual before falling asleep, Esofi thought about the gods." And then it goes and describes all of the different gods in their world. No one wants to read a text book. If the information is important to the plot, find a more interesting way to convey it to the reader; if it isn't important, then we don't need to know.

-Random, unimportant tangents (example: the Elves. They're randomly mentioned and described in the last quarter of the book for no apparent reason. Nothing comes of it.)

-Stupid dialogue. Seriously--dragons are attacking your town, you aren't going to calmly inquire how old a unicorn is.

-The prose was just BORING. Felt sort of like reading a list--things are happening, but the prose is so dry and monotonous that you can't get invested in any of it. Incredibly boring descriptions of the scenery and clothing. You can't *not* skim over it.

-The dragons don't make an appearance until more than half-way through the book. Sorry, but if the main conflict of the book is about dragons slaughtering people, I expect to see some of them.

-The story behind Adale's brother's death is kept hidden for so long that you expect the revelation to be earthshattering. And you expect that Adale was to blame for it. But, nope, he just fell off a cliff. The mystery behind that is cleared up in one short conversation. Why all the buildup?

-The twins were cliche. Adale was a moron. Esofi was stuck up.

-The whole plot thread about religion VS science was just dropped half-way through. Which is unfortunate because I wanted to hear more from both sides--how can you be an atheist when there is evidence of magic all around? How can you discount science when it's supported by logic? A longer discussion between the two main characters on this topic would have been fun. But...nope.

Overall, this book was a lesson in how not to write a book.

I really wasn’t sure about this book at first, because the first chapter is one massive infodump. Yes, this is a very nice world that the author has built, but I’m not sure I needed to know everything about it all at once, especially when the lack of context meant most of it flew straight out of my head again. It also didn’t help that Adale was so unbelievably childish.

Thankfully, Esofi is the complete opposite and I kept reading for her, which was a good decision because this book is actually really rather sweet. Once Adale gets over her whining and starts to accept that Esofi is worth courting, the pair of them are pretty adorable together. Esofi is smart and powerful, but not infallible and I loved how the two of them started to compliment each other – the library scenes are particularly sweet and I loved Adale’s reaction to Esofi’s views on science. Their romance is slow-growing, but all the better for it. By the end of the book I really loved Adale, so it’s worth sticking with just to see her come into her own.

However, aside from these two, the rest of the characters are pretty poorly developed. The twins in particular are disappointingly two dimensional and it might have been nice if at least one of Adale’s friends was half-decent. I would have liked a lot more about Esofi’s maids too, there are tantalising hints about them (Lisette in particular), but they felt underused.

A bit like the world. There is so much information packed into that first chapter and clearly a lot of time and thought has gone into building this place, but for the most part none of it is relevant. There are dragons and one convenient unicorn, but mostly the setting is very generic, albeit with a nice queer gloss, and it rarely scratches the surface of all that it could be.

So it’s a mixed bag. I liked both Adale and Esofi and their romance is adorable, but everything else felt a bit too sketchy and shallow. The dragon threat was nice, but I think it could have been better, and everything to do with the twins left me rather disappointed in Esofi. The politics is kind of tenuous too and the longer I think about it the more cracks I see in the setting and plot. So I’m going to stop thinking about it and just say that if you’re looking for a sweet F/F fantasy and you’re not too hung up on details or deeply explored worlds, then give this a try. It is sweet and there is magic, and if that’s what you’re looking for, then I hope you enjoy it.

My actual rating: 2.5 stars
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Princess Esofi, of Rhodia has been betrothed to Prince Albion of Ieflaria since childhood. Before the marriage can take place, Prince Albion is killed. Esofi has no wish to return to Rhodia and offers to marry the next in line for the thrown. In this fantasy to ruling families have no issue with same sex marriage and Esofi finds herself betrothed to Princess Adale.


Adale has no interest in ruling Ieflaria, she much prefers going hunting and drinking. With mounting pressure from her parents Adale must decide what she wishes to do with her future. Will she accept her responsibilities or allow her devious cousins to take over. With dragons battling the country, time is running out.

I could not connect with this book. Much attention is given to the gods and goddesses that the characters worship, which is difficult to follow. This may be due to the author developing a series and setting the scene for future books. Limited attention is given to the characters themselves and there is not enough time for character growth. If you are looking for a YA fantasy novel with a f/f romance, then this book may appeal to you.

3.50 Stars. A good YA fantasy read. I just love lesfic fantasy books, and when you throw in dragon’s it just makes it all the better. However, this was not a perfect book for me. The premise was great, but this had a few misses when it came to execution. But overall I enjoyed the read and will read book 2 in this series.

Princess Esofi (I pronounced it Sophie but am not sure if that is right) has been engaged to the Prince of Ieflaria since she was a child. Now that she is 18, it is time to officially sign the marriage pact and live in Ieflaria. But during the four months journey to Ieflaria she learns the news the prince has died. Esofi knows she cannot return home so she must marry the second in line which happens to be the Princess Adale. Adale has never wanted to rule. The plans have always been for her brother to sit on the thrown, not her. But with pressure from her parents and increased dragon attacks, Adale must decide between marrying Esofi or giving up the crown and running away.

As I mentioned above, I really liked the premise but there were times it didn’t totally come together for me. There were a few times when there was too much info dumping; especially when it came to all the Gods and Goddesses. It was a lot of info to take in. I wish Calvin would have slowed down her approach. I did feel like I got everything squared away by the end, but it took a while. There were also subjects that were touched on but not really developed. The science versus magic debate and the sort of secret sect of one of the Goddesses that Esofi belonged to. Calvin teased these issues but nothing came of it. I don’t know if it was due to this being a series, or if she just abandoned the ideas.

When it came to the characters, I really liked Esofi. She was a real badass and some of the scenes with her battling the dragons were my favorite. I’m going to jump back to what I was saying about undeveloped ideas: Esofi brought a bunch of battlemages with her to fight the dragons. I was really looking forward to some big dragon, magic battles, but again nothing happened with that. There was plenty with Esofi and Dragons, but the army of battlemages was useless. Back to the characters, I did like the other main Adale, but something about her was missing for me. Esofi was so strong that she kind of eclipsed Adale in this story.

The romance is very PG, but it was sweet. I did enjoy the scenes with them together. I do have to complain about the ending though. Esofi and Adale really needed to talk and work things out, but it was sort of just passed over for a future scene with one of Adale’s super annoying friends. I wanted more of the couple working things out, not an annoying secondary character I was hoping was banned for good. Speaking of that annoying character, that is something I hope Calvin will work on. Her secondary characters need to be more fleshed out, they were all really wooden.

One thing I did really like, sexuality and gender was not an issue at all. Too many lesfic fantasy books the couples have issues due to their sex or who they love. It was nice to see for a change that it didn’t matter one bit.

I would recommend this book to fantasy fans. It does have some bumps, but overall it was a good read. I will not hesitate to read book 2, and I’m hopeful maybe a few of my current issues will be addressed in that book.

Author Effie Calvin has created a unique and vastly rich universe where magic, science, and mythology collide in a tasteful way. The novel's cover immediately captured my attention; what was within it sealed the deal. The vivid imagery and setting greatly added life to the story and its characters.

The Princess Esofi is escorted from her home the Kingdom of Rhodia to the Kingdom of Ieflaria, her purpose: to fulfill a marriage contract created when she was just a child. Ieflaria has long since been plagued by legions of hostile dragons. Enduring relentless attack, Ieflaria requires the magic and authority Esofi can command.

However, not everyone is quite accepting to the changes that this future queen will bring to Ieflaria, especially the Crown Princess Adale. Although Esofi's and Adale's initial meeting is shaky, throughout the book both princesses learn that there is more to life than just courtly obligations. Responsibility to be true to oneself and respecting the growing changes in their world will deeply affect them all.

Calvin displays considerable skill, consistently developing her characters from beginning to end while keeping her readers engaged and emotionally invested with their favorite characters. As further testament to her skill, Calvin plays a delicate hand in weaving the intricacies involved in the royal court to the pantheon of gods the people worship in the novel, along with the emergence of science changing how people live. Her portrayal of magic has a pleasant twist in the world of Inthya; respecting Nature is paramount to this world and all the creatures in it. Calvin captures all these elements in such a way that all readers are in for an indulgent treat stepping into her rich lore for Inthya.

The last time I enjoyed a fantasy novel of this caliber was over two years ago, and this author has reignited my interest in exploring more books of this genre. I definitely look forward to the next novel in the series and learn what fate has in store for her enriching characters and the beautiful world she has created.

The Queen of Ieflaria, by Effie Calvin, is the first book in a fantasy series. Esofi, a princess of Rhodia, has been betrothed to Albion, the heir of Ieflaria, since they were young children. When Albion dies in an accident, Esofi travels to Ieflaria with the intention of marrying the new heir, who turns out to be Adale. Adale, as second child, had never intended on becoming queen and, as such, is found lacking, enough that her two cousins throw their hats into the ring for becoming heir and, consequently, Esofi's betrothed. There's also the small matter of dragons attacking Ieflara and the Ieflarian people not having strong enough magic to repel them. Esofi is a gifted mage and has brought Rhodian battlemages with her to help Ieflaria fight this threat.


Oh, man. I really wanted to love this. The synopsis sounded very cool, and I always enjoy reading fantasy books that focus on women. Let's start with the things I liked about this book. My favorite character was Adale because I have a soft spot for characters without a lot of confidence. She doesn't want to be queen, and she often feels like she's not good enough. She's not the heir that Albion was. She can't be as good a ruler as her parents or her cousins. Although her characterization is a little weak--in that everyone says she's a terrible heir, but we never really get evidence of it--she's fun to root for and grows in confidence as the story goes on.


Calvin also presents an inclusive world in terms of sexuality. Gender isn't an issue for Esofi when it comes to choosing an heir. There's a non-binary god and their non-binary followers. There's also a ritual called the Change that allows people to change genders, "though it wouldn't last for very long unless the person being transformed had a soul that was willing to remain in its new body forever."



The dragon attacks and the idea of creating a university to train users of magic were cool. Calvin does some unexpected things with this plotline. I also really enjoyed the tension between magic and science, and I think it could've been explored a lot more.


However, overall, I don't think this manuscript was quite there. There were details that should've been seeded way earlier in the story so that their first mention wasn't just before they became important to the plot. All the side characters are pretty one-dimensional. Esofi says one character is "quiet and gentle" and that "she knew she would always feel safe with him" even though we never see anything to back that up.


The humor feels off, too. When Adale hears Esofi's introduced a new clause to their betrothal agreement, she assumes it's a ban on her drinking. It's played off as funny, but we never see Adale drinking to excess, especially not in a detrimental way. At one point, Esofi is injured, and one of her maids says, "Do focus on recovering, Princess. I need you to get well enough for me to be able to slap you." Far from making me laugh, passages like this made me cringe.


The logic is shaky at first. In the beginning, I was willing to skate over the fact that Esofi has traveled for months to get to Ieflaria's capital and has been preparing for her marriage since she was a child and yet she doesn't know who the next heir is. I would assume this was an attempt to amp up the suspense of the scene.



As the story goes on, this tenuous logic gradually unravels. One of Esofi's ladies maids is her cousin but speaks to her rudely, even more rudely than would be allowed by a member of the extended royal family. Another maid is actually a spy/assassin and has zero knowledge of diplomacy even though, again, this betrothal has been in the works for years. Surely, a woman can be trained in both covert intelligence and diplomacy over a decade or so.



At one point, it seems that Esofi is being stood up by the person she's chosen as her betrothed, and the servant gives her "a humiliatingly pitying look." But...how would a servant even know this person wasn't at a large gathering, and if they did know that, why would they care? It's an awkward attempt to play up Esofi's broken heart. Also, Esofi's expected to announce her choice of betrothed at a ball without telling the king and queen first. But why would a king and queen be content to let a foreigner pick her spouse from their kin without informing them of the choice in advance. Again, it seems like a blatant ploy to increase the tension of a scene rather than an obstacle that would crop up naturally from the plot.


Ultimately, I don't think this book knows exactly what it wants to be. Sometimes it seems like a character-driven romance with over-the-top baddies, but it doesn't quite dig deep enough into the characters to hit the mark. Other times, it feels like an action-adventure with dragon fights, but again, it doesn't quite sink its teeth into that category enough to really count as one. Although the story presents interesting ideas and can keep the reader entertained, I really think this manuscript could've benefited from another round of revisions to tighten up the world and the logic. I'd recommend it to fans of fantasy romance.

The Queen of Ieflaria is the first book in the fantasy romance series Tales of Inthya. The second book’s title hasn’t been announced yet, but it will follow different characters.

The two PoV characters and their romance were my favorite aspect of the book. If you’re looking for a slow-paced, sweet f/f romance between princesses with a sideplot about magical creatures, The Queen of Ieflaria is perfect for you.

I loved Adale. She’s not your typical rebellious princess who wants to fight or run away because she’s in love with someone else. She’s just not good at communicating with people, not good at following her tutors’ lessons, not good at understanding nuance in conversations – she doesn’t feel good enough to be queen. I really liked how this book showed that awkwardness isn't the only thing that matters: seeing your subjects as human is more important than etiquette. Adale is flawed at the beginning and is flawed at the end, and maybe will never be a perfect queen, but she isn’t alone.
Esofi’s personality was, in many ways, the opposite of Adale’s. Esofi has been brought up knowing she will not marry for love, and she finds the idea of an arranged marriage almost comforting, which is uncommon – arranged marriage is usually portrayed negatively in fiction. Esofi knows how politics works; she’s born for this. She is a great magician, and good at many things Adale isn’t able to do, but she doesn’t know how different Ieflaria is from her own land.

Adale and Esofi made a cute couple and complemented each other; after the miscommunication at the beginning I found them adorable.
I can’t say the same of the side characters, who were often underdeveloped and one-dimensional. The magical creatures were far more interesting (this book features dragons and a unicorn).

After the slow beginning (the writing isn’t heavy, but often it tells instead of showing and there were some infodumps), the book grew on me. The worldbuilding wasn’t as developed as I would have liked, but the concept was great – not only same-gender couples are common, the world is also pan-normative and trans-inclusive. Most supposedly queer-inclusive fantasy books seems to forget that trans people exist, and while there were no major trans characters in The Queen of Ieflaria, there is a non-binary god and some non-binary minor characters. Also, magical transition is possible.

The magic system isn’t explained in detail, and the theme of the conflict between magic and science could have been developed more – it would have taken Esofi’s arc further, which would have been interesting – but I understand why the book was focused solely on the romantic plotline.

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH!

Okay now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, on to the review! The first thing that called to me when I saw this book was the cover. It’s beautiful. I’m so happy that the story with in it matches the cover. Two princesses falling in love? Yes please!

Esofi of Rhodia was intended to marry Albion of Ieflaria since she was three years old. Tragedy strikes and Albion is killed by the thing Esofi is supposed to be able to offer protection to, dragons. It’s been her destiny to marry one of the crowned heirs and she’s determined to follow through on the commitment no matter if it is a prince Albion or princess Adale.

What I loved about Esofi is that she isn’t overly beautiful and not everyone is falling at her feet. She felt like a real person. I personally thought she sounded gorgeous and I loved the fact that we eventually got to hear that from Adale’s lips. Ieflaria doesn’t know how powerful she truly is until she’s tested by a dragon.

Then their entire world is flipped on it’s head. Are dragons truly as terrible as they thought they were? Is Adale the princess for Esofi or should she go with one of the twin cousins?

I love that Adale went an unexpected route to show Esofi that she was interested in their match and believed it could work. She didn’t go for buying pretty things or spoiling her. Instead, she showed Esofi the people of Ieflaria and by sharing the knowledge she found about dragons and the temple and gifts that had been bestowed upon the people.

They were so cute together. Anytime there were scenes with the two of them I was grinning and wishing for more. I started this last night and the only thing that stopped me was the fact I fell asleep. Then I finished it off as soon as I woke up. I want to read so much more of this world! I’m excited that it’s a series! I’ve already went to follow the author on GoodReads and plan on stalking every book she releases. That’s how much I enjoyed this.

I loved The Queen of Ieflaria. I devoured it, staying awake way past midnight to finish reading it. This book has so many wonderful things: strong female protagonist, dragons, a unicorn, battles, palace intrigue, and a romance between the two main characters who are pansexual.

Princess Esofi of Rhodia has been betrothed to the heir of Ieflaria since she was three years old. Her education has been focused on being the best queen possible to what will be her new homeland. Over the years she has gotten to know her future husband, Crown Prince Albion, through letters. After she begins the months long journey to her new home and marriage, she receives the news that the Crown Prince has died in an accident.

Esofi arrives in Ieflaria and is faced with a choice: marry the new heir, marry another in the line of succession or go back home. Esofi chooses to marry the new heir, Crown Princess Adale. Adale never expected to rule. She has not been educated to rule but she does know how to drink, hunt and start a really good bar fight. Yet she is such a wonderful match for Esofi.

From the first introduction to Adale, I fell hard for her. I wanted her to marry Esofi and not let one of her cousins take her place. Adale was strong, vulnerable, prickly and caring. She is such a wonderful character. Esofi carries a touch of superiority because of her education. She needs to learn about her new home from the bottom up. Meanwhile others at court plot to remove Adale from the crown and marry Esofi to someone else.

This world that Effie Calvin created is so unique. Gender is not a barrier to anything, whether it be a crown or a marriage. Under the right conditions and with a little magic help, individuals can transform to the opposite sex long enough to insure a child is conceived. This world also has dragons. Big, fire breathing dragons who do more than just eat sheep. The descriptions of everything from the architecture to the clothing is amazing. The reader learns so much about the world by the author's wonderful flowing descriptions.

I absolutely loved The Queen of Ieflaria and am eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series. This book does have a logical ending so readers are not left hanging but instead are left wanting more.