This was an interesting read, I enjoyed it. I liked the story and the characters. I just didn't like how it wrapped everything up conveniently.

Daughter of the Sun was a fabulous book. Wonderful story, written well, and great characters. One of the best I have read this year.

I picked Daughter of the Sun out as my choice for the #FFFebruaryReads bingo prompt "An Anticipated 5-star Read", but to be honest, it was more like a "Really Hoped it Would be a 5-star Read".

I've had the ARC on my Kindle for ages, and I'm ridiculously annoyed with myself for waiting so long! It was amazing! I really, really enjoyed the first Tales of Inthya book, The Queen of Ieflaria, but I was a little put off when I picked this one up. The characters are completed different (so it works as a standalone) and it's about 400 pages where The Queen of Ieflaria was less than 200. I wasn't sure if the story would work at over twice the length, but I should never have doubted Effie Calvin, she knew what she was doing.

I love the world-building in this series. I really liked what we saw in The Queen of Ieflaria, but Daughter of the Sun really kicks it up a notch. The pantheon of gods, the various towns and countries, their subtly woven customs and traditions and the unabashed diversity of this world are all completely magical. It felt deep, believable and wonderfully designed.

The characters are all completely new this time around but they feel like old friends. With just a few chapters I had completely fallen in love with both Aelia and Orsina and their slightly odd-couple dynamic. Orsina is the dedicate, no-nonsense warrior we often get in this type of story, but she's got such a wonderful, kind heart that you're just waiting for her to unwind a little. Aelia is a joy to watch as she gleefully stubbles around a world full of entirely new experiences. Something about her just reminded of Rapunzel in Tangled and the sense of wonder as she explored was totally infectious.

The length of the novel actually wasn't a problem in any way. In fact, as I was reading without tracking the percentage on my Kindle, I was shocked at how quickly I flew through the 400 pages. It's a classic quest/ journey type adventure and Calvin makes sure to keep things moving and introducing new challenges to let the characters develop.

I really want to read the next one as soon as it comes out now! I should have picked up Daughter of the Sun a long time ago. Don't make my mistake, read it now.

This book was everything I ever dreamed of. It has mythology, lesbian characters, morally grey character and an actual development between the characters. I loved following Orsina who was so loyal and loving. I'm planning on reading every book in the serie

This book is just delightful! If you like high fantasy, sweet f/f romance, gods learning to embrace their flaws, or just a really good road trip, then this is a must read!

Daughter of the Sun is the second book in the Tales of Inthya series, but it works perfectly as a standalone (though it did make me instantly buy the first book once I’d finished!). The world-building is perfect, and straddles that line between intriguing and familiar – we have a fairly standard faux-medieval setting, but it never feels derivative, just comfortable. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gods of varying importance, who have different (and sometimes very niche) domains, and they interfere with the mortal world as they please. Some are benevolent, and some belong to chaos – and this is where it starts to get interesting.

Our two main characters are Orsina, a knight who is on a god-given quest to oust evil from the land. She’s doing a great job of the ousting, but she just doesn’t seem to be any closer to that one job that will complete her questing so she can return home. Then you have Aelia, a chaos goddess whom Orsina has defeated and trapped in a mortal body. To free herself, she’ll need to find one of her divine siblings – so she persuades Orsina, who doesn’t recognise her mortal form, to escort her on her road trip. Hijinks, as you may expect, ensue. Oh, and the two women seem to find each other very intriguing…

Honestly, this kind of felt like a grown-up Tamora Pierce novel. You’ve got a great lady knight who learns to warm up emotionally, gods who are far too invested in the mortal plains, and a whole lot of adventure and excitement along the way. Even though this is the first time I’ve ever read it, it felt like a cozy old favourite within just a few pages. I absolutely loved the quiet, gradual way that Orsina and Aelia began to feel for each other – it’s as slow-burning as a short novel can be, and felt wholly natural. I loved every bit of their interactions, whether they were comforting, protecting, or simply irritating each other. The story itself is kept moving by the road-trip element of the plot, so there’s never time to get bored before the next episode of adventure begins.

One thing that struck me about this book was the wonderful attitudes to gender and sexuality. It’s so refreshing to read a book where a relationship between people of any gender is perfectly acceptable – it means that none of the obstacles in Orsina and Aelia’s relationship is drawn from their both being women. This leaves so much more space for the actual relationship! It’s also fully accepted that there are more than two genders, with neutroi characters using ‘they/them’ pronouns throughout the book – and characters actually asking for and offering their pronoun choices! Gender is never assumed, despite appearances. (There also seems to be something called ‘The Change’, which allows a couple of any gender to reproduce – this wasn’t particularly relevant to this plot, so wasn’t explained in depth. I’d be interested to see if it pops up more in any other books in this series as it sounds interesting.) The acceptance and warmth in this book was just so lovely to read. There’s no agenda or struggle in the representation – everyone can just be.

Actually, I think ‘warm’ is the word I would use to describe this book. It just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I need more books like this. Books with heart, that make me smile, that are full of hope – and also, that have magic and knights and everything else I love about fantasy fiction. You never see this in adult fantasy, where the trend has been that to be modern, it’s got to be dark and gritty. Daughter of the Sun is the opposite of grimdark, and I am HERE for it. I’ll be buying everything Effie Calvin ever writes. Give me fluffy, exciting fantasy forever! Five out of five cats!

I received a free copy from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review.
Disclaimer: I read this a month ago but holidays got in the way.

This is the story of a woman, Orsina, who on a mission to destroy a great danger to her country but does not know what the danger is.. She destroys a minor chaos goddess, Aelia. Orsina later finds a woman and decides to help her unknowing that this is Aelia trapped in a mortal body. As the two travel together around the country will they find each other or can they not overcome their differences.

This is the second book in the series and I did not read the first book but I did not realize it at first. Feel free to dive in here. This was a different world sort of based on old mythologies like Egyptian myths as in that there are multiple gods and goddess who fight with eachother and all have a domain. This is a LGBTQ friendly novel but the description lets you know that. Interesting world but I did find Orsina annoying because she was so naïve about a past love. I did enjoy the growth in Aelia but even so this book did not have anything to really stand out. I give 3 stars for NetGalley because I maybe recommend it and 3 stars for Goodreads because it I liked.

Title: Daughter of the Sun (Tales of Inthya Book Two)

Publisher: NineStar Press

Author: Effie Calvin

Pages: 273 pp

Price: $15.99 / $5.99

Orsina of Melidrie is a paladin, sworn to the service of the God Iolar. She wanders the land of Vesolda, rooting out corruption and evil -- particularly demonic and divine evil. As such, slaying the mortal form of Aelia, the Goddess of Caprice, and sending her back to the immortal realm is just another day at work. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Orsina, Aelia isn't exorcised. Instead, she is trapped in her mortal body. And when they meet again, Orsina offers her protection to the woman she knows only as Elyne; and as they travel together across Vesolda, Aelia begins to wonder what it means to be human, what it means to be a Goddess, and if she can truly change and win the heart of a noble paladin ....

I was looking for something new and interesting to read, so when I saw a description of Daughter of the Sun on netgalley, I decided to give it a shot. I am so glad that I did. Daughter of the Sun is definitely one of my favorite books from this year. I loved the world and I loved the characters, and I can't wait to visit it again.

First, the world: Inthya is the mortal realm, composed of the usual human nation-states. Some are allies, some are enemies. There are elves, too, but they are evil (no, really, they're bad) and to be avoided at all costs; there are also mer and dragons and assorted monsters. And there are Gods. So many Gods. Officially, only The Ten are honored by mortals, those Deities of order and civilization who created and help to maintain the world; Iolar, for example (order and justice), and Dayluue (love and lust) and Pemele (marriage) and Eyvindr (agriculture). But beyond The Ten there are hundreds, even thousands, of minor Deities; humans classify them as Gods of Chaos, but they vary from the benignly neglectful to amoral tricksters to the downright malevolent. It is these beings whom Orsina and her fellow paladins must root out and destroy -- or, send back to the divine realm, at least. No Deity can actually be killed, but, if their human form is killed, it can take them a few decades to work their way back to Inthya. And the more worshippers a Deity has, the more powerful they are; Iolar is virtually untouchable, he has so many followers, whereas Aelia has -- well -- none.

Additionally, the Divine reality of male, female, and neutroi Deities is reflected among mortals. Nonbinary neutroi are referred to as they/them, and everyone -- male, female, neutroi -- is treated equally. Orsina's childhood crush Perlita becomes Countess on the death of her father, and, during their travels, Orsina and Aelia attend the wedding of a woman and a neutroi. Nor are people defined by their sexuality; Orsina has two fathers and, while she is primarily attracted to women, she has no objections to falling in love with and marrying a man or neutroi.

The story focuses equally on Orsina and Aelia. We get to see this world, and how they gradually change, through the eyes of both of them. Orsina might seem stuck up at first, but she is actually deeply compassionate and committed to making the world just and fair; meeting Aelia and realizing that she has fallen in love with a Goddess of Chaos -- and that maybe a Goddess of Chaos isn't so bad after all -- completely upends her worldview. Aelia, in turn, starts out hating and fearing Orsina; she dislikes being stuck "in meat" and finds her body ridiculously clumsy and needy. But, the more time she spends in the mortal realm, getting to know people as individuals, coming to understand their fears and desires, the more she begins to question what she has been for the last fourteen billion years.

Daughter of the Sun is exciting (demons! wraiths! betrayal! narrow escapes! conspiracies! evil Gods!) and sweetly romantic. It can be read as a stand-alone novel, or as part of the Tales of Inthya series. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a polytheistic epic fantasy romance, and to fans of Ilona Andrews, Amanda Bouchet, Rebecca Chastain, Megan Derr, and Seanan McGuire.

So, having read the first book of the series, and liked it, I was happily surprised when this second book showed up! Inthya is a really fun fantasy world that has the potential to be huge. This book is set in a different place on Inthya, following a wandering knight of the god of truth Iiola. Her name is Orsina, and she is almost ridiculously competent. So much so, that when she defeats a goddess of Chaos, named Aelia, she thinks she's seen the last of her. Aelia, despite her being the embodiment of poor decision making, is extremely clever and is able to trick Orsina into believing her to be gone for the time being. Aelia takes the form similar to Orsina's crush, and tricks her into believing she is a mortal running away from an abusive family. From there, Orsina and Aelia face off against more dangers that help bring them closer together.

Unlike the first book, there's just enough exposition to understand the political and power dynamics in play, but it doesn't slow down the pacing. I think it also helps that most of the exposition is told through Aelia, who is quite the personality. She's flighty and shallow, entirely ignorant of the world of men - mostly because people don't worship her. But, even though she is the goddess of Caprice, she still has a good side to her (who said a chaotic being can't also be good). It also helps that Orsina is also just a plain old good person. Orsina could be a boring lead with her single mindedness, but when she meets Aelia, she gets to open up a little more and shows that she can be flexible with her mission. They're a great team, and it isn't a wonder why they'd start to fall for each other.

Most of the conflict is from Aelia, as she had tricked and used Orsina at the beginning, but when she found out how fulfilling living with Orsina was, she slowly realizes that she can't keep her secret forever, especially with Orsina's faith. I liked that aspect of the book, as it did get to the heart of building a relationship on deceit without getting too far into angst territory.

This is a huge improvement over the first book of the series. It gives you a new group of characters to enjoy- especially the gods, I like it when writer gives their pantheons personalities - to work with while setting up the potential for more stories within this universe. The magic is believable and consistent.

With so few fantasy books in the lesfic sphere, I was hoping this could be a solid go to for my fantasy fix. This series is shaping up to being just that.

What a delightful read!

I really enjoyed the story and the characters of Daughter of the Sun!
It exceeded my expectations and I was a bit unsure when I found out it was a sequel, but it stands great as a standalone! I will definitely go back and read the first book as well and look forward to reading more books by Effie Calvin!

The plot wrapped everything up a little too conveniently, but the characters make it easy to ignore! I hope we get to read more about them!

The writing is really good and I can only see Effie Calvin getting better in the future!

(Original review posted on Goodreads.)

This was really good! I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I admit, I haven't yet read the first book in this series, though I do have a copy waiting for me (I accidentally thought this was the first book in the series). But this book very much felt like a stand-alone; at no point was I confused about the world the characters inhabited.

+ The Characters: The book primarily focuses on the two characters of Orsina and Aelia. I was especially drawn to Aelia, since I found her personal journey to be the most interesting. Both Orsina and Aelia would fit right at home as heroines in a Tamora Pierce novel, which made them utterly delightful to me.

+ The Plot: The plot is rather straightforward, which, again, reminded me of Pierce's books. Orsina and Aelia meet and decide to travel together, though they both have their own goals in mind for the end of the journey. This isn't a particularly dark book; there's a bit of violence, but that's practically it. It's just a cute little story, light on the action, heavy on the fantasy and romance. I actually would have liked it to be a little longer, because it did feel like a lot was left unresolved ...

+ The Writing: Not much to say here (which is a good thing). It's technically sound, the different POVs are unique, and the story flowed nicely. The conversations felt natural.

+ The Romance: The crux of the story lies squarely on the developing romance between Orsina and Aelia, and it's truly a lovely thing to read. It's not rushed and it's structured with care. Although Aelia is a morally gray character, she still has strict boundaries for what she considers acceptable behavior. Despite her feelings for Orsina, she's still deceiving her; this causes her to worry deeply about the issues of trust and consent, and it was actually quite refreshing to read.

+ The Representation: There's a lot of it. Obviously, the plot focuses on the romance between two women, though in this world, queerness exists quite presently and is universally accepted. People of the same gender are allowed to get married and there's even a term for the non-binary people of this world. So yeah, it's good.

All in all, this was a very fun and enjoyable read for me. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I finished this book and realized a) it was not actually the first in the series, and, b) that the third book won't be focused on Orsina/Aelia, because I just loved their romance so much and I want to find out what happened to them.

I enjoyed this read. This is the second book in the Tales of Inthya series. I actually liked this better than the first book. As you might be able to guess by the series title Tales of Inthya, this book was quite different than the first with new characters. Also, this was an adult fantasy book, not YA like the first. Because of the differences, you could actually start the series here if you really wanted to.

The two main characters are Orsina a Paladin warrior and Aelia a chaos goddess. A Paladin’s main job is to root out evil, demons and chaos gods and goddess. These two are sworn enemies, but while Aelia is able to keep her true self hidden from Orsina, she can’t help but fall for the honorable Paladin. But what will happen if her secret is discovered?

This book dealt with more of the supernatural side of Inthya; lots of gods, goddesses, monsters and other beings. We had seen the importance that certain people placed on the gods in the first book, but it was a lot of fun actually getting to see them this time around. This book had this good mythological feeling that I had a lot of fun with. Calvin has a wonderful imagination.

This book does take a little bit to get comfortable with. A lot of names and places had my head spinning a bit in the beginning. But don’t give up. Eventually everything seems to click and the book just turns into a lot of fun.

There is another wlw romance in this book. It is very PG, but I thought it was sweet. I found myself really enjoying both characters; the innocence at times of a thousand year old goddess, and the brave warrior woman. I just really enjoyed them as a possible couple.

This book also touched on a side story of another princess. I’m hoping the next book might jump a few years in the future and pick up on her story. It seems like it could be very exciting to say the least. I would also love to see Orsina and Aelia make an appearance.

While I did like the first book, I thought it had some bumps. This book is not perfect either, but it was just more fun. I really enjoyed it and it makes me more excited about future books in this series.