Book Birthday: Queen of Ieflaria ARC Review!

A happy book birthday to Queen of Ieflaria by the wonderful Effie Calvin! Being published today by Nine Star Press; I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy and get my eyes nibbling on these words just in time to talk to you guys about it and EVEN got Effie herself, to answer some questions!

Queen of Ieflaria is a LGBTQIA/Romance/Fantasy novel with some of everyone's favourite and familiar elements from those genres, constructed in Effie's own way. Here is the books summary from the creator herself:

"Whenever I'm asked to do a quick summary, it always sounds so silly, but here we go. Princess Esofi was betrothed to Prince Albion when she was very young. She's supposed to get married to him and become his queen when she comes of age. But when she goes to Ieflaria to do just that, she learns that Albion is suffering from a bad case of being three months dead.

Next in line for the throne is Albion's younger sister, Adale, and so Esofi agrees to marry her instead. Unfortunately, Adale hasn't really been planning on becoming queen, and was sort of hoping to spend the rest of her life wasting her parents' money and getting drunk. Adale spends a little bit of time trying to get out of the betrothal, but soon realizes that she actually does like Esofi, despite their differences. Unfortunately, this realization only comes after she accidentally manages to convince Esofi that she hates her and Adale's terrible cousins step in to suggest themselves as alternative candidates.

On top of that, Ieflaria has been suffering from dragon attacks, and they're getting worse every year. Esofi thinks she knows how to solve the problem, but she needs to convince the Ieflarian people to stop neglecting their worship of Talcia, Goddess of Magic. And since the Ieflarians blame Talcia for the dragons, that's not going to be easy."

We have to point out instantly, that thing that is so great about this story and concept of it is that there is not only a non-heterosexual element here, it's that that element is within the MAIN characters. There isn't a side character that is 'delightfully gay' and there is no disrespect in terms of portrayal and the fact of the matter that this relationship has arisen due to duty and circumstance with the opportunity to blossom, takes the spotlight away from making this just a LGBTQIA book, it keeps it as the LGBTQIA romance fantasy epic that it is. With Adale and Esofi, I did have moments of being unsure as to the quickness that Adale's personality could change, but it kind of all knitted together with the pressures and possibilities of their potential romance and so by the end of the novel, you have this authenticity between the two leads. 

This being the case, I had to ask Effie what the writing experience was like, not just with the book itself, but in terms of Adale and Esofi's relationship:

"I am really happy with how well Adale and Esofi's personalities compliment each other. At the start of it, Adale pretty much took it for granted that she'd never have to run a country. And Esofi hasn't spent a lot of her time experiencing life outside of her obligations. Adale has the more visible change in priorities as the story progresses, though she never loses the heart of who she is. Esofi's journey is a little more subtle. Her entire life has been planned out for her since she was a baby, and she came to Ieflaria knowing exactly what she had to do. So her arc is about learning what to do when the plans fall apart."

Ieflaria. Rhodia. Talcia. This book is filled with names of countries and gods all existent in this fantasy realm, with dragons and castles and magic. Effie has created kingdoms, countries and races of gods that make this reasonably small novel into a large beacon. When I first began the book, I was a little worried that I was saying some of the names wrong and trying to grasp where certain places were in relation to each other, but the way Effie has written it, is like a slow revealing picture; all context and circumstance, slowly drawing this map out in your mind. Obviously, the map will be different to the one drawn by Effie's mind, but with her words, you have her atmosphere there and I think it's great when a fantasy book can make it yours and the authors. That is something special. 

I really loved the gods in this novel, from name to legend and who was worshipped for what. I am a huge Vikings fan and so there was something with these gods that matched the ones of Norse mythology for me, but these are completely new ones. With a mythological world on top of this magical one I asked Effie what it was like to come up with all these names of people and places:

"The hardest part was coming up with names that didn't sound too silly, or too similar to one another, or weren't subconsciously lifted from another setting. Luckily, I have betas and editors who weren't shy about telling me when a name just didn't fly. I keep track of all my nations in a word document, and my gods in an Excel spreadsheet. Otherwise I'd never be able to remember them all!"

All in all Queen of Ieflaria is a quick novel of un-stereotypical love, twists and pure royalty. There is mythology, worship, magic and dragons, all conveyed inside this world of it's own. The heart racing moments are quick, the elements are bright and SPOILER ALERT, there is a kitten that your imagination will make you picture as the most adorable kitten you've ever seen. Mentioning that, Effie's dedication at the beginning, is easily my favourite dedication to date, check out the book to see! 

I know the last paragraph kind of sounded like a conclusion, but you didn't think I was gonna leave this piece without asking Effie the new traditional questions of Book Vs Film did you? NAHHHHH.

BVF: If you could recommend a movie similar to your book or one you could compare it to what film would it be?

"This is going to sound silly, but I actually looked at a lot of early Disney films, specifically early Disney princess films, when I was writing. I drew pretty heavily from them when I was thinking about my setting and the general aesthetic I wanted the book to have. LGBTQ people have seldom been able to see themselves in classic fairy tale settings, and that's something that I was absolutely dying for as a kid."

BVF: What is YOUR favourite film?

"Haha, this is like asking "what is your favorite book?" I mean, how can I choose? There's so many great movies out there, and whenever I name one, I immediately think of ten more that I like just as much. I'm very weak for superhero movies, though. Fantasy and sci fi will always be my favorite genres.

One weird trait that I have is that also really enjoy bad movies. If you've seen The Room, you know what I'm talking about. There's a whole world of hilariously awful films out there, and I'm so glad they're starting to come into mainstream cultural consciousness. If you follow me on twitter, you might see me stream them from time to time!"

QUEEN OF IEFLARIA

😵😵😵

The rating is out of 5 dizzy faces! 😵

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