True excellency.

The book starts when Lia is made aware of how sick her uncle, the King, is. She rushes to the capital but is too late. The King is dead. Long live the Queen. You guessed it, that's Lia.
Xania has one thing in mind. To avenge her father. She believes he was killed by a high ranked politician and intends to prove it. She has trained for years to be able to find out the truth.
The two girls' destinies become entwined, but can they trust each other? And how can two young women manage a kingdom when everything is stacked against them?

I really loved this. The world was so intricate and interesting. The court's politics really captivating me and the relationship between the two main characters was everything.
I also loved reading about the friendships they maintained, the family bonds and everything else. The plot surprised me over and over again and I was on my toes the entire time.
I properly fell into it and I could picture everything. It made the world around me completely disappear. I also really loved the writing and both main characters' voices.
I cannot wait to hold my preorder in my hands.
Helen is definitely an author I'll keep an eye out for.

Full of political scheming and intrigue, and with a well-developed f/f romance at its heart, Queen of Coin and Whispers is an incredibly assured debut novel. The story is told in a dual narrative from the perspectives of both main characters and both voices feel well developed and realistic. The only criticism I would have is that the conclusion of the book feels slightly rushed, but overall I enjoyed it very much.

Queen of Coin and Whispers is the sapphic political intrigue book that everyone has been waiting for. A romance between a queen and her spymaster? A backstabbing, divided court that wants to see the new queen fail? Discussion around the realistic portrayal of ruling and the focus on money? Yes, please!

After the death of her uncle, the king, Lia becomes the queen of Edar at eighteen. She is resolved to be a better monarch than her partying, money-spending uncle ever was, but first, she needs a spymaster to keep an eye on the people and politicians in her court who would see her dead. Soon, she meets Xania, a young woman far below Lia in rank through her best friend and secretary Matthias. Xania becomes Lia’s Whispers, the royal spymaster, as she has great skill with code-breaking and information gathering, taught to her by her now deceased father. The two women must work together after Lia becomes the target of an assassin, but they find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other and soon fall in love …

By far my favourite part of the novel was the romance between Lia and Xania. The two women are stuck together through circumstance but slowly they enjoy spending time with one another. Their relationship develops wonderfully: from uneasy acquaintances, to genuine friends, to crushing, to lovers. Lia and Xania are adorable and so sweet together, it’s hard not to ship them.

However, I did find the plot a little confusing to follow. Beyond my favourite types of novels to read are fantasy ones with complex political machinations, but for some reason, in Queen of Coin and Whispers I couldn’t wrap my head around what, exactly, was happening. There’s plenty of twists, blackmail, political intrigue, betrayal and treason, which have all the markings of a fantastic YA fantasy, but the execution of such machinations was a bit lacking.

From my personal reading experience, I think my confusion stems from the fact that there’s too many characters to keep track of, all of whom are interchangeable and don’t have any defining personalities that they all kind of get mixed up in my head. Therefore I couldn’t follow the plot properly because I wasn’t sure which character was up to what. Again, this is just my personal feeling as I know a lot of people who has read an ARC of this novel have enjoyed the book.

That being said, Xania and Lia are by far the strongest characters and I could follow their decision making and feelings quite clearly. Lia is determined to be the best queen possible that she sometimes makes bad decisions because she’s trying to keep too many people happy: the politicians, the nobles, the merchants, the common people — and rarely do all groups’ desires match up. While Xania wants to make her father proud, and sees herself as her family’s protector.

I think the ending of the novel might be somewhat divisive. I can definitely see a good portion of people loving the ending and the twists and turns to get there, but unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them. I felt the ending was a bit too rushed and came right out of left-field. I’m going to try my hardest to be vague here, but close to the ending, Xania and Matthias must undertake a quest of sorts, which I was expecting to lead into a sequel. But it’s not: this quest is completed within a handful of chapters, whereas I personally believe that there’s so much happening in those chapters that could have expanded into an entire new novel. Despite that, the epilogue was lovely and I liked how Corcoran is determined to show how two sapphic women can live happily ever after.

Despite my few issues with the novel, I still highly recommend Queen of Coin and Whispers. I can see plenty of readers falling in love with this book and I sorely wish I were one of them! That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy the romance between Lia and Xania, and I’m looking forward to reading whatever else Helen Corcoran writes in the future.

I was highly anticipating this book for the lesbian queen and her demisexual spymaster and the high-stakes political intrigue surrounding them, and that was exactly what Queen of Coin and Whispers delivered!

Content warnings include: murder, drugging, unconsensual kissing, abduction, torture, solitary confinement and sensory deprivation (off-page), self-harm, sex off-page.

The biggest regret I have about this book is that for all that I loved the widely spun, complicated and twisted net of court intrigue, blackmail, machinations, betrayal and treason.... I wasn't able to follow most of it. I'm tempted to say there was a lot of showing instead of telling, except for the most part I simply couldn't tell what I was being shown. I couldn't interpret and often didn't even notice the clues the characters followed.

Despite that, I had a good time reading the book. The atmosphere was there, even if it wasn't a happy one. Reading about Lia being pushed closer and closer to the breaking point as she takes over the throne and tries to do her best - make her father proud without following in her uncles footsteps, fighting for change, acknowledgement and support while keeping everyone happy - was as fascinating as it was stomach-twisting.

Xania was my favourite character between the two protagonists. I did not just like her being the Master of Whispers and working as spymaster, I particularly loved how it integrated with her work in the royal treasury (hence the Coin part of the book's title.) It was a clever combination that I found ingenius. I would have liked a heavier focus on that part of her job, though I understand why it wasn't.

Timeline wise, there were quite a few timeskips. The main plotline spans pretty much an entire year, with the biggest chunk playing in the first half to three quarters. As such, the book is a collection of scenes set within that year. It's linearly told, and not exactly disconnected, but I would have liked a slightly slower pace, because as it was I was often left wondering about the immediate effects of the characters' actions, and a lot of the details that I found interesting about being a queer and a spymaster were glossed over.

I also have to say that I had a bit of a hard time getting a hang of the dynamics between the characters. Again, there wasn't a lot of telling, and while there were clues given for the showing it wasn't quite enough to paint a coherent picture for me. The best example for this was Matthias - it took countless chapters for me to figure out who he even was and why he was so close to both protagonists, and the exact hows and whys weren't revealed until the last few chapters, and even then questions remained.

There were a lot of interesting side characters that I wished had played a bigger role or gotten some sort of closure in the end. However, the entire ending felt rushed. Big things happen but are mostly glossed over, with a lot of time skips and personally impactful events that aren't really addressed.
The epilogue was still satisfying and tied things up, but I would have liked the entire last third of the book to be told slower to give the monumental development of the plot time to unfold and settle, or to have it be a bit calmer.

Overall, Queen of Coin and Whispers gave me exactly what I was hoping to get from it. Lia and Xania were lovely, and reading about them navigating the figurative minefield of their court was never boring.

When I heard this was a F/F romance between a young queen and her spymaster I couldn’t get my hands on it fast enough. I was hoping to see two young women working together to navigate court politics and falling in love in the process and this is to a large extent what transpired. I give it huge props for diversity and inclusivity. The overall story was good, although some sections felt a bit unnecessarily lengthy. Unfortunately, it didn’t grab me and suck me in like I had hoped and the plot moved very slowly at the beginning. I desired a swoony, maybe a bit steamy, romance but I didn’t really connect with the main characters or feel their chemistry. Although Lia and Xenia should have been polar opposites I often had difficulty distinguishing between the two. Sometimes I would forget which point of view I was reading and would have to flip back to the start of the chapter to check if it was the queen or the spymaster. Their internal dialogues were remarkably indistinguishable. I found several of the secondary characters much more intriguing and I’d read a novel about Truth and Isra in a heartbeat!

While the story moved slowly it also introduced a ton of characters to the extent that I had difficulty keeping them all straight. This became particularly apparent later on as several of the kingdoms sent their princes and various other royals to Queen Lia. There were so many intricate political connections and machinations that it all got a bit overwhelming. If convoluted political intrigue is your thing then you will love this story. My ability to focus lately is admittedly lacking so it may just be a personal issue that I had difficulty keeping track of everyone, their relationships, and their politics.

Adding to my confusion was the irregularity of the passing of time. For long periods it seemed like very little time had passed and we got the minutiae of every day confined to the castle. Near the end the plot suddenly started to expand in scope and get more interesting and I was disappointed when months passed with barely a mention of what happened during those days. I would have preferred less detail of the long, less thrilling period in the castle and more detail about when they left the castle and finally travelled to other lands. I never felt like I had a good sense of the world and I would have loved to be more immersed in the travel portion of the story.

While I had issues with the pacing, world building, and characters, I did mostly enjoy this book. As a YA fantasy novel it was nothing particularly memorable but it wasn’t onerous to read or anything. I think my expectations were too high going in to this one. I was hoping to be blown away and taken on an emotional rollercoaster but sadly it left me mostly cold. Queen of Coin and Whispers was a perfectly acceptable book but I really wanted more from it than I got.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

Three queer teenagers against the rest of the world. What more is there to want? And, oh, they don't have magic or anything, their superpowers are brains, logic and spy-craft in a medieval-level second world setting. Lia, Xania and Matthias are amazing lead characters for a novel and damn, I need more.
The world-building is strong with this one, and while I was worried that I went into Queen of Coin and Whispers with expectations too many expectations, they were entirely warranted. This is not to say that the book is without its flaws - in parts it feels like issues get resolved too quickly on a psychological level and in some instances trust, at least superficial trust, gets established very soon. I guess what I mean to say is that I wish that it was paced slower, allowing for even more focus on the wonderful, multi-dimensional characters. But then, I'm weird and I like slower books.
And oh, I'm here for all the wonderful sapphic books coming out in 2020. The nuanced portrayals of consent and developing relationships between ladies, in worlds where there is no inherent judgement about same-sex relationships (apart from the obvious issues about heirs, but that is a different matter altogether) is refreshing. I'm not sure if it has to do with the nature of FF relationships, or if writers of heterosexual romanced have simply not made it past toxic masculinity yet, but the depicted relationships are on much more even footing and serve as better role models for the teens the YA. People actually talk things out!
Back to the reasons why Queen of Coins and Whispers is great. There is a learning curve! Neither Lia nor Xania start out being great at their jobs or knowing everything - they have to figure out how the position works, how to navigate it and learn to get good at what they do. They make mistakes, they do better next time. And the writing is great. It does not let you escape the lavishly built world until the very end. In short, I need more. And you need this book in your life.

I absolutely loved this book! It reminded me a lot of the Legacy trilogy by Cayla Kluver and the Winner's Curse trilogy by Marie Rutkoski. QUEEN OF COIN AND WHISPERS is very politically-centered, set in a fantasy world much like our own in that there didn't seem to be any magic. While I normally like fantasy books with magic, I think the way the world was set up in this book was perfect considering the emphasis on politics rather than magic or quests.
The romance was absolutely perfect: I love Lia and Xania together, and their relationship was set up perfectly, with just the right amount of slow-burn,
Xania quickly became my favorite character: she is incredibly intelligent and headstrong, and also really cared about Lia,
I didn't like Lia as much as Xania, probably because her chapters came across a little bit dry (because she wasn't involved in quite as much action as Xania.)
I did get a little bored about halfway through the book, mostly because of Lia's dry chapters, but I gained a lot more interest every time I read from Xania's perspective.
Also, the epilogue was absolutely perfect and made me cry. I think the author's representation of the effects of PTSD were very, very well done.
I can't wait to read more by this author!

Title: Queen of Coin and Whispers
Author: Helen Corcoran
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT
Rating: 4/5

First and foremost I would like to thank NetGalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Quotes are subject to change.

“Everything costs, Your Majesty. Even good deeds.”

Overall, this was a book in a style I am not usually a fan of that I ended up enjoying immensely.

Writing

I’m not normally a fan of first person perspective, especially when there are perspective switches in the narrative. However, Helen Corcoran managed, in my opinion, to make the two characters have clearly distinguishable tones. The pacing is pretty good, it kept my attention the whole time I was reading it.
Story

The story is centred around Queen Lia and her spymaster Xania as they navigate the politics of a country left in financial ruin by an irresponsible king. Queen Lia steps up to rule the country with the best intentions, aiming to help her people while also keeping the nobles satisfied. She soon discovers that this is harder than she was prepared for and needs to make tough decisions, working with her enemies and leaving both sides somewhat dissatisfied with the arrangements. All the while, Xania attempts to uncover the truth about her father’s death, wanting to avenge him.
As Xania and Queen Lia work together they begin to develop feelings for each other. A fact that is not necessarily frowned upon in their society, but made more complicated by the fact that Queen Lia is expected to marry so she can produce an heir. Disaster strikes as they try to navigate their budding relationship and Queen Lia’s royal duties.

Overall

As I mentioned, this is not the type of book I usually enjoy. I’m not normally a fan of court intrigue novels, but this book managed to capture my attention and hold it. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s a story that centers so much on two women, and features many other powerful women, but that is a main thing that makes this book very attractive to me.

I will admit that I shed a few tears over the final scene. It’s a pretty wild ride at the end, and I like how the ending left room for growth. It felt hopeful but not overly saccharine which felt suitable for the situation our two protagonists find themselves in.

I can’t quite pinpoint why I enjoyed this book, but I would recommend people give it a shot!

“Now, I was Queen, A wolf in my own right. I held all the chess pieces.”

Queen of Coin and Whispers follows newly crowned Queen Lia and her spymaster Xania.

I started the book and thought I would love it. The first few chapters I couldn’t put it down. The first 20% were so good. I really loved it and then…it was getting more and more boring…
It is written in Lia’s and Xania’s first person narration. Interesting idea! But they sound exactly the same. I often had to ask myself is it Lia oder Xania now. And I always has known what they were feeling for each other, there were no suprises. In my opinion only one POV had been the better option for this story.
The court intrigue was okay, but there were no big suprises at the end. It was predictable.
All in all there is a lot of potential in the writing of the author.

Thanks Netgalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.

I liked the LGBTQ+ rep and the romance, and the characters really grew on me over the course of the novel. I think my only complaint is that I would have liked more, whether that means the book is longer, or there is a sequel. Overall though, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of other YA fantasies.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This has been one of my most anticipated books of 2020 and getting an advance copy was the highlight of the day.

Lia is the new queen of Edar and she has lofty dreams of change and doing better for her people than her uncle had. Early on she meets Xania, a Third-Step-born Fifth Step (courtiers are separated into steps one through seven, and the higher the step, the closer to royalty), through her best friend Matthias. He believes Xania would make the perfect Whispers, the Royal spymaster, due to her skill with code breaking and the fact her father taught Matthias all he knew about information gathering. Xania wants revenge against the man she believes murdered her father, and she sees being Whispers as a great opportunity to achieve that goal. What she didn’t plan for was falling in love with Lia.

I really enjoyed this book and it’s very easy to read quickly, every chapter ending in such a way that you’re desperate to know what happens next. There are great elements of political intrigue and behind-the-scenes machinations. What really stands out, though, is the romance between Lia and Xania. It is beautiful and wonderfully executed with a beautiful slow burn element to it that made me swoon.

This is an excellent debut and I’m looking forward to more from Helen Corcoran, especially if she writes romances. The ending was very neatly done and the tension is more quiet simmering rather than high stakes, but for a political fantasy it worked excellently.

I received this book from netgalley for an honest review. I dnf 52% in. I had a difficult time connecting to the main characters. Both of their chapters and their voices felt the same, and their romance felt very forced and stilted. Xania somehow was trained in defensive skills and espionage growing up in a lower class 'step' and never having a need for those skills.

I admit that this book was just not for me, it had a lot of elements that I really enjoy and I really wanted to like it. When I realized I was forcing myself to finish I stopped.

The first thing I learned about this book was that it was about a Queen falling for her spymaster, who also happens to be a woman. So I was instantly sold.
If you like political intrigues at court, betrayals, murders, and slowburn romance, Queen of Coin and Whispers is for you.

Lia is a newly crowned Queen who wants to change how things work while asserting her power, and Xania is her spymaster looking to avenge her father's death. As they start woking together they slowly fall for each other, creating of conflict between heart and duty. Lia has to find a husband and conceive an heir to ensure her line, and to strengthen the diplomatic ties between neighbour countries. But she only has eyes for Xania.

It always feels so refreshing to read about worlds where homophobia doesn't exist and where people are allowed to love and marry whoever they want. The only reason Lia needs to find a husband is to have children, since as Queen she needs an heir, but no one is opposed to her loving women. Pretty much everyone in this book is gay. The two main characters are lesbians and most of the secondary characters are queer.

My only grievance about the book would be that the ending was a little rushed. A lot happened in just a few pages and I would have liked to it to be more detailed. Outside from that it was a really nice read.

A slow burn romance full of LGBT representation, so well done and interesting, a lot of these seem rushed or not well developed but this was a fantastic read, the love between a queen and her spymaster was a unique take on this genre and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the action, both the characters are strong, fierce almost and completely independent. The world building is so creative and the relationships outside the main romance are well written, well developed and beautifully done. A wonderful read, one I’m very glad I picked up

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

I really enjoyed the majority of this book; the romance was really well done and the plot was really interesting. I couldn’t guess what was going to happen next! There was fantastic LGBTQ+ rep throughout and I look forward to any thing else this author writes in the future.

My only issue was that I think the end might have been too fast.

Trigger warnings for loss of a parent.

Queen of Coin and Whispers is a beautiful, slow burn love story about a queen and her spy master.

The relationship between the two main characters is beautiful and it builds organically, which makes it feel much more real than a lot of YA romances. Even side characters felt well developed and relatable.

This book was far more political than I was expecting! The focus is on court intrigue and machinations so it's quite an unusual fantasy book. At times, this did make the plot overly complicated and difficult to follow, but it was refreshing to read something that was a little different from the norm.

This review has been posted to Goodreads and will be submitted to Amazon after release.

A magnificent and exciting YA fantasy, Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoran has everything you need for an epic tale of love, revenge and intrigue.
Lia has been waiting to inherit her Uncle's Kingdom , keen to bring in sweeping reforms that will make more even the balance of power between the nobility and the rest of the population and determined to root out the corruption that has plagued the court for decades. She is ready to rule, and when the time finally comes she is quick to seize the reins of power and begin her work. Knowing that her reforms will be unpopular, she appoints another intelligent and determined young woman, Xania, as her "Whisper" or master of spies, to keep an eye on the behind the scenes going on at court. As a member of the lower Noble ranks Xania is used to being almost invisible to the higher court, and knows that she will never be suspected, The chance to avenge the murder of her beloved father is also a motivator, but soon she finds herself being drawn in by the allure of her new mistress. While this is a world where same sex relationships are commonplace, as Queen Lia is expected to marry in order to produce an heir. Despite her attraction to Xania , she feels the pressure to conform and so is forced to invite the princes of neighbouring kingdoms as potential suitors. However at least one of them has a scheme of his own that could destroy not just Lia but her kingdom too, unless Xania and a small trusted circle can thwart his plans.
There is so much to like about this book. Firstly the smart and feisty characters of Lia and Xania, strong determined young women who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in and fight for what they know is right. The slow burn of their romance is truly beautiful and wonderfully handled by the author. I also loved that she was not afraid to portray conflict between them , and did not rely on the built in power dynamic of queen and subject but rather allowed the personalities of the women to dictate their responses and actions.
While it is not a main focal point of the book, I would also like to highlight the positive "Step" father daughter relationship between Xania and her sister and their mother's second husband. In fact there are a lot of positive family dynamics in the book, both the main characters have very supportive and accepting mothers who encourage them in their respective roles. I also really enjoyed the political intrigue that was very skilfully woven into the book with assassination attempts, secret passages, coded diaries , lies, spies and betrayals to keep the reader engaged.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are, for me, the best part of this book. Xania and Lia are both very intelligent characters and the way their attraction grew into a real relationship was super cute. They also worked together toward their goal as equals and respect each other. But Xania is still willing to call Lia out when necessary. Even though calling her Queen out when she's making a bad decision could potentially be a death sentence.

For the first, I'd say half of the book there was a pretty good balance between the mutual secret pinning between Lia and Xania, and the espionage. But then that kind of fell to the wayside and it focused a little more on the romance. Which would have been fine, if this wasn't a stand-alone novel. Because the last third of the book is a bit of a rush to wrap things up. A lot of time passes over just a few pages, and we're told what a character is going through rather than see any of it. I was shocked when it was mentioned that 2 months had passed during a search and rescue mission at the end of the book.

I would have liked if certain characters had been more fleshed out. Lia and Xania had most of the page time, and I think the antagonists should have had more page time to get to know them a little better and see more of their potential scheming before they tried to take over. Or at least have them pretend a little more to be on Lia's side so when their betrayal comes out it's more of a shock, or a misdirect to someone else. Instead, there are about four people I was suspecting.

As I said, the characters are what made this book so enjoyable for me. While I liked the secrets and mystery plot, and the writing was very engaging, the pacing made it a little less enjoyable than I had hoped, and the world-building is a little flimsy for my tastes. This book is nearly 500 pages, and it all felt a little rushed.

This book was so good! The royal court intrigue is very engaging, especially with the murder and poisoning scattered here and there. I especially enjoyed the adorable soft pining between the two main characters, Lia and Xania. The storytelling is very immersive and it was very difficult to put this book down. The character depth is so well done, I could immediately pinpoint how each character's personality differed and what motivated them. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Priory of the Orange Tree or Crier's War.

I will post my full blog review on https://www.armedwithabook.com/ on 4/2/20.

Review Link: https://www.armedwithabook.com/queen-of-coin-and-whispers/

This hit my most anticipated 2020 list as soon as I found it was about a spy master who falls in love with her queen...and a queen who falls in love with her spy. I knew this could turn into one of my favorite reads of the year....and it could be a new top favorite.

If I am being honest I was not expecting my reaction to this book...It was everything I was hoping for and a lot more. I found myself forcing myself having to put it down just to sleep, but still waking up early to go back to reading. Mumbling "one more chapter" constantly until 3am hasn't happened to me in a long time. Everything about this book was absolutely amazing to me. It hit all the marks.

Well, why was I so enthralled with this monster of a book? Believe it or not, it was the politics. Politics played a huge part of this book. We find ourselves in the shoes of a newly crowned queen in charge of a failing kingdom on the brink of bankruptcy. Lia is smart and cunning, and she knows there are enemies all around her who want nothing more than for her to make one more mistake so they can run her away from the throne. Her predecessor left her a kingdom filled with two types of enemies: spoiled rich people who expect for nothing to change, and those who have suffered from the last kings' greed and inaptitude to run a kingdom. None of them seem to realize that the kingdom has no money and it's up to the Lia, and her newly charged master spy Xania, to figure out how bring the kingdom from going under for good.

I don't mess with politics in my life but I absolutely love political fantasy. I love learning a new political system - how different it can be from other books, and how they all have their own faults, just like most countries do. I crave for it even, especially when I'm reading fantasy series where the main character is a queen.

While the world building is amazing and filled with beauty, what I think truly brings it together is the string of characters we get to meet. Our two MC's, Lia and Xania, were amazing - their chemistry was off the charts and the yearning they feel....truly on point. Sappho would be envious of their love for each other. They have people who love them, strong family bonds, and friends who would do anything for them.

I have a feeling this book is going to be everywhere when it comes out. If you're a fan of The Priory of the Orange Tree you'll definitely want to pick this one up. If I could say one bad thing about this book....well, I wish it was 100 pages more. The ending was a little rushed, I wanted to know more. So I'm truly hoping the author will make more books in this universe.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.