This book was really set up for me to love it, but in the end, I was kind of let down.

Queen of Coin and Whispers follows newly crowned Queen Lia and her spymaster Xania as they navigate the court and attempt reform whilst surrounded by traitors and schemers alike.

I generally like court intrigue type stories: I like the politics, I like the element of mystery, I like when multiple characters all have their own motivations and you get to see how they unwind when thrown together. But I just felt like this one wasn't really all that well done.

My favorite part of this story was by far Lia and Xania's romance. It felt real, there was dynamism to it. They disagreed, they argued, but in the end, they loved each other. We get to see Lia have to make tough decisions as a leader, and watching her struggle to make the right decision when there was no right decision was interesting to be sure, especially as it affected her relationship. F/F representation is still relatively rare, so I'll always appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I didn't love a lot of other aspects of this book. Firstly, Xania as the spymaster made no sense to me. She had no prior training, so I have no idea how or why she was suddenly Very Good at it. She would often make assertions about people with no proof to back it up and the whole thing just felt really unrealistic and kind of took me out of it. Hand in hand with that, I don't think the court intrigue aspect of the book was actually executed very well at all. There were no shock betrayals, everything played out as expected with the people who we were told were bad guys from the beginning just kinda...being bad guys the whole time.

Finally, my biggest issue with this book: the pacing. A lot of this book was really, really slow, but then all of a sudden at the end, months would pass in a single paragraph in a way that bothered me. It wasn't just the five year time jump at the epilogue, which wouldn't have bothered me on its own. It's that there were several scenes at the end to wrap everything up that happened several months apart and it really threw me for a loop. I really needed either the entire book to have that "lots and lots of time is passing" vibe, or I needed the end to slow way way down.

All in all, this book was decent. If you're looking for a fantasy to pick up casually or if you're looking to read more f/f, I think this is a good choice for either of those things. But I don't think I'll be coming back to it.

This was an excellent debut (and an all round great read)! I joked about wanting a sequel, but this did actually work well as a standalone and I hope some other YA authors out there take note - a single tightly plotted book is a good thing.

The characters were excellent - I enjoyed Xania's POV more than Lia's (partly because her being the spymaster gave her more to do, as much as I loved Lia trying to smite everyone with her stare), but both characters had unique personalities and voices. And the romance was *chef's kiss*. This book grappled strongly with the consequences of making Difficult Choices, not only for yourself but what it means for those trying their best to love you. Not to mention, so much mutual pining and longing looks and hand-holding... the first part of this book was slow burn at its best.

There were a few small things that meant it wasn't quite a 5-star book for me (the ending was a bit rushed, and I would have liked a bit more of a sense of the history of the various kingdoms), but overall I really enjoyed this one and recommend it to anyone looking for some political drama outside the current 24 hour news cycle.

This book is everything I want in a YA fantasy, complex world building that is considered and well thought out, powerful female characters with multifaceted motives and emotions, a unique take on a struggle for power plot. I loved the writing, the characters and I was hooked on the narrative from the start.

I only wish the publishers had chosen to spread this story over more than one book, there is so much to this world and these characters I’d like to have seen more of. More of the relationship development between Matthius and Lia, and Matthius and Xania. More of Zola, a better understanding of the step system, even more information on what happened during Rassa’s reign. There’s so much more that could be fleshed out here, and I sincerely hope that Corcoran’s next book is the start of a series.

~ARC received in exchange for an honest review~

'Queen of Coin and Whispers' hits the ground running and you get swept into the political intrigue immediately. The story is told from two perspectives: Queen Aurelia - aka Lia - who has newly inherited a corrupt and bankrupt kingdom upon the death of her Uncle, as well as Xania, who Lia takes on board as her new spymaster. They have to learn to rely on each other to achieve their respective goals.

I liked the characters, however my main niggle is that the writing style of their perspectives was too similar. I also personally prefer a bit more mystery when two characters start developing a relationship - jumping immediately from one POV to the other takes some of the tension away for me. That's just what works for me though, I still think that overall this is a solid YA fantasy and an impressive debut.

~Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title~

★★✰✰✰ 2 stars

Queen of Coin and Whispers is a very generic YA fantasy novel. While it is not necessarily badly written, its story, setting, and characters are both forgettable and lacklustre.

What initially drew me to Queen of Coin and Whispers was its F/F romance. Once I began reading this book I quickly realised that the queer romance was the only thing that makes this story somewhat more interesting than your usual YA fantasy. The world-building is poorly rendered, the plot, as such, consisted in a succession of cliché after cliché, and most disappointing of all is the romance, which severely lacked chemistry.

The World-building/Setting
The setting is a generic fantasy one. There is an attempt to make this world different by dividing social classes into steps (barons are third steps, while lord and ladies are sixth and seventh steps). This whole step system was wholly unnecessary as the characters already have titles, and readers could therefore workout who sits where on the social hierarchy. The rest (clothes, customs, architecture, the kingdom's history) is barely hinted at. The country's attitude towards same-sex relationships is briefly hinted at towards the beginning, and later on we discover that same-sex marriages are legal, but we don't really know more details than that (when this happened, whether homophobia still occurs, etc). We are told that Edar, the country Lia rules, is no longer religious, but we don't get much more information beyond that. What sort of religion? What about Edar's myths and or lore?
Most of the story takes place in inside Edar's royal palace, and you would think that we would get an extensive history of it (when it was constructed, its dimension/style) but we don't. We know that nobles live in apartments inside the palace, but we don't really know how they are set out (on more than one floor?).


The Story
Like many YA books out there this book stars a newly crowned queen who has to assert her power. She decides to make Xania into her spymaster. There is gossip, some drama between different factions, an assassination attempt or two, and some foreign princes. As the queen Lia has to marry in order to have an heir. Lia and Xania fall in love. That's sort of it.

The Characters
Lia: most characters describe her as an idealist...so I guess we could say she is that. Other than that nothing about her stood out.
Xania: much is made about her...she is Lia's Whispers, aka her spy, and should therefore be feared by the court...to me however she was way way way too green to be a convincing spymaster. She is seventeen, she must have only recently started working at the palace's treasury, and that would hardly make her well-versed into the art of spying. When she describes those instances in which she extrapolates informations from others she is so self-dramatising. She goes on about how dangerous she is...and for some reason she has learnt self-defence even if she was raised at the palace...I just wasn't convinced by her character.
Other characters: they are either good or bad, but most of all they are forgettable.

The Writing
Lia and Xania have first person narrations...and they sound exactly the same. There were a lot of unnecessary attempts at making them sound edgy (so we have many metaphors involving thorns and blades). Other than that the writing was all-right, nothing too elaborate.

Final Verdict
I just didn't feel the chemistry between the two main characters. The story was predictable, the setting was barely rendered, and the writing was unremarkable. All in all, I would not recommend this. If you are looking for a satisfying F/F YA fantasy novel I would suggest Marie Rutkoski's The Midnight Lie.

I loved this book. My Achille's heel has always been political machinations and scheming. Couple it with strong, ruthless women and I'm sold.

To be completely honest, I had such high expectations for this book after reading the synopsis. Helen Corcoran did not disappoint. Thanks to her writing style and world-building, I felt invested in the story and political intrigue from the very beginning. The story flowed easily and never felt too obvious or safe.

I appreciated all of our main characters, but I have a soft spot for Xania, her character arc was beautiful to read.

What didn't fully work for me was the romance. I felt like it started up in the air, it just appeared from one sentence to the next. There was no build-up and I never felt too invested in their love story. I wasn't convinced of why they needed to be together. Towards the end of the book, I started to care more, but I still felt like it was the weaker part of a very solid book. Because the spying and conniving were so strong and entertaining, I didn't mind too much.

I highly suggest this book to anyone that appreciates strong female leads and political intrigue. You will not be disappointed!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#QUEENOFCOINANDWHISPERS #NetGalley

This is a wonderful fantasy. You can tell Helen has really thought about how her world would work, with every detail making sense and building up into a perfect picture of a world. In particular, the names for her government ministers; Whispers as the head of Spies is the obvious one, but the others are brilliant as well.

I love Lia, a character who only wants to do her best by her people. I hope Helen writes more as I'd love to know what happens to Lia and Xania after everything in this novel.

This book was ‘just ok’. It wasn’t my favorite but I didn’t hate it either. There was an LGBT element and I really enjoyed how that played into the story. I thought that it started off with a bang that did draw me in and make me want to read more, so that is reflected In my rating.

I really loved everything about this book : the relationship between Lia and Xania, the political intrigues and how queer everyone was. I thought the plot was well done and stuff kept happening to keep me on edge. I am mostly sad to be leaving this world but happy I got to dive into it in the first place!

Queen of Coin and Whispers is a book that explores grief and love and how one may effect the other. I was rooting for Lia and Xania the whole way through.

Simply exquisite. Corcoran has crafted a lush, entrancing story that I was utterly swept away in. Full review to come.

I thoroughly enjoyed this YA political fantasy.
Things I liked: I very much enjoyed the character of Xania. Her intelligence and intuition were very realistic and believable, and I also appreciated how driven she was. Her honesty and sometimes rashness were refreshing, especially when talking to the queen. She was not scared of voicing her opinion and her motives were always good. She loved fiercely, and would go to any length to save the ones she loves and to pursue social justice.
I also very much liked the character of Lia. Even though thought to be an idealist by other characters, her motives were always good. Her desire to right the monarchy's past wrongdoings is what propelled her, and I admired her strength. Especially because she could not count on anyone but herself.
I liked that the romance did not take over the plot, and that it was f/f - some great representation in here.
Things to be aware of: because this book centres on court politica and intrigue, this is something to be aware of. It can be dense at times, and the beginning is quite slow. But when the story picks up, I became more and more invested.
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for a good LGBTQ+ YA fantasy.

This one's hard to rate. As much as I love f/f relationships, especially in scifi and fantasy, there wasn't as much depth to this story as I would have wanted - especially in the third act. We have an intricate court structure, with royalty, noble families, and a parliament; we have spies and usurpers and marriage proposals and a wholesome, well-placed romance. What we don't have is much of any history, imagery, or character development outside of our main trio.

I went into this book expecting the richness and vibrance of Priory of the Orange Tree - but that isn't what I got. The writing style was much more Throne of Glass-era Maas. The lack of history and culture and geography hinted at a lack of advanced planning, so while the story and characters were good and held their own, they couldn't carry the world.

Lisa's character was often unpredictable. And even though we spent almost half the book inside her head, I don't think I ever got a real handle on her. And especially at the end, it made it feel hasty rather than suspenseful. The other issue I had was with the pacing / passage of time. I had an impossible time trying to keep up with what season we were in, how long Lia had been in power, and even the spans of time between chapters. I think the story would have been better served, in all respects, being narrated solely by Xania.

I will, of course, always support gay ladies in SFF.

4.5/5
Queen of Coin and Whispers is the story of a young queen coming into her power, and the spymaster sworn to protect her. From the outset, the stakes are high and you're completely invested in the story. Corcoran's writing style is electrified, elegant, and concise as she takes us through all the twists and turns that make up this story. I loved the amount of scheming, political intrigue, and betrayal that occurs in this book. I was enraptured by it from start to end. QOCAW is about the women claiming their power, and the choices they must make in order to maintain that power. It was a very impressive debut.

"Fierce as a bloodied blade"

I had a chance to read your book before its release date, from NetGalley. I enjoyed the book and writing so much. The younger characters are both dealing with very adult situations while themselves coming into their own as adults,while their parents and relatives walk the fine line of treating them as young adults and the leaders that they are. The characters are very realistic and I especially like that they don't suddenly become experts in a role they step into. They faced challenges and at floundered their way through them. There were also consequences for their failure and inaction.

Just when I thought I knew what was coming next, I was surprised. I liked the romance and the fact that it didn't overshadow the plot. It's magnificent I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and cannot recommend it enough.

I received an arc from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

Queen of Coin and Whispers was a book recommended to me by multiple people, and I am so thrilled to have picked it up. In this novel, Helen Corcoran weaves a complex political web, told from the perspectives of Queen Aurelia (“Lia”) and her spymaster, Xania.

This book kept me hooked from the very beginning. I could not anticipate the twists and turns that Corcoran wrote. One of my favorite things about this book was that the emotions and behaviors of the characters were so realistic; things were never simple, just like real life.

I can’t begin to say how happy it makes me to see demi rep in Xania. I really felt seen! Additionally, having a political fantasy with WLW rep was refreshing and just what I needed. If you are looking for a book that is complicated, realistic, and featuring wonderful relationships, check out Queen of Coin and Whispers!

WOW. I absolutely loved Queen of Coin and Whispers. This story has 2 povs, Lia, the incoming Queen of Edar, and Xanthia, a regular girl looking to avenger her father. Through a mutual friend, Matthias, they “stumble” into each other and from there, they work together to make the kingdom better.

The characters in this book are so interesting because they’re very 3 dimensional. No character is just black and white. They feel like people who have actually existed or can exist in real life. My favorite character was Xanthia because we get to see so any different aspects of her personality. We get to see her being a tough badass, but also as a big softie with Lia and while she does have so many moving parts to her, the one thing that’s always consistent was her love.

The ROMANCE AHH! LOL I loved it. I thought the buildup was perfect and the way Lia handled everything as a queen was PERFECT. Their dance around wanting the other person, but being unsure if the relationship would actually work really played with my emotions. Also, the way Lia flirted with books was honestly so relatable haha. But yes, the f/f romance was 11/10 *chef’s kiss*

Although there’s nothing glaringly new about this book as a whole, there are aspects of it that felt fresh. The world building was well done and the politics were decently complex. I was into it from the first page (but, as I’ll go into later, that interest waned unfortunately). The characters are what make this story special, more so than the politics and the world (although those are what make up most of the book). I really wish this was a more character driven story. I really cared about Lia, Xania, and Matthias. It’s also nice to have such a spectacular LGBT representation. I can’t say I’ve read a f/f lead book before (I’m more familiar with m/m books), but it’s more than just our main ladies that are represented. This is a world where that is normal and accepted, so we have a few LGBT characters. It was nice to see.

The dual perspective first person narrative is something I’ve been reading a lot lately, although not purposefully. It’s growing on me, but it’s still not something I look for. I don’t like switching into different character’s heads often, back and forth, because it takes me out of the escape I want to feel while reading. It kind of bothered me here. I kept forgetting whose perspective I was reading, and it’s easy to get confused when there’s a lot of dialogue, considering they’re both women. The single quote instead of the regular quotation marks was also annoying and confusing, especially when there were multiple snippets of dialogue separated in a single paragraph. I know Neil Gaiman did this in <i>Good Omens</i> too, and I didn’t like it there either.

My main complaint, as I got further and further into the story, was that I found myself growing frustrated and bored with the lengthy sections about politics and social climbing. This book would be great for people who enjoy that sort of thing, but I was in it for the f/f romance, and it took almost to the halfway point to even see the girls brush each other’s hands secretly. I didn’t want to DNF this, so I pushed myself to keep reading in hopes that it would get better, but it just took so long. I’m not the politics-driven fantasy fan, I’m more about characters, magic systems, and romance (if the romance is done right). This is a personal problem, because the book was well written and did have interesting world building. It just didn’t hold my interest.

From the moment I heard of this book, I was already drawn in by the premise: a young queen and ordinary young lady turned spymaster fall in love when brought together by a common enemy and shared thirst to prove themselves, but since I don't ordinarily read fantasy I didn't expect to fall so in love with it.

I was sucked in by the dark and atmospheric first page. The pacing is masterful, the suspense almost unbearable. I loved how loyalty, rank and desire were coded into clothing. I became obsessed with the class system, with the "steps" as a ranking, with the possibility of movement between the classes over generations, and the involvement and relationships between nobility and merchants.

However, the genius, the beauty, and the joy of Corcoran's world is through its freedom from patriarchial power structures and confines of gender and sexuality we do not enjoy in our more "modern" world. By this I don't mean just that a woman is allowed rule, or that that woman is in love with another woman (though this is brilliant to read in itself), it is that there are miraculous hints throughout the book of a world that is possible, where a prominent male figure's husband is mentioned briefly in passing, where white skin isn't an assumption for a ruler or noble, we hear of a female politician celebrating with her wife, and glimpse a female bishop, though religious orders don't have a grip on as much power as they used to. We are lucky now to have an explosion of 'Strong Female Characters' on our screens and books, but too often they have to act alone, struggling against patriarchal structures that will never fall, often the subjects of horrific abuse or sexual violence so that they can be interesting or worthy of a story. There is no pandering to increasingly outspoken minorities; instead we see through this expertly crafted novel what could be possible.

I can't wait for everyone to read this - there are many people who have been waiting for this story without realising it, and with any right this book will be an incredible success.

A thrilling historical fiction full of political maneuvering and confusing romantic entanglements. The world is well built, and the cast of characters are all multidimensional and fun to read. This book has fantastic representations of same-sex relationships, and has a few POC characters (though their physical descriptions aren't often discussed). Despite not being a fantasy, it has the same feeling as a fantasy novel, and I love the emphasis on the financial and political aspects of the story, rather than on warfare or more violent types of action.

I'm not sure how exactly no one knows that Xania is the Master of Whispers because, with the amount of time that she spends with Lia and Matthias, and all her talk of working for the Master of Whispers, one could easily follow her and see that she never interacts with anyone really outside of that circle. I wish we saw more of Aubrey to add to all the intrigue of Lia's choice of partner, and I wish we also saw more of Matthias, outside of his brief breakfasts with the girls where he usually just leaves to give them privacy.

Mostly though, I just really really liked this book, and I want more, despite being glad that this is a standalone.