Review: Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoran

Publisher: O'Brien Press
Publication Date: June 2020
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

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Blurb: 
When teenage queen Lia inherits her corrupt uncle’s bankrupt kingdom, she brings a new spymaster into the fold ... Xania, who takes the job to avenge her murdered father.

Faced with dangerous plots and hidden enemies, can Lia and Xania learn to rely on each another, as they discover that all is not fair in love and treason?

In a world where the throne means both power and duty, they must decide what to sacrifice for their country – and for each other …

 Thank you to the lovely people at O'Brien Press for sending me an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for my review. 

I was very much looking forward to this book as it received a huge amount of publicity even in 2019 which is a long time before its release date. 

The novel centers around Lia who has now inherited the throne and will become queen of the kingdom. As Lia ascends to the throne, dangers begin to surface in every aspect of her life. She hires Xania as her Whispers aka her personal protector and spymaster. From here their relationship begins to grow, deepen and become romantic. 

The representation in this novel is just next level. The novel features wlw, mlm, bisexual characters and gay characters throughout. I really loved this aspect as in this world all sexual preferences and relationships are normalised. So I loved reading about these relationships and the interaction between characters. 


I loved the slow-burn romance in this novel. If you look for slow-burn romance with plenty of yearning, this is the book for you. The romance between Lia and Xania was so well written. Everyone of their interactions was so true to character and the subtle flirting was so fantastically written. I also really enjoyed the navigating of the power imbalance in the relationship as Lia is powerful as she is queen and Xania is not very well off economically. 

Another aspect I enjoyed was the portrayal of Lia's ambition. Often times a woman's over-ambition is usually attributed to a villain, see Lady Macbeth, vs a main character being meek and mild and humble. This novel turn this trope on its head as we see Lia hungry for the crown, the power and the ability to have influence over the court and her people. Her ambition and drive for power makes her character even more interesting and is fantastic to read about. 

Although the relationship was so well written, I found the plot of the book to be a little boring at times. I felt the world building was rushed as we didn't have much of an introduction into the dynamics of the world and the kingdom itself. I also found myself skimming a lot of the pages to just get to the next sapphic moment in the novel. Although there were some twists and turns, especially towards the end that I really enjoyed. 

The writing style was engaging but I did feel a little distant from the novel itself. I often found myself feeling distant from the plot, the world and political aspect of the court and kingdom. The dialogue in the novel was fantastically written and engaging. The characters were wholly three dimensional and vivid.

Overall I enjoyed this novel and highly recommend if you are looking for sapphic, wlw, fantasy novel. The book is definitely character driven over plot driven in my opinion. An exciting, romantic novel with great characters. Can't wait to read more of Helen's novels in the future!