Queen of Coin and Whispers

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Ariel’s Arcs – a guest segment on Kriti’s Armed With a Book. Thanks for having me on your blog, Kriti! It’s really exciting to be able to spend some time talking about new and upcoming books I love. 

Up first is a book called Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoran, to be published in April of 2020. If you loved the political drama of Priory of the Orange Tree and the queer pining in Crier’s War, this book is for you. Queen of Coin and Whispers takes place in a fictional kingdom, where court intrigue abounds among the Seven-Step system of power and wealth. Each step brings the court members closer to royalty, and many political and manipulations occur within in order to curry favor. Some maneuvers are subtle, others are not so much, and involve scandals such as poisonings or even murder. Some content notes to keep in mind are: mild violence and grief of a death in the family.

A brief summary of Queen of Coins and Whispers: 

Our first main character we follow is Xania, who is a Third-Step born but was fortunate to have her mother remarry into Fifth-Step standing. She is savvy, smart, loves her family more than anything, and also is motivated to find out how her father “mysteriously” fell ill. She has made a connection with Matthias, who is well-informed around the court, and hopes to utilize him in getting closer to her father’s murderer. He, unbeknownst to Xania, is best friends with the newly-appointed Queen, Lia. Our other main character happens to be Lia, who is suddenly thrust upon the responsibility of rulership. She deeply cares about the welfare of all of her subjects, and wants to do her best in balancing the debts that her kingdom has fallen under in previous rulerships while having to maneuver her way through several suitors seeking the hand of the Queen in marriage. Lia and Xania’s paths collide, and they end up working together to solve a mystery… and maybe even fall in love with each other in the process. 

Things I loved about the book: 

The writing prose was really lovely and I was easily immersed. The storyline between Lia and Xania was adorable, and I appreciated that the only concern about their relationship revolved around producing a royal heir, not homophobia. The character depth was really well done: I was able to pinpoint the differences in personalities between the characters and what drove them to make the decisions they did. The story and the intrigue kept me engaged until the final pages. 

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars!

** Queen of Coin and Whispers is out in stores on June 1st so preorder now (Kriti is going to) copy and add to this discussion! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle

Cover image: Photo by Ali Lokhandwala on Unsplash