Daggermouth (The Heart Duology)
This deluxe hardcover edition features gorgeous sprayed stenciled edges while supplies last, stunning endpaper art of the Heart and the Boundary, and a never-before-seen bonus story from Callum and Lira’s POVs!
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller!
Set in a corrupt surveillance state ruled by the masked elite, this true enemies-to-lovers dystopian romance that’s Conform meets V for Vendetta follows a mercenary who botches the assassination of the president’s son and ends up forced to marry him.
The first thing you’ll learn in New Found Haven is that mercy doesn’t exist. The second thing is that, from the highest glass atrium in the Heart to the windowless slums of the Boundary, the Veyra are always watching.
The last lesson is the hardest, but you must remember it: Love outside of your ring is a death sentence.
The city is carved into rings of privilege and poverty, ruled by the masked elite who will do whatever it takes to hold onto power. Obedience is demanded. Rebellion is crushed.
Greyson Serel has spent his life caught between two worlds. Publicly, he’s the flawless heir to the presidency. Privately, he’s entangled in secrets that could topple the regime. But when he’s forced into a political marriage meant to bind him tighter to the government’s brutal laws, he finds himself shackled to a bride as lethal as she is unwilling.
Shadera Kael is a mercenary raised to kill, not to wed. Yet when her bullet misses its mark, survival leaves her tied to the very man she was sent to eliminate. Trapped inside the corrupt heart of the city, she becomes both prisoner and wife, her every step watched, her every move tested.
Their union is no love story—it’s a battlefield. As secrets come to light and betrayals fester within the walls of power, Greyson and Shadera must decide between annihilating each other or burning the city to the ground together.
In a world where passion has consequences and loyalty is paid for in blood, their forced bond may be the spark that ignites a revolution. Or the fire that consumes them both.
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✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Daggermouth* delivers a thrilling dystopian story with detailed worldbuilding and intense political intrigue, featuring high-stakes rebel...
I started out so excited for this book. The first four chapters had me wanting to not put down the book because the world building was great. Then chapter five began and it was downhill from there. It felt as though the author was trying to make plots happen to fit the mold of the story as opposed to letting one focus flow to the next. Another issue I had was that it seemed like she took dystopian ideas from Hunger Games, Divergent, and several others to fill in areas of the plot for filler that made the story not flow and unnecessary. This book and series was not for me.
Okay, so Daggermouth was A LOT. 😂 It had everything: dystopian drama, enemies to lovers, forced marriage, assassins, rebellion, secrets, betrayal, and enough twists to make me question everybody.
The story takes place in New Found Haven, which is basically divided by class. The Heart is where the wealthy and powerful live, while the people in the lower rings are struggling just to survive. Everything is controlled by the Veyra and President Maximus Serel, who is basically the definition of a power-hungry dictator.
Then we have Greyson, Maximus’s son. He’s the Executioner, so at first you’re thinking, “Okay, this man is BAD.” 😂 But the more we learn about him, the more we realize he’s not exactly what he seems. He’s secretly helping people in the lower rings, and he’s struggling with the fact that his own family and the government are doing horrible things.
Then comes Shadera.
Shadera is a Daggermouth and an assassin, and she has every reason to hate the Serel family because of what happened to her parents. Her mission is to kill Greyson, and honestly, she’s ready to get the job done.
Except she gets caught.
And instead of killing her, Maximus decides to punish her by forcing her to marry Greyson.
LIKE…WHAT?! 😂
So now the girl who tried to assassinate him has to marry the President’s son. And neither one of them is happy about it.
At first, they absolutely do NOT trust each other. They have every reason to hate each other, and they’re both hiding things. But as they spend more time together, they start realizing that they might not actually be enemies after all. Greyson isn’t the loyal little prince everyone thinks he is, and Shadera isn’t just some dangerous assassin.
And obviously…because this is a romance…THE TENSION. 😂🔥
They slowly start falling for each other, which makes everything even more complicated because they’re supposed to be on opposite sides.
But then the secrets start coming out.
We find out that the government is planning the Culling, which is basically a plan to wipe out people in the lower rings. So now this isn’t just about Greyson and Shadera anymore. It’s about stopping Maximus and the entire system.
And then we get one of the biggest WTF moments of the book…
Brooker isn’t actually dead!!!
That completely changes things because everyone has been making decisions based on believing he’s gone.
And then we get another HUGE reveal…
Elara, Greyson’s mother, is actually Python the secret rebel.
I honestly did NOT see that coming. 😂 She spends so much of the story seeming like this quiet woman trapped in Maximus’s world, and then we find out she’s been secretly fighting against him.
The rebellion starts coming together, the women begin taking off their masks, and the whole idea of the masks becomes really symbolic. It’s like they’re finally saying, “You don’t get to control who we are anymore.”
And eventually, Elara turns against Maximus and kills him.
Which honestly felt like a pretty satisfying ending for him because he built his entire power around fear and executions, and then he ends up dying on that same stage.
BUT…of course, we don’t get to just have a nice happy ending. 😂
Callum dies, there are betrayals, Brooker is still a HUGE question mark, the rebellion is dealing with the aftermath, and the whole world is still a mess.
So even though Maximus is gone, everything isn’t magically fixed.
For me, the biggest thing about Daggermouth was that it wasn’t just about the romance. The romance was definitely one of the best parts because Greyson and Shadera had that whole “I hate you…wait, why am I attracted to you?” thing going on. 😂 But underneath that, it was really about power, control, revenge, identity, and people finally deciding they’re done being controlled.
I also liked that Greyson and Shadera weren’t just enemies because the author said they were supposed to be. They had REAL reasons to hate each other, and watching them slowly realize that they had more in common than they thought made their relationship so much better.
Overall, I would describe Daggermouth as:
An enemies to lovers dystopian romance with forced marriage, assassins, rebellion, secret identities, betrayal, morally gray characters, and enough WTF moments to keep me turning the pages. 😂
And that ending definitely left me feeling like…
“Okay H.M. Wolfe…you can’t just leave me HERE. I need the next book!” 😭😂
10⭐️’s Damn this book had my heart racing and me shaking!!! I was crying by the end of the book and then I was cheering!! I haven’t been this excited after reading a book since The Poison Daughter. Don’t get me wrong I’ve read some good books but this book had me feeling shaken like Kingdom of Ash did. You guys I can’t tell you enough to not walk but run to go get this book. Also the audiobook is chef’s kiss!! Angel and Teddy did a fantastic job!! I’m so happy right now!!
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