This post contains clearly marked SPOILERS in the second half and a fan theory for Python at the very end.
H.M. Wolfe just announced a momentous publishing deal with Simon & Schuster for her dystopian romance duology The Heart. Her novels Daggermouth and Python sold for a stunning seven figures.
Daggermouth, originally a December 2025 indie release, is still available now as an indie paperback and e-book.
Coincidentally, Daggermouth opens with a character getting a major deal too. Not for writing though!
The character is Shadera, the best of all the Daggermouth assassins (for which the book is named). She takes on a contract to kill the last living son of New Found Haven’s president: Greyson Serel.
Shadera will not speak Greyson’s name. In her mind, he’s a nameless “little heirling.” She addresses him in person not as Greyson, not as The Executioner (his political title), but as “little heir.”
MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW. PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE BOOK.
In enemies-to-lovers stories, insulting nicknames are (delightfully) par for the course.
At first glance, H.M. Wolfe weaving “little heir” in this story could be seen just for its entertainment value. It’s a playful, cutting, effective nickname that Shadera throws around in Greyson’s face. But H.M. Wolfe is doing much more with the “little heir” nickname. Every repetition of “little heir” has psychological effects. It’s a tool used to gently, but deftly mislead us.
Think about what the nickname communicates every time it’s uttered. Out loud, we may hear “little heir” and feel delicious enemies-to-lovers tension, but subliminally, we are reabsorbing specific ideas. Namely, patriarchy reigns. There is only one son left, Greyson, to inherit New Found Haven’s seat of power.
SERIOUSLY, HUGE SPOILERS IN THE NEXT SECTION. STOP IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE BOOK!
The Unraveling of Our Expectations
The nickname is one of many things that helps make the twist at the end so devastating. Because every time “little heir” comes up the ideas of patrilineal inheritance and Greyson’s role in New Found Haven come up too. H.M. Wolfe builds up our preconceptions repeatedly, so she can shatter them.
The nickname begins to take on whole new meanings, ones we never thought to consider.
Our minds find out three things while operating deeply in “little heir”mode. First, we find out Greyson Serel is not the president’s biological son. Yet, the nickname still works after this particular revelation. The president doesn’t know the truth.
But Wolfe is not done with the twists.
A little while later, “little heir” becomes uncomfortably ironic. We find out that Brooker Serel, Greyson’s older brother, is actually alive. Suddenly, Greyson is not the last living male heir of the Serel family. He’s the spare again, and sickeningly, the president knew this all along.
Then our preconceptions shatter fully, finally, and brilliantly in the final pages of the book when the rebellion’s leader Python turns out to be Greyson Serel’s mother. Greyson has been the Python’s son ***and therefore the heir to the rebellion*** this whole time.
One More BIG Thought: What if Lira, not Greyson, is New Found Haven’s true heir?
Python is also Lira’s mother. Will she make New Found Haven a matriarchal society? When the time comes, will Python pass her seat of power on to her only daughter or her only son? Maybe Lira is the true “little heir” after all.
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