Our first selection for 2021 comes from giveitameaning. Their high-fantasy, adventure story, Nightfire, is the first book in the Whispering Wall series. Nightfire is completed and its sequel, Nightsworn, is ongoing. 

Synopsis

Fear the dark. Bar the doors. Don't breathe a word. Wait for the Hooded Men to save you.

The people of Nictaven live in fear of the night; governed by magic no one save a few can control, in a land plagued by demons and cannibal tribes, and isolated from all other worlds for centuries, they're right to. Only the Unspoken, a secretive guild of warriors linked with the land and its magic, provide any safety when darkness falls. For centuries, it has stayed like this.
But in an abandoned crypt worlds away, Jordan Haverford is about to change that.

It wasn't quite the holiday he had been hoping for.

Plunged into a world where who you are and what you believe can kill you, a world of demons and knives in the dark and wars fought from behind the doors of the rich, Jordan's gentle Oxford upbringing isn't quite sufficient preparation. Instantly a pawn in a deadly game, separated from his sister and watched from the shadows by an assassin with a vendetta, he finds himself in the company of an Unspoken who has an uncanny knack for finding the Gifted - and Jordan can't seem to get rid of him.

Queen's Advice to New Readers: No warnings save for the use of language for some of our younger followers. The author themselves rates the story as PG-13 for swearing and abuse. Knowing some of you who are reading this, fair warning if you don't approve of profanity, this probably won't be for you. Judge for yourself.

Things I loved about the actual storytelling:

First things first, this story has clearly been edited and is easy to read. So, no hopping over grammatical mistakes or having to tell the author they missed something or that they have too many commas. It is good to go. 

Brother and sister duo fall into a world that's not their own? Yes, please! 

Great world building. There's different worlds, demons and monsters, oh my! Very reminiscent of works by Brandon Sanderson with a cool magic system and world --- which just made me love it more if I'm being honest.

Fantastic dialogue and banter. Many writers struggle with this, but I was pleasantly surprised at the balance this story has between dialogue and description. Don't see this too often on Wattpad.

A creative twist on the ol' "mentor and apprentice" trope.

A cool (I guess you would call it a caste-system?). I love worlds where there are people divided into different jobs/society positions based on abilities (or lack thereof). The Unspoken are super cool and refreshing to learn more and more about as the story goes on.

Great character cast. This story is deep in plot and characterization and the relationships between characters are really fun to follow.  

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Thank you to S.E. Harrison for letting us feature their book this month. It was a joy to read, and I will be reading more of the series as it become available! 

Do you think your book deserves to be my next pick? Do you have a friend that has an awesome completed book that needs to be featured? Tag mahana258 in the comments with the book title and author and you might just be the queen's next selection!