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Review
3 stars
A slow-burn romantic fantasy blend of roman gladiators, the Hunger Games, and vampires, the blurb of this book instantly grabbed my attention. I dove in with high expectations, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. It’s an enjoyable read, but it wasn’t the epic romantasy that I was expecting.
I liked the premise – though it isn’t entirely unique and is somewhat predictable at first – but there are some twists and turns along the way, and it’s certainly an interesting journey for Arvelle as she literally fights for her life, and the lives of her family. The story is violent and intense in places, and is mostly fast-paced, but there’s a lot that happens in this book without a lot of actual progression.
The world, though complex and intriguing, often feels murky and unclear. There’s not a lot of world building, instead, you’re just thrown into this complicated world and piece things together as you go. I actually questioned whether there was a prequel that I had missed that provided missing context, but nope. There’s a lot of information thrown at you, but I feel like I didn’t really get a strong handle on the intricacies and politics of the world until I was towards the end of the book.
I love to get swept up in my books, and while the characters are likeable, I didn’t feel a lot for them. And as a romance girly who falls in love with pretty much every male romantic lead I read, that’s unusual for me. The most interesting character is the dark and mysterious ‘bad guy’, I’m so intrigued by him and all of his secrets! There’s a lot of side characters, but a lot of them are very one dimensional and mostly forgettable, including our actual main bad guy. I mean, who is he? Why is he so evil? As such an important piece of the story, we really don’t know too much about him at all.
The romance is there, but very much in the background and I wouldn’t classify this as true romantasy. It certainly wasn’t the epic love that I was hoping for, and given the premise of the romantic storyline, the potential for epic was absolutely there. That said, this could be intentional given the hint of a future love triangle, and I’m curious to see where that particular storyline goes.
“All this time I thought leaving you had smashed my heart into pieces, and I’d be picking shards from my chest until the day I died. But my heart wasn’t smashed. I left it with you, and you’ve held it hostage ever since.”
So yeah, this one wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, and while I wasn’t swept away, I am invested enough to continue the series and see where it goes.
3 stars.
Empire of Blood
We Who Will Die (#1)
Review
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We Who Will Rise (#2)
To be released 19 January 2027
Pre-order: Amazon