Review: We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark

We Who Will Die

Stacia Stark

(Empire of Blood #1)

Publication Date: December 30, 2025

Hardcover, 423 pages, Avon

Genres: Adult, Romantasy

Goodreads

From the bestselling author of the Kingdom of Lies series comes a slow-burn romantasy set in a Roman-inspired world ruled by merciless vampires. Filled with breathtaking combat, vengeful gods, and magical creatures, We Who Will Die is the epic first installment in an enthralling new series perfect for fans of Carissa Broadbent, Jasmine Mas, and Rebecca Yarros.

 

Life in the perilous Thorn district is a constant battle for Arvelle and her younger brothers. And the vampire standing on her doorstep is about to turn their world upside down.

 

Faced with an unthinkable choice, Arvelle makes a magically binding vow to do the impossible: kill the emperor, an ancient vampire created by the god Umbros. But first, she must enter the Sundering—an arena where only the fastest, strongest, and deadliest survive long enough to be selected for the emperor’s elite guard.

 

She quickly draws the ire of the Primus, the powerful figure charged with protecting the emperor. But the vampire under the armor is the last person Arvelle expects to encounter in the emperor’s court.

 

With her brothers’ lives in the balance, Arvelle has no choice but to ally with the man who once shattered her heart… and with the emperor’s sadistic son, Rorrik—two vampires whose motives are impossible to pin down. Rorrik holds the key to understanding the powers Arvelle is developing—abilities that would put a price on her head if discovered by the emperor.

 

To survive the arena and complete her mission, Arvelle must get to the bottom of a conspiracy that will change everything she thought she knew about herself—and the two vampires who are deeply entwined with her destiny…

My Review

Vampires in a gladiator/Ancient Rome-inspired magical fantasy setting? Sounds amazing! Written by Stacia Stark, author of the Kingdom of Lies series? Even more amazing! We Who Will Die is a fun time, and its comparison to The Vampire Diaries universe is definitely adequate. It has prime CW-level qualities. Honestly, it gives True Blood vibes too with all of the creatures. But the romance. That's TVD all the way.

I will say that I was hoping for a bit more vamp lore and gritty times. That's my own fault because this book is not dark and gritty. Even though there are sad moments, it's a really high-vibes type of book. Like, people are dying and we're kind of just breezing past it. I did really enjoy Arvelle's relationships with her brothers and her friends, though. As the female main character, Arvelle herself isn't very unique as a protagonist and she makes some dumb decisions. Those dumb decisions are explained later on, but still... I guess she makes the story interesting. For the other two main characters, those are the male love interests. One more so than the other at this time. Now, their dynamic kept me reading. I loved the vamp and spoilery relationship between the two that was revealed towards the end. It was a good bit of drama. And I think towards the end is really when everything comes together for these characters. They're seemingly working together versus keeping secrets constantly, so things started clicking.

My main criticism towards this book was honestly the middle. It was a bit underwhelming compared to the beginning and the ending. The middle just seemed like events were happening one right after another with no pause for the reader to care why they were happening. It was like BAM! Arena fight scene. BAM! Party to celebrate! BAM! Dramatic murder! It all needed to slow down for some character reflection or scenery description. For example, during the party scene, Arvelle has a conversation with like four characters back-to-back in less than five pages. That whole party scene should have taken up one long chapter with descriptions of the scenery, Arvelle's dress, the food, other characters' outfits, etc. But it was all glossed over. But again, that's simply what I would have preferred. And, like I said, the beginning had a lot of fun introducing readers to the world and characters and the ending was fun because everything kind of blew up and secrets were revealed. I definitely still enjoyed the story, even though the middle was a bit underwhelming.

All in all, if you're looking for a fun, angsty romantasy, then We Who Will Die is 100% for you. It has vampires for the paranormal lovers, griffons and gorgons for the mythology lovers, and strange deaths for the murder-mystery readers. It's a good time with the promise of an even better time when book two comes out. I am pretty excited to see how all that drama unfolds.
 

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The 3D-Edge Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Another week of 2025 over with 2026 on the horizon. It's also almost Christmas, for those who celebrate. I still have one person's presents to go, but after that, all presents will be complete. I'm not too pressed about the holidays this year, truly. I just want to be off of work and maybe get a few good books. A Barnes & Noble gift card would be nice too, but just books works for me. XD

As for books I got this week, I only have one physical edition to show off. I purchased the 3D-edge A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout from Acrylipics. After many months, it finally arrived. I honestly don't really care much about the edges, I just like alternate dust jackets more than anything. I do need to stop buying so many Blood and Ash special editions, though. I'm officially running out of room and there are at least two more books set in the world to go, which means multiple editions of each of those books to complete sets. Eek. The shelf space is getting very crowded, so I don't know if future 3D-edge versions will make the cut. The Kieran one probably will. Not sure about the others after that.

 

I also have one ebook to share this week. It's Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter, and it's a NetGalley ARC from the publisher. I told myself to not go on NetGalley and request books anymore because I was having a hard time reading anything. But, now that my slump has seemingly died off, I'm interested in requesting all of the things. I hope my TBR can handle it.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Misaligned Dust Jacket Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Another week of 2025 gone. Dang. As for my life, it's been quiet. Nothing crazy happening once again. I'm trying to get back into reading my books instead of just devouring fanfiction, and I've also been watching some new shows instead of just scrolling on my phone. Hurrah.

As for books bought, I have three this week. Well, two were bought, one was acquired through store credit at my local used bookstore. That was Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno. I also had one Barnes & Noble preorder, Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent. My FairyLoot Epic November sub box also arrived. It's Tower of the Tyrant by J.T. Greathouse. I was extremely disappointed in this one. Not because of the design. It's very pretty. But because the spine was not centered. They folded my dust jacket wrong. Now, I don't know if it's like that for everyone, but it drove me absolutely insane. Insane enough that I had to fix it, which left a wonderful crease line on the right side of my front cover. Ugh. If I end up liking the book, I'll see about acquiring a copy that doesn't have a misaligned dust jacket. Honestly, FairyLoot's quality control is just not great lately.

 

I also have one ebook to share this week. It's Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland, which I borrowed from Libby. After the events of the second book, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue with this series or not, but I found out there'll be more books in the series eventually. Or a spinoff or something, so I'm curious enough to continue.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

November Wrap-Up & December TBR

The year is almost over. The holidays are almost upon us. And I hope I get many, many books. Ha ha. Or at least plenty of gift cards so I can purchase the books I have in my Barnes & Noble cart. Last month, I had a good time being off for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I'm excited for more time off this month. I need some quiet days.

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in November

The Nightblood Prince: 3 stars

Savage Blooms: 2 stars

Mate: 3 stars

I read only three books in November, and it was a pretty mediocre reading month in general. I don't have the attention span to designate towards a book in a series. I'm mostly just getting through standalones or books that I don't think I'll love, which is a weird thing to do, but it's my headspace at the moment. All three of these did get them off of my physical TBR, though. I read The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Change, Savage Blooms by S.T. Gibson, and Mate by Ali Hazelwood.

Books Bought/Received in November

November was another bad month for spending. I'm doing better in December, though. I think. We'll see at the end of the month if that still holds up. Overall, though, I bought 20 books and received 17.

The 17 books I received consisted mostly of preorders that finally arrived. They include the Books for Days Crate Blood and Ash set, the Mondlicht German Flesh and Fire set, the last two books in the Books for Days Lux set, the Mondlicht Zodiac Academy edition, the Kings Hollow author editions of Origins and Ruthless Fae, and the FairyLoot edition of The Nighshade God. The UK Blackwells edition of The Wrath and the Fallen by Amber V. Nicole also came in, and I got The Road of Bones by Demi Winters from my local used bookstore with trade credit.

Now, for what I bought. I only received 11 of the 20 books I purchased. It's kind 12 of 21 if you include the Indigo POBAB edition, but since I just paid for someone to ship it to me, it's kind of just an oddball book this month). The 11 books I received include two of the POBAB character editions (one needed to be replaced so I sent it back to the JLA Shop/ApollyCon Shop), The Strength of the Few by James Islington (B&N preorder), Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff (Blackwells), The Bridge Kingdom deluxe hardcover by Danielle L. Jensen (B&N), To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast (FairyLoot Romantasy), the dragon hardcover and the regular hardcover of Hollow by Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti, The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman, The City of Brass deluxe edition by S.A Chakraborty, and Sweet Venom by Rina Kent (all B&N).

 As for the remaining nine books, they probably won't arrive any time soon. They include the Tome Tunnel edition of A Shadow in the Ember, the Ink Pages editions of the final two books in the Flesh and Fire series, the Bad Women Books quarterly sub pick, the Arcane Society Nalini Singh Guild Hunter series (books 1-3), and the FairyLoot November Epic book and my Kieran POBAB replacement, which may be the only ones that get to me before the end of 2025.

Currently Obsessed With

I watched three "new" shows in November. One was an episode of Grey's Anatomy. I've seen a ton of clips online, but I decided to just go ahead and watch the entire thing. I also watched two episodes of the second season of Wednesday on Netflix, and the new Heated Rivalry show on HBOMax. I'm still living in the Interview with the Vampire world, though. I'm reading fanfiction for it, watching videos, collecting fanart, etc. It's my personality at this point.

December TBR

Yikes. My TBR barely changed at all from November to December. I am currently reading Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling, The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde, Court of Nightmares by K.A. Linde, and The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix. I'd also like to read Blood & Steel by Helen Scheurer, Rein of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, The Nightshade God, and re-read Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I very much need to finish We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark, and start Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh and To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast as well. Those three are all NetGalley eARCs.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of November, plus some December sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves: The Libby Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

2025 is almost over! I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or dreading it. The world was looking up back in November, but it seems it's still on the rocks right now. Yuck. As for my life, it's been fine. Nothing crazy going on. I've just been reading a lot of fanfiction instead of the hundreds of unread books I own. Whoops. I'd like to reach 70 books read before the end of the year too, and I'm like three books behind. I'm in the middle of five, so I think I can make it if I just stop scrolling on my phone and finish them. Ugh.

As for books bought, it's been a little quiet. I had some FairyLoot preorders come in, but that's it beyond my FairyLoot sub renewals. The preorders that came in included What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller and the Call of the Forgotten trilogy by Julie Kagawa. Now, I just need FairyLoot to do the The Iron Legends short story bindup. Please!? Also, my The Iron Warrior came in damaged so stay tuned to see if FairyLoot grants me a replacement copy. I've been having bad luck with the damages lately. Hopefully that stops.

 

Next, after weeks of not having any, I finally have an ebook to share! I randomly decided to get on Libby and do some damage there with a few holds that I know will all come through at exactly the same time. But I also borrowed Carving Shadows Into Gold by Brigid Kemmerer. I need to get caught up on this series. I think the last book comes out early next year. Then, I need to decide if I want to go back and finish the prequel series or not. Haha. I read book one but not the other two.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Thanksgiving Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Wow. December is nigh. The end of 2025 is here. The world is looking up compared to the sad girl autumn that happened in September and October. Although, who knows what craziness we have in store for us in 2026. Yikes. You may have noticed I didn't post last week. Well, that's because I was ill. Like snot and fever ill. It was gross and a lot of sleep was had. But, this week has been much better, so hopefully, I can catch up on all of my posts and reading with a long Thanksgiving weekend.

As for books, first up, I have my stack of random titles from various places. Two of the books, Hollow by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti and The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty deluxe edition, were Barnes & Noble preorders. To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast was the November Romantasy FairyLoot book, and the last title is Ruthless Fae, also by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. It's the latest installment in the authors' luxe editions of their Zodiac Academy series.

 

 

Next, I have a lot of JLA. My German Mondlicht editions of the Flesh & Fire series arrived. They're very colorful. I also received my Indigo order of The Primal of Blood and Bone, which I had to go through a Facebook book-hunting group to acquire. Thanks, Trump. Grr. I also received my character editions of TPOBAB that JLA sold in her shop. Unfortunately, the Kieran copy has been returned, as it was damaged, so a replacement should be coming at some point. And yes, there's more stuff, because I did order the Juniper Books dust jacket for TPOBAB and a beautiful, but expensive pin of Poppy and Casteel from Celestial Faerie Trove. It's gorgeous! I also ordered the Sera and Nyktos one, but it'll be a while before that gets here.

 

 

 

And finally for the JLA goodies, I have my order of the Faery and Dragon Prints FBAA box. I originally wanted to make this order because it was supposed to come with the Spanish edition of the book and the goodies, but that ended up not happening. The goodies are still cute though. However, the character cards are probably the only item I'll actually display/use regularly. I'm not a big fan of overlays, and the booksleeve will likely only be used if I move or if I need it for a book convention. 

 

 

 

The very last items I have to share aren't books, and technically, I didn't even know I was going to get them. I was making a Walmart order that I was going to have to pay $10 in shipping for, so, of course, I had to add items to my cart in order to get free shipping. I didn't trust Walmart to send me a book in the mail, so I just ordered a couple of DVDs that were fairly cheap. The first is The Interview with the Vampire season one and the other is The Interview with the Vampire Tom Cruise movie. I watched IWTV last month, became obsessed with it, and have realized I've never seen the film all the way through. Though I know Kirsten Dunst acts her butt off in that movie from what I do remember. Eventually, I'm going to buy the books too, but I'll save that for a 2026 expense. Maybe I'll get some holiday gift cards for those. That'd be nice.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Blood and Ash Set Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

The year is almost over. Thank god. We're closer every day to having sanity back. Hopefully. But now that it's autumn, it's darker out, which means I get in bed by 7 p.m. Lol. I haven't been reading much because I've been stuck in my Interview with the Vampire obsession, but I did get a bunch of books. And, of course, there are more books on the way.

As for books I actually received this week, two Jennifer L. Armentrout Books for Days Crate sets arrived. One of them was the much-anticipated Blood and Ash set. These are sooooo pretty. I'm not a huge fan of the plain red background, but the artwork is so gorgeous. I also got an acrylic Poppy/Cas/Kieran add-on standee in my order, along with an art print, sticker, and a few overlays. Oh, and my preorders of the FBAA coloring book also came in. I got two copies. One to color and one to collect.

 

 

The other Books for Days Crate set is the last two books in the Lux series/Lux spinoff. It's Oblivion and Obsession. I haven't read either of these yet. I think I'll do a whole reread of the series when/if the last book in the Origin series is released. Now, I do like the covers for this particular set, but I still haven't found a special edition Lux set that blows me away. Maybe FairyLoot will do editions one day. Not that I need to spend more money on these books.

 

 

 

And finally, I received my preorders of three different books from very different places. The first is The Strength of the Few by James Islington, which I received from Barnes & Noble. Next, is Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff, which I ordered from Blackwells, and then, I finally received my Origins Zodiac Academy novella special edition from the authors' company. It had been delayed for months, so it's weird to finally have it in my hands.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The German Zodiac Academy Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

It is another week of 2025. But, it is a bit of a happier one. Things are looking up. I just hope we can all last until next November. As for my personal life, it's been quiet. Mostly just sleeping, eating, working, and obsessing over the Interview with the Vampire AMC show. I've been devouring actor panel interviews, fanfic, and everything else I can get my hands on. I haven't had this level of fandom since Game of Thrones and Supernatural. It feels great, but I don't want to wait until April to see season three. Sigh...

As for the actual books I received, I have a mix of stuff. I went to my local used bookstore last Saturday and got The Road of Bones by Demi Winters with trade credit. My Barnes & Noble preorder of the hardcover edition of The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen also arrived. It came with a wonderful mark on the front cover, so I don't know what to do about that. I don't think B&N will replace it. I also don't even know if I want it anymore. Ugh. Then, my preorder of the UK edition of Wrath of the Fallen by Amber V. Nicole also arrived. It's so pretty and purple and white. I love it. If the UK ends up doing all of the previous and future books in this series in this style, I might finally get rid of the other editions I have. I have like two indie paperbacks, the FairyLoot set, one tour edition, and a LitHaven version. It's too much. The last preorder that arrived was the German edition of Zodiac Academy's The Awakening by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. I will not be getting all of the books in this series in German. It's too much money and the art isn't absolutely amazing, but I think I'm going to get an edition here are there based on the character. Like, for instance, if there's a Seth and/or Caleb one, I might have to buy it.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

October Wrap-Up & November TBR

Well, it's November. This year is simultaneously taking 1,000 painful days but also going by super fast. I wasn't reading a whole lot this month. I got sucked into a new show, so I was fixated on that, and I spent a lot of time doom scrolling instead of reading. Hopefully, I can fix that in November. Who knows? Certainly not me.

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in October

A Fire in the Sky: 3 stars

Bitter Burn: 4 stars

Four Ruined Realms: 4 stars

Warrior Princess Assassin: 4 stars

I read only four books in October, and I can contribute the downfall to the current state of affairs in the country. It's hard to read when crazy people are trying to take over. The four books I did get to read, though, were pretty good, for the most part. My first read was A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan, then I read Bitter Burn by Sierra Simone, Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland, and Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer. Three of them were physical books off of my TBR too, so that was great. The only ebook was Four Ruined Realms, which I read on Kindle Unlimited.

Books Bought/Received in October

This month was a big, BIG YIKES. I spent waaaaaay too much. And it's looking like November and December won't be any better. Sigh. I need to really start reading the books I have so I can sell the ones I don't want to keep after I've read them. I'm both running out of space and money. Lol. Overall for October, though, I bought 22 books and received 18.

The 18 books I received consisted mostly of preorders that I'd already paid for. These include Lily Mayne's Monstrous series editions by Renegade Romance, the UK bindup editions of Meg Cabot's Mediator series, the Doylestown signed TPOBAB, a replacement B&N TPOBAB, the UK Waterstones edition of What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller, the FairyLoot Unearthly set, the FairyLoot edition of The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten, the Acrylipics 3D edges version of FBAA, Bitten by Jordan Gray, and Bitter Burn by Sierra Simone, both from B&N.

 

Now, for what I bought. I only received 16 of the 22 books I purchased. Those included preorders from B&N: Mate by Ali Hazelwood; Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick; Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent; the new deluxe Narnia edition; the B&N and regular edition of Bonds of Hercules by Jasmine Mas; and Beyond the Veil by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. It also included four in-store B&N purchases: Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, The Shadow of the Gods by Johyn Gwynne, The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, and a collection of Edgar Allan Poe. I also received my FairyLoot editions of Savage Blooms by S.T. Gibson, which was the October Romantasy book, and my September Adult book, Alchemised came as well. I did receive my Owlcrate Romantasy book as well, What Fury Brings, and my Mercari order of The Black Prince by Ariana Nash. I also ordered a Kindle copy of North Queen by Nicola Tyche.

 As for the remaining seven books, some of them should be on their way soon and others won't ship out for a while yet. Those include the Lilac Library edition of Quicksilver, the Blackwell's edition of The Wrath of the Fallen, and the FairyLoot editions of Fallen Stars, Dire Bound, and Bonds of Hercules.

Currently Obsessed With

I finally watched a TV show I'm now obsessed with. It's AMC's Interview with a Vampire, which was perfect for Halloween time. I am now back on my vampire obsession ways. I need more in my books and shows. I think I'm going to watch Castlevania next and maybe re-read Empire of the Vampire to prepare for the finale coming soon. Other than that, I did go see The Life of a Showgirl in theaters earlier this month for the premiere of the new Taylor Swift music video. I also listened to the album for a few weeks. I stopped listening recently, though. I didn't want to get burned out. Other than that, I continued to rewatch the Shrek films.

November TBR

I am currently reading Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling, The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde, and Court of Nightmares by K.A. Linde. I'd also like to read Blood & Steel by Helen Scheurer, Rein of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, The Nightshade God, and re-read Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I very much need to read We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark, Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh, and To Cage a Wild Bird by Brooke Fast as well. Those three are all NetGalley eARCs.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of October, plus some November sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!