Review: When Blood Runs Red by Patricia Prior

October 23, 2026

Synopsis:

In Eclipsera, blood is power—but greed holds the blade.

Stored in rubies and engineered into the technology that keeps the city running, magic has made Eclipsera glitter. But when a laboratory explosion kills Aria and Luna Ellis’s parents, the sisters inherit more than one of the city’s most powerful names. They inherit secrets someone was willing to kill for.

Aria has spent years building a career inside Darkmoor Industries, determined to be more than another privileged heir. Now the research her parents left behind is leading her somewhere far darker: illegal experimentation, altered creatures and evidence that the science behind Eclipsera’s magic has crossed lines no one was meant to survive. The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the people around her become. The truth would be easier to survive if Aria’s heart weren’t already tangled with two of the families she has every reason to distrust: Dominic Blackwood, the man she loves recklessly, and Rowe Darkmoor, the almost-love who never stopped knowing her too well.

Luna chooses a different path through their grief. Drawn toward the very world Aria is beginning to question, she finds herself increasingly entangled with Alexander Darkmoor: brilliant, ruthless and far too willing to indulge the ambition everyone else has tried to tame. His attention could give Luna everything she has ever wanted. But being wanted by a man as powerful as Alexander Darkmoor comes with its own kind of danger.

As blood, desire and family loyalty become impossible to separate, the Ellis sisters are pulled deeper into a conspiracy built into the foundations of their city. Because Eclipsera’s most powerful families have spent generations deciding how much blood progress is worth.

And they may finally have gone too far.

Review:

After finishing the book, I had to take a moment and stare into the abyss. This one left me emotionally destroyed in the best way possible. I couldn’t have asked for more, and I was not prepared for the emotional journey it would take me on.

It started out relatively harmlessly with two sisters who couldn’t be more different. The prodigal child whom everyone wants to be, who fell in love with the bad boy, and the overlooked one, who felt neglected and wanted to be everything her sister was, at least to a certain degree. When an accident kills their parents, it becomes the beginning of something no one could have expected, especially not me.
Every character had their flaws, some more obvious than others. At the end of the day, most of them are barely hanging on and trying to make it through each day. Some are more broken than others, and misery loves company.

Aria and Dom are one of the most troubled couples I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They are hurt and carry heavy expectations that draw them to each other, and by hurting each other over and over again, they paint a picture of two deeply broken people.
Luna, on the other hand, initially comes across as the poster child. Always in the background and never getting the attention she deserves, she is suddenly noticed by a powerful man who changes everything. I couldn’t blame her for doing everything in her power to become the person he wanted her to be. She was given a chance to shine and wasn’t about to let anyone stop her.

Adding to this is an interesting magic system based on blood magic. We get a lot of political scheming from power-hungry men who will do anything to come out on top and won’t shy away from making their children pawns in their game. I got mad scientist vibes from it all, along with a cast of people who don’t seem to care about anyone but themselves.
It felt unique, kept me engaged from beginning to end, and that ending set the stage beautifully for what’s to come. I loved everything about it and couldn’t have asked for more.

🌙 Recension: When Blood Runs Red (Empire of Blood and Greed #1) by Patricia Prior
📚 Genre: Dystopian, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Dark Romantasy
📅 Release Date: March 22, 2026
📗 available in various formats – included in Kindle Unlimited
📱 Read as: Kindle
💸 I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 454
⭐️ 5/5