Book Review: We Were Men Once

We Were Men Once by Candice Morris

2/5 Stars

Oh, this one stings. As a massive DnD nerd who should have been the target audience for a dark romantasy inspired by Dante’s Inferno with actual campaign mechanics, I’m genuinely disappointed this didn’t work for me.

Let’s address the elephant in the room that every other reviewer has mentioned: this was secretly a sequel. The fact that this crucial detail is buried at the very end of the book like some sort of literary gotcha feels disingenuous at best. While they have since updated everything to say Book 2, it still really left a bad taste in my mouth and colored my reading despite me trying to let it go.

But even setting aside that particular publishing sleight-of-hand, what you get is a book that’s technically competent but emotionally hollow. Morris clearly knows her DnD mechanics, and the hellscape worldbuilding is genuinely atmospheric when it leans into cosmic horror elements. The writing itself is perfectly readable.

The problem? The plot reads like someone’s campaign notes: go here, talk to this NPC, complete side quest, unlock new area, repeat. It’s methodical in a way that makes you painfully aware you’re reading a story rather than experiencing one. For something supposedly about transcendent love, I spent more time thinking about party logistics than emotional stakes.

The romance that should anchor this whole thing gets buried under exposition. I kept waiting to care about Kyarlin’s desperate mission to save his transformed husband, but the emotional beats felt as mechanical as the plot progression. At the end of the day, this was a book that I was excited about and looked forward to reading and it just didn’t hit.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

We Were Once Men will be released on Sept 30 2025