Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1) Brynne Weaver

Rating:4 Stars

Publisher: Piatkus

Genre:  Dark Contemporary Romance.  TW: Torture. Death. Gore. Cannibalism. See Author’s Content Warning

Tags: Piatkus

Length: 351 Pages

Reviewer: Karen

Purchase At: amazon

Blurb:

Every serial killer needs a friend.
Every game must have a winner.

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.

Review:

Sloane and Rowan meet when he finds her locked in a cage after she’d murdered another serial killer a few days prior. Kind of an accident how she killed him yet found herself in the cage. It seems serial killers know other serial killers work, and, yes, some admire certain other killer’s work. Sloane is known as The Orb Weaver. She uses an intricate, colourful web (fishing line) around her killer that details the geographic location of their other murders, including using the serial killer’s eyeballs. She likes to pluck them out before they die. Rowan is majorly impressed by Sloane’s work. Big fan.

The Orb Weaver.
I’m sitting across the table from the fucking Orb Weaver.
And she’s fucking beautiful.
Raven hair. Warm hazel eyes. A spread of freckles over her cheeks and a little nose that’s turned a bit red.

However, she plays it a lot closer to her chest about him. They grab lunch after he gives her the key to get out before the maggots get her, as you do, and from here an annual competition starts, one where Lachlan, Rowan’s brother, picks the killer and the location. Then let the chips fall where they may as to who gets the kill/win.

Her furious gaze scours my face. “I’m a serial killer you know,” she hisses. “I could break into your room while you sleep and suck your eyeballs right out of your head with the industrial vacuum that Francis uses to clean the cat hair from the hideous lobby carpet.”

In between the competition killings, Rowan and Sloane text message one another. It’s cool to have someone you can be friends with who gets your murderous desires. Understanding the compulsion that gets under your skin. Beats having someone who freaks the fuck out and reports you to the cops. Oh, and it’s also fun for them to be in competition for the same target, not such a lonely past time when someone else is in on it with you. You can even make puns, jokes, critique the work.

Over the years the comp goes on, it’s four by the way, Rowan is obsessed with Blackbird, the name he gives Sloane because of her raven hair and eyeball plucking. While the texts suggest friendship, Sloane is a love avoidant but we know she has reciprocal feelings for Rowan.

Walls are good. Boundaries are necessary. He’s the kind of guy that will bulldoze right through them if I set my guard down. And this is still a competition, after all. I should only be looking for information that will help me win.

Sloane is a scientist who has one friend, Lark, they went to an academy together and have been best friends ever since the shit that went down there – it’s never especially delved into. Weaver feeds you enough to know something bad went down at the college with an academic and the females there. Sloane took care of it. She did it for Lark, her sunshine-y friend. Rowan has his brothers and a couple of other friends. He’s a successful restaurateur in Boston so schmoozing is something he’s good at.

Both MCs have a dark backstory but you only get snippets of that. It’s the origin story of serial killers. Usually it’s good old mum, but perverted men or brutal fathers get a guernsey here.

The romance is a slow burn even though you know Rowan has it bad for Sloane from pretty much the get-go. He waits for her to come around and acknowledge her feelings and desire for him. Fantastic romance stuff – ‘I’ve been 4 yrs celibate for you, babe.’

I had a good old time reading Butcher & Blackbird, it’s plenty gory and the MCs are likeable enough but without a bit more of their day-to-day life it leaves them short of three dimensions, hence the 4 stars and not 5.