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friends to lovers

Book Review: Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #3)

Rating: 4 stars

The final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy – a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It’s a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she’s not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

…And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

Like the rest of the books in this trilogy, Scythe & Sparrow was an enjoyable read for me from start to finish. I was pretty sad to finish reading this book because I knew once I finished, I would be done reading these books for the first time. However, I enjoyed reading this book anyway because I was eager to see how Fionn and Rose’s relationship came to be.

What I enjoyed about this book was that Rose wasn’t a perfect killer here. It was something I wasn’t expecting with her character because of how she came across in the trilogy, up until I read her story. Rose comes across as a very confident, competent woman, so discovering that she’s actually not the best at killing and also gets queasy around blood was a twist in her story I wasn’t expecting. But I love the way her character is portrayed and how she handles herself despite how she gets when it comes to blood.

What I also enjoyed about reading Scythe & Sparrow was seeing the relationship between Fionn and Rose develop. Of course, I knew from the beginning that the two of them were going to end up together, but seeing their story unfold was wonderful to me. Especially because it felt like a realistic friends-with-benefits turning into love relationship.

If there was anything that I didn’t enjoy reading this book, it would be the conflict that results in a rift in their relationship. Yes, it was interesting to get to see Leander make an appearance here. However, I wasn’t too happy with what Fionn had to do in order to protect Rose, and that it caused them both heartbreak before the two of them were together again. While I enjoyed seeing how they were able to find each other again, I just wasn’t too happy with the circumstances that caused it.

I will also add that I’m sad to have finished this trilogy because I enjoyed reading these characters’ stories so much. I wasn’t sure when I first started reading The Ruinous Love Trilogy how I would feel about it, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going to see how their relationships were going to unfold, and I found I enjoyed reading about these characters and seeing their love for each other.  

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Scythe & Sparrow, the last book in the trilogy. Even though I’m sad to have finished reading these books, I highly recommend this series. Especially to those who enjoy romance stories that have some dark humor and are looking to read books that have a happy ending. For those interested in listening to the Spotify playlist I listened to while reading Scythe & Sparrow, you can check it out here.

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Book Review: Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1)

Rating: 4 stars

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.

From beginning to end, I enjoyed reading Butcher & Blackbird immensely. With its witty main protagonists, both serial killers who kill bad people, along with a soundtrack you can listen to as you read their story, I was thoroughly enjoying this read. I’ve never listened to a curated playlist while reading a book before, and I actually enjoyed the playlist provided for this book, so I listened to it while writing this review. Listening to music while reading a book I enjoyed was a whole other experience, something I now realize I’ve been missing out on, and will need to make a much better effort to try moving forward, as I feel like it definitely helped suck me into the world of these characters and their story.

What I really enjoyed about Butcher & Blackbird was seeing these two different people who bring out the best in each other. Yes, they both kill people, but from the start, I saw the connection between them. With Rowan, he was good at making Sloane feel comfortable in her own skin and feel loved as she is. With Sloane, she was good at being there for Rowan during his darkest moments in this book, when most people would’ve fled. I also loved seeing their relationships with the other characters in the story, who I know will play a crucial role in the other books in the trilogy, such as Rowan’s brothers, Lachlan and Fionn, and Sloane’s best friend, Lark. You could see how much they both care about the people closest to them, and it was nice to see, when they are together, how the people they care about interact with each other.

If there was anything about this story I wasn’t particularly fond of, it would be how slow-moving their romance developed. Granted, I understood that they would start as friends before becoming more than friends. But I felt like there was more between them from the start, and it seemed like both Rowan and Sloane took a very long time to get to that point. At times, in the book, it was painful to watch. Because there were several moments where I thought, “maybe this is when it’s finally going to happen,” only for nothing to come of it. It was like Brynne Weaver built moments of suspense in their romance with no direction to guide it.  

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Butcher & Blackbird from start to finish and am excited to see what happens in the next installment in the trilogy, Leather & Lark. For those interested in giving a listen to the Spotify playlist I listened to while reading Butcher & Blackbird, you can check it out here.

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