Title: Butcher and Blackbird (Ruinous Love #1)

Author: Brynne Weaver

Publisher: Slowburn 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 360

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; She Reads Romance - Romantic Suspense

Spice Rating: 5 1/2 (due to all the murder)

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, they find something elusive—the friendship of two like-minded, pitch-black souls who just happen to enjoy killing otherserial killers.

From small-town West Virginia to upscale California, and 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?

A friend chatted with me about this book thinking that I had recommended it to her. In fact, she just recommended it to me! This book is not for everyone. It is a blend of spicy romance and murder on the page. Read the summary above; that’s what you get. Rowan and Sloane hunt and kill serial killers. They are killers. They find fulfillment and success in life from taking out the worst people they can find. Along the way, they fall in love. I absolutely loved this one. We get great banter and sexual tension. We get a guy who falls first and has to convince the girl he’s worth it. We get a strong independent woman who is only with the guy because she wants him around. And oh boy, we get glimpses into the lives of Rowan’s brothers. I finished this one and immediately went and bought it and the sequel.

Ruinous Love

• #1 Butcher and Blackbird

• #2 Leather and Lark

• #3 Scythe and Sparrow

Next up on the TBR pile: