Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3) by Brynne Weaver Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Please check trigger warnings before reading - reader discretion is advised. You can read my review of Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark on my blog, now!

He's a doctor and she's a serial killer - y'all know I was shaking in my seat waiting for this book to become available. I absolutely loved Butcher & Blackbird, but had mixed feelings about Leather & Lark, so I needed this final installment to really deliver. Right off the bat, Rose and Fionn had me cackling - Rose is incredibly unserious, and Fionn takes everything extremely seriously, making them the perfect match. When a less-than-perfect murder attempt goes awry, Rose finds herself in the care of Fionn. I loved this forced proximity situation - Rose and Fionn had such great banter and the tension was literally dripping off of the page.

Rose's characterization definitely resembled Sloane's compared to the other characters in the series, and I appreciated how the author was able to really show her and Fionn's feelings as they spent more time together. Especially considering Rose's affliction for the casual murder and body disposal, her care-free nature and sarcasm truly showed another side of the coin regarding her personality. Fionn's more restricted actions and his constant need to want to control his vices complicated Rose's more impulsive personality, and her presence actually allowed him to embrace his more darker callings.

Everyone from the first two installments decided to make their presences known, and I was pleased to see them return and have significant interactions with Fionn and Rose. The bonds the girls make with one another is always a great touch, and watching the brothers reconnect and hash out some old disagreements showed true sibling relationships. The supporting characters, especially those in the crochet group, allowed Rose to gain some interaction outside of Fionn. Considering she was no longer with her circus friends, this was a great touch to continue to show her social personality compared to Fionn's loner tendencies.

I will never look at cotton candy the same way again. First it was the cookies and cream ice cream, then the pizza, and now this. Weaver really knows how to make the most insane creative choices to have her readers' jaws on the floor. I truly thought it was going to go in another direction, and while it was not as bad as I expected, I still had to take a lap around the room after reading that scene. All of the spicier scenes with Rose and Fionn were close to the same leave as Sloane and Rowan, and it was a definite improvement compared to the scenes in Leather & Lark.

The action portion of this book had me invested and intrigued - I could feel the stakes rise as the plot continued, and Rose's safety was certainly at high risk as we approached multiple obstacles and antagonists in this story. Having the other couples involved in some of the action allowed the ensemble to be utilized, and Weaver's incorporation of these characters made the action even more engaging. Watching revenge being dished and wrongs being avenged by multiple characters was entertaining and fit in well with their character development.

This was a great way to round out the trilogy, and I especially enjoyed the epilogues - I felt as though they were truly able to tie everything together in the end. I definitely have some mixed feelings about this series, but overall I had a great time with all of these characters, and while I am sad that it is over, I look forward to reading more of Weaver's work in the future.

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Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2) by Brynne Weaver Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Please check trigger warnings before reading - reader discretion is advised. You can read my review of Butcher & Blackbird on my blog, here.

Well... this was... something. I had absolutely loved Butcher & Blackbird, and was excited to dive into this book ahead of the final installment's release. I genuinely do not understand how we went from the first book to this one - it felt as though Lark and Lachlan had no chemistry between each other until the very end of the book. Compared to Sloane and Rowan, this was a major downgrade and really made the book tough to get through.

Lachlan is constantly growling at Lark, and while kind of cute at first, it became very tired, very fast. That goes for the Batman references and Lark's never-ending cackling at every other thing that comes out of Lachlan's mouth. I am assuming this was supposed to play into banter between the two, but it was giving more "I want my character to be crazy but not too crazy" which just ended up falling flat in the end.

Looking back at the content from the first book and comparing it to what we see in Leather & Lark, I was pretty disappointed. The pizza smoothie was truly the only thing that made me uncomfortable, whereas the first book had so much going on all of the time. We get one third of the way into this book and essentially nothing of importance has happened besides Lark and Lachlan meeting. Sloane and Rowan show up so much in the beginning, you would have thought that this book was supposed to be centered around them instead of Lark and Lachlan.

It does not bring me any pleasure in saying that this book was honestly boring, and maybe I went in with high expectations, but I never would have anticipated such a turn from the plot. The killing is minimal and the relationship between Lark and Lachlan does not really become anything until after 70% into the book. The spice scenes are so tame compared to other dark romance book out there, and to be frank, this was basically just heavy petting until the bonus chapter at the very end.

The "action" chapters that were supposed to have me worried for the characters fell short, and it felt obvious on what was going to happen as the story went on. If I could have shouted into the pages of this book at the characters, so much would have been avoided if they communicated with each other and some of the side characters. For being murders, they were incredibly unaware of events unfolding around them.

I wish I had more to say - there were some moments between Lachlan and Lark that made me think the story was about to turn a corner, but then the plot would get sidetracked and any development felt abandoned. Everything kept coming back to Sloane and Rowan, and it felt pretty clear that the author should have just written another book about them or kept Butcher & Blackbird as a standalone instead of expanding on their story. I think I will wrap up this series once Scythe & Sparrow is released, but I would not continue if the series was not already coming to a close.

By total coincidence, this is the second book in a row I have read involving a male lead with the last name Kane and a marriage of convenience trope. Big shout out to Terms and Conditions, you were able to keep my good memories of these tropes alive.

You can add Leather & Lark on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!