Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver

4 Stars.

Age Recommendation: 18+

Contains a lot of mature material. Read in-book trigger warnings before reading.

Butcher & Blackbird is a surprisingly light dark romance. Rowan and Sloane are two “Dexter”-like serial killers whose victims are the most heinous of individuals. They meet on chance at the scene of one of Sloane’s kills and form a friendship. As like minds do, they are drawn to each other, and soon the two embark on a yearly contest, the winner of which is decided by who kills that year’s mark. Thus begins their true friendship and, of course, maybe more (come now, it’s a romance… you know it’s “more”).

Underneath the premise of two serial killers falling in love was a fairly standard rom-com. I don't mean that as an insult--I simply expected it to deviate a bit more from the formula. It isn’t particularly dark, despite the professions of the two protagonists, who for all their dark quirks were remarkably likable characters and did not seem as maladjusted as one would expect. Considering I am not generally fond of dark romances, for me this worked out in the book’s favor.

There are elements of abuse in both Rowan and Sloane's past, and with Sloane, at least, there seemed to be an attempt by the author to confront and work through that past trauma. As such, Sloane's character arc was more fully developed. Rowan, however, seemed by thought and countenance to have already battled his demons, although I’m unsure whether that is what the author meant to convey. Rowan was far more willing to take a chance on their romantic relationship, and appeared more honest in his feelings. Perhaps his traumas will be more fully explored in later books.

Where the book faltered for me was the spice scenes. I don't mind a well-written spice scene, and these scenes were written just fine. But they were lengthy, and multiple scenes are bunched together starting at around the 60%-mark of the book. So the book started to stagnate. For a decent portion of the second half of the book, you couldn't be blamed if you forgot we were following two serial killers. It took too long to get back to that aspect of the story, which is what should make this book stand out from other rom-coms.

That said, the banter in Butcher & Blackbird is top notch. Rowan and Sloane are easy to like and you find yourself rooting for their success (even the all the killing). I had a fun time with the audiobook, which is presented in a duet style with two narrators and is excellent. I will very likely check out the second book in this series.