Book Review – Butcher & Blackbird

Hello hello, and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m sharing my review for Butcher & Blackbird, which I read last year before it became as popular as it is today.

This is a dark romance with a lightness at its heart, but dark nonetheless. It surrounds a rivalry and relationship between two serial killers, and while, similar to the TV show Dexter, they tend to go after ‘bad’ people, they are still killers. There’s no escaping this, and if this isn’t the book for you, there’s no shame in avoiding this one! Take care of YOU as a priority.

Synopsis
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
I read this in twenty-four hours back in September, and it’s still a book I think about regularly. It balanced out a creative number of things: it was sexy, witty and bloody, all culminating in a story that made for a solid day’s entertainment. I also reread it last month as an audiobook when I hit a bit of a book wall and needed a pick me up!

Sloane and Rowan encounter each other in the most bizarre of circumstances, and yet it solidified a bound that even then was designed never to be broken. Both are living double lives, and both are fascinated with each other prior to even meeting… Let’s call them fans of each other’s ‘hobby’. Things start moving from casual rivalry, to friendship, to more, in the most natural and well developed nature. It’s a delicious dynamic that is just delightful to read.

Rowan in particular really captured by heart. Despite his dark hobby on the side, he is an utter cinnamon roll that only had love and patience for Sloane. He bribes a random teenager with money to deliver her groceries to help her learn to cook over the phone. It’s ridiuclous and stalkery and adorable, AND ONLY ACCEPTABLE IN FICTION. But yes, it’s a sheer delight and real men will never compare. xoxo, all women ever.

More seriously, I went into this book hesitantly, as I wasn’t sure if it would be too ‘dark’ or ‘heavy’ for me. I tend to read books on the light and fluffy scale when it comes to romance, and somehow this managed to be just that, all the while focusing around characters who should have a chaotic, evil energy to them. Yet they were just fun and easy to read about.

As entertaining as any format of this book would be, I highly recommend the audio version as it was performed brilliantly, and really brought out all the tones of the pair. Especially adorable was the Irish accent that you otherwise have to imagine, and it’s fabulous to hear it, especially during the high emotion moments, the brutal and the spicy.

Also, don’t be put off by the content warning about ‘accidental cannibalism’. It’s not what it sounds like, and I promise it’s hilarious as hell.

Thanks for stopping by for this review today. Whether this sounds like your kind of automatic read or not, I hope it might be something you consider giving a try between my review and the amount of publicity this sharp, funny book has gained recently!