Reading with teafortiffany

Hello friends!!

I am back with another book review. Normally, this would be the end of the month wrap-up, but I think I’m going to post that a bit later this week and then come back with another post next weekend. We will see what the week allows me to have for time.

Enough about that, lets get into it!

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“Being a serial killer who kills serial killers is a great hobby…”

–Brynne Weaver, Butcher & Blackbird, First Line

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I am not a contemporary romance type of girl. I have always been that person who likes to romance the aliens and elves in my video games (Garrus, my OG game boyfriend). If there is an option to make a non-human character, that’s what I’m picking. That’s just my preference. The main exception to this rule has been Historical Romance (primarily Victorian), and I think that’s primarily because it’s far enough away from modern that I don’t mind. With that said, add in some serial killers falling in love, and apparently, I’m game.

This book is a romantic comedy with lots of murder in graphic detail. It’s like someone took something with the vibes of your favorite early 2000’s romantic comedy movie and thought, “but what if they killed people.” It’s a surprising combination and weird enough that I don’t even care that I can pronounce where people are from (which is not always the case with my fantasy books). It’s scratching the itch of both my true crime side and my romance side.

Both of our main characters here have (understandably) darker backgrounds. It’s not a book you necessarily want to take a moral lens to. They both murder people. Technically, Batman also murders people. So who am I to judge the realm in which the murdering is happening? The book takes place over multiple years and has time skips throuhgout but it doesn’t feel too jarring. You also get the POV of both Rowan (the Butcher) and Sloane (the Blackbird). It all mends together quite seamlessly.

The romance itself is cute and then very steamy. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a super slow burn, but it’s not like they meet and then run to the next room to have sex. It’s not that kind of spicy book. There are graphic sex scenes, so you might want to skip those if you want to enjoy the book but don’t enjoy that type of content (no judgment here). I personally enjoy both spicy books and the “fade-to-black” or “closed-door” romances.

This is book one of a trilogy. Each book has a different couple whom you meet in the first book. For me, this means that I have the freedom to get to the sequels whenever I feel like it. I don’t feel compelled to immediately run to the next book. I want to read it, but I usually need a break from the fictional world the book is in. Basically, I’m not a series binge-reader.

This was, unexpectedly, a good time to read. I thought I might enjoy it, but I was thinking more like a 3.75 – 4 type of a good time, just because I’m not a huge contemporary fiction/romance type of reader. If you enjoy true crime and a good romantic comedy, I would definitely give it a try. In the end, I gave this bad boy a solid 4.5/5!

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That’s it for this week, friends! I’ll be back soon with the monthly wrap-up. I also need to make new rating images, and I hope to get that done relatively soon. We will see. I’m not the best at planning things out sometimes.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend and many good reading sessions. See you next time!

Bye friends!!!