Butcher & BlackBird - Brynne Weaver || Review

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?

I picked this book up on a 99p deal after seeing it on booktok a mixture of thriller, horror and romance i was most certainly intrigued. 

This book starts with a long list of trigger warnings and boy did it need them. Most things in books dont phase me but it certainly gave me a heads up on what was to come. If you are of a sensitive nature i would certainly check them out before diving into this.

Sloane and Rowan meet by pure chance - both with the same end goal, luckily for Sloane Rowan turned up at the right time. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship but two dark like minded souls almost connected, friendship is certainly something that takes deeper root. Over the course of a few years their feelings develop & what follows goes deeper and darker than i expected but the feelings wow. They were real.

I'm not going to lie it took me until 30% to get invested in this, and at one point before that i did consider DNF but im so very glad i kept on because that was the thing, once i hit that mark i was hooked. This a dark disturbing book with well some very very spicy scenes. Now when i see Booktok books they always claim to have spice then i read it and its there but not there. This was in your face and absolutely fitted the context, the narrative and the characters. The horror, gore and tension of the story as a whole was brilliant. I really wanted sure what to expect but this ended up been a great read. 

I loved Sloane the most, she was independent loyal and firey and i adored watching her develop and discover herself more and more whilst not loosing site of who she was. I think she is certainly one of the stand out of characters of the year so far for me. 

Writing has always been a hobby for Brynne. Even as a young child, she loved typing out stories on her grandmother’s typewriter. She wrote award-winning poetry and essays, and dabbled in various forms of fiction over the years. In 2019, Brynne committed to publishing more of her works, and released her first non-fiction book (under her real name!). She then began focusing on her first fantasy-romance (or ‘romantasy’) series, The Diviner. Next up was the three-part Shadow Realm paranormal dark romance series. Brynne then partnered with author Alexa Harlowe on the contemporary dark standalone romance, Black Sheep.  
Brynne aspires to write female-focused stories about complex, resilient, imperfect characters who struggle with anger, trauma, fear, courage, and love.