So, I read the first two books in Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love trilogy last year. I didn’t expect much from the first, Butcher & Blackbird, and ended up loving it. Naturally, I had great expectations for the sequel, Leather & Lark, (review here), and while I liked it, it didn’t quite live up to the standards of the former. The third and final book, Scythe & Sparrow, was released a few weeks ago, so I picked it up, but I did go into it with tempered expectations.
This book tells the story of Fionn Kane, a doctor and the the youngest brother of serial killer Rowan (from Butcher & Blackbird) and contract killer Lachlan (from Leather & Lark), and Rose, a circus performer that shows up injured at his clinic one night and asks for his help after trying to break in. While this is technically a sequel to the previous books in the series, the main story actually kind of happens alongside the previous stories, so some plot points won’t make a lot of sense unless you’ve read the other books. The timeline starts a few months before Rowan and Sloane visit Fionn in Butcher & Blackbird and ends about a year after the conclusion of Leather & Lark.
The characters were compelling. Rose uses her fortune-teller booth at the circus to run an aqua-tofana-like scheme to help women “dispose” of their abusive partners. She’s quite happy to do violence but gets squicked out by the aftermath. Fionn struggles with his desire to do good as a doctor, while managing his darker urges. Their relationship was fun and felt like a natural progression.
I’m also happy to report that my main complaint about Leather & Lark (not enough danger/tension) was resolved in this! Even though we technically know a lot of what happened as Fionn and Rose were in the background in some of the previous plots, there was enough mystery and additional dangers to keep the stakes high. I definitely liked this better than Leather & Lark, but not as much as Butcher & Blackbird.