Boozy Bookgasms - If Murder is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver Today, the cousins dive into Brynne Weaver’s darkly fun romance, Butcher & Blackbird—a story where two morally gray antiheroes team up, use their murder skills for justice, and somehow stumble into one of the healthiest relationships in the book. It’s funny, twisted, unexpectedly tender, and the very first installment in the Ruinous Love Trilogy.   Signature Cocktail: Cookies and Creamtini If you know, you know! If you don't... read chapter 17!  Ingredients: 1/3 cup milk or cream 1/4 cup Pinnacle Whipped Vodka 1 1/2 teaspoons Jell-O Oreo instant pudding mix Hershey's chocolate sauce Crushed Oreo crumbs Whipped cream 1 mini Oreo for garnish (optional) Mix milk/cream, Pinnacle Whipped Vodka, and JELL-O Oreo instant pudding mix in shaker with ice. Shake for about 30 seconds. Dip rim of glass in chocolate sauce, then dip rim into Oreo crumbs. Strain drink into glass. Top with whipped cream and a mini Oreo if desired

I'm going to Google this now. I can be right. You can be right. And you feel the love tonight. For people who want to get the hell out of here, the whole is becoming rabbit filled. Your first cousin to you is first cousins. Their kid is first cousin once removed.

All right. You win. I hope that makes the cut, Lynn. It won't. But I hope that makes the cut. Since I do the cutting. I don't know what the heart. I'd be like, see.

I probably won't. Yeah, exactly. Been for some boozy bookgasms today. Join three cousins creating a titillating headspace where steamy romance novels collide with strong cocktails. So sit back, sip slow, and enjoy the ride. Hello, Clitututcher fans. Welcome back for another episode of Boosy Bookgasms.

I'm Kim. I'm Lynn. I'm Jen. Today we have a special guest with us, yet another cousin, and also the voice. of our podcast. I'm Zach. Hi, Zach. We're super. I'm here. Yay. I love having our cousins on because it's super fun to get everybody's take on some of these different perspectives. Especially our male cousins. If you guys are following along, we did have Dennis on a while back, which was super fun. And now we get to have Zach. Welcome, welcome. Welcome.

Thank you. Today, we are actually diving into Dexter meets Hallmark with a touch of you vibe. This is Bryn Weaver's Butcher and the Blackbird, which is the first in the ruinous love trilogy series. Yes. It's super cute. It was so cute. I want to read the others already. I do too. They're on my list.

I start the second one. Oh, really? Oh, you did? Is that Leather and Lark? Yeah, Leather and Lark is the one that does start directly after the epilogue, actually. Yeah. It goes pretty smoothly. I've heard mixed reviews, so I'll be curious to see what you think.

But I'm going to read them anyway. I really enjoyed this. They're cute. It was fun. I would say it's not as cute as this one. This one's very like back and forth banter. And that one is very like aggressive. It's enemies to lovers, isn't it?

And that is not my favorite. She hates her. You get a sense of that. But before we go down this rabbit hole, we got to drink something, guys. Oh, please. Yes. In honor of this book, I have created the cocktail cookies and cream tini. So gross.

Okay. It's disgusting. So if you read the book, you know why that's gross. It's a little bit of milk and cream. And if you are a true fan, you already have your whipped vodka on the shell. This one has some Jello Oreo instant pudding mix, which is kind of interesting, makes it a little smoother. Some chocolate sauce, some crushed Oreo crumbs, whipped cream, and one mini Oreo just to make it super cute. Any other sacred ingredients in there, Kim?

Not in my glass. I don't know. Extra cream. Every listener's different. So, you know. It's a dessert drink for sure, but it is smooth. It is creamy. Zero salt flavor. Yeah, you're welcome.

Disgusting. Okay. So let's kick off our book with a couple of our characters. We do have Sloan Sutherland. She is known also as The Blackbird and the Orb Weaver. She is a vigilante killer. Gorgeous, dark hair, super smart, researching. She's like an engineer. And then we have Rowan Kane, who is a chef. He is known as the Boston Butcher, Charming, sweet, also Irish, which I love, love.

And if you listen. So good. I know. How'd that go? Delicious. Yeah, there you go. You do it better than me. So we open up the scene with Sloan, aka the orb wever, in the midst of a botched

murder. Well, he got murdered. He got murdered, but it's botched because she's not getting away. The story kind of begins with her being trapped with the body of her latest victim, Albert Brusco. Her plans went awry, and she is stuck in the trap that she set for Albert. And in walks this gorgeous Irishman, the Boston butcher, Rowan, who also planned to kill Albert, but arrived on the scene a little bit later than Sloan, which seems to be kind of... Days later. with him. And he is immediately drawn to her. And he's like, ooh, she's a beautiful raven-haired girl is in a cage and instantly

names her Blackbird and releases her from the trap. Not before some taunting. She's been in there three days with a rotting corpse. She's ripe. There's maggots. It's disgusting. It's a rough scene. And she's very put off by the fact that, number one, he's there and he's smug.

And he's kind of, hey, you know, you want to go to dinner? I'm so in odd. He knows who she is and he's like fan girling over her. She finally agrees to go to dinner with him and she is kind of bitchy almost and skittish. Ready to leave at any moment. Yeah. Checking the exits. She wants to know the ins, the out. She wants the exit. She is in the middle of the restaurant precisely. So she's very meticulous. He's not. He's kind of all over the place. During this dinner, they have this playful banter. It's super fun. They find out they're both serial killer hunters. They only kill bad people.

Bad guys. Yeah, like Dexter. They apparently were hunting the same bad guys quite often and missing each other at different point. Rowan comes up with this plan to once a year hunt a serial killer and whoever kills them first wins the competition and Sloan's in. She's like, this sounds fun. This will get us back together even though I'm not sure I want to hang out with you.

but she likes the competition of it. Yeah. Fast forward one year later, Salone is hunting another man and is unsure about seeing Rowan again, but her best friend Lark encourages her. I love Lark. I do too. Lachlan, Rowan's brother, is in charge of putting the game together for them

and he sends them their first clue, which I thought was very interesting. He's an assassin and he's like, here's your clue, good luck. He's like an official assassin that gets paid to do this. His brother happens to just be a, it's his hobby. He just likes it. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. That's a thing. And she kind of questions, how do I know your brother's not going to set you up to win? And he's like, yeah. My brother wants me to lose. Yeah. The brother's relationship is really interesting. Oh, I thought it was so sweet.

All three of them. But yeah, they're all so cute. But it was sweet, but then it was also kind of. But that's like brothers in general. Most of the time that you're constantly like, man, that guy, loser. K-mo. I love him. Love him to death.

My favorite line in the book was when. his brother came in eating a carrot. And he was like, what are you doing? He's like, this has lots of vitamin C. He goes, take a vitamin. You look like a douche. Yeah, the healthy one. Okay. So Sloan ends up at this sketchy inn. It's just kind of in the middle of nowhere. And in walks Rowan. He's chill. He's just kind of hanging out. It's too cold. After Sloan has already just really drilled the innkeeper, Francis. She's trying to figure out why they're there. They don't know. know who the killer is. They don't know who they're looking for, but she's talking to this creepy. It kind of gave psycho vibes. The innkeeper. He had cats. It's not that there's anything wrong with

cats, but the way he had a cat was creepy. The cat was kind of creepy, and then he was creepy with the cats. But she interviews him to get information. She gets nothing out of this dude. But he does kind of warn them off about the area. And he says, there's a trail down the road where people just go missing. I don't know what's happening. It's very scary. You should stay away from that. So Sloan, after a good banter with Rowan, go back to their perspective rooms. And they happen to be rooming right next door to each other, of course. Walls are thin. It's a shitty inn.

And Sloan starts to mess around with one of her sex toys. And she's having a great time, right? She's getting into it. Rowan's hearing it. He's being a gentleman and just listening quietly. It's all gentlemen do. He was basically like, I know this is wrong, but he couldn't not. It's wrong.

It was driving him crazy. He is so attracted to her. He's like obsessed. But then he hears someone else kind of moaning. Now he's mad. He's mad that some pervert is listening to her. It's creepy when they do it. Right. Right. Which is essentially what it was. What a pervert listening. I can't believe someone else is listening. Now I'm mad. He notices eyes in the painting moving and he loses his shit. He's like pounding through the walls. Craves. Sloan hears him. She gets upset. She's accusing him, and the audible on this was hilarious. She's yelling at him for being a perver, and he's like, no, it's not me. It's this guy. I'm trying to chase this guy. It was just so cute.

Ultimately, they're chasing down Francis, who turns out to be the perv. The innkeeper. Rowan chases after him out into the wooded area. He grabs Sloan, slams her up against a tree by the neck and says he's mine. And at this point, you're like, oh, okay, maybe he's a little cranker. She kind of backs off. She's like, okay, that's fine. You can have him.

And then Rowan proceeds to beat the living shit out of Francis until he's dead. Like, you can't recognize his face anymore. Yeah. He goes crazy on him. He's got some rage hiding underneath. And Sloan's like watching from the shadows. And this is super pivotal because when Rowan's done, he pauses and calls out her name. And he waits and it's silent for a minute.

And then she answers. him. He's a little worried he scared her off with his rage. Well, because it was like territorial rage. It wasn't just like regular raid. He's like that she's mine. Before he killed him, he told the victim. Was this guy a victim? I don't know. The well deserved victim. Both can be true. And he deserved it. Yeah. Yeah, he did. But he did tell him she's mine. And that's what I'm going to kill you. Yeah. How dare you? How very dare you? And Sloan, she comes out of the shadows. And she just kind of touches him softly and she's like, I'm here. And then they clean up the evidence and go home. But Sloan takes the cat with her. At this point, you go, okay, she's kind of a bleeding heart.

It was a humane thing to do. She felt bad for the cat, yeah. She's not this vicious killer that we think she is, even though she is. I am going to say, if you're really good at this, you just took evidence, you having that cat, if the police ever get onto these two, which they never well, which also Never. Interesting. Yeah, they don't really touch on that. It's like, oh, no, they'll get away with everything. But she did take evidence from the crime scene and plans to nurture this cat.

A little bit of a pothole. I didn't mind it. Well, also, they stayed at the inn. Like, their stuff is all over. And they stayed at the end for days as they were cleaning it up. They would have been the last two people to check in, I assume. Definitely. Maybe the last two to check out, too.

Well, that's probably almost a guarantee. Yeah. I don't think they're getting their deposit back. No, not likely. Sloan, she's kind of catching some feelings and is not really liking it. Lark, her bestie, is still pushing her to explore that attraction, open herself up. So Sloan hesitantly decides to fly out to Boston to see Rowan's restaurant that he owned. Just crazy, just awful.

Well, her friend talked her into it. Yeah, Lark was pushing her. Oh, the last time I've seen this guy, he bashed someone's face and I'm going to fly across country. For me. And just not tell him. I'm just going to sit in a corner and see if you can't. They've been talking on text and like FaceTime. It took me a minute to realize that this game that they play where they are competing to get the next serial killer is annual.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's drawn out. They go years without similar to each other. I'm going to go ahead and call this a slow burn. It is, but I liked it. I liked the burn. It wasn't torture. Well, it was for Rowan.

But they were slowly building that relationship. And he knew that she was skittish. So he was doing that in a nice way. So she does fly out to Boston. She gets into the restaurant and she sits at this table and she's ready to run at any second. But while she's there, she's drawing a picture because she's an artist, which we learn about her murders as well. She is very artistic in the way that she murders people. She's called the orb weaver.

What she does is basically weave a web that entangles the body as well as the eyeballs. She cuts out their eyeballs. She plucks them out like a lady. She plucks out their eyeballs and hangs them in this web done with fishing line. That she pre-creates in her hotel so that she can set it up. Weeks in advance. When the cops come in, they know it's her because there's this web. But it's also a map.

with coordinates. And clues. And then where she puts the eyeballs and the body parts that she puts in the web is also where their victims are. Yeah. So she's trying to give them clues. But they're like, the FBI, not so smart, I guess. Because they're not grasping it. I'm also not smart because they never caught. Never got them. Either one of these two who do a lot of things that could have get them. Yes, right. She's sitting there and on this napkin, she's drawing a blackbird. When she sees him, she's like, I got to go. This was a mistake. I'm out of here. She freaks out.

She's running out the door. And you hear Rowan get pissed at the matre d because he's like, I told you to tell me when she's here. And the girl's like, sorry, forgot. And he's pissed. You realize he didn't know she was coming, but he had a standing order that it should She ever came. This is like where you will sit her and you will tell me immediately. For years.

For years. And like they couldn't sit anybody at that booth. No one sat at that table. In a very high demand restaurant that like was always packed, that booth was always waiting for her. It was like. Yeah. But it was it was the perfect seat, right? It was the perfect booth.

It was just like she would have picked between the exit and the entrance. It was perfect. There was a really beautiful woman that came in and was looking for him. and she didn't know their relationship. This was one of the reasons she ran because she felt really stupid. Like, oh my gosh, he could be in a relationship. I don't know.

Their banter was flirtatious, but not obvious. It doesn't cross a line. So when she saw this woman, she was like, what am I doing? I'm going to look so foolish. And that was part of the reason she ran out of her. Well, I think it was only flirtatious because he didn't know where she stood.

So he didn't want to cross that line. So he's constantly like, hey. He was trying to slow walk it, so he didn't scare her away. The brother was there. They were like celebrating the brother. So they had like a big group of 10 people and she got really overwhelmed. The brother knew exactly who she was and was trying to get her to stay.

That's right. He tried to stop her. You could see this playing out in a movie how like awkward this would be for her. I would love this to be a movie. That's so awful. So she goes home. She's freaked out. She's talking to him on text and stuff.

But she's really like, I need to back off. I don't know what the relationship is. I don't know what's going on. And then we find out that Rowan just zooms on down to Raleigh. Stalking her as he does. He's cute stalking, though. It is cute. It's okay.

He doesn't want her to run her way again. What's the level? There's a spectrum, Zach. A spectrum of stalking that goes right between cute and creepy. There's some we're okay with and there's some or not. Where's the line? It's subjective. It moves.

It gets fuzzy. Perfect. That's really eye opening. How likable is our stalker? How cute is he? Does he have an accent? Yes. Yeah.

Does he have an Irish brogue? I mean, then he gets a little more liquid. That's what I've been missing. That's it. Practice. I've been light stocking this whole time. That's right. Yeah.

You're a semi-stalker. Yeah. Stocking light. So Rowan, he's going to lean on his strings. He's a chef, right? So he hires this kid to go grab groceries and drop them off and deliver them to Sloan every day for like a week. So he basically keeps relocating himself so he can see her, but he walks her through making dinner every day until the last day and then he has to go back to

work. It's just super cute, kind of stocky at the same time, but you know, it's so sweet. And then they don't see each other. So he goes back and all he's thinking is he could just see her face opening the door looking for the groceries and nothing being there. And he feels really bad about Not bad enough. He still leaves. Well, I mean, he does have a restaurant. He should have just dropped his entire livelihood to make sure she got groceries every morning. Priorities, am I right? We can survive on murder alone.

Well, we learn that. We do learn that, Jeff. That is the lesson of this book. The big one. They're starting to really build this banter, and they're starting to get to know each other. So here we go. Fast forward again. We've got a year later. It's time for the competition. Their next victim. This was my first. favorite was Thorsten Harris. He is a somewhat eccentric man.

Sloan's been doing her research on this dude. Unlike Rowan, who just kind of comes in hot, Sloan is at this big party. She is actually interacting. She has this guy on the hook. And there plops down, Rowan. She's like, God, I was so close. She's been grooming this victim for days.

For days. He walks up and just. wipes them. But when you're as smooth as Rowan, you could just walk in the room and you just went. Yeah. You're not wrong. And he's very charming. Right. She's mad. And Rowan somehow gets them both invited back to Thorsten's for a fancy dinner. But Thurston, the serial killer, is like, woohoo, two victims for one. Right. This should be fun. And one of them's a chef. And I love to throw dinner party. So you'll have to tell me all about the fair. So he's super excited to get his opinion. While they're at the house, they're attended to by this nonverbal withdrawn servant, David.

They think he was given like a lobotomy. They do. Because he is known for lobotomizing his victim. They assume that this guy's been lobotomized. He saves them from street life and all these things and kind of reels in these victims. Sloan immediately is like, ooh, he's been lobotomized. Rowan, on the other hand, is just not quite as sharp as Sloan is at this dinner. He's kind of an idiot the whole time.

Like, she's the smart one. He's here for the dinner. party. Hey, pass the wine. For a serial killer, he's insanely interesting. He does not get it. No. I understand what they're putting down. So I'll take seconds. Yeah, this is delicious. Rowan's eating tons. He's like commenting on the flavors and he's like, oh, everything's so good. And Sloan is like, no, thank you. I'm not eating anything because she's figured

out that Thorsten is actually a cannibal. And this is human. She knows who he is and Rowan doesn't, which I don't know how he doesn't, like, make these connections. Because he didn't do any research. He just shows up. He's not as organized about a serial killing as she is. What do you think she's just going to go to dinner with this guy? Like, she's going on a date. Like, what do you think he's doing there, you idiot? Right. So she's watching the wine and she sees the killer is drinking the wine. So she drinks it. And then all of a sudden there's a new bottle of wine. He doesn't drink that. So she doesn't drink it. But Rowan is like, hey, more wine. Glug, glug. Yeah. I think. Rowan was more going in thinking it wasn't going to be anything. And Rowan has no clue that they're at a serial killer's house.

Right. Little arrogant. He was trying to figure it out. He knew something was up, but he didn't know. But did he know that that was the mark? I don't know that he did. I think he was an idiot about the whole thing. I think so too.

And she's like trying to tell him across the tables. She's like stepping on his feet. I mean, she's trying so hard. She's like pointing to David like, like, ooh, lobotomy. lobotomy, and he's like, what? I don't understand. So basically, Thorsten drugs Rowan, at which time Rowan decides,

I should confess my love for Sloan, and then eat some human meat and passes out. After going, wow, this is great. This is so good, the flavors are excellent. So after a little while, he wakes up, and he finds Sloan has tied Thorsten to his chair, She is setting up a murder scene, particular with her orb weaver signature. She's rolling out the tarps with the threads on him.

She's busy at work. Rowan wakes up to her plucking the eyeballs out of this man's head. She's in midstream, right? I think on the second eyeball. So then she starts opening up to Rowan and she starts confessing her first victim, why she picked that victim, which was a professor who took advantage. of her best friend. So now that's her goal in life is to hunt evil men, which I did find very interesting because there were no female victim in this book. And they keep talking about how they

hunt the evil men. So I'm curious if down the line we have some evil women and if they go after them tears, no evil women. It's just men. Are we for real? I was going to get such opinion on that. I'm waiting. Holy bias. Right. Right. Right. Right. Sloan, then she starts kind of taking care of Rowan who is throwing up. I mean, he is like projectile vomiting at this point. Poor guy. What made him throw up when she told him what was in the food?

She was like, oh, did you not like that? Was it chewed? Oh, it was human flesh. Did you enjoy that? And he's like, blah, blah, blah, get it out, get it out, get it out. All this DNA everywhere. So she's cleaning it all up. So they walk into the kitchen.

And this is one of my favorite parts. They see David. He's sitting up on a table. He's just swinging his legs, having a good time, and he's eating ice cream out of the cart. He had his cookies and cream or Oreos or something like that. Slow goes over and she notices that the carton has its own special label on it. Homemade. And it's homemade ice cream with the recipe, the ingredients on it. And it's basically human semen. And he's loving it. He's licking the spoon and he's like into it.

And they're both like, bo, bull. Can't do it. And they realize, David's probably been eating this stuff all along. So here's where Sloan comes in again. Just like Winston the cat, she's like, we can't leave David here.

It's inhumane. He needs help. You should give him a job at the restaurant. Yeah, I took the cat. You take this human. Your turn. Talk about even more evidence. Yeah.

And they just take this guy. for what they assume he is. Which is crazy. Rowan's like, are you kidding me? She's like, well, your brother can do the research on him. See if he has any family. Somebody's missing him. You don't really find out anything more until way later in the book on David.

But he basically goes to work at the restaurant. They haven't found any background on him. And he's just this little lobotomized dude washing dishes. Supposed. Oh. Eight months later. Fast forward again. Now, at this point, our characters have not even slipped.

together. No, that's the slow burn. They hinted around to it. Crazy. This is like three, four years of just nothing intimate. It's a lot of verbal foreplay. And they're having a great time doing it. I was here for it. Me too. I didn't hate it. And normally I'm like, oh, it's too slow. Hurry up. And this one I wasn't. It was written very well. It was a page turner. Good pace. Agreed. And for not like a not being a softcore, I guess book, they had great communication throughout the entire thing that nobody in my life. life has. Well, you need more serial killers.

That's obviously the problem. Domesticated killing is what makes communication. I mean, you know, every relationship is different, Zach. Right. That's true. Don't fall into the trap of expecting to find someone that it's as good as your romance books because that's a tall order. So, eight months later, Rowan invites Sloan to a gala. And Sloan is like, oh, my God, we're going on a date.

This is going to be good. She gets all gussied up. However, it is a date, but it's more of a, let's ease Sloan into this. She would need a reason to come see me. So I'm going to give her a reason. They get to the gala and Sloan finds out it's not a real date. It's a murder date. We have another victim. And she's disappointed. She's upset. But she notices right away who's at the party. And it's this doctor who was murdering patients. Something happens where Rowan It's an emergency call from the restaurant, and he's got to go. Date ends. Sloan's frustrated. They're still texting and stuff, but she feels like maybe he doesn't have feelings for me like I have for him. Well, and that's the thing. Like, he's trying to slow walk her into it.

She's getting feelings, but it doesn't know how he feels. So there is a lot of miscommunication, too, in how they can aren't sinking up or they are and they don't know how to communicate that. He kind of did, though, because even when he like picked her up, she was like, what are you driving and he's like, well, I'm not taking the prettiest girl in this Honda accord. He's like, I'm not doing that. That's true. He's hitting on her, but in the slowest way possible so he doesn't scare her.

Right. Yeah. Right. Because she's so skittish all the time. Yeah. She really is. But he claims her throughout the whole thing, to her face. No, it's not always to her face.

Then there were question marks. Like he's invited me on this date, but now he's talking about murder. So does he want me here for this or that? Because she never bites. So he sends out so many signals and just so many lures. And she's just like, okay, anyway. Yeah, but she's not used to relationships. And remember how she got into the whole murder thing, she's had bad relationships too.

So four months later, it's time for our competition again. This was my favorite one. It opens up with him standing at the edge of a field. And she's like, what are you doing? And he's like, trying to get up the courage. And she's like, what are you talking about? And she looks out into the field, the visualization on this house. It's a murder shack.

A murder shack. It's like they... You're thinking, it reminds me of that commercial where the dumb teenagers run in front of the chainsaw and tool shed. And they're like, let's hide here. I just picture this grown buff dude just kind of like hopping in place going, okay, okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

It is a track suit. Yeah. And then she just casually strolls. up like, what? Doop to do. Yeah. And you visualize kind of a Mike Myers scene with the dark shed with junk on the porch. I think at one time they're like, is that a possum?

Just leather face very, yeah. Yeah. So it's very creepy. That's their first one, right? Like the first murder across the board that both of them were talking about that they're like, I don't think I've ever been to a place this creepy to murder somebody. Yeah. They both had a bad feeling.

Rightfully so. And it might have been the chainsaw noises in the background with the cackling laugh. And the screaming. Yeah. Then they start realizing like he's literally trying to kill someone right now. There were clues. Right. So in the audible, it has it in the background.

I don't know if you all like actually heard it, but like the cackling and the actual like ambios for it. It's insane. Yeah, I was like, ooh. I'm glad I didn't do that. This was one of the best audibles. of her. It was good. So they're going to go in and he's like, let's stay together. And she's like, no. I think they rock, paper, scissured to who had to go in the front and who had to go in the back. She is very

independent to a fault in this way. He's worried, but he's like, okay, I got to trust her. She goes in, he goes around back. And she finds a room with cameras. She's seeing the monitors and she sees Rowan is about to get hit by this Harvey guy. Harvey Meade. She sees it and she screams. Rowan turns around and unfortunately she runs right into Harvey. Into the bad guy. He beats the crap out of her, throws her in some sort of cellar, so she's injured, but Rowan binds her and rescues her. But while she's down there, there's another victim in there.

Whose husband was just at the other side of a chainsaw. We heard him die while we were waiting and getting the courage to go team. But again, we see this side of Sloan. She takes off her shirt and gives it to this poor next. victim in there. But leaves her in there. To help her. Well, she does leave her, but rightly so.

She's safer there. But when Rowan sees her and sees that her shirts off, he's enraged now. He's mad. Well, and she's kind of hurt. Like, didn't she have, like, a broken elbow or something? Her shoulder was out of whack. Long story short, they end up seeing Harvey's mummified corpse of a mother. Yeah.

And Sloan's like, oh, I'm going to use this. They do get the upper hand on him and kind of knock him out, right? Then they tie him up. And then she, like, gives up, goes, I'll be right back. We don't know what she's doing. Runs and gets the mummified mom. Goes against mom. And then, like, lays the mummified mom on him.

So when he comes out of unconsciousness, like, that's the first thing he sees. And he goes apesh. Yeah. Crazy. As you would. He dies of a heart attack. Ruining the whole murder plan. It was very sad for them.

Yeah. She was so upset. It cuts their fun short. But I like when she saw them. the mama was like, what kind of bitch must she have been? Because a lot of serial killers have overbearing mothers. Okay, well, they can't go to a hospital now. And she's hurt. So they drive to Nebraska where Rowan's brother, Fian, the younger trauma surgeon lids. He currently has a house guest named Rose, who I loved Rose, by the way. She invites them in.

She was cooking. She takes care of Sloan. Rowan then starts to get a little closer to Sloan. now their best friends. They've decided that they're best friends. He helps her bat. So they finally, they finally have sex. While she's recovering. Despite her injuries. With the safe word being chainsaw. Which I thought was hilarious. I was here for it. It's very fitting. That's a good safe word. It was very hot, spicy sex. But afterwards, she sees he has this massive tattoo on his body of a raven that he got years ago. And she's just like, It's the picture she drew in the restaurant. It was like, and he's just super casual about it. She's like, you get a tattoo of that?

And he goes, yep, seem so. And he just moves on. Well, and he says it, I didn't want to carry it around with me because I would ruin it. And I didn't want to lose it. So now it's with me at all times. And it was just like, oh, oh, so sweet. And I think this is at the point where he says, I would kill for you and I have. I would do it again every damn day.

I'd turn myself inside out for you. I would die for you. you. I don't just like you, Sloan, and you fucking know it. And it's just like, oh, okay. Okay. She's starting to realize. She's like he does like me. This is something more. So Sloan up and moves to Boston with him because she's recovering and he's like, you're coming home with me. Meanwhile, Rowan is trying to open this new restaurant and he names it Butcher and the Blackburn. And nobody knows it's because they're both mass murderers and that's what they do. But they call him Boston Butchew.

It just doesn't care. Nobody picks up on that, Zach. It's, shh. They leave a lot of breadcrumbs for the cops. Especially this. Yeah. Right. Big neon side.

They start confessing their love to each other, but not so much as like, I love you. I love you. It's more of like little things that they're doing. Rowan is slammed with work. Things keep going wrong. The restaurant just keeps having all these weird issues. And he's tired. Another emergency comes up at work.

And Rowan's got to go. And they've done some very spicy, hot moments at the restaurant. It's very good. They're getting it in when they can. He's busy. But they don't see each other that much. But she's having some insecurities because she doesn't see him a lot. But she's trying to be understanding.

But there's a little, there's like an inkling of doubt in her. And that's important. And he keeps saying, we can talk about this like normal people. If you start to get scared, let's talk about it. So he says, why don't you meet me at the restaurant? We'll have a conversation. we'll talk about it. Rowan goes back to the restaurant and all of the sudden it's revealed lobotomy Dave is behind all of the unexpected problems. Lo and behold, he is not lobotomized at all.

He is a sleeper serial murder. Willingly eating semen ice cream. I just want to point that out. Yeah. He did that because he likes it. It's over creepy. You find out he has been kind of tracking their movements for quite some time. And he ends up clinging to other murderers to hide under the radar from them. So, I mean, that's kind of impressive that he knew how good they were, even though, I mean, I have questions. He was worried for his life because they were so good at what they did. He knew he would be on their list.

So he hooked up with Thorsten and came up with this scheme to be this dummy servant, whatever. But in actuality, like, he enjoyed eating human flesh. And he was kind of a creeper psycho too. So, and now he's ready to kill Rowan and Sloan. But he wants Rowan first. So he tells Rowan, you got to get rid of Sloan. Otherwise, I'm going to kill you both. I'm going to kill you first, then I'm going to kill her.

And make you watch. Yeah. So Sloan shows up to the restaurant. This was so heartbreaking for me. She shows up to the restaurant and Rowan basically breaks her heart. He preys on all her insecurities. Well, at first he does it kind of in a push way where he's referencing why they aren't normal. He tries to give her a couple of clues as to what's going on, but she's not picking up on it.

He tells her, he told her something back in April on the 10th or the 13th. He dances around it and she keeps arguing with him and she's pleading with him because she's like, now I'm in. Let's talk about this. So he cranks it up, right? And he just crushes her. She's sobbing and she asks him, why can't. Can't you love me? What's wrong with me? Tell me. And he responds, because you're a fucking psycho. That's why. You kill people and cut bits of them off and make an elaborate show of it, stringing up some bad shit crazy map that no one can figure out but you. Then you gouge out their fucking eyes and make them into decorations. I know I'm no fucking saint, but that shit's next level insane. And that's what's wrong with you, Sloan. you're unhinged, you're going to crash and burn,

and you'll take me with you if I let this keep going. You need to fucking leave. I'm just like so sad. It was so awful. And you can feel her, like, just her heartbreaking. She had just started trusting, and yeah, he just crushed her. What sucks is it had to go that far, right? Because she was just constantly like, okay, make an excuse, make an excuse, make an excuse.

It was just like, I need to just basically kill you. To do it. Yeah, because she wasn't going to let it go. Well, and get her out of the state. Right, right. He had to be so mean that she would leave the state. And then just give her a massively wrong date. Yeah, he was like, there was all these, like, inconsistencies of what he was saying,

but he said enough to get her the hell out of there. Also, to remember the specific date that you said something and to be saying it in a situation like that, like, holy obsession. So maybe he is smart. Yeah, like hard spectrum levels of obsession where you're like, yeah, I remember two and a half years ago when I messaged this one line. Right. I'm going to change the date a little. But she remembers that too.

She picked up on her. She was like, that didn't seem right. But she had to go check. He didn't have to check. He just knew. She's pissed now. And she's ignoring. She's ignoring it because all she hears is emotion.

Like she's upset. She's mad. She's angry. She's hurt. She goes back. She's packing shit up. And she's like, wait a minute. If I'm going to leave, I'm going to leave and I'm going to look fucking badass. I'm going to look good.

And she does. Like she dolls up. She puts on her fake eyelashes. She's like hot, which I didn't understand. Because he's not there. She's going to doll up to get on a flight. Yeah. He's not there.

And go home. I'd be like sweatpants. Pull up my hair. Hot can do a lot for your self-confidence. She needed a boost. But do you know how much time that would have taken her to get ready? Right. He's just at gunpoint.

The time well spent. Well, she's. She doesn't know he's a dumb point. She doesn't. No, but I understand. The point is, he sent her away and then he's just like, I'm screwed. I'm screwed. Yeah, this is this.

Well, he knows he's screwed, too. Yeah, he knows. While he's getting slice and diced by David, she gets on the phone with Lark. And she's like, oh, he broke up with me. This is what he did. And she's like, that's so weird. I don't think he would do that. She's like, yeah.

He just kept saying this thing about this message. And then it clicks. All of the sudden, she's. He's like, wait a minute. That doesn't seem right. He should know that date. That was like two days before his birthday. She starts going back.

She pulls up the messages and she's like, holy shit. He's trying to tell me something. What we don't know is that she installed her own set of cameras in the restaurant. Oh, we know. Typical. Not creepy. They're both stalkers. Psycho level two.

She just wanted to watch it. They cancel each other out. Right. Exactly. She pulls up the cameras and she sees. he's David just going to town on Rowan. He's using like a mandolin and like taking off layers of his skin. She's freaked out. She calls Lockland and she's like, I need everything on David and I need it now. She is hauling ass to the restaurant. She's running with her little scalpel. So she gets there and she

starts messing with David. Like she is psychologically playing with him, kind of like she did with Harvey. She's like, I don't really love him. He's a loser and downplaying her love for Rowan. And Rowan's just sitting there going, oh, wait a minute. I thought, I thought you like the single tier. He's tied up bleeding and he's like, I'm not supposed to take strays. It's all the years. Well, he deserves that after when he did. He did. He totally deserved it. And David's got a crush on her. Oh, yeah. She's playing into that. She knows what she's doing. Right. Well, and again, she looks hot and she's like, let's kill him together. Oh, I could get rid of that. I only needed him for this. She has the gun in her hand. She gives it back to David. And I think at this point, Rowan's like, oh, wait a minute.

Should I believe this? Hold on. This is kind of weird. She gives it back to David. When he takes it, she slices him. His arm and his neck instantly takes him out. She's more comfortable with the knife. She's a knife girl. Yeah. He's gushing blood everywhere. And this was my. favorite part of the book. Everyone's like, oh, I love you. And she's like, no, you deserve this. And you should sit there. And they're arguing, it's just the cutest banter between them.

I won this one. I'm counting this as a win. That's fair. That's three for me. Best of five. Deserved, totally. And I'm still very angry with you. I get it, love.

I want to stab you. Yeah, that makes sense. Please, not my dick, though, or my balls, or my pretty face. He reveals his true feelings. And he says to her, you've never been unlovable. You were just waiting for someone to love you. for who you are, not what they want you to be. And I mean, aren't we all just waiting for that person?

Well, because that's when she claimed she's like, I may be a psycho, but you're my psycho. You're my psycho, yeah. She needed a little therapy before she could untie him. She needed to hear what she needed to hear. He's like, I'm bleeding out. Would you mind? And she's like, no. And he's like, okay, that can wait, back and wait.

She's like, I'm the winner. I won. He goes, yep, yep, that's fair. Yeah. You did. Untie me, please. Yeah. We're almost to the end, readers. Fast forward again. Lark is now moving to Boston. We get a little bit of Lachlan's grumpiness and you learn a little bit about Lachlan. But Sloan designs this tattoo to cover up Rowan's skin issues that he now has. Scars, yeah. From his squabble with David with these colorful tattoos. There's significance in the color. Well, in general, because she doesn't do art. Because he was like, I want to see more and more of your art. And she goes, I haven't done that since I first started killing. And she just hasn't found the love for it.

Because the professor that was hitting on everybody and hurting people was her art teacher. So she's traumatized. For her to do something in color for him was like a massive significant. It was huge. He was really moved. It was really sweet. And he went in blindfolded to get this tattoo also. So that's a lot of trust, especially to sit there as someone scratches in your skin.

That just got grafted. Which probably really hurt. I mean, he already got the bird. He was a tattoo guy. She makes him hotter. So anyway, the two of them finally hunt down the doctor from the gala. The couple of kills together. And Rowan takes a moment.

This is the weirdest, funniest, cutest. I don't know. Anyway, he takes a moment to stuff this napkin in the eye socket of their victim after Sloan has plucked them out. And he teases her about her symmetry on the plucking in order for her to go up there and pull it out. She sees it. And she's like, it's basically a proposal. with a ring and everything. And she's like,

did you just propose on a napkin with a ring you stuffed in a guy's eye hole? And he's like, yep. He's like trying to back pedal. He's like, well, I mean, it sounds better in my head. You don't like it? I felt like it would be good. And she stops him and she says,

it's fucking perfect. Bam, they're engaged. Yay! Array! And we kind of end with Rowan saying, we're not normal people. We're monsters. But if we're monsters,

will thrive in the dark together. Aww. So cute. And then we went and fucked it up by adding an epilogue. Oh. I don't think an epilogue's a bad thing. I know you guys don't.

That's how you know it's an H-E-A. But the epilogue also like pushed into... It's the intro to the next... Yeah, we're setting up book too. Yeah, leather and lark. But the epilogue ends with the two of them being engaged and they're being watched by kind of a mysterious stranger. Yeah.

An unnamed sibling of one of Rowan's unnamed Big Dead. Now, we all know who this is, right? Back when they were doing the Francis killing, Francis claimed he wasn't the one doing all of the murders. Multiple times. So my guess, and I'm guessing because I haven't read it. I assumed it was David's brother. I don't think so.

I think it's Francis's brother. And I don't know because I haven't read the next book. This is my speculation. How far are you into book, too, Zach? I'm like towards the end. I think I have like a chapter or two left. So is Kim right about the murder? I'm going to leave that to...

No, we like spoilers. Go ahead. He's like too bad. There's a lot to it. It's not just very like cut and dry. Like, oh, that's who it is because it's not really about Butcher and Blackbird. It's very much about the banter and kind of the arguments that leather and lark have. There's hints at like other things that happen with them.

but it's not really about them. Okay. I actually liked Leather and Lark better. Did you? Oh, interesting. I liked the relationship. Like, if I had to, like, compare it to a relationship that I would want other than the domestic violence.

Good call. Yeah. I would probably want the Butcher in Blackbird, only because they're very lovey banter and it's very sarcastic and witty throughout the entire thing. Whereas Leather and Lark, it's more of, like, a love-hate kind of thing. Lark is just like, oh, he's this butchery and very, grumpy dude. He's very like grit and he can go away for me. And she's just like, oh, you're so

funny. Ha ha ha. And then you have like sunshine and grumpy. I love those. Golden Retriever Black Cat. Yeah. Yeah. I did enjoy that relationship a lot. I'm not gritty enough for that. You might be the golden retriever in the situation. I don't know if that's toxic or though, but we're going to I would agree with Kim. That's not a bad thing. No, it's not bad. You don't want to be the grumpy to someone's sunshine. And I would like to point out that when we first approach Zach on this, I said, what book do you want to read? And we both went to a bookstore together and he actually picked this book. I love it. Let's talk about ratings because I do live a good banter minus the epilogue. I'm going to give it a four. I enjoyed it and I listened to it and I read it because I like to trade off. But God,

Rowan, so great. Four across the board. I love the writing. I love the scenery. I loved everything about it. Lynn? I will also give the book a four. It was a bit of a slow burn, which I don't usually like, but the banter was so good and like the relationship was so good and how they set it up was so good that like I honestly didn't care. It was their foreplay that sucks you in. The sex got there in the end and I thought it was really well done in. Jen? I actually gave this a four and a half. I love the pace of the book. I thought the writing was great. This book is very popular and I've been avoiding it for a couple of years because I knew there was cannibalism in it. And we had read another book. You're so weird about that. Yeah. I mean, it just gives me the ick a little, you know. But when Zach picked it,

I was like, all right, I'll read it. And I was so pleasantly surprised. It was such a great read. I couldn't put it down. And the audible was amazing. So four and a half for me, I really enjoyed it. Nice. All right, Z-man? I would probably give it a four, four-and-a-half. I really enjoyed the banter. personally don't like heavy smutton books. I understand that that is kind of the premise of a lot of these books. And our show. But there's a time and a place for all the literature out there, right? As far as the book goes, I loved how it built more on their relationship and how their dynamic was. Even when they were large gaps of time that they were apart, it showed that they were still caring for each other. They showed they were constantly communicating and still being very open with each other when they were still closed off.

I just really love how that was with. Okay. Spice. For me, the spice was when it happened, it was good spice. I enjoyed it. There wasn't a lot of it, but again, it's quality over quantity for me today. So, uh, how do you? Today. Yeah, we always change us every week to week.

You're pickle. You caught that, right? Yeah, totally. I'm going to give it a four. There were parts when he would talk to her. I was like, I'm a four. I could see myself in some of those scenes. I'm just saying.

You're making Zach uncomfortable. I know. I gave it a three for spice because I was going for quantity. The quality was good, but there just wasn't a lot of it. And as much as I liked the way the book was well-rounded, the annual nature of it, and the fact that it took so long. And then if they didn't see each other that often, I didn't love. I was hoping these were like monthly.

Murder sprays. Gatherings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's got to be more male serial killers out there. there, you know. A lot of killer. So, um, take it out. I'm going for a three, but the sex when it was there was quite hot. I'm with Lynn. It was a three just because of the quantity,

but the quality was great. It was well written. It was good stuff. Three for me as well. I would give it a four. I actually liked his lines throughout all of it. Like the, your trembling Blackbird was wild. I was like, that's crazy. Well, and especially with the audio, his voice went every time he went into anything remotely sexual it just like slightly lowered and it was just like okay like all right settle down

don't be jealous I like at the end when she said are you gonna use her safe word and he goes fuck no and he's just like casually sitting there and he's just like hey you know grab onto something and she's like what?

Yeah he knew his way around the bedroom which was very sexy A lot of control Okay so that is bitcher in the blackbird by Bryden Weaver. Thank you guys so much for joining us today. Make sure you like, follow us on all the socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and now YouTube. Tell your friends, you can also head to boozy bookgasms.com to check out our reading list, cocktail recipes,

or contact us directly to tell us what you're reading or what you think we should be reading by emailing Jen at boozy bookgasms.com. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Happy reading. Thanks for tuning. Bye. We hope today's episode was the climax of your day. leaving you breathless and wanting more.

Until next time, remember to indulge in the pleasures of life and to keep the passion alive. You can find more tantalizing episodes at boozybookgasms.com. Enjoy the ride, and we'll see you soon.