Leather and Lark

“Just like in nature, the prettiest things are often the most poisonous.”

I honestly didn't think I could love a book more than Butcher & Blackbird but holy cow. I think this one is so much better. Lark is probably my favorite character that Brynne Weaver has in this series. She's a "multiple deleter" with a flair and I adore her for it. She's the perfect level of quirk while also masking to be who she thinks others need her to be. Lark would literally do anything to protect the ones she loves, even if that means marrying the man she can't stand... Lachlan Kane. It's perfect because Lachlan doesn't really see beneath the carefree persona for a long time; which provides for some amazing banter between the two. The only time it gets show more better... after she discovers that dear sweet Lachlan enjoys a little smut reading. I loved how the humor really managed to balance out the intense and horrible dynamics of the book.
What I don't love is that yet again Brynne Weaver has decided to ruin more foods for me. Also what is it with this woman and eyes? But no for real... if you loved B&B I am telling you that this one will surpass it for you. You aren't even going to believe how quickly you fall in love with Lachlan and even Lark. I enjoyed so much about this book that I don't even know what to focus on. I think my absolute favorite character has to be Ethel. The woman literally does whatever she wants and isn't afraid of anyone or anything and I love that about her. I loved the pacing of this one and the extra element of a threat we don't know. Brynne Weaver is really learning to make me enjoy the slow burn to be honest. Oh does she know how to ramp up the tension between characters to the perfect moment. And I have to admit I did not see that bonus chapter coming... pun intended. show less

I LOVE Lachlan and Lark
I LOVE Ethel
I LOVE the slowburn and tension of this book
And I LOVE the grumpy / sunshine aspect of this book.
I read this book in two sittings. Absolutely devoured it as if it was one of Ethel’s famous muffins!

Leather and Lark was the slowburn, enemies to lovers, serial killer *correction* MULTIPLE DELETERs romance I NEEDED in my life. This one had a more serious tone to it compared to Butcher and Blackbird but Brynne said she wanted to write a story that gave justice to the journey and trauma healing that Lachlan and Lark go on and I gotta say, I really feel like she did.

My only complaint: I could’ve used a few more deletion scenes. I remember giggling and laughing so hard I cried in B&B and was really show more looking forward to that happening in L&L but I think the humor was more subtle than I was expecting.

Lachlan and Lark remind me SO much of Lana and Logan in the Mindfck series. And if you’ve read both of those then you probably understand why I’d feel that way. If you haven’t, what are you even doing?!

Overall, I still very much love the ruinous love trilogy and am VERY MUCH looking forward to Fionn and Rose’s story! I need answers dammit!!! show less

Christ. Jesus.

I lived this book! I was so worried that it wouldn't live up to the love I had for Butcher and Blackbird, but oh my! It did!!

Brynne Weaver *chefs kiss*

I do, however, give a warning. I listened to this book on audible. Unless you don't mind giggling, gasping and blushing out loud while shopping in public, I wouldn't suggest listening to this while out and about, especially that bonus chapter!

This second book in the trilogy stars Lark (indie singer-songwriter, beloved and pampered daughter of the wealthy Covaci family, and serial killer Sloane's best friend) and Lachlan (Rowan's older brother, and a contract killer who'd like to retire and focus on his leatherworking). The first time they meet, Lachlan is wearing a mask and a wetsuit and has been hired to clean up after Lark's latest "accident." What Lark can't bring herself to tell anyone, not even Sloane, is that she's a serial killer who's deliberately targeting men like the teacher who abused her when she was younger. Lachlan, however, assumes she's a spoiled, rich, walking disaster and treats her as such...which gets him in trouble with his boss when it affects his show more boss's contract with Lark's wealthy father.

A year or so later, Lark learns that someone has been killing members of her family, and that her parents suspect Lachlan might be responsible. Unfortunately, by taking care of this "problem," they'd be hurting Rowan and, by extension, Sloane. Lark can't let that happen, so she latches on to the best solution she can think of - pretend that she and Lachlan have suddenly fallen in love and decided to get married, and then work with Lachlan to find the actual culprit. Lachlan agrees to the plan because mending things with the Covaci family might make his boss more willing to let him retire, and because he genuinely wants to help Lark figure out the truth, but he and Lark haven't exactly gotten along since that time he locked her in the truck of a car. Still, there's an attraction between them, and as they spend more time together they start to realize that they might have misjudged each other.

This didn't quite live up to the unhinged fun that was the first book. Despite Lark's little serial killing hobby and Lachlan's job, this somehow read like a more traditional romance than the first book. Lark and Lachlan had some nice moments as they worked together and got to know each other better, and, as a romantic hero, Lachlan probably worked a bit better for me than Rowan. Still, I kind of missed the gleeful nastiness of the first book. As a serial killer, Lark was a lesser version of Sloane - not nearly as meticulous and careful, and she'd almost certainly have ended up in prison long ago if it weren't for her family's connections and money. Her storage methods for her trophies were risky, at best, and ugh, the table just made me think about all the stuff I've read about the difficulties of preserving fresh food items in epoxy resin.

I think I'd have preferred it if Lark hadn't been a killer at all. Her worries about what Sloane would think about her if she found out never made sense to me (seriously, Sloane would be the last person to judge something like that). Having her aware of Sloane's activities and the less legal things her family occasionally did would probably have been enough. At the same time, the first book set a pretty high bar for the kinds of gory messes this trilogy could deliver, and it would have been odd not to have any of that here.

I definitely still plan to read the last book, although I'm not really sure what sorts of expectations to have for that one. As far as I know, neither Rose nor Fionn is secretly a killer, so theoretically it'll be the most "normal" book of the bunch.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

The Best Friend and the Brother have instant sexual tension and massive miscommunication skills, so of course they get married. Questionable choices, pop culture references, and ruining food all in one enemies to lovers rom-com.

Overall reco: I liked it. I did. If you liked B&B you will probably like this. We didn't really get any addition time with Rowan and Sloane, they were there but it was very 2D. Like in B&B Lark and Lachlan and Fionn were very flat, as they were not the focus. Same here, but now L&L at the focus so R&S were flat. Not horrible. I struggled to stay focused. The characters were very verbose in their internal monologue, and I found myself kind of.. skipping it a little. I might listen to this as an audio book, cuz god show more damn Lachlan.

Oh. Additionally. I know so of you are like me and if there are pets in the story you NEED TO KNOW if they get hurt/survive/ect. Like I can't read stories with companion pet death. So. There are two spoiler tags. Click at your own risk. Does the dog get hurt?:yes Does the dog die?:NO

“Were you making your accent thicker to appeal to my mother and sister with your nonexistent Irish charm?” I hiss. Lachlan’s smile is nothing short of devious. “Ye wound me with yer accusations, me darlin’ wife.”

Plot: 4/5
Spice: 3/5
Characters: 5/5

From the creator who brough you questionable Ice Cream.. (plot)
Personally, cookies & cream ice cream wasn't ruined for me last time and the pizza thing won't ruin me either.. but man it might ruin smoothies? nah.
Overall the plot was pretty similar with B&B in that it's a funny rom-com style take on killers. Just a different set, the Best Friend and the Brother. The plot was interesting and if you didn't look too hard at the reasons for things being the way they are it was fine. It was easily believable, even the nature of the family business. I knew the food industry was cutthroat.
I DID like that while B&B had a bit of a plot that wasn't just two people falling in love, this one had a bit more to it. That added more tension and helped pull you along when the main characters became a bit heavy. that said I struggle bugged so hard to get through this. Maybe it was because I was reading this from my library and had a time limit and my ODD was kicking in? I dunno but I kept finding reasons to do almost anything but read this book. It took me a week when the first one took a day. I did have like other stuff going on and every time I got into it It would be like "ooo I like it" but then I'd be fiddling with music, or thinking about my next read or whatever..
Epilogue spoilers in 3... 2.. 1.. OH FUCK YOU. Aboslutely. 100% 1000% FUCK RIGHT OFF.

and a dragon onsie... (spice)
So again, struggled with the spice rating, and it only jumped because of the bonus chapter. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a more mainstream novel, this is not targeted to my absolutely filthy fucking mind.
It was good, scenes were written nicely. I feel like we only got maybe one scene in B&B and this time it was a few. That was nice. I expected a bit more, considering the man is a god damn leather worker and for some reason expected him to have a filthy fucking mouth. That bathroom scene set a tone that I don't feel it followed through with though.

Comes a missed feckin' opportunity...(characters)
When I added this to my list to read, right after B&B, someone on a facebook group was like "Oh I loved when he spoke Gaelic to her!" and my dirty little brain thought we were going to get a spice scene with him degrading her in Gaelic. Or being general a DOM in a fucking accent. that does not happen.. It is SUCH a missed opportunity. Like holy shit. HOLY SHIT. As the oldest of the 3, I was expecting so much from Lachlan and while I got a lot of what I wanted, I still feel a little like that was cut short. I like Lachlan but this book felt.. there were parts that made me like him MORE and parts that made me like him LESS. There is Broody and then there is Lachlan.

Miscommunication was a bigger trope in this book. In the last one it felt organic to the characters and this time a little less so? Like it makes sense that they are bad communicators but like this time there was AWARENESS of the miscommunication and that made me feel.. annoyed. I feel like the characters had fucking monologues in their fucking heads about their feelings and how much they loved each other but NO ONE FUCKING SAID ANYTHING. The author even makes a not of this with Lachlan. "I open my mouth to say this and nothing comes out." like DUDE. DUUUUUDE.

Lube levels..
My complaint here was with the bonus chapter. Like. Y'all I'm fully aware we don't know everything about these characters and their love lives. We get glimpse's and while I'm all down for so many things, including that. It felt kind of out of place? i dunno. That bonus scene did not change my overall rating, only my spice level. show less

3.25 True Rating | I just… didn’t love this one.

In fact, actively hated the female audiobook reader and switched to the physical copy since I couldn’t handle her giggling.

Once I got through that, I realized I didn’t really like her bubbly personality. It wasn’t cute, just annoying. And since/even though this is more enemies to lovers vibes, the banter wasn’t as fun as book 1. I wanted more jabs and goofiness once they learned to like one another but instead it was just gooey-love and sex. Also, I felt like there was backstory on the stalker but not enough to make me care about his story. He was the eye rolling sub-plot that just felt like it was in the way of getting to the romance bits. Book 1, I was engaged with both show more plots.

I’ll give Scythe and Sparrow (Book 3) a read though! show less

I found the first book of this series on Audible, Butcher & Blackbird, and I had no idea what to expect. The first book was funny and morbid and highly R rated. I knew I would finish out this trilogy as they came out. I pre-ordered [Leather & Lark] and finally decided to get around to it and I’m glad I did.
The trilogy is about three brothers who find love and seem to be surrounded by death and murder. The first book the brother was a serial killer and fell for another serial killer. In this book the oldest brother falls for a serial killer without knowing she is one.
This book had a lot of good moments and was a good laugh. It was definitely a more slow burn compared to the first book and she dialed back the X rated scenes quite a show more bit.
The third book I think will be my favorite as I always love characters who are doctors. Looking forward to its release in February.
★★★★★ show less