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Brynne Weaver’s Scythe & Sparrow, publishing February 11, is the third book in her popular Ruinous Love trilogy. The first book in the trilogy, Butcher & Blackbird, went viral on BookTok, became a bestseller, and topped library holds queues, and the second book, Leather & Lark, debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Readers are anxiously awaiting this new novel, so we were absolutely thrilled that Brynne was able to make some time to chat with us about this unique trilogy and why she thinks readers connect with her characters so deeply.
Ingram Library Services: Can you give us the elevator pitch for Scythe and Sparrow, and for the Ruinous Love Trilogy as a whole?
Brynne Weaver: In Scythe & Sparrow, Rose, an injured circus motorcycle performer with a deadly secret, crashes into the buttoned-down life of the adorably nerdy town doctor, Fionn Kane. The Ruinous Love series is about the murderous Kane brothers, who find love with equally strong and stabby women in a trilogy of interconnected dark romantic comedies.
ILS: The characters you’ve created—Rowan and Sloane, Lachlan and Lark—have become enormously beloved by your audience. What do you think has made readers so devoted to these characters?
BW: I believe that people find themselves in these characters—whether they’re shy and withdrawn like Sloane, or pining for someone who appears not to love them back like Rowan, or boldly masking the weight of caring for others like Lachlan and Lark. They find connections with them. They see their own vulnerabilities and insecurities. They see their own worries about whether or not they deserve love and happiness. For some readers, they’re able to experience fear and trauma through their eyes, and they can find some healing in experiencing those emotions in a safe environment. Because they see a piece of themselves in the characters, they care for them deeply.
ILS: This is the final novel in the trilogy. Did you know from the start how the series would end?
BW: Not even a little bit! Haha. I didn’t even know where the first book would end. I’m a true fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pantser, so I knew I wanted to write a friends-to-lovers in book one, a marriage of convenience in book two, and a small town romance with a town doctor in book three. That’s all I had to go on when I started.
The rest is, to me, the magic that comes as you get to listen in on the lives and conversations of your characters, and the story unfolds around them.
ILS: What’s been the most surprising thing about writing Scythe and Sparrow?
BW: How healing it was for me. I pretty much started writing Scythe & Sparrow a year after I’d started writing Butcher & Blackbird. A lot had happened since I hit publish for Butcher & Blackbird on August 14th, 2023! I found my amazing agent, the series was acquired by publishers worldwide, I moved countries, got a film deal, experienced the many highs and lows of a very fast and visible journey.
But when I wrote Scythe & Sparrow, it felt as though Fionn and Rose took care of me. Sometimes, a world can feel very wrought with challenges, or the characters want to fight each other every step of their journey to finding love (this can get tiring!), or I can become quite obsessive about their reality and experiences. But with Fionn and Rose, they really invited me into their world and made it very comforting to spend time with them.
ILS: What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
BW: You’re not allowed to make an author narrow it down to one! I don’t make the rules. Some recent favorites include The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava and Crossed Over by Santana Knox, both fantastic contemporary romance novels and very different from each other. I’m about to read an early copy of Nisha J. Tuli’s new contemporary romance, Not Safe For Work, and I’m so excited for that! I love Nisha’s work - she’s such a supremely talented fantasy romance author and I can’t wait to see what she does in the contemporary space. After that, I’m going to read Where’s Molly by H.D. Carlton - it’s one of hers I haven’t read yet and I’m really looking forward to it.
ILS: What’s next?
BW: I’m working on a small town dark romcom series! I can’t share many details yet, but I’m so excited about it. The town itself is just as much fun as the inhabitants, and I’m having a blast learning about this world as it comes to life around them. I’ll have more news to share in 2025!
ILS: Can you share a favorite memory of the library?
BW: My grandfather was a huge library-goer all his life, no matter where we moved (we moved frequently across Canada; I was raised by my single parent mom and my grandparents). The library was a staple no matter where we went. It was normal and routine, which was comforting when you move a lot!
Grandpa would go to the library several times a week, mostly to pick up mystery novels or books about aircraft—he was a retired bush plane pilot and engineer. I remember him taking me with him so I could pick out ghost stories and he could find his mysteries and airplane books. In his later years, when he began to develop dementia, the library still provided that sense of routine that we so desperately needed, now for a different purpose. I remember him falling asleep with a library book on his lap in his favorite recliner and thinking ‘he’s still here.’
Holding onto that routine for as long as he could was a way of holding onto himself, and it was a way for us to hold onto him too. And I’m so grateful for that.
