witchbuns

Brynne Weaver, 2025

So I was not aware that serial killer love stories were a micro genre of romance, outside of some expected monster kink, but here you have it. Brynne Weaver really gives this a flow with the quirky Cape Carnage setting and Nolan as our strong dimpled male hero, hunting down Harper, the tough but loyal heroine who feeds misogynist pricks into her wood chipper. They have insta-lust and are confused by the sudden intimacy, teaming together to protect the town and Harper’s best friend. 

I think if you approach this as an X Files monster of the week type story prepared for high camp, you can have a real ball. If you are not a child of the 90’s, do check it out, because you may also like the overarching mystery of who is Le Plume and why Harper is running – it’s good stuff. This is a big spice book with lots of kink between them and once they start mashing, it’s quite involved. 

If the serial killer aspects are discomforting (and they were for me), then stay for the mystery and the constant pulse of Nolan being drawn to Harper and showing pure devotion. I felt pretty moderate about the novel until the ending, where I was completely hooked. Overall, I enjoyed reading along and wondering who all the townspeople really were, suspecting each of them and building my own theories of the killers and baddies. 

I still mark this 4 stars because it was really explicit and I wanted more of the storytelling and quirky townspeople (like them attending the local-gore Beauty and the Beast play) with less of the pain and pleasure bedroom pieces, but it takes all kinds. I think if we can all read ten novels a year about a white woman traveling to Italy to fall back in love with her childhood friend who just never told her his biggest secret, then we can find time on our shelf for a deeply traumatized woman who kills for justice and the man seeking vengeance for his brother’s killer. The killing pieces aren’t really that gory and the book is more foreboding doom than violent descriptions. And my god, this really sets up a trilogy better than most of the series I’ve read this year. Cape Carnage is a great place to hang.