After the last two books in this trilogy, I was so excited for Scythe & Sparrow. Considering our sneak peeks of them in the past, the hype was high! But what I got wasn’t really what I expected. Keep reading this book review of Scythe & Sparrow for my full thoughts.
Summary
Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It’s a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.
But then the real circus finds him.
Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she’s not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.
The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.
. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.
Review
Not going to lie, I was super skeptical of Rose and Fionn. We had seen them together before and I wasn’t sure what had happened. Even days after finishing, I’m still unsure about how well they fit, but was it one hell of a ride? Yep. That being said, I feel like the tone for Scythe & Sparrow is different than what you might be expecting considering the last two. There’s a bit less of an edge than I was expecting? It felt more focused on the romance and less so on the character’s individual development.
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And by that, I mean less of the larger broad world plot movements we saw in the previous two. In Scythe & Sparrow it feels more like they have these larger plot things happen to them, especially as the other characters really heavily interact in this book (compared to the other two). And so I wish there had been a bit more balance in this respect. Was it cute? Spicy? Plus it’s full of the whole “we can totally hook up without feelings getting in the way” trope. For Rose and Fionn they have to explore how we push people away and the hardest thing can be accepting help.
(I also love a good letter moment and this made me swoon!)
Do I still recommend? Yes. It’s just a different vibe I feel like from the others and that was still perfectly enjoyable to me! Find Scythe & Sparrow on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.