Killers, Laughter and Messed up Romance

Rating 4/5

Do not judge me for this one. Honestly, I’m as surprised with myself as anyone else. But then again whoever may be reading this post might understand my decision to talk about Brynne Weaver’s dark romance, Tourist Season (2025). I suppose it does give everyone a break from my obsessive love for all things fantastical and/or horrific.

Considering my prior experience with book one of Weaver’s Ruinous Love trilogy (2023-2025), Butcher and Blackbird I did expect some familiar and predictable troupes and aspects. And I was right. However, that being said, I did feel Tourist Season was a slight improvement on its predecessor trilogy, thanks to its humour, likable characters and outlandish premises.

To those who have never heard of Weaver she is known to write dark romances between characters with morally questionable backgrounds. Whether they be serial killers, assassins, hitmen etc she’s your gal. And Tourist Season, the first instalment to her spin off trilogy, is no stranger to this. The book is set in the seaside town of Cape Carnage and follows Harper Sterling, a woman with two goals; 1.) Dispose of any tourists threatening to violate the tranquillity of her new home and 2.) Keep fellow killer, Nolan Rhodes off her tail. Throw in an amateur detective determined to find the truth and a ‘retired’ mentor refusing to give up on his former deadly profession and you have a cat and mouse game with thrills and laughs.

Yes. Tourist Season has the makings of a Hallmark movie. A bad hallmark movie. And I say that in a positive way.

Don’t get me wrong the formula for Tourist Season is in no way perfect. It is no stranger to traditional romance tropes and Weaver does reuse certain moments, scenarios etc that kind of got me hesitant about reading further. I won’t go into too much detail about this scene due to its explicit content but there is a moment of confrontation between Nolan and a pervert peeping in on Harper that is similar to a scene in Butcher and Blackbird.  Obviously for some who have never read Butcher and Blackbird it is unnoticeable, but for me it was easy to spot even with the slight changes here and there.

Another factor for me was its ahem intimate scenes. I will admit I admire Weaver’s creativity during Tourist Season’s most erotic scenes. However, as I’ve matured, I’ve grown to be the kind of reader where less description means more to me.  And the use of dirty talk too cringe worthy to raise the level on my spice meter. However I appreciate everyone has their own tastes so consider my analysis on the subject matter to be neither a criticism nor praise.

Putting that aside Tourist Season was still a decent romance. I liked the premise of a seaside town populated by people who know everyone but are oblivious to the bodies buried about the place. I enjoyed how this same town whose traditions consist of soap box racing co-piloted by scarecrow-like dummies called corpses, aren’t able to differentiate between stuffed straw dolls and the actual severed limbs of these killers' victims. It offered an ironically twisted flavour to the romance genre. And probably highlighted some questionable choices in my book tastes. And while the sexy fun times in this book might not be heart pulsing, the romantic development between Harper and Nolan was amusing. These enemies to lovers deserve one another and their interactions lead to some laughable moments. Like Nolan’s attempt to scare Harper by leaving a severed head on her bird feeder. Some girls want flowers, others prefer decapitated heads, when they’re not on bird feeders. There is also a moment involving some mace but I will leave that for readers to find out themselves. The point I’m trying to make is their banter makes them a likeable pair and I am, dare I say, intrigued to know what is instal for them in the sequel, Harvest Season (2026).

Tourist Season is by no means an outstanding dark romance. It has its cliches and its cringe moments. However, it is an oddly enjoyable book, that while it might not get hearts beating erratically, it does get readers laughing at the character’s banter and antics.