Rating: 4.5 Stars

Publisher: Piatkus

Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance 

Tags; Multiple Serial Killers, Violence, Humour

Length: 379 Kindle pages

Audiobook: 11 hours and 45 minutes

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: author’s page, audible

Blurb:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brynne Weaver comes the second book in the devilishly steamy Seasons of Carnage trilogy where dark romantic comedy meets thrilling suspense—and where love is ripe for ruin.

It’s time to reap what you sow.

Cape Carnage is blooming with secrets, and they’re ready to harvest. But every time Nolan Rhodes digs one up, another grows in its place. Harper isn’t who he thought she was. Arthur might be more sinister than he first thought. And Sheriff Yates? The man is everywhere he turns. When true crime fanatics descend on the town looking for answers about the death of their leader, Nolan finds himself at the center of a search and rescue operation for missing people he knows are already dead. Cape Carnage teeters on the brink of chaos. And the harder Nolan tries to keep it together, the closer Harper comes to unraveling.

Harper Starling has risked everything to bury her trauma in Cape Carnage. But now that Nolan has unearthed her past, her whole life seems ready to break apart. And who can she trust? The enigmatic man she’s falling in love with? He came to kill her. The serial killer mentor she’s vowed to protect? He’s become an unpredictable menace. The woman in the mirror? She might be the most dangerous of all.

Loyalties are tested. Bonds are bent to a breaking point. And love? That might be the deadliest trap of all.

Harvest Season is a dark romance with mature themes. Please check content warnings at the beginning of the book.

Review:

I really, really like this series. Brynne Weaver is quite the storyteller and knows how to lean into the dark side of life with humour and characters who make you cheer for their murdery ways. Harvest Season picks up quickly after the events at the end of Tourist Season. Harper and Nolan are an item. They may not think it but everyone in Carnage knows they’re seeing each other – ‘small town,’ as the locals are fond of saying. Harper has lived in Carnage for just over four years but Nolan’s a tourist. He was only visiting to kill her but things got… complicated. You know, girl meets boy. Girl and boy have murderous thoughts. Your standard romance meet cute. 

Where Tourist Season had initial MC development and world building – Cape Carnage really is a character in and of itself – this time missing tourists (an occasional local), Search and Rescue, burial sites needing to be deflected away from all play a big part in Harvest Season. Along with the growing romance, of course. Some of the townsfolk are definitely noir in their humour. Bob, Bobby, and Burt included. Then there’s this sudden, intense interest by Sheriff Yates in missing people, and while his behaviour at a surface level supports that, we know the deeper process is not one of a genuine law enforcement officer. It’s one borne out of the mind of a loathsome prick on a long-game mission. To mess badly with the people I happen to like. What sucks is that Yates gets a POV. I did not like his POV. I hope he gets what’s coming in a H U G E  and satisfying way. Weaver has definitely written a malevolent antagonist. Kudos for that. But I did wonder why Nolan talked to Yates so much at times. Sure, Yates plays the good ole boy, and Nolan’s making sure to move searchers away from the bodies while also adding to the body count, but Nolan doesn’t feel Yates is the inept, lackadaisical sheriff Harper and Arthur believe him to be. It didn’t fully compute. 

Arthur’s Alzheimer’s is more part and parcel of the overall story this time as well. Lukas, Arthur’s grandson and primary heir, feels it might be time for Arthur to go into a facility for his physical safety. He does have a solid point, Arthur is the primary ‘reason’ for this particular S&R operation, but I didn’t love it. Harper isn’t ready for Arthur going to a home either, and neither is Arthur. Harper worries about Arthur, though. He’s her mentor, she loves him like a father figure, and he loves her like a daughter in return.  

“I was afraid of loving another daughter when I’d already had one taken from me. I am afraid of forgetting you, my Harper.”

Not going to lie, that line above ^ choked me up. Arthur is sharp as a tack sometimes, then randomly killing annoying tourists on other occasions. Nolan worries that Arthur is going to drag Harper into a mess that she can’t deal with because of the enormity of Arthur’s past and, of course, there’s Arthur’s inevitable and incremental cognitive decline. There’s also the fact that the Sleuthseekers are riled up and back in town to find out what happened to their leader, Sam, and his offsider, Vinny. (Tourist Season.)  They’re out to make a name for themselves. They think that Arthur Lancaster is La Plume, a serial killer, and anyone associated with him is fair game. This includes Harper. They have a shadowy picture of her. They’re showing it around town but Harper has plenty of friends who aren’t saying anything to snooping outsiders. Well, except for that ‘bitch’ Sarah Winkle. The number of people who don’t like her increases. We don’t meet her, but we’re very much triangulated in on the humorous, competitive, and vehement Winkle dislike.   

The Romance: Nolan and Harper have become a lot closer. Definitely gone from enemies to lovers. The primary issue is how they overcome the big-ticket problems that lie between them. The whole, ‘I came here to kill you but now my head is full of you in a non-murderous, caring way.’ Or maybe something will tip someone over the edge and they might just leave….  How do they allow themself to love and be loved with safety? To fully trust? Nolan categorically comes to the realisation he loves Harper but he knows she has such a traumatic past he can’t ask for too much too soon from her. Mind you, the idea of going back to Tennessee doesn’t appeal now he’s met Harper. And, bless him, he didn’t mind stepping his feelings up to the plate. I respected and loved him for that because theirs is an emotionally complex relationship.  

I don’t know how to navigate being a fucked-up person who can’t pry obsession from love. And I don’t know how to love someone who is so afraid to receive it. We’ve both faced fear and grief and done terrible things. But I haven’t seen and survived the same evil she has.

Harper doesn’t believe she knows how to love Nolan. It’s scary because historically, love has meant deep loss for her. She doesn’t want to say those 3 words out loud for fear of what they may bring. She also knows Nolan has his own issues. Still, they’re all but living together in Lancaster Manor’s cottage, Harper’s residence.

Nolan is the first thing I’ve had to myself in years. But what if that’s not something I deserve? What if that’s why it’s so hard to hold on to him? It’s not just about the promises I’ve made or the need to keep him safe. It’s the fact that I know I’m not worthy of what’s blossoming between us. Maybe he was never meant to be mine.

Hmm, Harper. Maybe he is meant to be yours. The universe (clearly the universe is Brynne Weaver) has put the two of you in each other’s orbit for a reason. It’s nice to see the push-pull with more of the pull winning. However. That. Ending. Righteo! I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen. Yep. That’s what I’ll do. When I recommission the memory, I’ll have the next (and final) book in my hands. Problem solved.

There was more sex in this book. There’s the spicy, I’m glad they’re having fun outside of some of their kills – serial killers and all that. Then there’s the extra spicy – meaning it could be dark. Nothing like really wanting to know, and listening to, the details of your lover’s kills whilst you’re giving him head. 

While Nolan has a mile-wide protective streak in regards to Harper, love that, I also very much like how Harper is protective of him. There’s equality in what they do and how they want to protect one another. How they’re increasingly required to lean on each other, something they’re still learning as of the end of this book. 

The Narrators: I know I have the review with the book cover above but I listened to the audiobook as well as reading it. I did so because Samantha Brentmoor and Robert Hatchet are outstanding voice artists. They do a wonderful job of bringing this series and these MCs, the town, to life. I love a duet narration. When you have quality narrators like this pair, it makes for a winning formula. They add more than reading alone. 

Harvest Season was an very entertaining second book in the Seasons of Carnage Trilogy. I enjoy a good trilogy because I know I won’t have a protracted wait until things wrap up… but second books usually have bastard endings. Harvest Season is no exception. The quality of writing by Weaver is a constant. Her characters in this series are multidimensional. The town and the people that inhabit it, the humour, it’s all weirdly on point. I’m here for the eccentric Cape Carnage but I stay for Nolan and Harper. I’m cheering for some much needed joy without the past constantly dictating their present. Here’s hoping for not too long a wait for the third and final book. Bring it on! For Harvest Season, it’s 4.5 Stars!