BOOK REVIEW
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I can't blame TikTok or Bookstagram for this one. This one was all me! I really enjoyed the taster plot in the Satan's Affair Novella (check out that review here) so immediately downloaded the Cat and Mouse Duet and started book one. This book, similarly to the first, has trigger warnings (of a slightly different nature), this time more around consent and kinks, I'll share the warning below, so you can have a good idea of what you're getting into before you read it.
It's a much more meaty tome, almost 600 pages and I was really interested to see how Sibby, the character in Satan's Affair, slotted in here.
I'll post the trigger warnings as they are printed so that I don't make them any less harsh than required to give a true reflection of the contents.
WARNING
The contents are very dark with triggering situations, such as non/dub con between the two main characters, graphic violence, human trafficking, stalking, child trafficking, child sacrifice, mentions of child death, and explicit sexual situations. There are also particular kinks such as gun play, somnophilia, bondage, and degradation.
BLURB
The Manipulator
I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me.
I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh.
But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave.
He's always there, watching and waiting.
And I can never look away.
Not when I want him to come closer.
The Shadow
I didn't mean to fall in love.
But now that I have, I can't stay away.
I'm mesmerized by her smile, by her eyes, and the way she moves.
The way she undresses...
I'll keep watching and waiting. Until I can make her mine/
And once she is, I'll never let her go.
Not even when she begs me to
MY REVIEW
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
SPICE: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I didn't know what to expect from this book, but after reading Satan's Affair, I knew that anything could (and probably would) happen. The gore/horror elements were less intense, though the intimate scenes felt significantly MORE so.
Adeline is an author, she lives in a creepy mansion left to her by her grandmother, who she loved dearly. When she's renovating the house, she discovers her great-grandmother's (GiGi) journals. They describe her final few months, before she is brutally murdered and seem to indicate that she had a stalker, who became her lover. GiGi's murder was never solved, and Adeline wants to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Zade on the other hand, is a bit of a vigilante, morally grey is an understatement. He infiltrates and takes down (by murder rather than socially accepted justice) child and human trafficking rings. He is currently in Seattle, trying to take down a group of gross, rich, above-the-law type men, who use child sacrifice and other depravities as part of their Satan-loving rituals. He takes a liking to Adeline and immediately starts stalking her. The stalking leads to the dubious consent situations that the trigger warnings allude to.
Adeline gets roped into Zade's complicated and dark life and some fake dating ensues. Not the nice kind, the kinky kind.
As a character, Adeline is a strange one to describe. She gets a thrill from fear so tends to do the opposite of what you or I would do. But then, she'd have to have that personality for this book to even remotely start to make sense. I wanted to yell at her, tell her she was an idiot, and shake some sense into her at times. She also spends about 50% of her time drinking straight alcohol and margaritas, so maybe she needs to get that addressed, it's clouding her judgment :)
Some scenes were almost too far, one with a gun in particular was read through my hands which were covering my face. I'll let you guess as to why. It was pretty uncomfortable and the consent elements were challenging and, at times, scary to read. Some scenes on the other hand were embarrassingly sexy. A bad guy fantasy on paper. I'm studying psychology and I'd be intrigued to know what makes this type of romance sexy for some people but not for others. That would make for an interesting dissertation!
BUT...while I appreciate that I sound like a guy with a stack of Playboys saying he reads them for the articles...the underlying story was an excellent dark thriller. Infiltrating gangs of sick blokes, saving kids and young women from a life of horror, alongside solving a decades-long murder mystery. I mean. That stuff is my cup of tea!
Similarly to Satan's Affair, the story would have held its own brilliantly (and been a bit more palatable to a wider audience) without all the kinks and consent issues (this was the main thing for me. Creepy stalker/vigilante child saver or not, I can't see him as a good guy if he doesn't take no for an answer!). That being said, the story was genuinely solid, engaging, and interesting to read.
THAT CLIFFHANGER THOUGH...basically, if you read the full book, and get into the story like I did, you'll be reading the next book. I felt like I was watching a season finale of a TV show, where it just cuts off...right when everything starts kicking off!
I won't be reading the next one straight away though, the trigger warnings indicate that it's SIGNIFICANTLY darker than this one. I need something heartfelt, funny, and light, to connect me back to reality before I scrape the barrel on the depths of depravity once more.
Have you read this duet? What did you think of the cliffhanger? Do you agree with me about the story/plot being strong enough to hold its own?
I'll be posting the review for Hunting Adeline here, once I have read it. You can SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG to make sure you don't miss it (or my other reviews :). I also post bookish content on Instagram and my YouTube Channel
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