Hunting Adeline by H. D. Carlton Series: Cat and Mouse #2
on September 10, 2024
Genres: Dark Romance
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Also by this author: Haunting Adeline, Does It Hurt?Instant NYT Bestselling Author
USA Today Bestselling Author
Viral Booktok SensationThe conclusion to the Cat and Mouse Duet is here…
The Diamond
Death walks alongside me,
But the reaper is no match for me.
I’m trapped in a world full of monsters dressed as men, and those who aren’t as they seem.
They won’t keep me forever.
I no longer recognize the person I’ve become,
And I’m fighting to find my way back to the beast who hunts me in the night.
They call me a diamond,
But they’ve only created an angel of death.The Hunter
I was born a predator,
With ruthlessness ingrained in my bones.
When what’s mine is stolen from me in the night,
Like a diamond hidden within a fortress,
I find that I can no longer contain the beast.
Blood will paint the ground as I tear apart this world to find her.
And bring her back to where she belongs.
No one will escape my wrath,
Especially not those who have betrayed me.Warning: This is the second and final installment to the Duet. You must read Haunting Adeline first.
Not once have I ever picked up a stiletto and said, you know, I wonder if this will fit in someone’s poop chute. Well, guess what, Adeline found out the answer to that question.
Hunting Adeline picks up where Haunting leaves off. Adeline has been kidnapped and sold into the skin trade. Without spoiling anything, the first half of this book is pretty intense, and there’s a lot going on between Adeline and Zade’s perspectives. Most of what we get is Adeline’s struggle with her situation and the physical and emotional abuse she has to endure in captivity.
This book addresses all the critiques I had regarding the first book. The stakes are higher, the intensity is higher, and the suspense is cranked up to eleven. Chapter 20 stressed me out. At one point, my wife looked at me to make sure I wasn’t having a panic attack. Even the dialogue between Zade and Addie was a lot less cringy. There were some cheesy lines, but not as many as in Haunting Adeline. The more I thought about it, though, I wonder if that cheesiness is needed to offset some of the tone. I also feel like Zade felt more human in this book. Like, he had more of a personality.
The character development definitely improves in Hunting Adeline, and we see a massive change in Adeline going from the first half of the book to the second. We get more of Daya and Jay, and Sibby is back for a good chunk of the second half. I should note that people have recommended that you read Satan’s Affair first, and I have to agree. If you didn’t read it before starting Haunting Adeline, definitely read it before going into Hunting.
As I said in my review of Haunting of Adeline, I love Carlton’s writing style. The pacing was great, and the structure had an excellent flow that kept me turning pages until the very end. As for the spice, it’s probably a two-and-a-half peppers for me. As a disclaimer, I don’t think anything that happens in the first half counts as spice. That said, it’s fair to say this is less of a dark romance book and more of a dark erotic thriller. That’s just my opinion.
I’d love to see H.D. Carlton further explore the horror genre. I feel like she could really shine in erotic horror and splatterpunk. Overall, I love both of these books, and now I see why they get recommended so much here on BookTok. I did pick up the other three books in the series, and I’ll be reading and reviewing those later. If you want to keep up with what I’m reading, follow me on Goodreads and Fable https://linktr.ee/rottenreads
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