This review contains spoilers for Haunting Adeline. This book was previously banned on Amazon due to the trigger warning. Please read reviews or go to the author's website for more details on trigger warnings. It is recommended that you read the prequel novella, Satan's Affair, prior to reading the Cat and Mouse Duet, but is not required.
I keep telling myself that I am going to stop taking recommendations from TikTok and actually work on my TBR pile, yet for some reason I could not go any longer going without reading this book after about ten videos in a row showed up on my feed, so it was a sign. Now hear me out -- the red roses being left for Addie... I knew my Phantom of the Opera would come back in full force one day and did not expect this book to be the driving force for that. Yes, I did see the red flags in Zade, but I have chosen to ignore them!
We get a dual POV between Addie and Zade that are both in first person, and get to see how absolutely off the walls he is when it comes to Addie, but at the same time we see him literally killing the nastiest people in society. Meanwhile, Addie is running around her victorian manor renovating and enjoying having a stalker while being a successful author. Clearly, they were made for each other.
I cannot believe I read half of this stuff with my own two eyes... he put a GUN inside of this girl... it is so much worse than the golf ball scene in the second 365 Days movie. I genuinely did not think anything could be so unhinged, yet here we are. As yet another disclaimer, this book is clearly meant for adults and contains so much smut that it is basically dripping off the pages, and the gun scene only happened within the first third of the book. He does the craziest things to this girl and a lot of it definitely borderlines on psychotic.
Zade is running around inside and outside of Addie's house, leaving body parts, red roses, and empty whiskey glasses in a trail behind him as he hides in her closet and does unspeakable things to her. I genuinely do not know how Addie was surprised to wake up with him in her house so often -- she literally was always hearing him walk around and would straight up have staring contests with him while he stood outside of her windows.
Addie always seemed shocked that her little stalker would show up inside her house and do exactly what he said he would do to her in their texts to each other. Yes, they text each other. Because that is a completely normal thing to do with a stalker that has killed dozens if not hundreds of people.
Zade is out here killing rapists and pedophiles and acting like it is his side gig to stalking Addie as if he did not create an entire company whose sole purpose to get these people off the streets and to save the people that they have kidnapped and trafficked. I have to say, this man is quick with his business and does not hesitate even for a second when he and his team are on a mission. Every time that he is with the guys that him and his organization are trying to take down, I wanted to throw up in my mouth. It really is disgusting, and thankfully there was nothing graphic when it came to those scenes.
The biggest crime committed in this book by Addie is her using a straw to drink a martini. She is woman in her late twenties and does not know how to properly drink a martini... Maybe I did overestimate her self preservation and survival skills after reading that scene in the bar. Also, it felt as though the author kind of abandoned her author storyline, because I swear she was supposed to be reviewing her editor's suggestions, but I could have made that up in my head.
I have to say that the beginning of the book was more enjoyable than the last part of the book -- the last one third mostly focuses on Addie and Daya trying to solve Gigi's murder, as well as Zade trying to put an end to the rituals that are taking place. I'm not saying that it was bad, but it felt like the book was losing it momentum when it came to Addie and Zade interacting with one another and set them on two paths that definitely needed some work done, plot wise. I think I ended up overhyping this book more than I should have, and pretty much went in blind other than knowing that a girl is getting stalked and she likes it.
This book deals with some pretty heavy stuff and I definitely agree with reviews saying that it leans more towards the 21+ rating rather than 17+ due to its content. The author does do a pretty good job of creating this creepy environment as Addie's house, but I am still left a little confused if there were actually ghosts in her house, or if it was just a feeling. We are of course left on a big cliffhanger, and while I originally did not think that I was going to read the second book, now I might just have to, so I can find out who betrayed Jay and Zade and what is going to happen to Addie after that whacky car crash.
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