This review contains spoilers for Satan's Affair. 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. You can read my review of Haunting Adeline on my blog, here.
I genuinely did not know what to expect or had an idea about what I would think of this book since I was not jumping up and down after reading Haunting Adeline, but I wanted to go back and read the prequel just in case it gave more a little background before I go diving into Hunting Adeline. Compared to Haunting Adeline, I would say that Satan's Affair definitely prioritizes gore and violence in the first half of the book, while the smut takes a secondary priority.
Through the use of her own haunted house and a handful of very attentive henchmen, Sibby is able to take down the demons she finds one at a time in a very particular way. You can tell that while she does let her emotions come through from time to time, she is typically very particular about how she goes about these killings. She certainly is creative, and with the haunted house on her side, she is able to basically do whatever she wants and have her henchmen clean up the pieces.
When Sibby was doing her thing to Gary, I was literally so surprised that he was still conscious and aware of what was happening -- if someone was getting their limbs cut off and bones broken, you would think the pain would have taken them out pretty quickly. She really has a bone to pick with him, especially after overhearing what he did to his girlfriend, Jennifer. There is definitely an up on the gore and violence factor in this prequel, and while I did not find it unbearable, some may find the content a touch too disturbing.
This novella will definitely prepare readers for what is to come in the Cat and Mouse Duet when it comes to both smut scenes and graphic depictions of violence and assault. While the content in Satan's Affair certainly heads towards a blurry line, I would say that it is just getting readers ready for what is to come.
I love that we got to see Sibby watching Zade follow Adeline and Daya through the haunted house -- not really a spoiler for Haunting Adeline, but just one scene that we see in the book that I actually appreciated really after reading Haunting Adeline. To be quite honest, the scenes between Sibby and Zade from her perspective somehow made me like Zade more, and made me even more excited to continue the duology. Looking back, I do wish I read this novella before starting the duology, and I would recommend reading Satan's Affair first just to get a touch of background information on Sibby, but it is entirely up to the reader's preference.
It was such an interesting choice to see that the henchmen were not actually real -- I knew people always referenced a twist with Sibby at the end, but I did not expect it to apply by extension to the henchmen. There were some definite negative connotations made towards Sibby's mental struggles, especially towards the end of the novella when she is in the institution.
Overall, this is a decent introduction to the Cat and Mouse Duet, and provides a quick and interesting read for those looking to get into the taboo genre while still being a little cautious of where exactly they may draw the line when it comes to dark romance.
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