Satan's Affair by H.D. Carlton Review

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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The Dare by Harley LaRoux Review

This novella review contains mild spoilers for The Dare by Harley LaRoux. The actions depicted in this novella do not represent accurate or safe BDSM encounters — reader discretion is advised.

I honestly don’t even think I have the words to describe this novella to the extent that I need to — TikTok was definitely not lying when everyone said it was something else. I have read my fair share of steamy and taboo books (shoutout to Credence by Penelope Douglas), but this certainly was an experience I was not expecting to go through, especially with how the story progressed. Jessica and Manson have a past, however fleeting it may be, but that certainly does not stop either one of them from engaging in one of the most public and ill-acknowledged erotic relationships that I have seen. For some reason, while everyone at the party was super invested into their Drink or Dare competition, the interest immediately died down just when it was getting interesting.

We’ve got knives, we’ve got humiliation, we’ve got… clowns? I actually laughed out loud when I saw clowns listed in the warnings before the beginning of the story — I was going in blind and this threw me for a loop before I even got to page one. It is very fast-paced once we get to the initial plot point that puts Jessica into the situation that she is in — and doesn't seem to want to get out of. She is getting humiliated in front of dozens of party-goers, and yet she is also the most confident person in the room — besides Manson.

Now when we finally got to the clowns, I literally had to mentally prepare myself for whatever the author had in store for us. Yes, this takes place during a Halloween party with young adults, but I could not help but picture a children's birthday party clown costume when the boys were finally mentioned in the store. Totally not scary and definitely what I did not want to be picturing while reading this novella. Luckily, we move on pretty quickly from the clowns and Jessica's involvement with them, and go straight into...you guessed it — knife play! No worries, there is nothing gory mentioned.

We somehow manage to be going back and forth between Jessica literally being used in a dozen different ways by the hands of Manson to catapulting into Manson's backstory. It adds maybe a little shock to the plot, but if you are reading too fast and skim over the two sentences it takes to reveal that the house that the party is at is actually Manson's house, you won't be missing much.

If you need a quick and steamy read, The Dare is for you. I would definitely recommend this novella to fans of more taboo story-telling, but it's overall pretty mild and any newcomer to the genre would not have an issue with anything mentioned or depicted in the story.

You can add The Dare on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!