Some books entertain.
Some books unsettle.
And then there are books that crawl under your skin, rearrange your insides, and leave you sitting in silence long after the final page.
Hunting Adeline did not just unsettle me. It broke me.
I thought Haunting Adeline destroyed me. I was wrong. This sequel goes further, darker, and far closer to the bone. Where the first book constantly reminded the reader that this was a fictional dark romance, Hunting Adeline strips that safety net away entirely.
This is not a romance.
This is a horror story.
My Review of Hunting Adeline
While Haunting Adeline plays with obsession, danger, and taboo through a fictional lens, Hunting Adeline drags the reader into something horrifyingly real. This book confronts sex trafficking, sexual slavery, and the criminal underworld that enables it. It is brutal, graphic, and deeply disturbing.
What makes it so difficult to read is the knowledge that this is not confined to fiction or geography. This is a global crime. There are no comforting monsters here, no supernatural distance. Just people, power, cruelty, and survival.
The story is gruesome and terrifying, and while it technically has a “happy ending,” that depends entirely on how you define happiness after trauma of this scale. Survival is not the same as restoration, and the book does not pretend otherwise.
I’ll be honest. I had to force myself to persevere. There were moments where putting the book down felt like self-preservation. But despite that, I am glad I read it. Not because I enjoyed it, but because it refuses to let the reader look away.
One unexpected thread of relief comes through the character of Sibby, whose dark, unhinged black comedy cuts through the bleakness like a cracked mirror reflecting something feral and chaotic. She reminded me strongly of Harley Quinn. Uncomfortable, dangerous, but oddly human. That sliver of warped humour was necessary breathing space in an otherwise suffocating narrative.
This is not a book I would recommend lightly. It demands emotional stamina, and readers should take the content warnings seriously. But it is a book that stays with you, long after you wish it wouldn’t.
About the Book
The conclusion to the Cat and Mouse Duet is here…
“If she were to die… the world would die with her.”
The worst Adeline Reilly expected for her life were a few unholy ghosts haunting the hallways of Parsons Manor, not falling in love with her stalker and ending up in the clutches of a trafficking ring.
Trapped in a house used to groom women for the elite, she faces the biggest fight of her life. Survive the Culling and escape. But that’s not so easy when watchful eyes are determined to see her fail.
However, Adeline may have an unlikely ally, who just might be the key to her getting out alive. But trusting them is a risk that could cost her everything.
Meanwhile, Zade will stop at nothing until Adeline is safe in his arms again, even if he must burn the world to find her. Hunting his little mouse is what he’s best at. But who she’ll be when he finds her is a battle he doesn’t know he can win.
It won’t be the test of time they must survive, but the memories of who they once were.
📚Buy the Book: Waterstones; TGJones; Bookshop; Amazon.
Final Thoughts
Hunting Adeline is not a comfort read.
It is not escapism.
It is not romantic in any traditional sense.
It is confronting, relentless, and deeply unsettling. If you choose to read it, do so with care, awareness, and kindness towards yourself. Some stories leave scars, even when they end.
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