Haunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #1) in shelf indulgence

Mar 27, 2023 Kaitlyn | fairycorebookclub rated it it was ok

I'm wondering if maybe I would've enjoyed this book a little bit more if it wasn't so hyped up - but at the same time, I think maybe if it wasn't so hyped up I also could've enjoyed it less? Does that even make sense? hahaha

I'm honestly so confused what my thoughts are on this one, let's start with the positives. I literally blew through this book and couldn't put it down/stop thinking about it. I was literally addicted to it. I really enjoyed the plotlines for Zade in his vigilante group taking

I'm wondering if maybe I would've enjoyed this book a little bit more if it wasn't so hyped up - but at the same time, I think maybe if it wasn't so hyped up I also could've enjoyed it less? Does that even make sense? hahaha

I'm honestly so confused what my thoughts are on this one, let's start with the positives. I literally blew through this book and couldn't put it down/stop thinking about it. I was literally addicted to it. I really enjoyed the plotlines for Zade in his vigilante group taking down sex traffickers & although some of that was uncomfortable to read, I honestly think it was the most interesting aspect of this story. I did also enjoy the plotline surrounded around Addie's great grandmother's unsolved murder for the most part and was invested in figuring out who killed her. The little letters scattered about at the end of chapters from Addie's great grandmother were fun to read & try to decipher what exactly was going on with her life leading up to her homicide. I was definitely intrigued by how this cat/mouse stalker romance was going to unfold, but overall I think I was kind of disappointed?

This leads me to the negatives:

Personally I didn't really vibe with any of the characters. I didn't care much for Addie, and I know this is going to be controversial, but I wasn't absolutely enamoured with Zade either. I didn't dislike either of them, I just really felt nothing towards them, they were just existing in the story. I honestly thought as I went on in the book my rating started to drop down, as I went on I think maybe the initial fascination with such a taboo story started wearing off and I started to pick up on smaller things. The writing style almost felt kind of juvenile to me and fell a little flat. There was definitely a lot of cringey dialogue, but also just cringey moments where the author was trying to use flowery metaphors but they just weren't it, and also just cringey moments in Zade and Addie's romance.

Let's be honest, I really came for the smut. And the smut was pretty good in terms of what I was expecting from this book based on what I'd heard, but not sure about the gun play scene honestly lol. I'm totally fine with all the trigger warnings in this book, but something about that scene just didn't appeal to me and I was just cringing reading it. Especially since I believe that was their first sexual encounter? It just really caught me off guard.

I'm having a really hard time putting my thoughts into words as you can probably tell from all of this word vomit. This book just kind of confused my brain. I definitely will be reading Hunting Adeline because the story has me sucked in and the cliffhanger was pretty intense. I'm just kind of disappointed I didn't fall in love with Zade like a lot of people have & just didn't fully understand the hype :( Maybe I'll enjoy the second installment of the duet more? ...more

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