Hunting Adeline is the second and final half of H. D. Carlton’s Cat and Mouse Duet, written for readers who have already finished Haunting Adeline and want to see where its pursuit goes next, not for someone shopping for a stand-alone stalker romance. The publisher states outright that you must read the first book first, and the description below necessarily reveals what any sequel blurb reveals.
First things first: the order
The publisher’s listing calls this book 2 of 2 in the Cat & Mouse Duet and carries the warning that it is the second and final installment and that Haunting Adeline must come first. The listing gives a paperback publication date of September 24, 2024, a length of 704 pages, and the genre labels Romantic Suspense and Gothic & Horror. If you have not read book one, our Haunting Adeline review is the place to decide whether to begin there. The near-identical titles make the order easy to mix up, so check the spelling on the cover before buying: Haunting Adeline is the first book and Hunting Adeline the second.
You’re on the list. Your free stories are waiting in the Reader Vault. The House Below the Signal
Two voices, one pursuit
Like the first book, this one is described in two voices. On the author’s book page, Adeline’s section is titled The Diamond and the other is titled The Hunter. On the publisher’s page, Adeline’s section has her say she no longer recognizes the person she has become. The Hunter’s section describes a born predator who loses control after what belongs to him is taken in the night, vows to tear the world apart to find it again and promises that no one will escape his wrath, least of all those who betrayed him.
That setup tells you what kind of sequel this is. The first book, per the author’s page, is told by The Manipulator, Adeline, and The Shadow, the stalker who is obsessed with her and determined to make her his. Book two’s section titles shift to The Diamond and The Hunter, and its description is as interested in Adeline’s sense of self as in the pursuit. How much of the book belongs to her recovery, and how much to his pursuit, is not something a description can tell you.
Can the second half pay off the first?
That is the real question for a duet, and the description wisely leaves it unanswered. What can be said is what the author promises. Her tag list for Hunting Adeline reads emotional scars, revenge, “touch her and die” and HEA, which is a happily-ever-after label placed beside material the same page flags as very heavy. The publisher’s copy, meanwhile, leaves the resolution of the chase unsaid, as it should. How readers who finished both books answer the payoff question is covered in the next section.
It is worth noticing that the question the description invites is about identity as much as about danger. A heroine who says she no longer recognizes the person she has become is a heroine whose chapters could carry a lot of the emotional weight, and the author’s own tag for emotional scars points the same way. If you came to book one for the cat-and-mouse and are curious whether book two wants to talk about what it did to her, that is the thing to test.
What readers praise in the duet’s second half
Readers who love Hunting Adeline tend to start with Adeline’s growth: several describe her moving from victim to a resilient, formidable heroine. Many say the book hit them hard emotionally, with reviewers mentioning tears, heartbreak and reading quickly once hooked. Some readers think the writing is noticeably stronger than in the first book, and a few say the harsh depiction of trafficking felt honest and powerful. Sibby, a supporting character, is frequently singled out as a favorite and a welcome source of humor, and some readers praise Zade’s devotion and his arc. Fans of the duet call the reunion and conclusion earned and satisfying, and some describe the pair of books as unforgettable. A major reader-ratings site lists the book at about 4.06 out of 5 across more than 670,000 ratings, with 45 percent of them five stars.
The author’s published trigger list
H. D. Carlton posts trigger warnings for each book on her site, and Hunting Adeline’s list is long. It includes graphic rape (the author says these scenes are detailed), graphic cutting and self-harm, suicide ideation, violence and gore, torture, sexual assault, kidnapping, psychological, physical and mental abuse, explicit sexual situations, human trafficking, the slave trade, grooming and severe PTSD. For comparison, the list for Haunting Adeline includes non-consensual and dubious-consent sex between the main characters, stalking, graphic violence, human trafficking, child trafficking, child sacrifice and mentions of child death.
Those lists are summarized here so that nobody picks this up on the strength of a tag like “touch her and die” alone. The publisher’s listing itself shows no content warnings, so the author’s page is the better guide. This is not a comprehensive inventory, and you should consult the notes in the current edition before reading.
From Alisson Bento’s books
Dark Romance
A vampire romance about a hero who claims her and never lets anyone forget it.
Kindle edition · Check Kindle Unlimited availability on Amazon.
The author and her promise to readers
H. D. Carlton’s about page describes her as a bestselling author on national and international lists who lives in Oregon, says her favorite characters are of the morally gray variety, and jokingly suggests leaving your sanity behind before starting her stories. That tells you a lot about the register: she is not offering a gentle suspense read, and the packaging says so up front. The publisher’s page also notes the book carries a best-seller flag, which is a sales label and not a quality judgment.
One practical note is length. A 704-page paperback is a substantial second volume, so the commitment is larger than for a typical sequel. If you read book one in long sittings, it is worth asking whether you want to spend that much time in this world again, especially given how heavy the listed material is. If you took breaks between chapters of the first book, the length may matter less to you.
Who this is for, and what to check in the opening
It is for returning readers who are comfortable with the full list above and want the story to continue from where Haunting Adeline stopped. It is not for readers who want a clean entry point, and it is not for anyone for whom sexual violence, trafficking or self-harm on the page is a hard limit. In the first chapters, look for:
- Recap: how much the opening assumes you remember from book one.
- Adeline’s chapters: whether they give her an inner life of her own or serve mostly as his motive.
- The two voices: whether switching between them builds tension or just repeats it.
- Tone: whether the pace matches the 704 pages the listing promises.
Reading alongside Lights Out
For a different treatment of dangerous attention, Navessa Allen’s Lights Out follows a trauma nurse named Aly who unwinds by fantasizing about a masked man online, until a drunken text makes the fantasy real. Josh posts masked content for millions of followers, and Aly is the fan who stands out to him. Their story is built around exploring desire, with someone more dangerous in the background and Josh deciding how far to go to protect her. Hunting Adeline begins from a different place: a pursuit already underway and a lead who has already lived through the first book. The publisher of Lights Out also asks readers to check the content warning and labels it for adults.
From Alisson Bento: a separate locked room and a quieter free story
His Dark Eden begins with injured Viola waking after a yacht explosion in a luxurious room with sealed windows and a locked door. It shares confinement and uncertainty about shelter, but it is a separate contemporary premise without Adeline’s history, and it is not connected to Carlton’s duet in any way. Compare it with other titles on the dark romance shelf. The free story The House Below the Signal follows conservator Nora Bell and an electrician investigating records during storm isolation; this original couple precedes The Blizzard Between Us, with consensual kissing and non-graphic intimacy. Read online; email access unlocks the remaining chapters.
Sources checked 20–21 October 2026. Comparisons concern advertised premises and promise no matching heat, consent dynamics or endings.
