Author: H. D. Carlton
Genre: Dark Romance
Tropes: Cheating, Abuse, Sexual Assault, Torture, Murder, Stalker Romance, BookTok
Spice Level: 🌶🌶🌶🌶 — very explicit
Format: eBook
Series: Stand-alone set in the Cat and Mouse universe
Gigi has been married to her husband for over a decade, and together they share a teenage daughter. Her life has never been particularly exciting, but it was comfortable—and she loved him. That stability begins to crumble when her husband’s drinking and gambling spiral out of control, threatening not only their marriage but their home.
Enter Ronaldo.
What begins as a routine job—collecting information on a debt owed to his boss—quickly turns into something far more dangerous. Ronaldo becomes obsessed with Gigi, and from that point on, the story descends unapologetically into dark romance territory.
This book does not ease you in. It opens with torture, immediately setting the tone for what’s to come. The content includes cheating, abuse, rape, murder, and graphic violence. Please, genuinely—check your triggers. No matter how compelling a book may be, it is never worth sacrificing your mental health.
That said, if you can handle the content, this was a gripping read. I found myself conflicted about the cheating aspect until the assault occurred—after that, all moral lines were erased. Ronaldo is a stalker who repeatedly breaks into Gigi’s home, and somehow… I still loved him. If that sentence alone doesn’t tell you whether this book is for you, nothing will.
The story exists within the Cat and Mouse universe, and fans will appreciate the deeper lore. The grandmother’s journal entries belong to Gigi, and we get to experience both the moments as they’re written and the events unfolding around them in real time. It adds an unsettling, intimate layer to the narrative.
This can absolutely be read as a standalone, regardless of where you are in the Cat and Mouse series. While still very dark, it is slightly less brutal than Haunting Adeline. The ending is bittersweet—I personally wanted more, but it fits the story Carlton chose to tell.
You’ll love this book if you enjoy:
- Stalker romance
- Extremely dark romance
- Mafia-adjacent storylines
- Morally gray (borderline black) MMCs
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