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Satan's Affair by H.D. Carlton
Series: Cat & Mouse Prequel Novella
Publication date: April 26th, 2021
Pages: 197
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Synopsis:
Every Halloween, Satan's Affair will come to you.
We travel the country, offering terrifying haunted houses, thrilling rides and the tastiest food. And with every passing town, I cleanse this world, one execution at a time.
I hide within the walls, casting my judgment for those that reek of evil, singing lullabies to their rotting souls.
Once you've been chosen there's no escaping my henchmen--they cater to my every desire.
You can run and you can hide, but it only excites me.
Come.
Take a walk through my dollhouse, where your screams will blend and your cute little pleas will go unanswered.
But I can't promise it'll be over quickly...
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Review:
Sibil, "Sibby", has been working behind the scenes of Satan's Affair for five years. She slinks along the inner walls of one of the houses and sniffs the air in hopes of scenting the decaying rot of an evil person in need of punishment. And her punishments are swift and thorough. She captures the evil doer with the hell of her five henchmen. They never step in to take the kill away from Sibby, but to merely help where she might need it. Mortis, Jackal, Timothy, Baine, and Cronus are the five men she loves and who would do anything for her. Even help her kill those she passes judgement on. But appearances can be deceiving and minds can crack to the point where everything Sibby once thought to be true could all be brought about by her troubling past.
I will admit, I started reading Haunting Adeline before I read this. I was told that I needed to read the novella before I dove into the world of Zade and Adeline. I actually, recommended Haunting Adeline to a friend who is a mostly cozy fantasy reader as his first attempts with dark romance. I had no idea what was in store for him until he came to me a few days later with a very 'what the fuck' expression on his face. I had to read the book to see why he was so scarred by the whole thing when I had read some of Haunting Adeline and it had been relatively mild. After reading the book. I completely understand my friend's reaction and couldn't apologize to him enough that it was his first foray into this world of reading.
The story of Sibby and her henchmen also introduces us to Zade and his relationship with Sibby that I am assuming comes up within the Cat & Mouse series. Zade seems immune to the uneasy feeling most get around Sibby's henchmen and around Sibby as a whole. There is something about him that is questionable but he seems like the first real friend to the girl which endeared him to me. Sibby gives major brat energy which may be why I like her so much. She was a fun character to watch and the way she interacted with people was kind of adorable.
While the book straddled that line between dark romance and splatterpunk it was still beautifully written and the characters were very likeable even for killers. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and while I may not recommend it to a first time dark romance reader (sorry again, Vinny), I would still recommend it to any of those who like dark, gritty stories.
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