Spoilers and Potentially Triggering Topics Ahead
In 2023, Haunting Adeline took BookTok by storm. On February 16th, 2024, its author, H.D. Carlton, published a spin-off of the book called Where’s Molly?. Like most people, I read the Cat and Mouse duet in 2023 and have been waiting for H.D. Carlton to release another book. Carlton has said on social media that other characters like Sibby and Rio will be getting their books. She has even teased Sibby’s book multiple times, with excerpts and a hint of the title.
Where’s Molly? is the second novella Carlton has written for the Cat and Mouse duet. The first novella is called Satan’s Affair, which follows some of Sibby’s life before she meets the love interest of Haunting Adeline, Zade. Where’s Molly? is about the character Molly, who first appears in the second book, Hunting Adeline. In case you don’t remember, Molly is the girl who wrote the journal that kept Addie alive through the first part of the book.
SYNOPSIS: The book utilizes flashbacks from fourteen and nine years before the present day storyline. In the first chapter, it is revealed that Molly is eighteen-years-old and her parents are junkies. Her dad sells her to Francesca, who runs a sex trafficking house and while there, Molly writes the journal which Adeline finds in Hunting Adeline. Molly then escapes Francesca’s house and makes it back to her parents’, where she learns that her mom died of an overdose. Molly kills her dad to protect herself and her one-year-old sister from being sold again. They try to live on their own, but Molly can’t get a regular job because her face and name are plastered all over the news. Molly eventually has to give up her baby sister to a loving and caring family so that she can have a better life. A few years later, Molly comes in contact with the company Legion. Legion is like Z- Zade’s company- but they help people disappear. She then meets Cage, the man who helps her disappear and the only man who has ever made her feel real love. They spend the night together before Molly leaves for Alaska the next day.
In the present day, Molly has moved back to Montana and now owns a pig farm, which she uses to help Legion by feeding the pigs the bodies of the people they kill. One day, it is Cage who makes the delivery to Molly’s farm. After that, they start talking and form a relationship.
REVIEW: Overall, this book is really good and the end sets up a good plot for more books. However, I wish that it was longer so that there wouldn’t be as many gaps in between flashbacks or even the few time jumps. We see Cage and Molly go on one date, but I want to see more of how their relationship progresses. There is a third-act breakup, but it lasts for less than two weeks before Cage seeks Molly out again. I also want Carlton to expand on her ending, because it feels almost incomplete.
I give this book a 4.5/5 stars and a 4/5 spice level. If you liked the Cat and Mouse duet, I do highly recommend reading this after the first two books!