Reviews

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

Only show reviews with written explanations

pensky814's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious

4.0

lucivicious's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

A great book an amazing book even
I’ve seen so much debate between people saying whether or not you should start with this book/series as your first dark romance book, and personally I’m here to say that it’s a PERFECT starter book it dips your toes enough into the world of dark romance for you to know whether or not it’s the genre you should read or not. Ever since picking up reading again and going down dark romance path there are books far more into detail than these two books (the second one honestly is a different story for mental health reasons) but still both great books and I personally would recommend as a starter.

busyreadingbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

UPDATE as of 03102024

Note: my review was supposed to be directed towards Chloe Liese, but then other authors decided to stupidly chime in, so I also have to merrily include them in my update 😌

-

BOYCOTTING H.D. CARLTON BECAUSE SHE'S ON CHLOE LIESE'S SIDE OF THIS ISSUE. REFER BELOW TO THOSE WHO ACTUALLY GAVE A FUCK ABOUT PALESTINE AND JEWISH PEOPLE. This woman is so fucking annoying I swear 🙄 it's not enough that she made dumbass fanfics called Haunting and Hunting Adeline that was allegedly about antisemitic blood libel in her stories (this had been discussed a lot on tiktok, reddit, youtube especially in WithCindy's review of Hunting Adeline), and now she's in support of Chloe Liese too. Ugh.

Cindy's review and mention of the blood libel:
https://youtu.be/ZZgMGvKrUV0?feature=shared

Weirdo Book Club's review:
https://youtu.be/U5iHRXzIGMY?feature=shared

Reddit post of Haunting Adeline being a QAnon fanfiction:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/s/rXJt3TLVZQ

Booktok discussion about Haunting Adeline being a QAnon fanfic:
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS2tCrJM2/

*There were more, but please just do your own research!

I'm just so done with these tone-policing white authors being dumb as hell, picking and choose which humanatarian crisis made more sense to them, even after a year being shown the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Jewish, Muslims, Christian, Atheist, Theist, Kids, Female, Male Palestinians on social media since October 7th 2023. Like, come on?!

And not Chloe Liese playing the oppressed Olympics cards with a fellow reader who questioned her tone-policing and privilege on this matter. She even fucking dared to say "oh yeah but I was more oppressed than Zachary Webber because he was a white man". Oh my fucking LORD, is she dumb? And where did he use his privilege? To speak up about A GENOCIDE. Chloe Liese is so fucking tone deaf! Look at her response on Twitter/X, they were infuriating! Did she actually believe that we took her apology seriously? She sounded insincere A.F. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🖕

Source:
- Twitter/X threads (i'm not O.P.s)
1. https://x.com/fairystcle/status/1840078426616500721?s=61
2. https://x.com/meowqxng/status/1840091686120124738?s=61
3. https://x.com/vivafalastin/status/1840449138996957505?s=61
4. https://x.com/meowqxng/status/1840753383793164649?s=61
5. https://x.com/emiliaawrath/status/1840800465388519672?s=61

This was what Sierra Simone initially said:
- The IG story reshare was not an endorsement of the narrator's video, or its language. We simply didn't know what was going on.

My rule for discourse is the same I have for romance: it should beget empathy, not diminish it. We can call for change and peace without wishing harm, and we can keep our eyes and hearts open to each other while we work for justice.

I promise to keep my eyes and heart open, and to anyone who felt unsettled or unsafe after visiting my account this week, I'm deeply sorry.

But then these were Chloe Liese's reply:
- what sierra said is beautiful & true: "my rule for discourse is the same |have for romance: it should beget empathy, not diminish it. we can call for change and peace without wishing harm."

for those who've seen that this narrator was cast to read Will in ONCE SMITTEN, TWICE SHY, that is no longer the case. as soon as I was aware of what zach webber did, my team & I immediately agreed he was off the project. we are in the process of hiring a new narrator.

- I fired him for telling people they should k-ll themselves and that they were ugly and stupid. That was hateful and dehumanizing behavior. As I said in this story, echoing Sierra, I fully support calling for change and naming injustice and atrocious violence;

I have done it myself and I will do it again. I do not support doing so in a way that dehumanizes others and uses ableist words like

"stupid" which is pejorative for cognitive disabilities and "ugly" which weaponizes appearance as an indicator of morality, and tells people to "f—ing k-ll themselves."

- I am not advocating for that mentality. As I writer, I believe we have both a privilege and responsibility when wielding words and that we must own their impact. I cannot support using hateful, dehumanizing words to condemn hateful, dehumanizing atrocity or wishing death on humans while condemning the death of humans.

- I do recognize that as a white woman I have profound privilege.

He is a white privileged man who enjoys even greater privilege than me; he literally has no oppressor anywhere in the world. I am not here condemning or speaking about or to anyone who is experiencing horrific pain and trauma, crying out in fury, saying what they can or cannot say. I am not saying he should not use his voice to decry injustice or call for what he believes should be. I am saying I do not agree with the words he chose to use to do that in that moment.

WHAT ARE THESE WORDS IF NOT FOR WHITE WOMEN TRYING TO TONE POLICE OPPRESSED VOICES? WHAT WAS ZACHARY WEBBER USING HIS VOICE AND PRIVIGE FOR? SILENCING THE GENOCIDERS LIKE SIERRA SIMONE AND CHLOE LIESE?

- A reddit discussion post by torisaurus_regina, look at the comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/s/83ZoIqGEOy
Title: What's going on with Sierra Simone?

-vivafalastinleen explained them better in her tiktok videos:
1. https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS2tCJm3A/
2. https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS2tCJoSB/

-
Below was my earlier post on 29092024

I AM BOYCOTTING SIERRA SIMONE BECAUSE SHE IS IN ALIGNMENT WITH CHLOE LIESE. I'm not even gonna bother editing my long ass post from my Chloe Liese's reviews. If anything, I want more people to know about what they did now.

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

0 stars!

Chloe Liese, your plots and characters were always cringe, and you don't have talent in writing, now you're also a hypocritical cowardly person who pick and choose which humanitarian crisis made more sense to you? FUCK YOU!

Stupid-ugly-ass-fuck-of-a-white-privileged-Zionist-supporting author. You want to call out ableism but draw the line at calling Zionist ugly and stupid, while never speaking up about the genocide of Jewish, Muslims, Christians, Atheist, Theist Palestinians? FUCK YOU! Some white women are just always so fucking disappointing. #FreePalestine

For anybody who didn't know, look up Chloe Liese, Sierra Simone, and Zachary Webber issue on social media. Allegedly, Zachary Webber (an audiobook narrator) called out Zionists, and these two cowardly authors were cancelling him just because he called those ugly stupid ass Zionists what they are: stupid and motherfucking ugly. If that was me, i would've called them disgusting and more too.

CHLOE LIESE IF YOU'RE READING THIS DON'T EVEN FUCKING TURN THIS INTO A MISOGYNY ISSUE. THIS IS A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS ISSUE, DUMBASS. LEBANON WAS FUCKING BOMBED JUST A FEW DAYS AGO, DON'T EVEN MAKE THIS ABOUT YOU. CALLING AUTHORS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY! BOYCOTT HER!

#FreePalestine #FuckZionists.

And to think that this issue literally still happened after 12 months and DECADES of being shown the atrocious ethnic cleansing of Palestinians on social media, and the bombing of Lebanon just this September 2024? HOLD THIS MOTHERFUCKING AUTHOR RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SHIT THAT COMES OUT OF HER STUPID FUCKING MOUTH.

Fuck Chloe Liese. #Boycott #FreePalestine

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

cobaltbookshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

I have so many 1 star reads this year but this is only one I felt hatred towards. Every possible trigger warning just to be dark romance but also with very boring characters. I will never read book by this author.