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A review by rjordan19
Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖 (It took me a bit to get into this one and I was annoyed in the beginning, but after about 30% I didn’t want to stop reading!)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (There’s more for the heroine, but Is till feel like this story focused a lot on the present, plot events, and not much background for the characters – Z especially you don’t know a ton about him)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡ (I loved the tension build up in this one – it has some slow burn feelings with them taking awhile to be on page together, but a build up of events)
Romance: 💞💞💞 (I mean….I thought some things were romantic but obviously TOXIC AF – but for fictional things….there were things I liked)
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 (I loved these intimate scenes. I thought there was a good mix of ‘in the head’ emotional feels and explicit details
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥+
Humor: Yes? There’s humor sprinkled out...there’s dark elements. It’s not really a humorous or lighthearted book but I was definitely getting some Dead Pool vibes
Perspective: First person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? A bit of a mix but maybe more plot? There were a lot of meandering scenes and thoughts, and a lot about trying to solve the mystery of the great grandmother’s death
How did the speed of the story feel? slow
When mains are first on page together: It took forever! I think it was chapter 11 of 42 when they are first on page together and chapter 15 with their first interaction. But there were some interactions before then – mention of her seeing him at a book signing, scenes of him stalking her, but they weren’t actually on page together interacting until well into the story
Cliffhanger: Yes, this ends on a big cliffhanger and is concluding in book 2 (Hunting Adeline) with a HEA
Epilogue: No
Format: listened to audiobook (owned)
Why I chose this book: Because it’s everywhere and I had to have an opinion too
Should I read in order?
Yes! This is book 1 but please start here.
Basic plot:
Adeline catches the eye of Z and her world will never be the same.
Give this a try if you want:
- Dark romance! Plenty of content warnings, including murder on page, torture, death, child/human trafficking, as well as toxic relationship elements like severe stalking and codependent relationships
- stalker hero!
- author heroine (not a huge part of the story)
- mystery to solve – the heroine finds her great grandmothers diaries in the house she inherits and tries to solve the mystery of her murder
- spooky/gothic vibes – the heroine lives in basically a haunting mansion
- hero has heterochromia
- scarred and tattooed hero
- Seattle setting
- higher steam but it had a little bit of a slower burn feel – primal play, ravishment fantasy, dominating hero with biting and bruising, throat play, bondage, brat elements and 10ish full scenes
Ages:
- heroine is 26, hero is 32
First line:
The windows of my house tremble from the power of thunder rolling across the skies.
My thoughts:
So, obv I’ve seen this book all over, forever. And I was a little scared to read it. I didn’t really hear a lot of specifics about it, just that it was dark and fucked up. But I like to have opinions on things, so when my friend said she was reading it, I made the dive in!
This book is way too long for me right now 😝 and I’m struggling with long books. I grabbed it on kindle unlimited but saw I could get the audio for cheap so I grabbed it there and I’m really glad I did! I really loved the narration here and I think it helped me like the book more.
I was a bit annoyed in the beginning. It felt slow and meandering and I was basically rabid for the mains to have some kind of interaction. But when they do, I was totally hooked. I wanted to be reading this all the time.
The hero – I can’t even say I liked him. But I loved him? He was very toxic, of course, and arrogant and said such cringy stuff...but I don’t know if it was just giving me Dead Pool vibes or just giving me all my toxic fantasies lol. I have read a number of books with similar elements recently and I can’t help but feel like they were taken with inspiration from this story but this story just made it better. I had better tension building with this one and I loved being in the heros POV so much.
I love those jerky, arrogant, pushy, dominating heroes and Zade delivers that in spades. Stalking, jealous and possessive he gave me everything I wanted in that regard. I loved this book for that, though some of the plot and the scenes went a little out of my comfort zone.
Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: This is my first by this author
Average rating: 5 stars
Favorite book: This one!
Endearments
Hero calls the heroine ‘little mouse’.
Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.
- god, lots of them. I’m sure I’m going to miss a bunch.
- the hero stalks the heroine and doesn’t take no for an answer. He rapes her with a gun handle but it’s very ravishment fantasy in the way it’s written. She is coerced, but there’s feelings of want there. If consent is important to you I would never touch this novel
- there’s a lot of death, murder, torture on page. The hero has a torture chamber and has murdered plenty of people and it happens on page multiple times
- there’s a human trafficking/child murdering ring that’s a big plot point. There’s mention of children kidnapped and killed. There’s mention of cannibalism and drinking children’s blood and child rape.
- there’s elements of parental toxicity and death of family members
- mention of a past fire, where people died in the house and their ghosts haunt it
- some brief thoughts of suicide while standing on a cliff
- scenes of smoking and alcohol
Author content warnings? Didn’t hear them in the audiobook but I think they are in the e-book
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:
Safe sex: No, but I think the heroine is on birth control
Hows the consent? Oh, its so bad. No consent here.
Pregnancy/children in story? (Please note this is the best to my memory/note taking. If you see something I missed please feel free to message!) No children in the story, but there is some mention I think of the hero wanting to get the heroine pregnant? But there is no pregnancy on page or mentioned in this story.
Early chapter – there’s a kiss with Grayson that’s interrupted
Chapter 8 – fingering for her with a man she brought home from a club
Chapter 15 – 🔥 biting and bruising, a non-consensual gun fucking scene
Chapter 17 – mention of heroine self pleasure
Chapter 18 – 🔥 bondage and mouth taped, oral for her, biting, fingering
Chapter 21 – 🔥 kisses, hero slaps her with his cock, bj
Chapter 22 – kiss
Chapter 23 – 🔥 bj, throat play with a belt
Chapter 25 – 🔥 daddy/little girl dirty talk, fingering for her during a movie
Chapter 27 – kisses
Chapter 29 – 🔥 kisses in a house of mirrors, forceful bj, sex against the mirror, well endowed hero
Chapter 33 – 🔥 kisses, primal play, heroine self pleasure in front of the hero, sex against a tree
Chapter 34 – 🔥 oral in the car with seatbelt bondage, her on top
Chapter 38 – 🔥 heroine self pleasure
Chapter 40 – 🔥 her on top, primal play, missionary
Total chapters: 42
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖 (It took me a bit to get into this one and I was annoyed in the beginning, but after about 30% I didn’t want to stop reading!)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (There’s more for the heroine, but Is till feel like this story focused a lot on the present, plot events, and not much background for the characters – Z especially you don’t know a ton about him)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡ (I loved the tension build up in this one – it has some slow burn feelings with them taking awhile to be on page together, but a build up of events)
Romance: 💞💞💞 (I mean….I thought some things were romantic but obviously TOXIC AF – but for fictional things….there were things I liked)
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 (I loved these intimate scenes. I thought there was a good mix of ‘in the head’ emotional feels and explicit details
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥+
Humor: Yes? There’s humor sprinkled out...there’s dark elements. It’s not really a humorous or lighthearted book but I was definitely getting some Dead Pool vibes
Perspective: First person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? A bit of a mix but maybe more plot? There were a lot of meandering scenes and thoughts, and a lot about trying to solve the mystery of the great grandmother’s death
How did the speed of the story feel? slow
When mains are first on page together: It took forever! I think it was chapter 11 of 42 when they are first on page together and chapter 15 with their first interaction. But there were some interactions before then – mention of her seeing him at a book signing, scenes of him stalking her, but they weren’t actually on page together interacting until well into the story
Cliffhanger: Yes, this ends on a big cliffhanger and is concluding in book 2 (Hunting Adeline) with a HEA
Epilogue: No
Format: listened to audiobook (owned)
Why I chose this book: Because it’s everywhere and I had to have an opinion too
Should I read in order?
Yes! This is book 1 but please start here.
Basic plot:
Adeline catches the eye of Z and her world will never be the same.
Give this a try if you want:
- Dark romance! Plenty of content warnings, including murder on page, torture, death, child/human trafficking, as well as toxic relationship elements like severe stalking and codependent relationships
- stalker hero!
- author heroine (not a huge part of the story)
- mystery to solve – the heroine finds her great grandmothers diaries in the house she inherits and tries to solve the mystery of her murder
- spooky/gothic vibes – the heroine lives in basically a haunting mansion
- hero has heterochromia
- scarred and tattooed hero
- Seattle setting
- higher steam but it had a little bit of a slower burn feel – primal play, ravishment fantasy, dominating hero with biting and bruising, throat play, bondage, brat elements and 10ish full scenes
Ages:
- heroine is 26, hero is 32
First line:
The windows of my house tremble from the power of thunder rolling across the skies.
My thoughts:
So, obv I’ve seen this book all over, forever. And I was a little scared to read it. I didn’t really hear a lot of specifics about it, just that it was dark and fucked up. But I like to have opinions on things, so when my friend said she was reading it, I made the dive in!
This book is way too long for me right now 😝 and I’m struggling with long books. I grabbed it on kindle unlimited but saw I could get the audio for cheap so I grabbed it there and I’m really glad I did! I really loved the narration here and I think it helped me like the book more.
I was a bit annoyed in the beginning. It felt slow and meandering and I was basically rabid for the mains to have some kind of interaction. But when they do, I was totally hooked. I wanted to be reading this all the time.
The hero – I can’t even say I liked him. But I loved him? He was very toxic, of course, and arrogant and said such cringy stuff...but I don’t know if it was just giving me Dead Pool vibes or just giving me all my toxic fantasies lol. I have read a number of books with similar elements recently and I can’t help but feel like they were taken with inspiration from this story but this story just made it better. I had better tension building with this one and I loved being in the heros POV so much.
I love those jerky, arrogant, pushy, dominating heroes and Zade delivers that in spades. Stalking, jealous and possessive he gave me everything I wanted in that regard. I loved this book for that, though some of the plot and the scenes went a little out of my comfort zone.
Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: This is my first by this author
Average rating: 5 stars
Favorite book: This one!
Endearments
Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.
- god, lots of them. I’m sure I’m going to miss a bunch.
- the hero stalks the heroine and doesn’t take no for an answer. He rapes her with a gun handle but it’s very ravishment fantasy in the way it’s written. She is coerced, but there’s feelings of want there. If consent is important to you I would never touch this novel
- there’s a lot of death, murder, torture on page. The hero has a torture chamber and has murdered plenty of people and it happens on page multiple times
- there’s a human trafficking/child murdering ring that’s a big plot point. There’s mention of children kidnapped and killed. There’s mention of cannibalism and drinking children’s blood and child rape.
- there’s elements of parental toxicity and death of family members
- mention of a past fire, where people died in the house and their ghosts haunt it
- some brief thoughts of suicide while standing on a cliff
- scenes of smoking and alcohol
Author content warnings? Didn’t hear them in the audiobook but I think they are in the e-book
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:
Safe sex:
Hows the consent?
Pregnancy/children in story? (Please note this is the best to my memory/note taking. If you see something I missed please feel free to message!)
Early chapter – there’s a kiss with Grayson that’s interrupted
Chapter 8 – fingering for her with a man she brought home from a club
Chapter 15 – 🔥 biting and bruising, a non-consensual gun fucking scene
Chapter 17 – mention of heroine self pleasure
Chapter 18 – 🔥 bondage and mouth taped, oral for her, biting, fingering
Chapter 21 – 🔥 kisses, hero slaps her with his cock, bj
Chapter 22 – kiss
Chapter 23 – 🔥 bj, throat play with a belt
Chapter 25 – 🔥 daddy/little girl dirty talk, fingering for her during a movie
Chapter 27 – kisses
Chapter 29 – 🔥 kisses in a house of mirrors, forceful bj, sex against the mirror, well endowed hero
Chapter 33 – 🔥 kisses, primal play, heroine self pleasure in front of the hero, sex against a tree
Chapter 34 – 🔥 oral in the car with seatbelt bondage, her on top
Chapter 38 – 🔥 heroine self pleasure
Chapter 40 – 🔥 her on top, primal play, missionary
Total chapters: 42