Reviews

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

elinajuli31's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.5

What do you mean “he came for me”

maaaggiex3's review against another edition

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3.0

The smut was SMUTTING but the writing was average. Enjoyable but not enough to keep me going, immediately. I wasn’t bothered by the trigger warnings, but it’s not for the faint hearted. 3.5/5

biblioteca_break's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bookitchewie's review against another edition

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2.0

This book was a huge old mess. First there's Adeline's inheritance of the house and uncovering journals belonging to a murdered woman, and these journals have apparently just sat in the house all this time undiscovered? Far-fetched. There's the haunting plotline that is way under-developed.
Zade is such a prototypical alpha male, it's really hard to take this story seriously. From his hacking to his hard-wired desire to protect women (except Adeline cause she "really wants it"; how does he know this? No knowing). his story and character are so bizarre. And then the explanation for why she is so attracted to her stalker is she's a thrill-seeker and likes horror movies?!? Ok lmao. The twist or "cliff-hanger" as the author insists on calling it is so predictable. Will not read the second one.

mrb123's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

shannabanana06's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I wanted to like this book but it focused heavily on the human trafficking that just seemed unrealistic and I found myself skimming through those parts to get back to the “story”. I also didn’t see the point of the Gigi story, it made no difference in the overall plot. In the beginning the story was very interesting, and it seemed like something supernatural was happening and that there would be  some weird connection between Adeline and her grandmother both having stalkers. But nothing came to a head and honestly I was less than wowed but the killer of Gigi, no twist just nothing.

marie_maesmans's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

hsteel's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tborto24's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.25

riddlersboyfriend's review against another edition

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1.0

rating: ★ - GODAWFUL. o.5 stars technically, but only because this did break onto the dark romance scene and changed a LOT of norms for how people write these kinds of books. points for impact but nothing else. i'd give this 0 stars if i could

why i chose this book: trying to figure out what the fuss was about + bad dark romance novels are so interesting to me for reasons i can't quite articulate. (this does not mean they're any good. most are not.)

things i liked:
• jay <3 not only does he have my name but he and zade have this old married couple dynamic that's just gold in the midst of all this trash. (why are they kinda... why are they kinda gay. i gotta say i ship them more than zade and addie and the fact that this is completely unintentional on the part of h.d. carlton makes it hilarious). anyway love me some jay
• adeline has something of a backbone, which is rare enough that it gets a mention
• cliffhanger didn't suck (at least for zade: i knew exactly what was gonna happen to adeline the second it happened)

things i disliked:
• buckle your fucking seatbelts.
• cnc and dub-con are whatever and im fine with those. what im NOT fine with is 1) actual rape scenes, which occur here, and 2) when zade (mmc) uses typical rapist rhetoric to justify it DESPITE HIS LITERAL JOB BEING BUSTING SEX TRAFFICKERS. the lack of self-awareness there is stunning.
• i fucking hate zade on the whole. he's arrogant, entitled, a giant jerkoff even to people he supposedly likes, and i doubt he is as good at fucking as he thinks
• another review said something about how zade doesnt try to win over adeline, just assumes that she'll love him because his ego is fucking humongous, and yk what? they're right and it's so fucking irritating. like THIS is the guy i see people simping over like crazy?? really??? hard pass
• this is not even getting INTO the rape apologism he pulls out in every chapter he has
• daya is the stereotype of typical best friend of a quiet person. i have nothing against these kinds of people but i wanted her to be more! different! she just sorta blends in with every other quiet protagonist's best friend as she is
• murder mystery was,,, well, at least there WAS a subplot, but i was not invested. also it's not a deep twist or anything like you can guess who did it a mile off
• WHAT IS IT WITH THESE KINDS OF AUTHORS WRITING SIDE CHARACTERS WITH THE MOST BASIC NAMES EVER (read: fucking MARK)
• run of the mill satanic cult who trafficks kids. i have seen this a million times before this is not original
• bad lines galore!! here are my personal favorites: "have you been gossiping about me, little mouse? did you tell her how big my cock is?" which is LAUGHABLY terrible, "fuck me with a pogo stick", and the phrase "finger-blasted" and i laughed so hard at that i had to put the whole book down. it's so fucking awful
• i am a huge nitpick about copy editing so i will simply say that there were unnecessary lines and paragraph breaks in there, and places where commas absolutely needed to be where they were not
• mark is dumb asf how has the society not been infiltrated before and how is he this high up in the hierarchy if he's this fucking stupid
• the writing was just not good on the whole. especially in zade's pov chapters. and lowkey cringe in sera's letters
• i do not see how or why addie is "the manipulator" i really dont. she's a storyteller
• speaking of addie i HATE that her voice is constantly described as "smoky" like idk what that means. and i hate that zade immediately put it in the context of "it sounds like porn" as if that's not the most objectifying thing ever
• show don't tell violations are everywhere and i want to die

was it worth the money?: fuck no. jesus christ. buy literally any other book, it will be better than this. this shit is GARBAGE and desperately needed new/better editors who are NOT friends with the author. if i read the sequel it will be solely skimming it for mentions of my man jay