Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

216 reviews

noelle_julianna's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

luna_lovelace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

After all the hype, I finally sat down and read this book. I really liked how Gigi's

mysterious murder developed, but it was no surprise who the killer was in the end. It was a bit obvious who it was as the story progressed but I'll admit I was quite satisfied when my suspicions were confirmed.

Some scenes were insufferable, but at the same time I had a hard time putting the book down. I wanted to know what happened next and know more about the main characters. The ending definitely has me thinking what happens next and how is Zade going to get out of this mess now? 

This book has me thinking that I've been missing out on horror books, didn't realize how thrilling they could be!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder

readyforit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.5⭐️4🌶️
This is a dark, dark, dark romance that involves non-consensual sex scenes between FMC and MMC, her stalker. Do not read if you are not in the right headspace or have any of the triggers mentioned. I don’t think anyone should read this unless their frontal lobe has developed.. maybe not even then. It’s especially heavy on child sex trafficking. These parts were hard to read through. Honestly idk how to feel about the non-con relationship. You know it’s obviously wrong but you find yourself rooting for the antagonist in the end, trying to find any sort of silver lining. It’s like I got Stockholm syndromed too. I generally liked the plot, and I’ll read the sequel since it ended on a cliffhanger, but I probably won’t reread due to the intense dark themes. I’ve read dark romances before and they’ve always come with a little fluff to balance out the spice and darkness. This didn’t really feel like a romance to me, it was all based on her fear. There’s dark romance, and then there’s this book. I’d say MMC leans further black on the morally gray scale. If you took the “romance” out of this, it would be more of a thriller/mystery, so it got stars for that bc I liked that part of the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

guns are used in spicy scenes, not just bc the character has a violent job

jareadforfilth's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book was basically a struggle the whole way through. Is the subject matter dark af and super messed up? Of course, we been knew that so like, no reason to act brand new here. While the whole Stockholm syndrome campaign aspect is not the healthiest of love stories, my problems with this book extend to the basics: storytelling and writing.

The constant back and forth between Adeline and her stalker got old pretty fast and

when she finally and soOoOooo shockingly succumbs and starts falling for him it’s just like… honestly pretty boring? Like I was just so over it by that point. The complete hypocrisy and not-so-lowkey chauvinism of Zade which thankfully is addressed in the book is also so exasperating.

This book is honestly high camp in a lot of ways but I don’t think it was trying to be. It’s super melodramatic in a way that honestly reminded me a lot of anime. Zade as a character is just like, so extreme physically and personality-wise that it just became kind of laughable. Like the book kind of feels like something your h*rny suppressed friend in high school would write lol

To end on a positive note after this mild evisceration, the spice is pretty hot and when it hits it hits for sure! Otherwise it’s just kinda like ok whatever 😂 also the cliffhanger is fun and seems to bode much better for the plot in book 2 than book 1. That said, and I’m so torn about it, I *intend* on reading the second because y’all are all so hype, but we’ll see because this was just not it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident and Alcohol

lex123's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

4.5 rating out of 5.At first I didn’t love the couple, but as the story progressed. I started to love the characters and the love interest.chapter about the s*x ring were really hard to read, especially when you just read a CnC scene. I can’t wait to read the second book, but first I’m going to read satan’s affair.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

emrosesam's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident

katiefronk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

wolvenheart's review against another edition

Poor writing, bad metaphors, poor character development, nonsensical character motivations and on page rape.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, and Trafficking

Seriously, a terrible book. It is written for shock value without substantial content warnings from the author. Somehow, this has been marked as contemporary or dark romance and IT IS NOT. It is horror.

schenanigans's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

I knew this book had some bad rep. I obviously knew it was dark romance. My issue is the Q*non conspiracy issues this book is absolutely riddled with. 
And this is a re-released, edited version? Did they edit out blood libel? Why does a smut book even have this in it to begin with? 

I signed up for the dark romance, the stalker, the dub-con/r*pe, that’s all what I picked this book up for. And it did that well enough...

What in the hells is this plot? A super hot sexy hacker guy best in the world that saves women and children from tr*fficking but also…stalks/r*pes a woman and has a WEIRDLY PLACED DDLG fet!sh? 

Every single second of this book spent on this weird politicians and upper class are Devil worshiping p*dophiles conspiracy that tries to paint Zade in a good light…WHY

Firstly, I signed up to read a book about a creepy stalker, don’t endear me to him! I don’t want a little anti-hero boy with a heart of gold, I want a repulsive b*stard! 

Secondly, it isn’t even endearing. It’s…it’s f*ckin’ weird. Once the doll thing happened, I just started skipping entire pages that didn’t have smut because I was over it.
Why was the doll there. What did that serve. 

I hated 9/10 of this book. 
But I will be reading the next one, thank you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Antisemitism, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

jess_thefacts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This is a hauntingly atmospheric novel that weaves together elements of mystery and romance with finesse. The author skillfully creates a vivid and immersive world that draws the reader into the shadows of a mysterious past. The central character, Adeline, is compelling and multifaceted, her journey through the intricate plot adding layers of complexity to the narrative. The slow burn of the romance and the atmospheric tension build steadily, creating an enthralling reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol